The Parking Lot

Joe was dreaming. Or perhaps dead. He did not know what date it was.

It was a simple dream. That is why he didn't understand that it was a dream at first. Slowly, he realiZed, the parking lot was just too large.

He had come into consciousness walking *about 20 min. ago, and carrying in his right hand a mini mag flashlight.

It was the dead of night. I mean, pitch black outside, and the only light emanating from anywhere was the streetlights. Except they were not on a street. He was walking. And he was looking at his feet. He knew that time was being off somehow.

He stopped for a moment and just stood. Slowly his eyes became acclimated and his sense of dread grew. He saw ahead of him an enormous parking lot, as far as his limited sight could afford. But. He did not see any cars parked anywhere, or stores or mall or any structures at all, save the occasional cart-corral or waste bin. He began walking again, and his gait quickened. He had a sort of bad feeling about this parking lot. He jogged for a few minutes and stopped again. He knew. There were numbers on the parking spaces, but they were in a totally nonsensical order, as far as he could figure. His mind was reminded of code-breaking and also of sudoku. He began running as fast as he could and looking semi-periferally at the numbers. Would he awake?

If only he could find a vehicle.