Before I begin, allow me to clarify that this is NOT intended as another pointless HO topic. This is actually intended to the discussion of the story I am about to tell, and also for readers to share similar stories of their own. Now, on to the meat of the topic.
The story that follows is a narration of a very bizarre semi-nightmare I experienced last night, one that actually woke me up in the middle of the night (which has not happened in many years) and kept me thinking about it all day. Posting it here is, what I feel, a means of venting its presence in my mind and allowing me to stop thinking about it.
Also, you guys here are the first I've told about this nightmare, so feel privileged. On to the story itself (grab some popcorn, and maybe download a text-to-audio program to keep the eye strain at bay).
It began in my family truck, apparently a decade or two in the future. I was in the passenger seat, my dad was driving. We pulled in to the carport at our house, killed the engine, and got out. Everything was covered in about 1-2 feet of snow, and I was in combat fatigues (Marine colors, as I found when searching about it tonight). Along the side of the house, a small wall of snow had formed along the fence that blocked off the back yard (the snow drift was about 4 feet tall, I assume). In my combat boots, I walked back towards the snow drift for some reason I'm not sure of. That's when I realized just how far in the future I was.
My niece, currently 3 years old, was sitting on the opposite side of the fence. I didn't notice she was sitting there until she jumped up and hit me with a snowball right as I got to the drift; she was about the age I am now, 14. The snowball hit me in the face, and as I reached up to brush it away, I felt older, matured skin instead of my current teenage skin. So, I assume I was around 25 or so in the dream. I laughed, she laughed, and she pelted me with more snowballs as I ran back behind a tree to take cover.
After the one-sided snowball fight, I went inside the house. That's where my memory shatters and anything that happened in the house is forgotten (I know something happened because there's kind of an empty shell of a memory there, but no details about it) and the next thing I know, I'm back in the truck with my dad. We go over a bridge, and at the end there's an ATM where my dad gets some cash. Then, we turned around, went back across the bridge, and my memory shattered yet again.
My next segment was late that night, inside the house. I was 3 other Marines, sitting in the living room. We were fully armed and outfitted with complete combat gear, and a portable SATCOM radio was sitting on a folding table between all of us. Suddenly, static erupted on the radio, and I heard an older, kind-of-cliched commander's voice break through after a few seconds:
"Rooster to all Chicks; SECDEF has declared DEFCON 1. Maintain high awareness."
Our little group jumped up and sprang into action. I grabbed the radio, hooked it on my belt, shouldered my rifle, and helped the others flip the couch on its side at the plate glass windows for slight protection. We crouched down, rifles readied, and I set the radio on the overturned couch.
Outside, everything was normal; there was no snow, it was dark (probably in the summer, around 1 in the morning according to the weather), and dead calm. I told my men to hold, got up, and walked over to the front door. I opened it and stepped outside. It was warm, and you could hear a pin drop from 15 miles away. I was standing out on the porch when I saw a bright flash to the north, and a very loud "BOOM!" followed a second later.
I dashed back in the house, slammed the door, and looked back out.
One of my Marines grabbed the radio and said, "Chick 1 3 5 to Rooster; we have a possible blast zone at [coordinates I cannot recall]! Need confirmation from other Chicks!"
I was looking outside through the small window in the door at this time. Everything got very quiet; even the radio static seemed to go silent. I looked off to the north, and a black line shot across the ground in my direction. Trees behind it broke, dirt was thrown into the air, and houses exploded.
I turned in the direction of my men, and shouted, "SHOCKWAVE! GET DOWN!"
I was still standing when the house exploded inward. Suddenly, I had a sort of out-of-body experience where everything slowed down and I switched perspectives with the nearest soldier, who was looking at me. I saw the wall explode into shards of plaster, wood, and brick, and the shockwave passed through the house. The shockwave liquefied the bone structure of my body, and I watched as my body was quite literally shredded and torn apart by the debris.
At that point, I awoke from a dead sleep. I turned on the light and sat upright, and right then my mom (who happened to be in the bathroom across the hall and came out right as I turned on my light) came in and asked why I was sitting bolt-upright at 3 in the morning. I grabbed the covers which had been thrown against the wall, rolled over, and said, "I'll tell you in the morning." However, I haven't told anyone yet. You're the privileged few to know this first.
Please share your thoughts and comments, minus the "TLR" spam, if you will.