A Half Dozen Nightmares on Monday

1.
In Maine, Arthur James Ashcroft sleeps. He dreams a dream of an infinite number of deaths. Each time Arthur awakes, screaming and kicking (his entire body covered in sweat and tears), he is greeted with a death more brutal than the last.

2.
In Birmingham, Hank Holtz sleeps. He dreams a dream of being cocooned alive. Hank is blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed. As he lays still in the darkness, he feels the slow itching transformations of his body as it morphs into something large and insectoid.

3.
In Chengdu, Qinglei Xu sleeps. She dreams a dream of a monster beside her bed. The monster is large and silent, and awaits for her to wake. When she opens her eyes, it pounces onto her face, engulfing her with its mouth and suckling tendrils.

4.
In Mexico City, Miguel Ortiz de Domínguez sleeps. He dreams a dream of losing his son. Lost in a nondescript meat grinding factory, standing on a conveyor belt that stretches the room, Miguel is surrounded by a thousand replicas of his son without their eyes. In the distance, his unseen son cries out for him as the line moves towards the violent processing machine at the end.

5.
In Paris, René Perrault sleeps. He dreams a dream of being an immortal. He sees the formation of the rivers and mountains, and the arrival of the first sailing ships. By this century, weary from time, he is in desperation for death, and spends every day attempting suicide, but to no avail.

6.
In Canberra, Beth Streeton sleeps. She dreams a dream of reality in its fullest. She sees the wars and hunger and disease. She hears the crying and pleading and gunshots. She feels the first wave of radiation as the nuclear projectiles are activated and launched. In her bed, Beth cries for the passing of humanity.