Dreaming in the new world disorder

I had this horrifying dream a couple of days ago which made me a bit late to work. I couldn't wake myself from it, even though I could consciously hear my alarm. I just couldn't move; it was terrifying.

I was riding the Metro, although it was nothing like the regular Metro, because the ends of the cars were like trolleys. There were still the Metro doors, but the ends of the cars were open. Outside looked a lot like Ohio, but in the dream it was supposed to be the DC suburbs. At one of the stations, a guy on a bicycle rode up to the armed guards and told them a bomb had been "found in the tunnel." Somehow, the Holland Tunnel was in DC, though in the dream we did not go through any tunnels. A bomb squad was dispatched, but the train kept going anyway. I told my friend next to me that we should get off, but she said I was just being paranoid, which makes sense, because paranoia is a common fear on the Metro these days, and anyone who tells you they haven't felt it is lying.

We chugged along and stopped at a strip mall. I kept saying we should get off, we should get off, and she kept saying, no, there's no way back from here if we get off. We chugged along, and then I noticed another friend of mine get off the train while it was still moving, so I convinced her to get off the train to go say hello.

We were all standing there talking, and bomb squad members were running all over the place. There was a small baseball souvenir stand where we had stopped, so I went inside and bought a Cincinnati Reds jersey (I think this represents some childhood comfort in the face of danger, for it makes no sense otherwise.) My two friends and I were talking about how we were really nervous about riding the train, and as we watch it pull away, I started hoping it really would blow up so that my paranoia was warranted, because I didn't want to live my life in constant fear.

Somehow, the train had to take an elevator to get from the suburbs to the actual city (weird, I know). We watched it go up in the distance, when suddenly, it exploded. Shards of glass and fire rained from the sky, and we ran to take cover in the baseball shop. I sat in a corner, rocking back and forth, unable to fathom what I had just witnessed.

I think subconsciously, all of us in DC have some sort of fear or paranoia about what is probably inevitable- a terrorist attack on the city. It isn't called terrorism for nothing, you know.