What, where, how, and when.
It has come to be rather late in the evening and I am still quite a distance from home. A sense of urgence becomes distracting as I begin to realize that I am not even quite sure how to get there from here. Nothing is at all familiar except for the understanding that this is not where I want to be; the roads are not paved and there seems to be a suspicious crowd of delinquent youths on every corner glaring at me with deliberate hostility.
Drawing from some primal instinct, I head toward a secluded alleyway in a vague attempt to avoid any direct conflict but I see shadows in the corner of my eye and I know that I am being followed. I pretend that I do not notice and as soon as I am out of direct sight I start to run, thinking that I might lose them before they become too attached to the idea of coming after me. It would seem, however, that they had started running of their own initiative and I can see at least five of them in persuit after only a few seconds. One of them yells something in a language which I can not decipher and I turn back just in time to see him pulling out a gun.
In a brief assessment of the situation, I concede to allow my mind to react without having to explain itself. In the next instant, I find myself giving up on the flight and turning to face them, pulling out a gun of my own. The gun is not familiar to me and I do not recall where or how I had acquired it or how long I have been carrying it around but I am already firing it before I can give it any thought. I must have surprised them because they are seeming slow and unprepared. With the sixth shot I strike down the sixth of my persuers, wary of the fact that I have no idea how many bullets are in the gun except that I seem to know that there are either six or eight. One of the kids that I had shot starts to get back up and, as i instinctively shoot him down again, I am comforted to believe that I still have an eighth bullet to spare.
All of this has happened in a few seconds but I spend several more staring at the scene of wounded kids spread down the alley. Before I can really absorb what had just happened, there are already police officers and curious bystanders flooding the alleyway; all of them yelling incoherently at each other, trying to make sense of the situation. One of them looks my way and yells at me and I turn to continue my flight with a new set of would-be captors. I was already near to the end of the alleyway so I am quickly out of sight and swiftly winding through strange roads, trying to be as elusive as possible, until the village begins to slowly fade away behind me.
The trees are getting thicker and the area is starting to look more reminiscent of a campground than a town. I am running through little patches of domestic yards, hopping over fences without even seeing them and weaving the best straight line that I can manage as glimpses of surprised people pass in surreal flashes. I have no idea how long I have been running or where I can expect to end up. It is almost dusk now and I am approaching a small clearing. There is an old warehouse with a booth out front where people are selling what appears to be candy. I am not normally one to pass up some cheap candy but I am not prepared to deal with purchasing anything at the moment. Instead, I am tempted to snatch one of the bags as I pass but the warehouse is already behind me before the thought is formed to completion. Finally, I am approaching a real, paved road and just beyond it a thin row of nicely trimmed trees. As I am crossing the road, the curtain of trees part to present a shopping mall stretching as far as I can see in either direction -- there is no avoiding it -- I am going in.
I burst square into the depths of a large department store and time abruptly skips a few beats to resume an entirely new pace. The fluorescent lights and sedated commotion are each blinding for a brief moment as I adjust to my new reality but I am still tenaciously moving rapidly in the same direction, searching for an exit on the opposite side of the building. I get to an open area which, at first, seems a logical exit but quickly becomes confusing. In a moment of panic, I jump into an elevator just as the door is closing. I am already second-guessing the wisdom of my choice before the door has fully closed but I decide to stick with it as the elevator is already starting to climb to the second floor. I have finally stopped running but am unable to rest as I find myself uneasily wondering why the elevator door will not close properly. I start to take note of the contraption that I have subjected myself to: It is made entirely of glass although the elevator shaft itself is bare concrete and not at all pleasing to look at. It was about the average width that an elevator should be but less than half as deep as you might expect. This becomes an important point as it reaches the third floor and five people enter, causing the elevator car to rock gently and squeak terribly under the strain. It appears that they are all going down again so I figure that I may as well endure it back to the ground floor. Again, the door never closes fully but, this time, two young lovers are embraced on either side of the doorway, even as the elevator starts to decend. The elevator and everything about the mall are starting to hurt my mind and I slip to another time.
I am in an airport now. I am noticing how everyone is either really happy or really sad. In every direction, people are hugging each other as their planes arrive and depart -- the emotion is so thick as to be draining. I am watching a young person crying in a plane that is leaving the terminal. The plane continues on and is a distant speck in the sky when I am back in the elevator and the young girl is forced to let go of the hand of her third floor lover as the elevator is now descending past the second floor.
The elevator door opens and I am back where I started. I seem to feel that I have more time now and I calmly follow the small group that was in the elevator with me. As I do so, I notice an exit right before me that I had not seen when I was there last and, as the others disperse to their respective destinations, I continue down the road until the mall becomes all but a strange memory. It seems that I have been running for a very long time but I am starting to feel safe now.
It is now well into the night and I am still quite a distance from home.