I "wake up" driving my truck down the road my parents live on, about a half mile away from the house, heading toward the main road ahead. Im wearing my signature white teeshirt and jeans. The road I'm currently driving on is dirt, Im doing 70 miles an hour, and the cloud of dust from my tires is intensely thick in the rearview mirror. The sky is blue, the trees are green and uniform, and I start laughing like a banshee. The scene is perfect until i hit a spot that should engulf me in shadow, but the sun still shines on me. And Im struck with the realization that the world I'm living in is not real.
The shock of lucidity engulfs me and i force myself to keep the sudden flair of spiraling white out of my vision and command the dream to stay. Taking the bull by the horns, i accelerate until the speedometer is buried past 90 mph. I can feel my truck sliding sideways on the sandy road, and Im rapidly approaching the corner. I know I'll never stop in time to avoid blowing the intersection anyway, so i lock my breaks and swing the steering wheel all the way to the left. The truck begins to rotate, pinwheeling through the intersection, the dust cloud engulfing me entirely, and i realize that ive begun to view the scene from two perspectives, my own, and a third person camera view from a slightly elevated perspective.
When I finally slide to a stop, i realize that it isnt dust filtering thorough the open window of the truck any longer, but light ash, as if i were parked next to a foundary. I climb out, looking around through the ash, and realize that everything from before the slide is no longer there. The landscape is much different. In front of me is the base of the largest fallen tree i have ever seen. So massive, in fact, that i cannot see anything other than the root ball and the trunk through the ash. As i look to see the incredible height of the toppled structure, i see what appears to be meteors, or something like them streaking through an orange and black sky. I decide it is time to get the hell out of there.
I climb the roots to stand on the trunk, which is at least 90 feet in diameter, and dark gray, either of its own accord, or from the ash still falling from the sky. From this perspective, i can see that the entire landscape is void of life, covered in gray ash. Trees in the distance are skeletal, and the trunk I am currently standing on is stretching off into the distance, and i can see no end through the lessening ash. I begin to follow the tree as if it is a road, seeing numerous meteors crash into the ground in the distance, leaving craters and clouds of ash and smoke that look mushroom in shape. And i look down at my feet, only to realize i am now dressed in black jeans and an ash smeared motorcycle jacket.
In spite of all this, I remain in control, walking toward the undiscovered end of the tree. All has been silent since i left my truck. For a few minutes i move down the length of the tree, still seeing from two perspectives, still no end in sight when i finally hear something, a whisteling noise, and i turn to see a meteor streaking directly at me. I stare at it, and raise my hand in a very Neo-esque way, and the course alters slightly upward, missing me by only a few feet and slamming into the ground perhaps a hundred feet behind where i stand. There is no concussion, and i wonder, "what would have happened to me if i wouldnt have told the meteor to rise?"
The question is lost when i turn back to my right and see someone approaching from the distance. It looks like the Gordon's Fisherman, complete with an ash smeared coat and yellow hood. As the figure comes closer from the distance, i climb down from the tree and begin walking to meet it. As the figure closes in on me, i realize that it is a woman of about my age (early 20's). She stops a few feet away from me, takes the hat off, throws it to the ground, and we stare at each other. I have no idea who she is, a complete figment of my psyche. She takes the remaining between us and hugs me. We embrace for a moment, and then we kiss very breifly and chastely. She then looks deeply into my eyes and says, "We're all going to die alone."
Out of all this, apparently that was the one statement that could detach me from the dream, as i woke drenched in sweat and feeling vaguely aroused. Messed up, huh?
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