One brief scene I remember.... There was a grassy field... like a high school football field... but a little smaller. All around the perimeter, someone had built up fresh mounds of soil about ten feet [or more] high. There were kids of various ages sparring with each other in the field and against the dirt embankments. I was standing with the guy in charge watching them... I remember the guy had a beard. I say this to help tell him apart later on. Two girls were fighting near us.

#1 charged at #2, #2 caught her and fell back onto the dirt. I mentioned that #1 charged high... and that, if I had been #2, I would have caught her and used the momentum to flip her over. He agreed but didn't really say much as he watched everyone.

Blackout.

There was a small TV and an old black and white movie playing on it. I was watching it with the bearded guy and a couple other people I don't remember. It was a musical... but then it became a silent film... so you saw the characters singing, but there was no sound... and it had that "speeded up" quality that old films get sometimes.

There was a round, decorative fountain that opened up to reveal a huge tunnel/hole in the ground. Out of the ground a platform rose with a gondola sitting on it. The gondolear was singing to a woman sitting in the front... there were also four or five other people around the boat singing another song to themselves, but the harmonies meshed together to form one song. Of course... how I knew this when it was a silent film.... o.O;

Blackout.

The bearded guy, and a bunch of the kids, were in an office waiting for something. I was there too. Next to our group, was a lady... also with a group of kids in tow... but her kids were a little younger. I remember speaking with her kids for a little while and the subject of cards came up. Trading cards were very popular in this dreamworld so I stopped and asked if they liked cards. One little boy answered that, yes, he liked playing cards... and started spouting out poker rules that would make a hustler proud. The woman looked concerned and I stood up and went back to my group. The guy had a very upset look on his face. I was suddenly scared. I promised that I hadn't purposely twisted the conversation... that the kid came up with that on his own. Still... the guy was not pleased.

A man came out and gave us keys to a bus. We all went out the the parking lot, which was mostly grown over with pine trees and forest floor covering. I was told I'd have to drive. A bus??! I've never driven a bus before! Suddenly I was next to my car, which had been sitting out there for a long time. I looked at it and said I hadn't driven it in ages... that I wasn't sure I'd remember how. I got in and tried to start it up. The lights came on, but the engine wasn't running. I tried again and again. Finally, the car started... but... it's hard to explain. The engine still wasn't running right... like it had never turned... but I was still able to drive it to the lot exit. Weird.

I turned on my headlights, but they weren't bright enough to see. I reached to flip on the brights but all the buttons were switched around and I couldn't find it. No matter what I did, the brights wouldn't come on. The bus came up behind me and I was to drive point. We drove through the mountains and there was always that feeling of danger present.

The dream jumped and I was on the bus. I sat in one of the front rows across from the driver [whom I never saw]. I was turned around facing backwards [my feet on the seat, my back leaning against the back of the seat in front of me] and watching the kids and guy. I swore to him, again, that I hadn't brought up the subject of playing cards... that we were talking about collector's cards... how... it would be neat to illustrate them.... I don't know how the subject of playing cards even came up. It wasn't me. I didn't corrupt the kid... he was like that already! The guy seemed to accept this, but was a frighteningly silent man. I looked down and realized that my face was sweating as if I were doing heavy landscaping in the middle of the summer... just pouring and dripping off my chin... he made me that nervous.

The dream jumped again and I was driving my car. We entered a city. The small road we were on became a short tunnel and I noticed desks and lights on the sides... it was an office! The road disappeared and we were driving through an office building! The dream jumped and my car disappeared. I was running through the office warning people to get out quickly as the bus crashed through low ceilings and dividing walls and windows behind me. Every few yards, the building got more and more cramped and the bus destroyed desks and everything in its way. People were screaming and jumping out of the way as I ran by screaming and warning them.

I came up to a dead end. A divider wall came up to my waist and a window continued up to the ceiling. The weird thing is, you couldn't see through the window... it was opaque... but not a mirror. I slid my sleeve down and broke the window with my arm and jumped through. There was a hallway on the other side and another divider wall in front of me. There was a guy standing there with a clipboard staring at me. I told him to get out of the way quickly but he just looked confused. I didn't have time to wait for him... I could hear the bus right behind me. I broke the other window and jumped through, knowing the bus wasn't going to stop....

Abrupt silence. I was back in the office from the beginning. The woman, bearded man, and all the kids staring at me. The bearded man was talking. After a couple seconds, I could hear him. "...did you call the cab?" I turned around. The window was still in tact... there was a door off to the side. None of it had happened. The guy I had passed between breaking windows appeared with some keys. He'd drive us.

We drove into the forest and stopped at the base of a hill that led into the mountains. It was still night. The man who drove us had a large suitcase full of money... what he had been paid with to drive us and keep quiet about having ever seen us. He had another miniature suitcase [about 6"x6"] that had a variety of $1, $5, and $10 bills in it for us. Cash was the only safe thing to use.

I didn't trust him. He kept staring at the small case and I knew he wanted to keep it as well. He held it up to the bearded guy, who took it and thanked the man.

We all started walking up the hill, but I really, really, really didn't trust that guy... he'd tell... they'd come for us... we couldn't trust anyone....

...and I woke up.