Dream Journal
A volunteer walked into our office and called everyone together. She announced in a soft voice that there were a group of moose on the street outside our building backing up traffic. She wanted us to not panic, but slowly make out way outside.
I could see through the shades a moose standing in the middle of the road. Outside I could see a small herd of them with yearlings standing further down the street in an intersection. Cars were stopped and doing all they could to maneuver around the animals.
We hid behind the TVC building and, peeking around its edge, could see men getting out of their cars with guns to shoot the moose. I thought they were starting something foolish.
One of the men standing on the other side of the cross street from us held a machine gun. He got distracted and excited with the scene going on a few blocks down and squeezed the trigger on his gun. It swung around toward our group and hit two people crouched by the building.
I screamed at him, “What the fuck are you doing!?” and rushed to help the injured people. I drug them inside the building. It looked like a parking garage on the inside.
When I was back outside I could see an army of men gathered by the dead bodies of the moose. They were not from our town, were not on our side. War broke out as they shot at us and threw bombs.
I started to hide behind a green electrical box, but the person in charge of our group promised a $50 bonus to the people who didn’t run and hide. I came out from behind the box and laid down on the ground.
The man with the machine gun grabbed a teen girl from beside me and, holding her up, had her shoot his gun at the intruders. She was hit by a bullet and killed instantly.
Each member of my group died until I was the only one left. No longer caring about any money, I crawled again behind the green electrical box and bolted inside as soon as I was able.
My high school band conductor was inside and ushered me towards the back where all of the band equipment was. Needing to know what was going on outside, I left him with the drums and made myself back outside.
Smoke hung in the air everywhere and dead bodies lay strewn on the ground. A bomb had exploded. I looked back inside the parking garage and saw a hundred people hiding inside scared.
I found Damon and we drove away in his truck. We pulled up to my mom’s house and Sam Wise got out of his car. He walked up to us and asked how we were. I gave him a giant hug, glad to see someone still alive that I knew, and told him about the war. I told him that my mom had died, and I went inside the house to gather provisions.
Damon and I headed back to the TVC. He parked his truck beside the building right on the street and we ran around its side just as his truck exploded.
We turned around and saw a plastic baby blue tornado form above his truck. It grew enormous and moved toward the end of the street where the fighting originated. Damon ran after the tornado and got sucked up and away.
Not many people could fit inside the parking garage because a bomb went off inside while we were at my mom’s. I jumped inside it with some nurses just as a bomb exploded outside.
The nurses were in a helicopter. I stepped over women on the floor and grabbed the only remaining seat on the side. The woman flying the chopper didn’t think anyone could fit there, but it seemed to have been made for me. I buckled myself in.
We flew to Homer. Over the base of the Spit the helicopter got lower and lower until we had to dump it in the slough. I unbuckled fast and swam to shore.
In our hose at the end of the spit I ran to my bedroom on the second floor. I put Melissa in the bed and told her to get some sleep, and then crawled in myself. We both wore long nightgowns.
I heard a noise and peeked out the curtain. It was a pitch black night but I could still see the army men gathered in the parking lot. They had conquered Fairbanks and had come to conquer the rest of Alaska. I closed the curtain carefully so they wouldn’t see the movement.
Melissa was too scared to sleep and wanted to sit in her rocking chair and read. She turned on her side lamp just as I was telling her not to. Now the men outside could see that someone was awake in this room.
I knew they would come for us so I hid in a large duffel bag among other clothes and boxes. A soldier came into my room and looked around.
He walked three steps down the length of the duffel bag to ensure no one hid inside of it. At first he stepped on my hip with his sharp boot heel, then just above my head barely missing my nose, and then further away from me. He turned around and came back, stepping in the same places.
I briefly wondered if this was how the Jews felt in Germany during the second world war.
The soldier laid on his stomach on my bed and looked through our earring collection. I peeked out of the bag and handed him and earring holder. He took it, said thanks, and looked right at me.
I knew I was caught, but hoped he would let me stay. He looked friendly enough.