8 Jan 2024
Dream
NASA found a new planet that was viable for humans. It was only 4 days away and the only problem was when it got completely dark everything would instantly freeze. Everything would thaw by sunrise (night was on the same time schedule as Earth; it only took 1 1/2 hours for rise) but there was a low percentage rate of the humans coming back alive if they didn’t have on a suit (80% of us didn’t—paid option). On that planet it took 3 hours for the sun to set. NASA was offering a free 7 days trip to said planet. All we had to do was sign up on the website and wait for us to get chosen. My boyfriend was completely against it but since everyone else (my eldest son’s father, my eldest son, my oldest daughter, and myself) he gave into me signing up. It took years before we were accepted and I was getting frustre about how everyone was bragging about visiting the planet and some got to go multiple times. The weird thing was no one remembered the last day, only returning home to Earth. When we (My oldest son’s father, my oldest son, my two daughters, my youngest son, my boyfriend and I) got accepted there were many more upgrades to the plane like bigger arcades, more of the planet explored, etc. Everything on the planet was the opposite of Earth, such as it was more land than water. So at the “beach” it was sand for miles and a patch of water. We had an amazing time. On the last day, something that looked like an crystallized asteroid appeared on the shoreline. Like the sun when it’s rising. When NASA analyzed the object, they found it added 3 days to our return and we didn’t have enough fuel. We had to wait 7 days for them to come with extra fuel. Things got weird on the planet. When we were on the beach, the sand and water completely mixed. So it was sand waves. My youngest daughter didn’t understand the change and continued to play, I had to save her and got cut up badly covering her from the wave and the sand was ice cold. I was soaking wet and shivering. The life guards ran to cover the ones who got hit with the towels and evacuated the beach after seeing the scene. Then an alarm sounded and we had to go into our hotel rooms. When we all got inside my oldest son had his arm in a sling. At that very same time the ocean went weird my daughter, oldest son and his father witness the VR arcade coming to life. Fortunately my daughter and oldest son’s father was playing a version of Dance Dance Revolution but my son got his arm broken when he was caught off guard playing Call of Duty. My boyfriend was fussing at us about how he knew this was a bad idea and it didn’t make any sense for NASA to offer free trips, and how no one remembered their last day. He was upset because he knew he shouldn’t have given in and we go have just gone to Japan or Korea again. Things got worse as the days went by. We stayed in our hotel rooms but looking out the windows we saw the sand waves crashing against the stairwells. The characters from the video games roaming the island, tempting us to come out of the hotel rooms. We would even hear knocks at our hotel room and no one being there. We watched people fall for the tricks and see them died. We eventually covered the hotel windows because blood was smeared against it and there were multiple dead bodies hung up like trophies. Most were from the friendly VR games like DDR but possibly 10 were people from Earth. The asteroid was moving and by the 13th day of being there we were woken up by loud pounding knocks on the door. It was security from the spaceship telling us to grab our belongings and head to the ship. They showed their badges and went to the ship. We stayed on the ship the entire day and on the 14th day when we woke up the island was completely normal. Like nothing ever happened and the people that were killed by the video game characters was walking towards the ship, ready to go home. NASA sent us a message saying the strange object has disappeared and we can just travel along with them and they will be there just in case. As we took off from the planet, leaving the atmosphere everything turned completely black then the lights came back on. I was in a panic and maybe 7 other people. I looked at my boyfriend and before I could ask him if he was okay (because he was holding our baby who was crying), he said to me while trying to calm the baby “That was an amazing trip! I’m so glad you convinced me.” All the infants were crying, and only 6 other people (me being 7), were freaked out about the lights being out. Come to find out the lights were out for the 4 days and we (the babies and 7 of us) were aware. Whatever happened caused everyone else to forget what happened for those 8 days. Of course when we got off the ship the seven of us got together and shared the worse thing that happened to us on the trip. My boyfriend overheard the last person and said “That must of been some VR game, huh?” and they went along with it. As we were heading home they were all talking about the best part of the trip. I just sat silent, texting the others in a group chat. My boyfriend was driving and he looked at me and asked me who I was texting and before I could answer a semi truck was headed towards us on the wrong side of the road and I said “watch out!” The collision is what woke me up.