Last night I dreamt about nuclear war.
It's an odd and unhappy series of dreams.
The first dream, I'm by myself in a house or apartment. I hear on the news that a nuclear weapon has detonated somewhere in the US. The dream plays out like a dry, sad movie, like one of those unbearable movies made by Hollywood like it's normal life. I'm sitting around my apartment, worried about various things: nuclear fallout on the wind, how I will get food, will society continue to function, how's my family doing, what are they doing, should we consolidate for survival, all that stuff.
The second dream, now there are people around. But it's largely the same situation. Everyone is depressed, despondent, unsure if they should try to go on with their lives or if there is even a "life" to go back to. We commiserate, share our loneliness and worry as a group, experience some community. At some point I'm alone in my house or apartment, and some dudes come in clearly intending to just steal everything. I shout at them, two of them magically disappear. But one big oaf just keeps coming, with no intention of backing down. So I jump on him, and end up stabbing him multiple times with a pen knife until the collapses.
The third dream, I'm stepping out on to the deck at my mom's house and look up. The sky is a dark, dark blue at midday, like there's a film filter over it. And there, standing tall in the sky, is the mushroom cloud. I wake up immediately. Not like bolt upright in bed, but completely awake. It's about 5:30 in the morning, I've been asleep for maybe 4 hours. Getting back to sleep after that was tough.