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I went to bed one night after ghostbusting (in real) and feeling very much like we had been followed back to our house. I don't know if you believe in the unnatural or not, but whatever it doesn't matter. To me it's real and I was definitely being persued by this spirit or whatever. So I fall asleep and soon after enter my dream state. I dream that I'm laying in bed, the same bed I'm sleeping in (in real) and I'm paralysed. I can't move. I'm laying on my back (in my dream) looking up at the ceiling wondering when I'm going to be able to move, when I hear this hard knocking sound down the hall, in the kitchen. I can feel my girlfriend beside me and she's sound asleep. The knocking sound gets louder and I hear a deep growl of a voice call my name and then laugh. I'm thinking holy shit this has GOT to be a dream. So sure enough I wake up out of the dream, to find myself back in my bed, laying in bed, wide awake wondering what the hell that was all about.

Then suddenly I start to hear the knocking again.. and thumping.. this time it was in the attic. I hear heavy breathing and deep growling and sounds like footsteps right over top of my bed. I thought to myself, "Oh god I just woke up so it's real this time" and once again I find myself on my back, paralyzed, unable to move. My heart starts to race, as I question whether or not this is reality, and I wake up again. I find myself in my bed, laying on my side. This time I got up and went to the bathroom, in full confidence that I was really awake this time. No kiddin! really awake. So I finish doing my thing in the bathroom and I take one step outside the bathroom door. Suddenly everything is black, and I can see nothing. I can still feel what's around me, and everything is in place as it should be, just can't see. I feel something touch my back, something sharp. Something behind me. Something NOT VERY NICE. I wake up.

So there I am, laying in my bed. What the HELL is going on here? Damn I really need to pee. I thought I just went? Oh man, that was a dream, I'm really awake this time. THUMP. Oh shit what was that? I start to hear the growls again. The footsteps. The thumping, all up in the attic. "HAHAHAHAHAH" .. oh god it's, he's, whateverit's, is laughing. And like that deep, evil, satanic laugh we have all come to love from the movies. Straight from a movie. Doesn't get anymore demonic than that .. right?? right???? Whatever it was stepped on the spot in the attic that was right above me. "Oh daaaavvveee" .. oh what??? oh what??? "heh heh heh.. you're gonna die dave.. gonne DIE..." .. This can't be real. can't be.. can't be real. WAKE.. UP...

I find myself laying in my bed. OK.. is it gone.. am I AWAKE this time? Maybe I should pinch myself. OUCH yep.. that hurt. I'm awake. "HEH HEH HEH.. OH DAAAAAVVVEEE...." I look up. I'm laying in my bed, on my back, my girlfriend sleeping right next to me. FUCK ME I NEED TO PEE. I start to see this swirling, shadowy vortex open up in the ceiling. First the claws come out, then the hands. Then the arms. In the middle of this vortex I see blood red eyes. Yep the head is coming out. Oh god those teeth, look at those teeth! Wait those aren't teeth, more like a row of 6'' splinters you would pass for a mouth only a mother could love. OMG. "HAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHA...." The.. thing.. moves closer. and closer.. and closer. I can feel it's breath on my face. I can't move.. paralysed. Holy shit .... ok god.. if you are real.. SAVE ME.

I wake up. My girlfriend is sleeping next to me. I'm laying on my side. Whew.. I'm FINALLY awake.. no shit this time. My heart is racing, I'm drenched in sweat. HOLY .. SHIT.. I need to take a pee. Nope.. there's no way I'm stepping one foot off this bed. I look out the bedroom door and it's black as black can be. I know 100% FOR SURE I'm awake this time. I squeeze up next to my girlfriend and hug her tight. I let out a whimper. She doesn't even budge. She's either dead asleep or simply ignoring me. Whatever, I will hold my bladder till tomorrow. I fall back asleep and dreamed of nothing till the morning came. Thank you, god

Sleep: 1:31 AM
Method: Intention "I will remember my dream"

My contacts dried up. I threw them out of my window. Travel. Dormitory.

