Evacuation

The city was under water.  

I was swimming amongst the detritus floating on the black watercourse in between the tall buildings.  There were people walking on top of buildings, and there were a few in the water with me.  I saw a few rafts float by with people clinging onto them.  Since the water was no longer swift, it was actually cool and soothing.  I was swimming back into the heart of the hot, sweltering city.  

I did not know the reason at the time, but it became readily apparent upon reflection.  I was returning to assist another group of survivors after having evacuated with a baby girl who had been given to me by an old man who had a deep wound.   

The baby was a beauty with a pale face, strange hazel/green eyes, and wavy brown hair.  Her pupils were huge, covering almost all of the eye area.  Since there was very little white around the eyes, she did not look quite human, but cried and ate and wriggled about as much as any ordinary baby would do.  

Once I had assured myself that the baby was in good hands and was safe, I returned to the drowning city.  

Upon my return, I meet up once again with the old man.  He looked bad.  It seemed as if he might not survive.  He was holding onto another baby, a boy with the same strange green eyes as the girl I just rescued.  

The old man told me the boy was the girl’s twin brother, and that he was looking for someone to take care of the child and take him out of the area.  I took the boy from the old man.  He seemed relieved, but looked badly hurt.  I wanted him to join us, but he refused.  It looked as if he had something else he needed to do.  

I asked him if he was going to be ok.  He grunted, holding onto his side, but said nothing.  He then handed me a bundle with some things in it.  He did not tell me what it was and what I was supposed to do with it.  But since he didn’t look like he was going to last much longer, I did not waste any time.  I took the bundle, along with the baby boy, and headed back out.

I left that area and was joined by another group.  There are two other kids, young boys around 3 or 4 years of age.  They can walk.  One of them had that same pale thin face with large green eyes as the babies in my care.  He looked as if he could be the babies’ older sibling.  

As soon as the green-eyed boy saw me, it was as if he was familiar with me, and attached himself onto me immediately.  I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up.  He weighed very little.

“I love you!”  I told him, feeling a strange bond, as if I knew him well.

“I love you too,” he replied.

“I wish I could buy you right now” I responded.  I was only joking of course.  Nobody buys and sells children.  We just try our best to take care of them.  

One of the women in charge of taking care of them laughed. “Don’t be surprised if he is the one who ends up buying you.”  

“Please do so as soon as possible!”  I said, and we all laughed.  

The other boy was very different looking.  He had a swarthy complexion and the same strange eyes, but they were blue.

He was also a bit stockier, his head, blocky and solid-looking.  He seemed more hostile, less open and friendly.

One of the women drew my attention to the blue eyed boy’s palm.  His intelligence and love lines made a very strong U shape and extended past his palm.  I was agog.  This kid was a mental giant!  

I grabbed the hand of the green eyed boy and saw the same thing, but the intelligence line went downward, past his palm too.  

A powerful psychic.  

I saw, in my mind’s eye, the green-eyed babies all had the same tell-tale signs on their palms.

One of the men handed me a bat-looking sentient creature, a male.  I took him and strapped him onto the front of my body with a straddling cloth.  He hung onto me gratefully.  One of the other men strapped the female and baby bat onto himself.  I think the baby died in transport. It did not seem to be moving, but we kept it with its mother any way.  There was nothing much we could do but keep moving.

We were a ragtag group of people:  4 men and 3 women, plus me.  I led the way towards a bus stop.  There was a bus-looking vehicle that was parked there, waiting for passengers.  I waved toward the bus and we all got on.

The conductor was a woman with a strangled hoarse voice.  She did not seem quite human, but at that point, I didn’t care.  We were onboard and safe.  She ignored everyone in my group and zeroed in on me, calling out my name.  I raised my hand and answered.  

“Here.”  

She reached upward with a pen and crossed off my name from a slip of paper with four names, all of which had been clearly written with a black felt tip marker.  The paper was taped to the side of the bus, as if it was a last minute addition to the group of people that were leaving.  

Once my name had been crossed off, there were only three other names left on the list.  Since there were seven of us, and none of the others’ names were on the list, it seemed as if I was the only one in the group who wasn’t even supposed to be there.  The rest were obviously supposed to be on that bus.  It was, I would be told, the last bus out of town.

Once we were onboard, the guy with the bats strapped to him said he was going up to the third level of the bus to find a place to sit.  The group all started following him.  

I was about to go with the group when, from the interior of the bus, I could see the leader of our group making his way to where the conductor is.  He did not see any of us, and looked extremely worried.  

“Where is my family?”  He demanded.

I waved at him.  “We’re all here!  We are going up to the top level of the bus.”

He saw me and a sparkle came to his eyes.  He smiled, looking tired and relieved.  Then he followed me up to the third level.

Then I woke up.

Then I frantically started typing out the dream.

The end.