Thursday, February 26, 2009

REMories: Time to Run

I was about 13 when I had this dream. I had a few dreams
later that continued along the same storyline.


Despite the name the Enforcers weren't the protectors of justice the name would seem to illicit.
They were simply powerful people who wanted more power. It wouldn't be easy to shake this one but I could buy some time by taking a detour into my past. I threw my hand out in front of me. The bracelet on my right wrist glowed. A spherical translucent shield sprang forth from the bracelet encapsulating my body.

The ground shook, then everything started spinning and I felt my body tearing apart. I winced and opened my eyes again. The sphere receded back into the bracelet. As I stood up I immediately hit my head. I was standing inside an old wooden treehouse. I quickly got my bearing and jumped out of the treehouse. The place looked oddly familiar but at the same time strange.

I took a quick glance around. I was standing in someone's backyard. Just then another disruption shook the ground. It was the Enforcer...

I dashed towards the fenceline. Even as the energy field was still dispersing around the Enforcer he was running towards me with a blaster in hand and his finger on the trigger. I spun around raising my shield hand. This time a smaller shield sprang forth from the bracelet covering my chest and head. The disruptor blast ricocheted off my shield sending the blast back towards the Enforcer. It hit the ground in front of him and sent him flying off his feet.

It gave me enough time to turn back around, hop the fence and make my way to the street. As I stood on the street I felt a twist in my stomach. The street seemed to stretch on forever, as far as I could see. As I ran down the street it seemed to stretch on even further. The presence of both of us was causing some type of temporal distortion.

The Enforcer was about to catch up to me. I knelt down again and activated the capsule shield. The bracelet and its powers were controlled by my mind and to some extent it had it's own artificial intelligence to protect it's wearer from harm. The shield capsule was a paradox preventer. It's purpose was to ensure that only the minimum amount of material was taken in the time jump.

Again, I felt a surge shredding through my body. I came to inside a school, in a hallway lined with lockers. Students were milling back and forth through the hallway. As the energy vibrated around me, they shrank back in terror or shock against their lockers. The janitor dropped his mop and bucket. I didn't have time to make introductions. I darted down the hallway and towards the exit. I knew my way through these halls.

As I ran out the door he was right on my heels again, the Enforcer. I ran out onto the grassy field outside the school. Well, this was it. This was where I'd have to make a decision. I just needed enough time to catch him off guard.

I reached to my side for my blaster. It wasn't like the Enforcer's which was meant to kill. It was something different. It was an experimental SoulGun, a transference device. Whoever, was hit by a soul blast would change bodies with whoever fired the gun last. The conundrum of course, was that the device would end up in the hands of your potential enemy.

I had to risk it. He burst out the side door of the school, I fired and he rolled out of the way and sent a shot my way at the same time. I rolled to the side as it sliced through a thick tree branch sending it to the ground with a thud. My second shot was dead on...and so was his...

I stood up and brushed myself off then looked down at my hands. I walked over to the limp body and knealt down. I sighed. I had just started getting used to that face, too. I reached down and pulled the bracelet off his wrist and slid it on mine.

Time was something I had both too much and too little of. The Omega Project was still out there and it was a ticking time bomb...almost literally. Before I left, I stopped by my old locker, dialed the combination and left a little present for myself. Now, I finally knew who left it for me...

The Omega Project is a massive doomsday weapon, which was a subject of some of my later dreams.

REMories: I hate Zombies

REMories: Memories of dreams past...or are they dreams of memories past?

Note: I do in fact hate Zombies. I'm not a person who generally worries about such things though. I don't watch Zombie movies really, I'm not really much into horror. I don't know where these dreams come from but, I know the Zombie dreams all started with this one. I had this dream in 2005. I was deployed to Iraq at the time for "OIF 3" (Operation Iraqi Freedom). When I woke up, I turned to my roommate and simply said seemingly out of the blue to him, "Man, I fucking hate Zombies."

If there is one thing I can't stand...it's Zombies. And the only thing in my book worse than a Zombie was a whole lot of Zombies. The once bustling streets of this perky suburban neighborhood were eerily silent now but, through the dead of the night you could hear them...moaning and shuffling along, awkwardly knocking over anything in their way, trying to sniff out a meal of fresh, juicy brains. They had no qualms about eating the rest of you of course but, they would have nothing to do with decayed and rotting flesh. But, God help us that meant they wouldn't eat each other. No easy breaks for the living.

Strewn about the streets were remnants of the military's failed attempts to quell the Zombie revolution. Their stand didn't last very long. Many of the Zombies in this area wore tattered National Gaurd uniforms, undead and grim testaments of the Zombie horrors. I had been hoping to find survivors but, this town was as dead as the last one and there was little left to scavenge that was worth risking my life for.

In the cold black of the night, a dank smell permeated the air. I was a swift and silent mover but, their senses were highly trained and attuned to even the tiniest sound of human movement. They knew fresh fish was on the menu but, I wasn't keen on being reeled in. I could outrun a few zombies no problem but, I soon realized there were more than a few zombies around here. The stench was nearly overpowering, they were everywhere, practically surrounding me and I couldn't even see a single one.

