The following is the first part of my heart racing dream from last night:
I had fallen asleep on the trellised-bench at the library
“Ehhhh…. I’m so tired” I murmured to myself
“What do think that’s all about?” Nova said as she looked up ahead of us.
My friend Mare replied “They brought guns.”
“I wanna know what it’s all about!” Nova said.
“Maybe we should just leave?” Ireland said in a concerned tone.
“What are you guys flippin’ bout?” I asked.
“Come on, let’s just go and look for a minute.” Nova urged.
“Not a good idea at all.” Ireland said as she glared at Nova.
“Ummm, I don’t know about all that.” Mare said, Ireland's tone of caution spreading.
“Dude! What are you guys talkin’ about?!”
Then Nova glanced at me from the sidewalk, “Just down the street, duhh.”
We were at the public library on Bedford Avenue, towards the center of town and the sun was overcast with a high fog-like layer of cloud. There was a woman standing with a cameraman watching a group of soldiers rush into a house just a few yards away from our parked car. No one even watched the news anymore, there was no point. But these two people just kept at it, reporting the news that no one would hear. Even though the world was tilting on the verge of total collapse, there was nothing for those left of us to do but try and keep moving, retain some version of normalcy, hang onto the past and forget that there would be no future. We didn’t have to tell her, this reporter knew she was living in a house of cards just like the rest of us.
It had been three years since the end started. It swept across the planet in a span of three months, two weeks, and six days. The plague swept from the East to our homes in a matter of weeks, no chance of escape. Breathing became the most terrifying action for every human being upon the planet. You couldn’t escape unless you stopped breathing, which happened to be the choice most people made. No one was left untouched, no one here at least. It obviously didn’t kill all of us, about half in my town had managed to survive. And I didn’t feel any different now than in the days before, but it left the survivors incapable of any future. A world void of half its past and all of its future.
Here we were, walking around town for no apparent reason besides passing time. The four of us had made it out fine. “We gonna go take a look?” I asked.
“Yea!” Nova shouted.
“No!” Ireland groand.
“okay” Mare said with a shrug.
“let’s go, I wanna see what the soldiers are doing. Maybe they are even giving out bread like Wednesday.” So I jogged over towards the woman and the soldiers. A small group of people had already begun to form, watching from the street. My friends continued following me in tow. Just as we made it up to the group, a man dressed in a nice suit walked up to the reporter and whispered in her ear. She froze and as her face transitioned from one of everyday smiles of joy to one of shock and anxiety it became clear that whatever he had said to her had ruined her day. Then it appeared to look as if he was feeding her lines to say on camera.
She attempted to keep going, just say what he wanted and then move on to the next feed of the day, but she was cracking more with every word. The shock shifted into fear and then into terror.
“what do you think it’s all about?” Mare aked to no one in particular.
“No idea..”
Ireland began to stress her feeling of anxiety at the situation, “Come on, let’s go. Those soldiers didn’t look like they were playing.”
Nova poked Ireland in her side a bit and gave a “Whine whine whi-”
A freckled face teenage girl appeared in the front doorway of the house, followed by a red headed young man and a sad looking older woman. All three wore faces of confusion and fear as they proceeded down the front porch steps. A group of soldiers followed behind them with guns pointed and faces as if the three were some sort of disgusting criminals. The man who had been feeding lines to the reporter approached the soldiers, “you know what you’ve got to do. Do it,” he said.
Then the soldiers took their guns and smacked the back of the three’s legs behind the knee, making them crumple to the ground. “Put your hands up behind your head” one of them ordered”.
Then the suited man looked toward our group of bystanders that had gathered over the past few minutes. He looked us over, then turned back to the soldiers, "take care of those too”.
“guys, we gotta run” and I took off.