Some dreams I've been having lately have got me wondering about some oddities in my dreams that I'm calling "escape sequences" for now. I've been noticing patterns in some of the things that happen to me when I wake up from a dream and stay aware through the trippier third-person parts of it. I'll explain them in a bit though, first let me get the dream descriptions out.

#1 (from a couple nights ago)

I was hanging out with I, a girl I knew all through public school never once actually hung out with in real life, and we were over at her house, although it was actually the house of some family friends we have, and those family friends' dogs were even running around and jumping on counters much higher up than they'd actually be able to reach. We were eating cookies that her mom was making, and we were getting ready to go shopping for a while, but at the last second she realizes that she had something else she had to do, so she calls this imaginary girl M to come go shopping with me instead. Alrighty then.... We go out front and I gets in her car and I approach it, but then realize I'm supposed to be getting in M's car instead so I go sit in the front passenger seat while she talks to J, N, and I think O who were all just randomly standing on I's front lawn. It's raining pretty heavily through all of this, and the road we're parked on is REALLY slanted, with the car facing downhill. So I'm sitting in her Jeep, and it starts rolling forward. I reach over to the wheel and pedals to stop it and reverse back up to the house, but I accidentally overshoot it and go nearly up to the top of the hill, and while this is happening the rain clears up and it becomes bright and sunny (and totally dry ). At the top of the hill there is another "car" that is made of a disassembled mannequin, with the head at the front, an arm and a leg as the front tires, and the other arm and leg on opposite sides as the back tires, and nothing but steel bars connecting them as the body, and as I'm looking at it it flies straight up into the air! I let the car roll back down to the correct spot, and I get out of the car and explain that I just had to go up to the top of the hill to see that thing first. Then I go to the door and I's dad opens it and is pissed because he thinks that I stole M's car. I try to explain what happened and say "This is going to sound weird, and I know this is how it's supposed to be but listen.... I don't remember it starting as a dream, but... I think it was...." (Somehow, this didn't cue me into the fact that I was dreaming. ) I's dad doesn't listen and he starts strangling me to death. But as I try to explain a little more he stops and tells me that I'm dead and I'm a genius and that my story matched all the words from Romeo and Juliet AND Peter Pan exactly, after which he started ballet dancing and instead of strangling me was forcing me to dance with him, but I kept stumbling and messing up. At this time I kept flashing back and forth between this and a kind of third-person look at rows and rows of nonsense words (that basically looked like mashing the keyboard and hitting the space bar now and then) that I would try to read and get very confused by. Also while this was happening there was a strange group of people around us which at the time I perceived as dancing with us, however when I think back what they were actually doing was... they would start out staring directly in my direction, and then they would turn away and walk off or leave or something, but the motions seemed to play out in a very mechanical fashion that's difficult to properly describe. And they were all varied distances away from me, but they all started with this same demented, soulless smile on their faces. There were a good amount of them, but the only one I remember very clearly was a girl wearing glasses, a black/dark gray t-shirt, and boxers with vertical red and white stripes. Very strange....

