sanity is relative

I was having trouble with a lot of crappy dreams in a row, and at one point I was in a building that had empty rooms and long hallways. The room I was standing in had a door near one corner (where I was standing), and another door on the exact opposite side of the room. The door I was beside led into a long hallway that might have had some doorways along it (I forget now), and half-way down had another hallway that branched off to the left. The walls were all a dingy white, possibly with some stains in places, and the floor and ceiling was white too. There was someone else with me, but I don't remember who.

I realized for just a moment that I was dreaming, and I thought, "I want Pyramid Head to be in this dream!"

Then I heard the loud, scary siren that heralds the arrival of Pyramid Head (from the Silent Hill games/movies/mythos), and it sounded twice. I looked down at the end of that long hall... and saw him standing there. Suddenly I completely forgot that I was dreaming, and also decided that Pyramid Head being there was a really, really bad thing.

So, I and my mystery-buddy ran across the room to the other door, which led outside. It was dark, and there was a large open grassy area bordered by a high chain-link fence with barbed wire curled across the top. We ran for the fence and apparently had superpowers, enough to jump the whole thing in one leap and keep going.

I looked back to see Pyramid Head tearing across the yard after me, and gaining in speed. He would reach my friend first, but surely that wouldn't stop him for long. For some reason, Pyramid Head was half his normal size and also missing his sword, but was just as terrifying. I kept running in mindless fear...

...and woke up.

(I've forgotten a lot of this one... I should have gotten up and written it down... d'oh!)

( contains spoiler(s) for the movie Deja Vu )

I started this dream as myself but ended up turning into the hooded blonde guy from the previews of Da Vinci Code (he looks somewhat like Roy Batty from Blade Runner). This guy was actually a dog, or had the power to turn into a dog. The dog version was rather large, sort of wolf-looking. The parts where I turned into a man, I don't remember having any clothing... but I guess that makes the most sense.

The dog belonged to a boy, they were best friends. The boy didn't know at first about the dog's other form. The government one day found out where this man-dog was and came after him. I (the man-dog, dog at the moment) remember being in a grocery store with the kid. A sort of SWAT team showed up and I told the boy to run (I guess I could talk as a dog) and we ran out of the store by alternate routes. It seemed like the SWAT team was also after the boy, maybe because he knew too much.

We met up outside the store in the dark as it was night time, and ran across an empty field of grass and weeds. There was a fence we had to climb, and I turned into a man to get over it better. On the other side of the fence was an unpaved but well-used road. The SWAT team had a vehicle and it was pulling up to us fast, they caught sight of me with their headlights. I told the boy to keep running, and helped him climb back over the fence and another fence that was kitty corner to the one we'd just climbed.

It seems like I was having trouble getting over the second fence but I wanted to make sure the boy got away. I wasn't even sure they knew he was there with me, and if they didn't, that was even better for him. I remember being afraid they might catch me, but at least he'd get away.

Then I woke up.

I was a kid, maybe 10? Maaaybe 13? Not sure, I just know I wasn't an adult or a late teenager. I was working in the Australian outback, somewhere not completely red dirt but not lush tropics either. I was a farm hand or animal specialist for a huge bunch of acreage surrounding a station (Aussie farm house complex). I was quite a ways out, I'd just found a large pig/boar that belonged to the station owners, and its ear was stuck in what looked like a bear trap. I didn't want to hurt the pig but I knew I was going to have to cut through it's ear to get it out. Then I realized I hadn't called in to the station for my usual check-in so I decided to do it now since I was thinking of it. (Maybe I was stalling on hurting piggy.)

I got out my long-range radio and made the call in, something like "This is [whatever my name was] checking in, blah blah blah [progress for the day? my location? I forget...], over." I realized that I hadn't extended the long antenna on my radio so I did that and waited. My signal going out should have been strong enough without the antenna, but incoming stuff would have been unrecognizable at the distance I was out. I kept waiting. That's odd, it never takes them this long to answer. Then I finally got something, but it didn't sound like a reply to me, and it was only coming in bits, most of it garbled. But the end result was that someone had apparently attacked the station ("murders") and that all pilots should fly out immediately if they were still able, and all people in the field should get as far away from the station as possible. The message ended abruptly.

I glanced back towards where I could barely see the nearest station building in the distance and I could just make out strange men wearing all black moving about the complex. Then I saw a bush pilot who'd made it to his plane just in time, it came soaring over my head as I began booking it away from the station. I didn't bother waving, I didn't want him to try and stop to pick me up. We'd both die if he did that. There wasn't a moment to spare. I know he could see me running as he flew over, and I imagined him wishing me luck. I wished him back the same. And I was really glad I had brought enough supplies in my pack for a day or two in the outback. A hundred yards or so later I heard a shot that sounded awfully close, much closer than the station. The bad guys had shot the pig.

I ran and ran and reached the outer perimeter fence. I tested it with the back of my hand, thinking it was the wrong season for it to be electrified, and I wasn't even sure which part would be electified, as that wasn't something I'd had to deal with since I usually didn't leave the property while I was out checking on animals and such. The fence was fine, so I started climbing (it was a very tall fence) but at the top was what definitely looked like wires that were there for electrical stoppage of animal leapage. By this time though I was pretty sure it was the wrong season to have them turned on (we had nothing on the property that'd try and get out at the moment, right?...right...). This wiring also checked out okay, so I grabbed it and virtually vaulted myself over the top of the fence and clambered/fell down the other side.

It was getting kinda late now, the sky darkening quickly. I dashed across the road that ran along the fence line and climbed the next fence into our neighbor's property. I didn't know these people all that well and I wasn't sure they were considered friends or if they had any clue what was going on back across the road. But I was fleeing certain doom and didn't care if the owner yelled at me for tresspassing. I'd be off his property before long anyways. Just passing through, y'know. The main farm house was nearby and I ran past it just as the owner's wife (I think) walked out onto the porch with a load of wash. I think she said something to me, but I was still running and past her and not about to stop. I imagined her telling her husband about "that kid from [whatever name] Station was doing odd things today" when she might next see him. I couldn't exactly stop and ask her for help, because I was convinced the bad guys were too close and even one minute lost would cost me my life. These people weren't associated with my station, surely they'd be safe from the ire of the bad guys. That or if I stopped they'd kill us all. May as well run.

I was out in a back field now, and I thought one of the farm dogs was chasing me. It was dirty and barking like mad at me. No, it wasn't a strange dog... it was Bucky! My dog! I thought for sure he'd died back at the station where he'd been earlier that day. He was the kind of dog that would have tore into the bad guys as soon as he knew something was wrong. I hadn't figured he'd live through that. I stopped to check on him, his back legs didn't much seem to want to work anymore. On closer inspection, there was a nasty cut along one of them, and no doubt he'd caused himself considerable pain trying to catch up to me. Maybe there was something else wrong... but I didn't have time to look now. I picked him up even though he was not a small dog and kept running. He licked at my face, thanking me, happy to be with me again, wishing he could run with me and not be a burden but at least happy to be here with me now.

I reached a river shortly thereafter, and there was a boat on it that had just cast off. It was very dark now, and it took me a moment to realize it contained a couple guys who worked at my station! They pulled back to the shore to pick me up and I scrambled in with Bucky, telling them to go as fast as they could away from here. The motor put us out in the current fast, and it didn't take me long to explain what I knew about the evildoings back at the station. My fellow workers were supposed to be going to Melborne (I think?) for something so that was our target as it would be a good place to go for help. Who'd guess where we were going now that we'd hit water, assuming the bad guys could track us this far?

That's all I remember.

( thoughts )