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sabotabbyI was a colonist on an alien but Earth-like world. There had been another civilization before us, but it was long-gone, and no one knew why. Part of our mission there, beyond making it habitable for other humans, was to find out what had happened to the indigenous inhabitants. There were 20 of us, mostly children, and bizarre, arbitrary rules about what one could or couldn't do. There was a particularly strange dynamic between the oldest boy and girl and the colony leader, who shared some sort of secret and were increasingly mistrusted by everyone else.
I drove out on an old road that had been built by the old civilization, into one of the forbidden areas. There was a cornfield and a temple that was supposed to be very old, but in fact was quite well-maintained, as if the farmers had just left. I had to resist the temptation to get out of the car and run around in the cornfield like I'd done as a child—I couldn't believe that so far from home, there was something like that here. It was unnerving, though; where the temple stood at the horizon, the corn was as tall as the spire, several stories high.
There was a bridge, and that was explicitly where I was not supposed to be. As soon as I drove under it, there was complete darkness and then a blinding flash of light. When I emerged, I suddenly understood that the star we orbited was dying, and we had a few days left before it got so cold that everything froze to death.
I rushed back to the colony to tell everyone. At first we were calm, thinking that there were passing spaceships or the possibility of a return to Earth. But then we sent out signals, and checked our fuel levels, and we realized that we couldn't leave and no help would arrive in time. We did the only thing left to do, which was to plan a party for the last night of our lives.
We had a campfire and all of the parents brought out their children. One little girl was old enough to know what was going on, and told her father that she didn't want to freeze to death. He assured her that it would be very fast.
From the shadows of the forest, the colony leader and the oldest boy and girl emerged. The colony leader had recently been deposed—the official rumour was that he'd been molesting the boy, but I knew that wasn't true. The real reason was that people were afraid that he was growing obsessed with the old civilization and it was terrifying.
The two children were unafraid, even as the sun changed from yellow to cold blue. Almost as if they were rehearsing a script, the girl handed the boy a toy plastic jaguar. He produced a large knife and cut its throat. It bled real blood, which dripped onto the fire. As the blood touched the flames, the sun turned back to yellow, and we were saved.
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Date: 2011-01-23 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-23 02:53 pm (UTC)did you develop over time the ability to remember the whole narrative of the dream? mine often have stories as well but i can't remember the whole thing when i wake up, or the parts i can, i can't really explain.
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Date: 2011-01-23 03:37 pm (UTC)I generally don't remember all of my dreams—I have nightmares most nights but don't recall much more than "something awful happened"—and I only write down the ones that I remember fairly well and are somewhat interesting and/or horrifying. But my dreams tend towards the intense.
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Date: 2011-01-23 03:41 pm (UTC)intense indeed! thanks for sharing.
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Date: 2011-01-23 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-23 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-23 09:53 pm (UTC)Oddly, I don't remember last night's dream, but when I awoke, I immediately needed to check my email (fortunately this is easy).