Something bad is about to happen

There is an emergency situation at work and many employees are working late. The company restaurant has remained open, and the kitchen has improvised a dinner. I collect my dinner at the counter, and sit down at a table near the window. Looking out the window I realize that the company is no longer situated in Leiden, but in Den Haag.

Something unpleasant happening in the street outside the window captures my attention; I jump up and run outside. At the bus stop in front of the company building I get into the first bus that arrives. Inside it's dark, and I can't see the other passengers properly, even though the bus is very full, with many people standing. The passengers are ghost-like, as if made of smoke, and none of them move or speak. The bus doesn't produce any sound either. I nervously wait for the bus to arrive at the final stop. However, before this happens I once again experience something urgent, and I jump off the bus at the next stop.

This appears to be the stop where I got on the bus; I'm back in the street where I started my trip. The company building is still there, but it seems to have a different function. Through the windows of the restaurant - which is no longer a restaurant - I see faces of children and elderly people. I run to the end of the building, where I find a small, old, low building with no doors or windows, and grass growing on the roof. I hit a particular place in the wall, the wall crumbles and I enter. I notice that the inside of the small building is much bigger than the outside.

I find myself on a conveyor belt that takes me to the back of the building, through a door, then down a long slope, until I finally reach a waterfront. I leave the conveyor belt, and enter a small, dark room. It appears this room is an old ferry boat. As soon as I enter, the engine starts and I'm on my way, slowly. No human hand is steering the boat, it knows where to go. I recognize we're in the port of Rotterdam, and we're moving towards the hull of a large, dark ship. I feel that something bad is about to happen, and I manage to escape when we pass close to one of the quays.

I follow the quay to the end (or is it the beginning?), and get on the first bus that arrives at the nearby bus stop. It is the same bus I was on earlier, now going in the opposite direction. Again the bus is very full; again it's filled with ghostly, silent passengers; and again the bus itself produces no sound. I get off at the low building with the grass roof, of which the wall is undamaged, and walk back to the company building.

Signs next to the entrance indicate that it contains a primary school and a retirement home. Children and elderly people look up at me with weary smiles. The children are playing with small objects on their desks, the elderly people are eating.

I enter the building and I'm back in the company restaurant. I finish my dinner, and go to the counter to pick up a dessert. My manager and some of my colleagues are also queuing at the counter. When I talk to them they don't hear me; I try again but the result is the same. They smile encouragingly, but I ignore them. I take my dessert back to the table at the window, and the dream ends.

I wake up feeling that I have barely escaped a very dangerous situation; my heart is racing and my palms are sweaty. For quite some time I think that the dream is real, and that waking up is entering a dream.

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