#2 (from last night)

The fact that there were lots of houses without any locks on their doors was a big plot point in this dream, but unfortunately I forgot most of that plot because of what happened next. What I do remember is looking around at a house that I was intending to buy and being concerned about how that house also doesn't have any locks. I hear someone breaking in (more like walking in) and freak out. I hide around a corner waiting for them to walk by so I can jump at them, but when they do I leap out and get switched to a moving third-person perspective. Or, not exactly, it's more like... first-person but extremely dissociated. The guy, who looks kind of like a hipster Elvis Costello fan wearing a long, fuzzy pink leigh, laughs at me and my failed attempt. Suddenly I'm back in the same type of situation as the ballet dancing from the previous dream, only without the words or anything, just the people staring at me and then turning or walking away or whatever. The hipster guy is one of them, as is a goth girl, a girl in something resembling a black and red FOnewearl costume from Phantasy Star Online (but sluttier, and a little different), and a girl in a completely absurd black and white horizontal striped outfit with lots of feathers and something of a post-modern clown-like look, and a face painted totally white with black patterns on it. My vision slowly moved from left to right over these people, to the backdrop of some kind of game/clothes store, until it passed over a mirror and stopped right in front of my reflection, where I could see that I was one of these demented/soulless people just like the rest of them, I looked totally different from myself and was probably the most normal looking of the group, wearing mainly tight blue jeans and a pink top, but my clothes still had a decidedly trippy style to them and my face was the most soulless of them all, it felt like I was staring into the darkest part of myself, with a big evil grin on my face. My vision stopped moving when it passed over this "me", but I could see another girl to the right of me trying on a white, black, red, and green dress with leaf patterns on it, but then the store clerk (unseen) started yelling at us and we decided to book it. I woke up as that was happening. I remember that everyone in the group was talking about some drinking game while this was happening, but I don't recall any details of it. The whole thing felt extremely psychedelic.

~~~~~

So, the escape sequences. The first one is the nonsense words thing, which has happened to me a good number of times. It always turns out to be very clear typing, often Times New Roman I think lol. It's always a bunch of nonsense but sometimes looks more realistic than others, and it's always third-person, and my mind just struggles to make sense of what's going on until I wake up. That's a pretty strange one. The other one, this newer one, is the turning/leaving people thing. It's really getting to me because it feels extremely alien. I can remember at least one time before where it's happened, but not in detail. I just had to point those out because I think I'll probably be dealing with them again, and I'd like to figure them out as much as possible if I can....

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon on some island out in the middle of the ocean. The name of the island remains unknown to me but by the distance out to sea and near the equator zone, I can only guess it was hawaii. Although I don't physically know the layout of hawaii and what towns/cities are near the area I was dreaming about I can only make an educated guess about the location of this dream. I was sitting in my home with a woman (probably a girlfriend) when we heard on the radio that there was a massive earthquake only a 1000 kilometers away or so. There was expected to be a tsunami headed our way and that everyone needed to get to higher ground.

Me and my friend decided to pack what we could and head up the mountains. We exited the house and the city was a total basket case. There were people everywhere. Cars were in gridlock. The whole transportation system was down. people were flocking to the hills and to higher ground. Overlooking the city was a tall cliffside, at least a thousand feet tall. My partner and I both looked at eachother and decided that straight up would be the best route, as it would take hours to go around the other side and up the hill. So we did just that. We hiked it to the base of the cliff and we looked up. We had enough vantage point of the city to see the ocean. The water along the beach was already starting to get sucked up by this giant wave that was heading towards us. We couldn't see the wave quite yet at that point but we knew it was coming and soon.

So I took the first step in climbing this cliff side wall. It took us quite some time to get at least half way up and by the time we got to a ledge we could rest on we looked back out at the ocean. That's when we saw it. Off in the distance, glistening in the noon sun, we could see the crest of this wave coming towards us. We could only see the top of it, as if a painter had painted a streak across the entire canvas in silver sparkle paint, with deep blue beneath as the wave gathered force. It was already huge and it was yet a few kilometers out from inland. We knew it was going to be BIG so we decided to get climbing once more.

Near the top of this cliff we came upon a ledge that went back into the mountain quite some way. The ledge was long, it stretched almost across the entire mountainside. We stopped and sat on the ledge of this mountain, looking back at the city. Horror came across our faces as we saw this wave, now hundreds of feet tall. The crest of it was almost at our eye level. We had spent the last 2 or 3 hours climbing this cliff only to find it eye level. We were at least 1000 feet up. The wave came across the city like a wave at the beach washes across the shoreline. The tall buildings did nothing to stop this monster, and it ate up the entire city. I heard my friend beside me scream and I realized that we might not be at a high enough elevation to avoid this wave.

