Mondo Bungle

in the tail end of this dream I was having I found myself exploring this small and vaguely hospital-esque building, though the corridor I was wandering also put me in the mind of a school or even some weird strip mall. I walked to the end of this hall and turned around to leave through the entrance where I came in after finding nothing of interest, when doors on both sides of the hall started to discharge the occupants of their rooms. So as I neared the exit I was awash in a tide of hurried students and staff when I heard a voice call "stop and face the wall, keep your eyes straight". I thought it was something to do with the students, some drill or exercise, so at first I just continued on, but got anxious seeing everyone around me sidling up on the walls and I followed suit. Even amidst the pleas to keep eyes on the wall I couldn't help but sneak a glance at the passing procession issuing the commands, because I had now begun to hear these uncanny birdlike yips coming from the same source. The sounds were simultaneously alien and familiar, like the human voice apparatus was being used by decidedly unhuman beings unfamiliar with the mechanics, an instrument played by someone with no concept of music. From the corner of my eye I looked toward the doors and saw a shadow there like a light was projected straight ahead from the other end of the hall. It was a relatively formless mass, but from its edges I kept seeing weird intermittent twitches and jumps. I watched as a quartet of officers in military gear escorted in their middle a doctor who appeared to be carrying a swaddled newborn. This is where the cries were coming from, now horribly close and grotesque, the very sound sending me into a panic. While I had my eyes on the doctor, an unmistakably crablike limb thrusted itself over his shoulder, first spasming like the shadow, then seeming to curl over the shoulder possessively, like whatever was being held didn't want to be let go. The claw was clad in the blue of an evening sea, armored in a rigid exoskeleton. Its unforgettable cries echoed in the hall even after the group was gone, and without noticing everyone else's departure, I was alone again.

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