Natepod The weblog of Nate Cull

Dreamlog: Captivity

Yesterday:

I am being held prisoner by a somewhat genteel, vaguely Arabic foe who I never actually see. I am in a cell near the top of in a square stone or concrete tower. My surroundings are mostly comfortable, though spartan. There is some kind of hospitality loophole in effect, such that my imprisoner is honour bound to treat me well and keep me alive until a certain number of days, at which point I shall be executed by hurling from the top of the tower. In a fairly gentlemanly way. I am fed plates of sweet nibbles.

One of my guards is a woman co-worker I know well. This makes the social situation somewhat awkward. Apparently I am also Canadian. Possibly I am MacGyver, though I do not seem to have any particular skills in the assembling of odd devices.

The hour comes for my execution. I am led up to the tower roof. Suddenly I make a lunge for the stairwell! There turn out to not be any guards there. They're really rather poorly organised. I rush down the stairs, which are square, concrete, open to the air and run around the sides of the tower. The handrail is fun for doing ninja moves. I reach the ground, which seems to have become a public park in Christchurch. I run for the cover of the trees, not entirely sure I am going to make it, but I make sure to shout out sarcastic comments to my pursuers.

Today:

I am a Red Cross style observer in a futuristic war zone. I am visiting a concentration camp to monitor it for human rights violations. I watch as prisoners are brought forward to be executed. We are unable politically to intervene, merely to make sure that the executions are humane. A machine is being used which is a kind of portable, automated electrocution device. It is the size of a large trolley or wheel. The prisoners are strapped to it and the electrodes are applied. The process is computer-controlled from there.

There is nothing we can do; the executions are within the law and are probably more humane than the treatment the prisoners have endured in their captivity, which has almost certainly included torture. But for some reason we cannot rule on that, it is outside our brief.

I wake up under a cloud of unease.

The interesting thing is that I then went into work, where my co-workers were watching a training video for our new Lifepak automated defibrillators. I had not been expecting to see these and they were not on my mind at all. But the device in my dream (apart from being almost the polar opposite in terms of effect) functioned almost exactly like an automatic defibrillator. Closest hit on something like a precognitive or reverse-memory dream I've had in about a year.

Dreamlog: Travel, war, TV

Complicated and confused dreams last night.

I am travelling - again, at short notice and to dangerous places. I have arrived in what is either Iraq or Brazil or some combination of the two. It is a war zone; I am sure there are car bombings, but the people speak Portuguese. I am terrified to realise that I have come with so little preparation that I don't even have a change of clothes. But somehow I avoid being shot at. Inside a house, I am welcomed by what seems to be some kind of family or neighbourhood gathering. Four or five women are cooking around the kitchen stove; some kind of food involving either flat bread wraps, either pita or tortillas. It is warm and cheerful and chaotic even though conditions outside continue to be rough and I have nothing.

Then I am in an obstacle course in a theme park: a vast structure of logs and bamboo stretching around a field. It seems to be the opening day, or a pre-opening test. I clamber from point to point across the structure, enjoying it at first. But there are lots of people behind me and they start to crowd me. Finally I find myself up at the top of a platform, with a row of eager explorers right behind me, pushing. It seems the next step is a crude flying fox, just a simple wooden bar which I must grasp with both hands, no foot supports, and no visible safety harness of any kind. It runs down across the entire field, starting from a height of several stories. The slightest slip would probably be fatal. I freeze. I can't go back and I can't stay where I am. But do I dare to jump?

For the rest of the dream I am watching some kind of drama TV series, possibly science-fictional. It seems to be rough and gritty - part reality show perhaps, part political, compelling and plausible and serious - and the details are vivid in my mind. It spills into multiple media: a series of books. I struggle towards wakefulness, thinking I will never forget the details. But I do. Even the broad theme escapes me.