We picked up our gear and ran across the ledge towards a cabin that was there. Just before we got to the cabin the wave hit the cliffside. It just so happened that we were high enough up to avoid the water from sucking us back down the cliff. When it clashed with the mountain and broke, I could feel the spray of water hit my skin. I could see the large globs of water flying upwards and raining back down on us. We were both soaked but OK. I tried to look back at the city below us but the water didn't recede. It stayed there for a while, too long for me to want to look anymore. We ended up getting to this cabin perched on the hillside.

We walked in the cabin, obviously hungry and thirsty. Whoever had lived there before us had been there for a long time, undisturbed. There was little for supplies but what was there was untouched. The cabin had been dug into the cliffside as there was a basement. We went down there looking for food and water. The inside of this cabin was mostly falling apart and beat up but solid enough to keep us from collapsing through the floor. We split up and started looking for supplies when my eyes turned to an old door. I went through the door and came into an old storage room. "Jackpot" I thought as I started searching through the room. I found cans of food there and started filling my backpack when I saw a dusty old rifle leaning up against the wall. In a cupboard was a few boxes of ammo. So I grabbed the rifle and the ammo and dusted it off, slung it over my shoulder and went to grab my friend.

Her search was successful as well since we both had found some supplies we could carry with us. Our plan was to head further up to the mountain. There was a small village a few clicks to the east and we figured we could take refuge there. We exited the cabin and we looked down at the city. Horror filled our faces once again. The only thing that was left was a bunch of rubble. There was smoke billowing up from everywhere.. the city was a total ruin. There had been over a million people residing in that city and my heart sank as I realized that most of them probably didn't have enough time to escape. I could see tears rolling down the face of my friend. Her family lived there and she feared for their lives.

"It's ok, I'm sure they made it out" I said as I hugged her.

"Yeah, yeah, you're probably right" she said as she tried to force a smile. I could tell she was in shock. We travelled for an hour or two eastward towards the town that was situated on top of the mountain. We came out into a clearing where we could see a road that led into a neighbourhood. I thought it was odd that everyone was in their homes. No one was out, there were no kids playing in the streets. No one was in their vehicles. No one was trying to see the disaster the wave had left in its wake. It was literally dead in the neighbourhood and I couldn't understand it. Then I heard something off in the distance that made me understand. A gunshot. I heard a cry from the same direction I heard the gunshot, and then another gunshot. The cry was silenced.

I unshouldered my rifle and put some ammo in it. There was something fishy going on. People were in their homes and I was hearing gunshots? This was not normal. Who would be shooting after such a tragedy that just happened. Everyone should be out in the streets at least trying to get a view of the city below but there was no one in sight.

"Stay close, I got a bad feelin about this" I could feel her hand grab my coat. She hung on as I slowly advanced through the field that bordered this neighbourhood. I came up to the edge of the road and to the first parked car. I crouched down behind it holding my rifle tightly. I could hear more screams off in the distance and more gunshots. It sounded like they were smashing doors down and invading peoples homes one house at a time. I looked up the road as it was up a hill that crested and went down again and didn't see anything, so I looked back at my friend and nodded to her. She was still in shock over loosing her family but hours ago and looked back at me, her eyes wide and filled with tears. I closed my eyes hoping to open them back up, imagining something different, that this whole thing was just a nightmare. But when I opened my eyes again there she was, still looking at me, crying.

I turned my focus back up the road again. I saw a young child coming up to the crest of the hill with his arms up in the air. 'CRACK'. Blood filled the air in front of him and this child fell to the ground. A couple more gunshots went off in the distance and more screaming. My blood instantly started to boil and I knew what I had to do. I turned and looked at the girl so tightly hanging on to me, set my gun on the ground and grabbed her shoulders. I gave her a good hard squeeze on the shoulders.

"I'm going to leave and check it out. You stay HERE you understand? Do you understand???" She looked at me blankly for a second then slowly nodded yes. I hugged her tightly.

