Dream: Cactus Tree and a Broken Bridge

"I wouldn't want to be under that cactus tree right now." I point off into the distance where a giant tree is flailing wildly as if a mobile beast having a freak-out seizure. The tree is the size and shape of massive maple tree but it's branches are bulbous cactus limbs, thorny and heavy.

The entire landscape is moving in speed cinematography. In the distance sits a farm house, surrounded by empty wheat fields. The cactus tree is just out of reach, lurching from back to front, smashing it's great arms into the ground.

"It's not moving that fast really." The tree begins to migrate toward us. It crawls on the ground like a Stomphia anemone, fleeing it's prey. We stand firm and the tree creeps passed us, along the road.

"No, look closer, the large branches are moving slowly, when turned down to real-time but their are those fractal appendages, thorns or something, that are pulsing at the ground like lightning. It's just tearing up the ground. A fierce wind blows overhead, bending the other trees in the distance. "It looks like a thunderstorm is approaching." I warn with a finger pointed to the sky.

"But it's all sunny and there isn't a drop of rain." My companion protests.

"Around here, that doesn't matter." Thunder cracks and raindrops cover the land.

Now I know I'm in a dream.

In the farmhouse, a man is showing us models of bridges. One of the models is made of strange shapes in three different colors. "Imagine, if you will, that one of the elements used to make this bridge suddenly becomes insoluble."

"Insoluble?" I ask

"Yes," he pokes at the yellow parts of the bridge with the tip of a pencil, bursting the pieces of the bridge. The bridge tilts as it looses two crucial foundation points on one side. The other end of the bridge is sticking up in the air now at a steep angle and suddenly the bridge is life size. I'm outside looking at it from the water below. So many cars are falling off of the bridge and people are screaming.

There is a tsunami coming. The earth is shaking and I can see waves smashing against the bridge. I run, trudging through the water, attempting to get to the mountain on the other side of the lake. Higher ground.

When I get to the mountain, I am holding a tray with three pieces of sushi on it. I'm ravenous and trying to eat the sushi while runnig away from the chaos. Some people are following me and for some reason I see fit to evade them, biting at my tray in an attempt to snatch a sushi ball. I'm holding chopsticks in my right hand but I don't use them. The terrain is rocky and uneven so I concentrate on keeping balance while running around the corners and climbing up the walls. Soon all the pieces of sushi are gone.

On the other side of the mountain, I am walking down a residential street. A man is approaching me and I know he must be stopped at all costs. Grabbing up a bottle from the sidewalk, I bend in a threatening, "I'm going to throw this at your head" kinda way. He ducks, I threaten, he hucks, I adjust my aim and heave the bottle hard at his arm. It bounces back to me like a boomerang and I immediately smash it against his face. He falls to the ground, dead.

"My oh my, looks like you killed the mayor." A man chewing on a strand of wheat looks at me with his arms folded, resting himself against a storefront. "Been wait'n for some-un ta do that. They're gonna be after you though. More of 'em. You should run that-a-way." He points down the road toward a massive shopping mall.

In the mall, I see many security personnel, all scrambling from earpiece orders. I dodge them methodically, blending in with the crowds, shifting escalators and dropping into elevators to miss the searching men. Hiding between some display plants, I see two security guards meeting.

"He discarded the chop-sticks. We've lost the trace on him." One says to the other, holding his earpiece.

"I duck down to the elevator, pressing the bottom floor. When I get there, I rub all the buttons to Go and run out. I leap off a terrace onto the very bottom floor where many citizens are moving in and out of a restroom waiting area. There are payphones and candy machines and benches for waiting friends. I sit on a bench.

"Hey man, they will find you here." This from an aggressive looking neo-punk twenty-something who is moving too close to me for casual comfort in a stranger. "You need to go out that door and meet up with the others." I thank him for his advice and move toward the exit.

Cautiously, I peer out and around for a trap. Seeing none, I bolt through the opening and into the bright daylight, just in time to hear my baby stir from sleep.

"Can you take her?" My wife turns away from us. I take the baby and rock us both back to sleep.