How quickly dreams fade from memory.
In the first dream, I was wandering around a mid-sized city at night. I walked past apartment buildings, small parks, and a college, all lit with amber lights, making amber the only visible color. Finally, I arrived at a sort of halfway house for the severely depressed. It was a place where people could come and live communally with others suffering from depression, as well as counselors and caregivers. There were a lot of people walking about in pajama pants upon arrival, since it was late at night.
I walked up to the front desk and asked several questions about the place, out of curiosity (though they initially mistook me for an incoming patient). I then decided to donate several movies from my DVD collection (which I had with me in a backpack for some reason), including There Will Be Blood, The Departed, my Quentin Tarantino collection, among a few others. I'm not entirely sure why I thought such dark films were a good idea, but it seemed appropriate at the time.
I was excited about the work the place was doing. People there seemed happy. It was setup much like a hotel, with a general lobby and dining area in the center, and hallways lined with doors reaching out from the center. When I left, I immediate sought the company of my friends Matt K and Adam P (a friend from high school) and told them all about this place. Adam immediately decided he would donate a large set of rainbow umbrellas and blankets that he had stored near Koontz Lake in an old garage. We gathered these things (I remember thinking that these would make for good props for a stylized video shoot) and took them to the halfway house. They accepted this donation with great joy and had us set them up around a beach area they owned.
After finishing this task, I joined Matt and Adam in exploring the property a bit further. We saw only a few people as we walked down the various hallways. Finally we found a somewhat-hidden entrance to a basement, and we explored down there. We found some nursery areas and kids' playrooms, which had all the typical toys. Then we discovered the bathroom. There were pools of urine on the floor, and green slime crawling down the walls. The door jammed behind us and we couldn't get out the way we came in. We were fortunate that there was an open door on the other side, though unfortunate that we had to wade our way through the urine and unknown gunk to make our escape. I had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and did so in the toilet, though I'm sure it didn't matter where I went.
We finally emerged from the bathroom and made our way back up to the sandy beach. We discussed for a while how we could improve the living situation of the guest at the house.
Eventually I transitioned into a different dream.
I was living in some sort of cadet society. It was like a weird combination of military and farm life. We had a farm to attend, but also took part in rigorous military training. I was a younger version of myself, and everyone there was in their late teens. The leaders were all middle-aged, and they were also all quite cruel to everyone living there. The cadets had not volunteered to be there, and were instead something like slaves, for we didn't get paid for our work.
All the cadets slept in the same barn loft. We had only sleeping bags with no extra padding, and no area for privacy. There were a lot of goofy characters there, including a very scrawny kid who spoke quite highly of himself regarding his success at charming the ladies. There was another kid who was a pyromaniac, and enjoyed lighting fireworks and starting fires at inappropriate times (often getting the rest of us in trouble). I seemed to live out several sitcom-y episodes, though there was a much darker element to it (as if Hogan's Heroes actually portrayed a more realistic prison camp). There was a lot of racism among our leaders, and those among us with darker skin (including the pyromaniac) often got more severe punishments.
We, the cadets, were at last fed up with the way our leaders were treating us. They had their fancy house were they all had their own living spaces. They ate well while we ate terribly (many of us were malnourished). They enjoyed entertainment, while we had to creatively come up with ways to get our minds off of our living situation. But at least we had each other's company.
One among us was a combination of Chris Pratt and Ryan Gosling. He was the oldest of the cadets, nearly 20, and he was beloved by everyone, for he often stuck out his neck for the rest of us. At one such occasion, the leadership grew threatened by his leadership, and decided to overly abuse and torment him as a warning to the rest of us. They took and beat him severely, nearly to death, and chained him up high in one of the large barns on the property. Then the leaders locked the barn so that we could not visit him after they showed him to me and a few others.
I knew that we couldn't let this happen. I gathered a couple of close friends (including the pyro), and we snuck out at night and made our way silently to the large barn. We couldn't figure out a way in, so I decided to climb up to the roof with Pyro. There we found a loose spot that we could pry back just enough to allow me to slide through. After I had made it, I heard the voice of one of the leaders shouting at Pyro, who was forced to flee (I did not blame him at all), leaving me alone with the leader close behind me.
As I climbed around on the rafters, looking for a spot to drop down to the floor of the barn, I saw that the leader had climbed in after me. He then descended, almost magically, to the floor far below and began to taunt me, laughing ferociously. But I could not give up. I saw a wire nearby that looked strong enough to hold my weight, and I leapt from the beam on which I was balancing and grabbed the wire. My momentum carried me, allowing me to swing all the way to the wall where a ladder was resting conveniently. I latched onto the ladder and came to the floor.
The leader began threatening me, pointing at what he had done to Chris/Ryan. This particular leader, though strong, was of a heavier build, and I knew that I could outrun him (though I also know it would get me into further trouble). I decided to run around him and leap up onto the rig that stood near where Chris/Ryan was dangling. The leader tried to follow me, but I threw a wrench that was sitting on the rig down at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him out. I leapt once more and clung onto the chains holding Chris/Ryan and was able to free him. He fell a small ways to the ground, but managed to have a decent landing.
I heard shouts coming from outside the barn. More leaders had come out. As I considered my options (or a lack thereof), I heard another, more exciting noise: the sound of fireworks, followed by the screams of the leaders and of blasts hitting the barn door.
I climbed up the large door and unlocked it, and walked quickly with Chris/Ryan to the cadet barn, accompanied by Pyro and a few of his friends, who were covering us with firework blasts to keep the leaders away.
There we discussed what action we needed to take next. Pyro began to talk more like a leader and he assembled a large amount of angry cadets who were ready to take a more violent stance against the leadership. There plans were to coral all the farm animals into one of the barns and threaten to light it on fire if the cadets could not get there way and their freedom. Others wanted to capture a few of the leaders as well.
I feared this type of violence personally (I was very fond of the animals of the farm and did not want to see them come to harm. However, I completely understood Pyro's perspective, and knew that extreme measures probably had to be taken at this point. I was torn, as were several others among the cadets.
As we debated, the sun began to rise (which is rare in my dreams). A gray early morning light began to shine around us through the various holes in the barn. I was then able to see into our future.
I saw a vision of us inside the leader's home, tying down several of the leaders and trying to get them to agree to our terms, but then I saw the leaders overcoming us, causing us to fail in our attempt. I saw another vision of a burning barn and of devastating animal cries. I saw a vision of cadets sneaking along a river, hunting a large species of river rat in order to eat them to stay alive, always staying low and out of sight. I saw many of the events of this dream replayed on a television, with different faces faking all of these experiences. I saw families watching at home, eating meals in front of the screens, enjoying themselves.
Then I awoke.
