"You Can Run..." - 12/03/2009

"You can run..."

12/03/2009

(This was the longest, most intense dream I've had in a good while. Had some melatonin before bed, and B6 earlier in the day.)

In the beginning of this dream, I was rivals with some other guy. We both had these badass, custom motorcycles, that had cockpit setups like Kaneda's bike in Akira. My bike was white and orange, with chrome components all over it. (My notes say that, around here, I was told I was supposed to die, and somebody pulled a gun on me, but I don't really remember much of that situation.) Next thing I knew, I was getting chased by this "secret" syndicate. I don't remember much about how I came to discover this group, or how they came to be chasing after me, but I was soon on the run.

The first wave of henchmen was a group of ninjas. I'd been running through a mall, and they were slipping through the crowd of people, trying to keep pace. These guys were complete scrubs, though. I was able to fight them off, with very little trouble - as long as I could keep it to one or two opponents, at a time - doing some pretty sick combinations of strikes and joint locks while weaving about, periodically, to dodge incoming shuriken. No matter what I did, though, they just kept on coming. So, I kept on running. I darted for every possible staircase, but every staircase I got to, there would be about 3 or 4 of the faction members there, standing at parade rest, forcing me to keep running and trying to find a way down.

Finally, I came to an empty spiral staircase, pushing my way past people and rushing down the well, as fast as I could go. By this point, I had picked up a gun from somewhere, but I knew that I was still too outnumbered to even try to keep them at bay with the gun. With every flight of stairs I ran down, I could feel them getting closer and closer, rushing down the stairs just a few feet behind me. At every level, there were giant windows that looked out over the yard outside the building. It was night out. I thought of trying to shoot through the glass and just jumping for it. But, even with it being dark outside, I could see that the ground was way too far down to land safely...so, I kept running, gradually getting lower and lower. Finally, when I felt as if the entire clan was breathing right down my neck, I aimed at the next coming window and fired repeatedly. The window shattered just as I threw my body through it. Being at only the second story, I landed with very little difficulty, in the grass outside.

Then, it was day time, and I was driving down an abandoned road. I get the feeling that my character was a cop, or something similar - I don't know. For whatever reason, the syndicate was still after me. Everywhere I went, there they were. At one point, when I thought I was far enough ahead of them, I'd stopped at a roadside diner. They ended up just 'appearing', inside, and chasing me out. I don't remember much of that encounter, but I was soon back on the road. There were plenty more run-ins with these guys, but I don't remember many details. I do recall one instance, though, where I was running through a neighborhood. I had to climb a fence and, on the other side of said fence, the homeowners, apparently, had a pet lion. (Random!) It jumped up and tried to swipe at me, but missed. I knew I couldn't go back the way I came, so, I started walking along the top rail of the fence, trying to keep my balance. Moving from backyard to backyard, I came to discover that all of the neighbors had identical pet lions, and they were all trying to get me, as I scurried along the fence as if it was a balance beam.

My recall skipped ahead, here, and I was on a bus. I believed that the last of the ninjas were dead, and now I was home free. Right on cue - the person across the aisle from me flashed an evil grin, from behind a pair of dark sunglasses. Without drawing too much attention to himself, he flashed a very large, silver pistol. I knew, immediately, that he was from the syndicate. I got up, to rush myself off the bus, and he drew his gun on me. What he didn't know was that I had two Mac-11 sub-machine guns (from...somewhere? I'm guessing one of my previous battles). I drew on him, and we held each other at gunpoint. Slowly, I started to back myself toward the front of the bus, and then another person, beside me, stood up and aimed their gun at me. I crossed my forearms, aiming one gun at this new guy, and the one in my right hand stayed trained on the first stranger. Then, another person stood up, aiming yet another gun at me. The gun in my right hand never left the direction of the guy with the shades, though. He started talking something about how these were "more elite" members of their organization, and I could see that things had gone from ninja to supernatural.

These guys were more like Agents in The Matrix - in that they could just kind of "manifest" from anyone standing around me. But, it would only be as a sort of brainwash, since they didn't transform into completely other people. They just sort of "took over" that person's body. The man in the shades just stood there and watched me, smiling, while I tried to back myself off of the bus. As I moved down the aisle, I kept shifting the gun in my left hand all around the bus, looking frantically in all directions - but keeping the majority of my attention on the guy in the shades - not sure where the next "possessed" person would try to get the drop on me. Apparently, whenever these guys spawned, they automatically had guns in their hands. I just continued backing away slowly, aiming the gun at all the "innocent" bystanders around me. Stealing a glance out the front window, I could see that the cops were showing up, just as the bus had now pulled to the side of the road. There was a lead car, and the cavalry was close behind. I knew I didn't have much time.

I remember the explosive eruption of a short gunfight, right there in the bus, but it was over in an instant. I was soon running off of the bus and toward the lead cop car, just as he came to a stop in front of the bus. Coming around to the driver's side, I pretty much just opened the door and threw the cop out, Grand Theft Auto-style. Back on the road, again, my recall skipped ahead, once more. I now had my best friend Tony with me. I'd told him about everything that was going on (it was reading his dream about a shadowy syndicate chasing after him, yesterday, which inspired this dream of mine, I'm sure).

We were driving down the road, and he was talking about something. Unprompted, his dialogue then turned toward me, and he took on a gradually malicious tone. I could feel him staring at me, while I drove. I could hear the arrogance in his voice - the challenge. Something was wrong. I glanced in his direction, and he just stared at me, grinning from the passenger seat. Something was going to happen. I could feel it.

He made a quick grab for the inside of his coat and, as if by instinct, my right hand jumped off of the steering wheel and snapped toward him. Just as he began to pull a long-barreled, chrome pistol from out of his jacket - identical to the one wielded by the man on the bus - my hand pushed down on his, keeping him from being able to draw it all the way from the hidden shoulder holster. He kept trying to get the extended barrel out of his coat, squirming and struggling in his seat, but I kept pushing, trying my best to keep some of my attention on the road, since we had cruising down the road at a hefty speed. I kept screaming at him, trying to snap him out of this obvious possession, but he wasn't listening. He was my best friend in the world, and I knew that this was only going to end badly. It was either going to be him or me, and I just could not let him get that gun up in my direction.

I was able to notice that I had my seat belt on, and he didn't. Ahead, I could see that we were coming up to a tight turn and immediately knew what I had to do. I jerked the wheel, hard, and slammed the car into the curved rail. I don't necessarily remember becoming airborne, or the rollover, but when the car came to a rest, it was upside down. Tony had been ejected from the car, and I had to crawl out of the inverted window. I staggered away from the wreckage and looked back and the battered body of my best friend, unable to believe what had just happened. I was even less prepared, though, for what happened next. His arm - broken at the elbow, lifted from the grass. He gave it a swift shake, and I could literally hear the bone snap back into place - the arm now standing out straight. He was regenerating himself. The arm came down, and Tony raised himself up into push-up position, staring at me as if he were the Terminator, itself. Opting not to stick around until he was fully healed, I took off running down the empty road, and I don't think I looked back, once.

That's all I remember.