They had read a book [I think it was supposed to be the Bible] which had suddenly sent them scurrying around in a rushed panic. Everything seemed to fast-forward around me as I continued to walk through the building. One guy stood to the side, orchestrating what needed to be done... papers and books open on a small pedestal in front of him. He kept yelling at me... but not asking for my help in their work. Instead, he was shouting above the work noise about how important it was that they finish and that, if they didn't, the world would be doomed.

I watched the people running around... walking slowly among their frenzy. They were taring up large, grey, flat stones from inside one room and then hauling them into a larger room... where they were forming a tall step-like structure. Each small group of people would work on a [roughly] square shaped unit about waist high. When finished, they would progress to the next area to build an identical unit... except for the large cover-stone, which was placed on top of each box. Each cover-stone was carved with a large rune in the middle... each different than the others in the structure. Around each rune were smaller runes.

I briefly wondered what would happen once they reached the ceiling....

Blackout.

I was at a beach. There was an outside bar/diner with no walls. The roof was some sort of natural woven fiber which was held up with poles.

There was a large sea captain... for some reason, I knew he had a cat. He had a small parrot on his shoulder... but it couldn't speak. It used a white board to write what it wanted to say.

The dream jumped.

In the corner, next to the bar, the sea captain was slouched over his table... his face looking toward me... his eyes unblinking. The parrot wasn't real... simply an accessory pinned to the shoulder of his overcoat.

I knew he was dead. He had been murdered somehow and, I knew a certain group had "taken action." I don't know if I was part of this group or not... but I couldn't tell anyone about what happened... which wasn't my problem yet... since no one realized he was dead.

The dream jumped.

I was no longer a character in the dream... but saw things as one would through a camera lens. All I could see was the ocean... rolling waves and the distant horizon.

The dream jumped.

Everything turned into a collage of magazine cutouts. The waves were spinning spirals cut from pictures of the sky... water... blue cars... different places to get the color blue. There were cutouts of surfers... all laying on their boards and paddling out to catch a wave... all their faces continually looking back at the camera and smiling. Their mouths moved like a Monty Python animation... they were all singing... I don't remember what now... I think the song kept changing... it slowly morphed into Avril Lavigne:

[fade in music] "...it's gonna be a damn cold night..." [slowly fading out] "...trying to figure out this life..."

And I woke up.

Yes. I realize the actual lyrics are "it's a damn cold night" but that's not what it was in my dream.

...and now it's stuck in my head.