I made a trip to Toronto yesterday to meet up with a friend. Hopped on a bus which reached Union Station at 5pm. On a weekday. This meant that hundreds of people were marching off the subway towards the bus/train station. My destination was the subway station, against the flow of the masses. And quick! as I was already a bit late.

I ran, trying my best to dodge the never-ending stream of people. This required me to have a razor-sharp focus on my immediate surroundings, to make quick decisions and even quicker movements, all the while anticipating the movement patterns of the people in the distance. Eventually their seemingly chaotic movements became logical in my mind, and dodging people became second nature.

I was in the zone.

That’s when I realized that running through Union Station at rush hour was the closest I would ever get to achieving a perfect run in a hardcore bullet hell shmup.