The Dream I Had Every Night
Acrid smoke and searing air choked everything around me. Through the shuddering flames, men in mismatched clothes were trampling the villagers underfoot without a shred of mercy.
I knew it was a dream. Maybe that was only because I had been having it every night of late, but even for a dream it was strange. How was I supposed to put it so it landed? Each time the dream repeated, it felt a little more real.
"Hey! You, over there!"
I turned my head. The boy who had called me came into view.
"What are you doing just standing in the middle of the road? Before the raiders see you—hurry! Get over here!"
"Got it."
The boy's name was Theo. That was one of the things I had picked up by living this dream over and over. I closed the distance and asked him outright.
"Your name... it's Theo, right?"
"Yeah. I don't even know yours. How'd you know?"
"I'll tell you once we're out of here."
"Okay."
I watched the way he started to move. That direction... he was heading for the place where the other children were hiding. I moved fast, caught him, and stopped him short.
"Theo, you're trying to go where the kids are, aren't you?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"It's dangerous. The raiders already took them."
"R-really?"
I had followed Theo at least four times. Most of those times the raiders were already waiting, and we were dragged off with the rest. Only once had I actually reached the children unharmed—and even then, while we were still trying to decide what to do next, the raiders burst in and hauled us away. Besides, I wanted a scene I had not already seen more than I wanted to watch the same one again. So I set about talking him around with everything those repetitions had taught me.
"I was coming from that way, so I know. I saw the raiders dragging the kids off."
"You did? Then what do we do now?"
Doubt still lived in his eyes, but the moment was too sharp for hesitation. For now, he looked willing to believe me.
"There's somewhere I was heading. Want to come with me?"
"All right."
West sat right beside the children, and it was thick with raiders. South was where every escape had failed. So the only answer was east... wasn't it?
"This way."
I broke into a run at the front, and Theo followed at once. We used the buildings and fences scattered through the village, and the smoke hanging between them—dropping into cover, then bursting out again—and slipped past the raiders posted here and there. Theo never fell behind, and we were closing on the outskirts when it happened.
"Th-Theo!"
A shout calling him came from somewhere off to the side. I looked toward the sound and found Snotnose, one of the children, calling Theo's name. But beside him...
"Where do you little brats think you're running?"
Damn it. The raiders were here too.
"Just run!"
"Aaaagh!"
"Where the hell do you think you're going, you little shits? Stop right there!"
I twisted aside, and the dagger the raider hurled missed me by a breath. He had probably meant only to check our flight and nearly put it through me instead. A little closer, and I would have been dead.
"Nngh... Th-Theo. Help me!"
There was no time to look back, so I left the rest to imagination. From the sound of it, Snotnose was in trouble. He was not going to die, though. Part of those raiders' work was rounding up children and selling them as slaves.
The real problem lay elsewhere. Namely—
"Let my friend go!"
Theo was the sort who bit on a lure like that.
This time I would not care even if they caught him. I wanted the new scene I had come to see. I wrung every last scrap of strength into a dead sprint. The raider came after me for a stretch, then gave up the chase. Why?
And in that very instant—
Thud.
"...A dream?"
I was back in the waking world.