"You don't move an inch till I get back ok? I WILL be back for you.. don't move!" She nodded. I picked up my gun and turned around. I ran across the road to another car that was parked further up. I crouched down really low and put the rifle up to my shoulder. My thoughts turned to the rifle, it was old and dusty and might not shoot. This thought worried me a bit. I wanted to fire off a test shot but didn't want to give myself away. I moved further up the road till I could see over the crest and down below. My heart sank. People were being rounded up and carted off into vehicles. Many homes were on fire. People were trying to flee their homes and were being shot, there were soldiers breaking down doors and dragging families out on to the road, executing them. People were being slaughtered, innocent families.

I put the rife to my shoulder and looked through the scope. I found one soldier standing there having a smoke. "You just took your last drag you FUCK" I thought. I aimed at his chest and pulled the trigger. 'CRACK'. A mist of blood and the soldier fell. "Fuck me this thing SHOOTS!" I thought as I reloaded another round. It was only a couple seconds before his buddies started scattering and finding a position to defend themselves. They took too long however, as I had pulled the trigger twice more and reloaded both those rounds. I had killed 3 so far and was shooting like a sniper straight out of military special forces. I then realized that I had been sitting there too long. A bullet whizzed by my head. I was laying flat against the pavement of the road so I was a hard target to hit but I had no cover except the cars that were behind me.

Some people saw me shooting those fuckers out of their homes. A couple men came out with their rifles too. Seeing me fall those fucks gave them the courage they needed to join the fight. I now had a small platoon. they crouched some ways behind me. "What you think we should do mister?" I looked back at the one. "Get your families the fuck outta here man!" He stared at me for a second. I could tell he wanted to shoot those bastards more than I did.. but in the end he knew I was right. He turned to look at his house, and around at his neighbours. They got to work right away waving their families out of their homes and it became a parade of families silently running for the bush. I descended the hill and used cars for cover.

I was checking my rear as I came down the hill and saw a shadowy figure cresting the hill. I knew it was a soldier coming for me and I ducked behind a car. 'BAP BAP BAP'. Whatever was shooting at me was fully automatic and had a loud thud as the cartriges were fired. I had a strong feeling the soldiers weren't from north america. I had seen enough movies and heard enough AK-47's go off to know what one sounds like. Whoever it was, was either chinese, russian or from the middle east. But I didn't care much, the main point is that I was being shot at. 'CRACK'. A gunshot from in front of me. I heard a thump behind me and looked back to see the soldier falling to the ground. The guy who took the shot waived at me.

I waved back and continued to regress down the road. More soldiers were coming over the hill. I turned around and fired a few more rounds out of my rifle. I hit a couple but missed. I was scared and nervous, I could feel my heart pumping under my chest. I was too scared shitless to shoot accurately and my ammo was limited. Even though I was pissed those men didn't leave with their families I was happy that they had covered me. I got to the girl I was with and grabbed her. "Were gettin the fuck outta here!" I grabbed her and she didn't put up any sort of fight. We ran back across the field and I waved the guys to get outta there and get to their families. I knew the soldiers were after me, they didn't realize I had friends helping me out back there. So they chased us back to the cabin.

When we got to the cabin I threw my friend in the same storage room I found the rifle in. I was scared shitless and didn't know what to do. I tried to find a good choke point for the soldiers that I knew were right behind me but the cabin was too broken up and there were holes everwhere a soldier could see me. So I took up the best point I could down in that basement and held my ground. I saw one soldier come down the stairs, then two. I heard more coming into the cabin. I aimed my rifle and pulled the trigger. the first soldier fell. I quickly reloaded and fired again at the second soldier. He fell too. Suddenly I felt wood splinters falling down into my shirt. A soldier had shot at me but through the floor. I got out of the way since they had automatics, I knew there would be more.

Another soldier came down and I shot him too. Then two more soldiers came down, and I was in the process of reloading my rifle. The one pointed his handgun at me and I knew I was done. The other came up behind him and pointed his gun at me as well.

