This was maybe the third
dream I've had in my adult life that I've woke up screaming from. I'm still a little disturbed. Despite my usual political
apathy, a group of people, including quite a few
noders and I decided to travel to one of the tremulous regions in the
Middle East. Where exactly I can't remember, but our purpose was either
peacekeeping or (probably more accurately)
humanitarian aid. My mother also came to the same place, she was part of a
medical team however and not staying or associated with us, but I did stop and see her the first day in, on the way to where we were staying.
Our group finds our home for the mission, it used to be a hotel but is not doing business at the moment, the downstairs is a lobby/bar and the rooms are where we will be staying. Once things are unpacked, gleeme and a friend of mine from high school, Mandy, leave to go look for someone that they both know.
No one is worried until it's dark and they still haven't returned. Even then, almost no one is worried, they just figure they stopped off somewhere and lost track of the time. I, on the other hand, am worried sick. Kaytay (who despite homenode pics to the contrary, is a blonde in my dream) is also. We both stay in the lobby all night talking to various people who happen to be down. Near morning, Mandy comes back, alone, looking shaken. I ask what happened, where's gleeme? And she says she has no idea, they had stopped at a bar and were about to head back when she saw something or someone she knew and yelled, "be right back!" and flew out the door. Mandy followed her to the door but she had already disappeared into the crowd. She waited and waited and waited, but gleeme never returned. Mandy woke up curled up in a booth at the empty bar, and returned back to our little compound.
Now that she truly is missing, everyone's a lot more worried. There's a few more of us in the lobby, people are calling the people they know, it's crazy. Then radlab0 (whose face was just how it looked in real life, but her head was bald) comes in with a friend and starts to head up the stairs. I ask them what's going on, and radlab tells me that gleeme was kidnapped, but she's been rescued. They're debriefing her at the moment, then she'll return to us. The news spreads quickly and everyone is downstairs waiting for our girl to come back to us.
Blonde kaytay and I decide to step outside for some air, as the lobby is getting super-crowded. We stand in the doorway of the lobby, her arm is draped over my shoulder, she is smoking a cigarette. An enormous crowd has gathered in the street in front of the hotel, I wonder why absently as I watch a donkey wander aimlessly to our left. When I look straight ahead, I am looking down the black barrel of a gun. I immediately look away, and cringe, I hear three gunshots but don't feel anything happen to me. Then I realize I felt the shocks go through the arm around my shoulder and that they shot kaytay and even though I didn't look, I knew that the gun was already being aimed to deliver the last few rounds into me. This was all happening in the blink of an eye--I caught kaytay as she fell and ducked behind the doorway. We both fell to the ground, and I saw three spreading spots of red on her white shirt. She was dying, and I just started screaming, screaming, screaming...until the screams woke me up.