Ambush
Only dream of the night: I was walking back to my camper in the parking lot, but when I opened the back door, someone was inside. It was a young man, maybe early twenties, and he let out a yelp when he saw me and tried to scramble out the opposite door. I grabbed him by his leg and started hauling, but two of his friends got him under the arms and pulled him away from me, and into a white van parked in the next space. They pulled off in a hurry, but I wrote down their license plate, which was "BGF VGB."
I examined the damage where they'd broken the doorframe kicking the door in, then decided, 'I can catch these guys.' I started up the car and took off after them, following them to a house where they ran inside and hid. I got out to chase them inside, but someone opened fire on me with a machine gun, and I had to take cover.
I waited for a break in the firing and peeked out, to see a woman staring down at me. I taunted her and threw things for a bit, until she came down the stairs to fight me. I gathered up a tangle of thick string, wrapped it around my hands, and jumped on her back and tripped her. When she hit the ground, I slid the garrotte around her neck and held her down until she stopped struggling.
As soon as I let go, she started breathing again, though, and there were people arriving for some sort of party so I hightailed it upstairs. Another woman attacked me as I came up the stairs, so I wrapped a pillowcase around her head and knocked her off-balance, then dragged her down the hallway. I held her body in front of me like a shield as the new arrivals, warned of my presence by the woman downstairs, came up to find me, but when they showed up it turned out I knew them.
We got everything cleared up, and the guys who had broken into my car caught. No one said anything about the dead woman I'd tossed into the corner, but the next day at dinner I saw her standing in the cafeteria line. I walked up and said hi, and because it's not easy to say, "Sorry I killed you," I instead said, "You going to be around tomorrow?"
She smiled sadly and said, "No, I only have five hours left," and I realized that she was, in fact, dead, but had a few hours to spread out on earth as she wanted. We sat down and talked for a while, and as she didn't seem particularly disturbed by yesterday's events, I didn't see fit to bring them up. I got the feeling that she didn't blame me, anyway. After about an hour, we said goodbye and she headed off.
I examined the damage where they'd broken the doorframe kicking the door in, then decided, 'I can catch these guys.' I started up the car and took off after them, following them to a house where they ran inside and hid. I got out to chase them inside, but someone opened fire on me with a machine gun, and I had to take cover.
I waited for a break in the firing and peeked out, to see a woman staring down at me. I taunted her and threw things for a bit, until she came down the stairs to fight me. I gathered up a tangle of thick string, wrapped it around my hands, and jumped on her back and tripped her. When she hit the ground, I slid the garrotte around her neck and held her down until she stopped struggling.
As soon as I let go, she started breathing again, though, and there were people arriving for some sort of party so I hightailed it upstairs. Another woman attacked me as I came up the stairs, so I wrapped a pillowcase around her head and knocked her off-balance, then dragged her down the hallway. I held her body in front of me like a shield as the new arrivals, warned of my presence by the woman downstairs, came up to find me, but when they showed up it turned out I knew them.
We got everything cleared up, and the guys who had broken into my car caught. No one said anything about the dead woman I'd tossed into the corner, but the next day at dinner I saw her standing in the cafeteria line. I walked up and said hi, and because it's not easy to say, "Sorry I killed you," I instead said, "You going to be around tomorrow?"
She smiled sadly and said, "No, I only have five hours left," and I realized that she was, in fact, dead, but had a few hours to spread out on earth as she wanted. We sat down and talked for a while, and as she didn't seem particularly disturbed by yesterday's events, I didn't see fit to bring them up. I got the feeling that she didn't blame me, anyway. After about an hour, we said goodbye and she headed off.