"Vell," in his russian accent "Look vat ve got here.. you gonna die like a scum you piece of shit" I looked at him, my heart racing. "Put down zat gun you have dere". I laid the rifle on the floor. "Hands on your head, scum, und turn around. You gonna die like a scum," I put my hands on my head and turned around. "oh god", I thought, "This is the end. they're gonna kill me and find my friend, rape her and kill her too, fucking soldiers.."

Suddenly "THUMP". The door to the of the storage locker slammed open. "CRACK.. CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK.. CRACK CRACK.. CRACK CRACK .. 'TING'" I looked over. There was my friend holding a handgun. She unloaded a whole magazine on those two soldiers. they were laying on the ground full of holes, blood pooling on the floor. As she stood there looking at them her knees began to buckle and she dropped the gun. I ran over to her.

"Thank you" .. I said.. as I smiled for the first time that day since before we heard the report on the radio about the tsunami. She latched on to me and started to cry.

"I... I..."

"I know," I said "You did great, you saved both our lives. You're a hero.."

It was over. The soldiers were dead. We avoided the tsunami. We were now hidden in the cabin. I led the girl outside to get some fresh air, when we saw american military jets fly by, followed by a series of bombers and troop transports. However it started didn't matter. All that mattered is it was over. We survived and the island was in ruins. I sat her down on and we watched the sunset together. The way the sun shone over the ocean, with the smoke in the air, made the most beautiful sunset I could ever imagine. We sat there and watched the sky turn all shades of pink and red. I marvelled at how so much beauty could come out of such a disaster, but I marvelled even more at how we survived. Quick thinking, good shooting, a whole lot of balls, and we were out of it.

I looked at her and she looked back at me. "I love you," she said. I smiled and took her hand..

I can't seem to be remembering my dreams very well for the past week or so. I wake up with fragments that I try to remember, and when I think I've got them down and get up to write them down, I forget almost everything. I'm trying to get my mom to buy B6 and Melatonin supplements for me, but until then I'll keep trying.

12/05/11

I am in my bedroom. I come out into the living room to say hello to my mother. She says the cat is outside and I need to help her catch her. I go out the front door, which is standing wide open. There is a cat on the deck, but it isn't one of the cats I have right now. It's a cat I lost several years ago, a cute little tortoiseshell named Amber.

Amber is sitting on the deck and washing herself, looking completely unconcerned. I head for the kitty to pick her up, but she gets up and jumps off the deck into the grass below. I go down off the deck to try to catch the cat. There are some kids in the driveway playing with a basket ball. I am afraid they will scare Amber. My mom asks how they got in the yard. One of them says there is a gate in the back that is open. I don't remember there being a gate… My mom says she wants the kids to leave before the dogs come out. She opens the front gate to let the kids out. I am yelling to her to not open the gate yet, I haven't caught Amber. I think there is more chance of Amber leaving if the gate is actually open. She doesn't seem to be paying attention to me. I feel something by my feet and I am relieved to see Amber is now rubbing against me and purring. I wake up and find out my waking life cat, Midna, is right by my face and purring loudly.

The war had been raging on for the last few months now. It was every man for himself. The government was fragmented and people had turned into savages. What little military was left were divided into small groups of self controlled survivors.

I was with a friend and we were wandering through the wasteland we used to call Canada. The land was scorched, trees were burnt. There were dead scorched carcasses of animals everywhere. We were walking along and we saw a house that had been bombed earlier, but enough of it was left standing to drop our packs and take a rest under some cover. The theory was, once a house had been bombed it was highly unlikely to be bombed again. This house made a pretty good lookout however; we could see much of the valley below us, and since we were at the top of the hill along the edge, we had a vantage point of what was behind us as well.

