posted September 02, 2015 08:54 PM            

The earliest of the dream I recall was a mix of many settings, from the medieval (with vampires present though just enough to give it flavor) to that of an interstellar society though in dream fashion it all flowed as if there was nothing weird about it.

At some point someone I'd been close to once upon a time but am no longer (and haven't had any contact with in years) was driving me somewhere trying to talk me into being euthanized and then realized I was being drive with that purpose in mind but I got away.

And then society became like that TV show The Walking Dead with zombies everywhere, attracted to sound, etc. I also became me as a little girl (back when I first started having vampire nightmares in case it matters) who was with my older cousin (we were both about the same age as in that dream about the military world) and we were alone.

That is until a deadly assassin woman took us both prisoner. She seemed to be Sinhalese or Tamali (essentially a dark woman from India) but was skilled in every form of combat with a focus on killing rather than self-defense and she had some creative ways to go about it. There was also something religious about her but I couldn't say what. My impression (upon being awake) is that she was to deliver us to someplace to be killed (perhaps where I was going to be euthanized earlier) but I made things difficult for her (for some reason I kept getting a bottle of water to take with me which annoyed her but she allowed and I'd drink from it, and it was some sort of secret advantage to me).

My cousin wouldn't try to escape with me for some reason and I ran by myself but it wasn't long before she was after me and I just could not get away (I was a little girl and she was in top physical condition as well as having a willpower of cold ruthless steel). She told me if I tried again she'd kill me but I tried again and managed to get a cab driver (in a damaged vehicle with back door missing and the driver meant me no good) to take me but the woman chasing me took her own car and continued the chase somehow cutting us off and then getting in to demand the driver take us back.

He complied but in a way that dawdled and I feared she'd kill him and take over and delayed it by the fun hills we drove over (similar to hills in the small town where my cousin lives) which felt like a bit of a roller coaster and I was trying to get her to enjoy the ride.

The driver was intimidated by her and yet perhaps emboldened by how ruthless she seemed, without sentiment, and made an offer to buy me as a slave. She responded by slipping a poisonous snake into the AC which came out and bit him causing him to stop as he fought with the snake and we all got out (him quickly dying). But it was messy enough that we were without a car.

We started to walk back and she didn't want to kill me, she was just doing her duty (and making what excuses she could to get out of it) and I asked about her life. She'd been born to a poor family in India and her mother sold her into prostitution until a religious order saved her and then sent her out to help other exploited kids...but part of the training had included martial arts for self-defense (and rebuilding her self-esteem) but she broke the rules by going vigilante (much like she did with that cab driver, though with less creativity than that). Kicked out of her old order she was picked up a new one that was nondenominational that trained her as an assassin whose primary purpose was fighting vampires as well as other threats humanity was not equipped to face, such as this zombie apocalypse.

We came to a home of people willing to make exchanges for weapons (but were trying to see what we had on us) and though I was a kid I said I wanted a gun and "I'm from Texas, I know how to shoot" and started demonstrating my mastery of guns (though at that age I was inexperienced), but the guns they got us were loaded with blanks that she recognized and it turned into a big fight that she did the most of and very efficiently. Getting the real weapons and ammo we left.

We got picked up by a deputy (though as a waking person I recognize the area as East Texas, in the dream it was a rural California town) who gave us a lift and said zombies didn't mess around in his town because of an artifact he had (I don't recall what it was now, but something he carried). It was weird to hear people celebrating by blowing horns and such knowing the zombies wouldn't come which annoyed the deputy "as what if this stops working one day? Don't tempt fate!"

We were allowed to get what we needed but other deputies were less friendly and more corrupt and they wanted the artifact for themselves and abducted us, first by trickery and then trying to interrogate us in a laundromat. A car came up forcibly driven off the road by one of the corrupt deputies outside and my cousin got out, at first with a gun to rescue us but the other deputy was too fast and my cousin wisely gave up and he was brought in with the rest of us.

The (hostile) Walking Plants

As I was a little girl I was ignored more than the others (though I wasn't allowed to leave or act as if I were) and therefore I saw a small plant humanoid pass but backtracked hearing the angry voices within and I knew it was trouble. I said so as the plant came in and there was no point in shooting it (though the vampire hunter broke its limbs).

Other plant entities descended on the town and I wondered if the artifact that protected against zombies somehow drew these living plants or if every place was getting them. They didn't turn people into plants but they tried to dig in their roots and tendrils to drink at the blood within. And I was running from one over the laundry machines that was more like a bush (that could crawl around and even leap). As surreal as this sounds I recall it vividly and it was scary, and it was obvious the entire town was coming under attack, not just the laundromat and though I'd tried to escape their weird vampire hunter earlier I was sticking around her as much as possible (but she was very busy being the only one who seemed able to fight these things).

posted September 06, 2015 01:05 PM            

My thoughts are a bit more wordy, but very similar to GeminiKarat's.

This dream symbolically draws upon your experiences as a youth, reflecting the various opposing forces that conflicted you, and your own will to survive it. There is a great deal of symbolism dealing with those who exploited you, those who helped (often yourself), and those who were indifferent. Good/bad, hope/fear, past/future, up/down, safety/danger, captured/escaped … your life within these conflicting forces and the influence/impact they had upon you is what this type of dream is about.

The dark woman is a reflection of self. Her story sounds a lot like yours, don't you think? She represents your inner strength, that part of self which enabled you to overcome/escape the life of your "little girl" self. She is (you are) a mysterious mixture of good and bad, of light and dark, which is the source of her (your) strength and independence.

Your life is much different now than it was in times past, very different, and your psyche is still adjusting, looking for balance, trying to blend your past experience with your present, your old self and the new.

posted September 07, 2015 08:30 PM            

I already figured that strange woman was me...I've actually dreamed of her before (or very much like her), one of the most surreal was that I was navigating a labyrinth full of traps but one I was a puzzle or trap I had to "solve" before I escaped. Unable to do so I went and did all else and then came back to it, but while I was focused on it an "evil twin" (I used to dream of "evil twins" a lot) jumped down on me like some pajama-clad ninja (who was a very dark woman) and taking me by complete surprise I was knocked out...and the dream instantly switched to the perspective of the ninja who was carrying my unconscious body!

posted September 10, 2015 11:40 PM            

I, too, am now a "respectable citizen", and have been for a long time, but there is always that other part, that nature of self which developed in a darker place, that the mind must find balance with within its current world. I get it.

It is simply part of the process. You are going to do just fine. It is only a matter of time.