I went with my family to the top of the Empire State Building. There was something fishy. Sure, it was a dream; but really -- there was something fishy. Like possibly a trap, like Star Trek.

���� We rode to the top in an elevator that went slowly at first, and then after about 30 floors went so fast and multidirectionally that everything got squishy, like foam, including our legs and our vision. It was small -- about 6 x 6 x 7, and there was an operator in there with us -- but the shaft must have been 20 feet wide to accomodate all the swerving and twisting and swinging. When we arrived at the top and exited into a dingy lobby, my mom gasped, "how the heck was that thing built!?" and we turned to face the elevator and the walls were glass beside it. Two steel rails jutted out of the wall, one above the elevator car and one beneath it. They spriraled downward into a deep atrium. Each rail had a wheel assembly clamped to it, similar to a rollercoaster, and the car was attached to those with loose swivel joints.

���� The elevator man pointed us through a small, warped, wooden door and we entered a dark, low-ceilinged bar with more glass walls about 100 feet away, on the far side. The glass let in a weak gray light that was clearly derived from sunlight; since the observation deck was our goal, we headed for it, trying to discern a door. We found one and it took us outside onto an asterisk-shaped deck several hundred yards wide. Between the arms and way out to our left was water -- lake water, inhabited by people floating on black inner tubes, a little choppy and dark gray as if a storm were pending. To the right were grass-ringed, rock and snow-covered mountains, dotted with sheep and goats.

���� Now, each member of my family can probably love the insane history of New York's development -- maybe we already do -- and we're definitely as appreciative as anybody of human marvels of engineering -- but Jesus Christmas, as my dad put it, sheep, goats, all this water... where the hell is the skyline?

���� We had walked almost to the other side of the deck and there was only the one door, so we decided to head back to the bar and ask directions to the observation level. On the way, having accidentally made eye contact with what looked like two orcs, I nervously said "hi" and they grunted an acknowledgement.

���� Back in the bar we somehow split up, and I found another door. It opened into a small cubic room filled with a maze of steel bars. Straight ahead, there was a short stairway of seven or eight steps leading up to a catwalk pointing left, at the end of which was another door. At the top of the stairs was a guy sitting on a toilet, but I figured I could squeeze past him. I started up the steps and he said, "don't even try it. There's another way, look for it." I went back down and found a "detour" sign that pointed me left, into a jungle gym of wire doors and locks. The keys were all there and they were color coded, it just took a long time and the room was starting to really stink.

���� I finally reached a ladder that ascended to the upper left corner of the room, and exited through the door into a lounge that was even more cave-like than the bar had been. It was a snaky navigation -- there were columns and weirdly placed walls, clusters of low leather couches and hot tubs. People were sprawled out everywhere, drinking and talking, shirts open, everyone carrying a towel. Groups of adults, groups of teenagers. Everyone sweating. Some of the women were naked. There was no music.

���� A man called me over, said I was probably looking for the skyline. He gave me some directions. I was to go left, right, right, left, and I'd find a door to the furnace room. The Empire State Building, he explained, was a historical building, and not only would the furnace room lead me to the observation deck, but I'd like it. It was right up my alley, he figured.

���� I wasn't sure I should trust this guy, or any of them -- I was supposed to go to the furnace room?! It ocurred to me that they might not be human. But I looked around at their droopy eyes and sweaty chest hair and shiny pink backsides, and they looked human to me. I figured I could manage whatever came my way, as long as they weren't aliens.

���� I thought about whether my brothers and parents could be in danger but it looked like if there was a path to dangerous places, this was it, what with the locks and the heat and the bacchanal. And nobody else in my family would have bothered with a cage of locks, never mind the toilet.

���� I went to the furnace room, which I found overlooked the elevator shaft. Floor-to-ceiling cylinders of faintly glowing steel filled most of the room. Like the cage room, this room had a door in its upper left corner, with a catwalk leading to it. This time there were no steps. Instead there was a steep ramp with two wrist straps located at its midpoint, and a foot crank mounted at the bottom. I looked up at the door and a sign on it said Observation Deck.

���� Suddenly terrified, I woke up.


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