I told the girl I was with to wait there for me, that I needed to scope out the area and try to salvage some supplies. There wasn't much around except for scorched land but there was the hint of a tunnel in the distance and I wanted to check it out. Getting grouped up with other survivors was the key to staying alive. Alone a person could not survive this wasteland but there was power in numbers. The girl was reluctant to stay by herself, as I had protected her through much of this war, when I found her she was alone and her family was killed. I told her to stay in a corner and ball herself up so she was hidden. The house was burnt up and there was ashes everywhere, it was black and grey from being burnt, but there was enough of a wall to support a second floor which had mostly broken away. She stayed on the ground level covered by what little the second floor had to offer. I hid our backpacks and went to go scope out the tunnel.

The tunnel was about 500 yards away. I was hardly able to see the burnt house off in the distance but I was still able to see it, and in that particular spot I had a clear view of the sky. I could see what was coming for miles around. The tunnel had a good tactical advantage. The tunnel itself had good coverage built inside it. As I walked through I began to realize that this was probably used as a military standoff. There was enough area around the front of the tunnel to facilitate vehicles and a small army to stand off at that point. I began to realize why the house had been destroyed. It was in the path of a bomber flying over. There were craters and scorch marks on the ground everywhere from where the tunnel had been attacked. It made me wonder if there was a rifle and some ammo in there that I could pick up and use.

So I pushed on inside the tunnel. There were barricades going this way and that, covering half the tunnel one way, then further back covering half the tunnel the other way. There was no way to see straight through since the walls covered just over half the tunnel, but left enough of a space open for 2 or 3 people to get around each wall at the same time. About half way into the tunnel I discovered a room. It looked like a hold point. There were holes in the walls and when I looked through the holes I realized that I could see to the end of the tunnel.

Suddenly, I heard someone shouting in a foreign language. My heart started to race. It wasn't the kind of foreign language you hear in a place like north america. It was the kind of language you hear from somewhere else, like China. I began to panick. I turned everything upside down in the room I was in to try to find something I could defend myself with. I didn't find anything and I felt an immediate sense of defeat. "I'm dead," I thought as I heard not just voices now but also vehicles closing in on my position. I was surrounded. There were voices coming from both the ront and the rear of the tunnel. Thankfully the room I was in was off to the side and my sense of defeat turned to hope as I figured I might be able to hide in a corner and evade the troops trying to search out the tunnel.

I was looking through the peephole trying to see if anyone had entered the tunnel yet when I heard a sound behind me. It sounded like an old door which was heavy. I hadn't noticed the hidden doorway leading further into the mountain. My life flashed before my eyes as I realized that I was now completely trapped. I had no way out, the room had been discovered, and I was about to take a chinese bullet in the head. My thoughts turned to my friend in the house.

"Oh why didn't I just stay with her and hide for a while"

I gazed upon the soldiers who filed into the room. My defeat and sadness turned to elation as I realized they were american troops.

"Hey boy looks like you've been through a lot" said the captain of the platoon which I now found in my company.

"Yes sir I have, me and my friend, we 'been through a lot together"

"Your friend eh, where about is he at now. I only see one of you.."

"She, and she's hiding in a burnt out house over the hillside there about 500 yards away"

"Well," said the captain "You good enough to shoot?"

"Shoot?" I looked upon the rifle that was being handed to me. It was an old enfield .303. A beautiful gun, looked like it had been restocked. The barrel was good and shiney. Open sights with the 1000 yard flip up peeps.. just the way I like it. "Fuck yeah sir, I'm a good shot sir"

"Well take the damn thing son and shoot them yella bastards when they come thru here. You're officially a member of this platoon now son. We gotta defend this tunnel now ya'hear"

"Fucking A" I thought to myself. I loaded 10 rounds into the mag and pulled the bolt back. She was smooth as silk that rifle, a good one. Killed many a troops back in the day I was sure of it. I was happy to hold it. I would have made love to it and married it if it was a woman. I had never felt such a sense of peace and protection in my life. I had gone this whole time with no weapon and hardly a thing to defend me and my friend with. Now I had a rifle big enough to blow an 8'' exit hole in whatever was unlucky enough to be pointed at.