Hiding would do me little good. In a situation like this, you never want to work yourself into a corner. I made a run for it, got off the dangerous streets, and made a nimble hop over a backyard fence. I chuckled for half a moment at the irony of an old, worn sign hanging from the chain-links that proclaimed 'Beware of Dog'.

There was a warehouse just up the road running into the heart of the town. I beat a brisk jog to it, in hopes that I might find something useful inside. I was pretty sure Scavengers had already beaten me here but, when life gives you lemons...well, you know...you're better off looking for a shotgun.

It seemed like I had ran myself into a corner. Too many damn zombies. They had surrounded me. There was only one exit, and it was an entrance into the huge abandoned warehouse. Not much better than my current situation but, it could buy me some time at least. I ran in, closing and locking the doors behind me. They would be inside in no time.

The warehouse was amaze of shelves and industrial goods, haphazardly littered about the place as if it had been ransacked. I ran down the aisles. I was looking for an axe. I picked up a 2 by 4, it wouldn't help much but, it was something. Then I got lucky and found a shotgun and a box of shells. Only 10, though. There were a lot more than 10 zombies out there and that 2 by 4 probably woulnd't put much of a dent in them.

A man in a white lab coat with a girl clutched behind him, stepped out it front of me suddenly from around one of the aisles. I stepped back and pointed the shotgun straight at his head.

He screamed immediately, “Oh, God! Don't shoot me, I'm not a zombie!”

“We need to get the hell out of here.”, I said.
“Stay behind me.”

Then, I heard the groaning and moaning again. They were inside the warehouse. Shit. I felt like a lab mouse in a maze. Except, my cheese was a way out, and the dead-ends were zombies.

“Come on! Hurry Up!” I yelled to the two as I began running for the back of the warehouse. There had to be a door back here somewhere. We ran down the aisles until we got close to the back of the warehouse. There was the door. And obviously the Zombies had already found it because they were now pouring through. Shit. I took a quick look behind me. Yep, they were closing in on us now.

I took aim with my shotgun and blew the heads off the ones closest to us, reloading as I went. 3 Zombies dead now. Well, dead-er at any rate. There was a small storage room to my right.

“You two, get in there, don't move, don't make a sound.”

They slipped away while I kept the Zombie's attention. I blew a few more away. And another few. Down to my last shell, then that was it. I threw the shotgun down and grabbed my 2 by 4. I began smacking them upside their heads with it. It was doing damage but, they were getting closing in on me, fast. Finally, they were all around me, grabbing me, pulling me. One of them bit me on the shoulder. I swung around and bashed his head in. I stumbled then picked myself up, and charged through a small group of them.

I was bitten but, I was still me. I jumped on top of a stack of boxes and managed to climb my way up to the ceiling rafters. There was a window I could probably jump through at the other end. And...shit...there was another zombie. A nimble one I guess. Well, we'll just see.

Did I mention...I hate Zombies?

REMories: Red Dragon and the Curtained Stage

REMories are memories of my past dreams...Dreams that have stayed with me as vivid as any real memory and in some cases moreso.

When I 'woke up' I found myself in a vast expanse of darkness, a great void. In the middle of the void I found a red curtained stage. As I stepped upon the stage and parted the curtains another landscape opened up before me. The void opened up and I stepped off the stage and onto soil, dirt, and gravel. The sky was still dark but not the same black sky of the void.

As I looked upward I saw terrible red dragon far off in the distance and words came to me,

"I saw a red dragon in the sky,
and sadly wept as it flew by
for before glory
many must die."

Before me was a school house from my childhood. Inside a cellar there was a huddled mass of children cowering and frightened. I said, "Don't worry. It's going to be okay."

Then as I looked upon their faces I recognized them. They were faces I hadn't seen since I was a young child myself about 6 years old. Not many faces that one normally remembers. But I saw their faces clearly.

Further up the road was a small cottage. I ran along the road until I reached the house. Before my knuckles could rap upon the door, it opened. A beautiful long haired blond woman stood in the open doorway, her hands out and a sword, a katana in her hands outstretched towards me.

"Prepare yourself", she said. "The dragon is coming."

There were three others. A spearman, a swordsman, a bowman, and she carried daggers.

In the sky above echoed an evil roar. The dragon was approaching. As it came closer I saw it more clearly, a visage of death. It was covered in scaly, crimson armor. It's eyes glowed with
an unholy fire. Upon its head were rows of horns. It's breath filled the air. It flew toward us with
its great claws like sharpened daggers.

As it landed the earth shook beneath our feet. We flew upon it with out weapons. Steel sparked against red scales. The dragon roared and swung it's fearsome claws and whipped about its head blasting red hot flames.

I swung my sword haphazardly at its thick neck but my blows glanced off to no avail. As the dragon turned its gaze on me to snap me up in its giant maw the spearman leaped from behind and brought his shining spear impaling through the dragon's skull. Bright red blood spurted forth from the dragon's head, the fire in it's eye's died. As it writhed in it's death throes it swung around slamming its tail into the spearman sending him flying through the air.

The dragon fell to the ground...dead. We rushed to the side of the fallen hero. He had slain the dragon and he was dying, crushed by the dragon's blow. They wept for him. I blamed myself for my weapon had been worthless against the great beast. Then once again...the void closed in on me...shrouding my eyes with darkness once more...