No sooner cocked the bolt back into firing position, when we heard a faint "boom". Some dirt fell on my head.

"Here she comes boys.. get ready ya'hear?"

"HOOYA" cried the platoon

Again, another boom, and another boom, and another and another. They were getting closer and closer. "BOOM". I could feel a rumbling in my chest. "BOOM.. BOOOM.. BOOOOOOM" they were getting closer.

"Dammit those fuckers, they spotted us, they're firing those fuckers right on top of us.. get ready boys!"

"HOOYA"

I could tell they were scared shitless. There were 2 of them to my left checking the rear of the tunnel, one beside me. I looked at the man beside me. He had a fair complexion, he was young. I could tell he hadn't ever had to do what it took to keep his heart beating. I on the other hand had to run, hide, kill, gather, do all the thigns a persons 'gotta do when shit hits the fan. I wasn't battle hardened but I didn't give a fuck if I had to put a bullet between someones eyes to get out of a nasty situation. I was calm and ready for it.

I put the barrel of my enfield through one of the peepholes. "BOOOOOM".. the walls were shaking. "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOM". I heard a big bomber fly above us.

"THEY'RE HITTUN US WITH MORTARS BOYS.. KEEP YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. HERE COMES THE BOMBS.. KEEP IT TOGETHER YA'HEAR!!!"

"HOOYA!" they cried.

The bombs fell and I was worried I wouldn't be able to fight my way out of this. I started to question if those bombs would drill right through into the tunnel and start blowing us up. The walls were literally vibrating and dirt was flying everywhere. It felt like my bones were rattling from the inside out. But by the grace of God the tunnel held up and everyone started breathing again. That's when I saw it. A helmet.. with a big red star on it. I already had my gun aimed straight down the tunnel at the entrance. I pulled the trigger. 'CRACK'. The soldeirs helmet flew off his head. All I could see was a mist of red and a body fall to the ground. Then i saw 2 more. "CRACK" and another one of them fell. I could see a mist of blood starting to fill the air. The soldiers beside me started shooting their rifles. "CRACK.. CRACK CRACK.. CRACK"

Soldiers were falling at the door of the tunnel and all throughout. They were flanking us from both directions. They didn't have a clear shot at where were were though and we had the upper hand. I slowly moved out of the room and peeked my head around a corner where I saw them standing aside from the tunnel entrance. I aimed and pulled the trigger. I saw one fall, then reloaded. I pulled the trigger again. The rifle was shooting true to where I was aiming. We killed so many soldiers I couldn't count them all. Finally it was over and the last Chinese soldier had been killed.

"That was a lucky one boys" said the captain. "Well let's clean up and see what we can salvage"

"Yes Sir!" they cried out. They all left the room and I was left with the captain.

"Well son, never seen such a good shot, you a farmboy?"

"No sir, just scared shitless"

"Yeah son I hear that, aren't we all. Them damn bastards took all our homes away"

"Yeah they sure did sir, I've been on the run for months"

"Well I figure you best tend to your friend if she's still alive. You are relieved boy, you can have the gun. You earned it"

"THANK YOU!"

I ran to the house expecting it to be blown to pieces. Bombs and mortars were dropped all over the place, but for some reason and somehow they left that house alone. I had no remorse for doing what I had to do. I had killed a man, or 10. A year ago the thought of killing a person would have made me sick, but these were different times. We had to fight to survive and there was nothing else. The world was ravaged in this war. I came up to the house, and there was my friend, curled up in a ball like the way I left her. She had her ears covered and she was screaming and crying.

She fought against me when I first came up to her, but after she realized it was me she hugged me and wouldn't let go. "It's ok sweetie, you're safe.. you're safe. Look what I got!" She looked at my new rifle and smiled. We could not survive and that was a huge step forward for us.