I wish I knew how to interpret dreams. I know most of this is obvious, but for the hell of it:
Get outfitted and organized for war. No training, just lined up at a doorway to go in and fight the demons. All of us too dumb to be very worried. Joke and mess around, slight nerves, like a football game. Demons are different sizes, bigger than us, grey-black monsters with hard hide. The worst, biggest, toughest have lumpy skin like rocks, which might be our fault. Scanned the world (not earth) with less care than we should have, radiation or some other damage made them worse.
As we die like the cannon fodder we are, we are brought back. Cloned, resurrected, respawned, not sure. I still remember. Many others do to, but most still line up to be slaughtered. So many still think this fight is worth it. Some new people, children of this world. The fresh souls they throw at the demons have my sympathy, but not those who send them. I get sneakier. Sometimes I leave the assembly line, run naked into the world. Sometimes I have a chance to take armor and weapons with me. Find a place to be a civilian, though I don’t fit in, but always get dragged back to fight. People up here don’t understand the worthlessness of it. Shame is their sometimes weapon. I hate them worst, it works on others who sneak off. Only those who fight can move me to join in. When I fight, I skulk. I rarely even shoot at them, mostly when I see one flanking our people, or if it might save one of us. Usually they mow down so many I just watch, knowing if I shoot I will die or have to run for ages. Sometimes the rage over it all sends me into a fight, no gun just a sword. Nearly hopeless. Our people appreciate the rage, they don’t have that. Even though I don’t fight like them they respect me. Sometimes I attack a lone enemy so I don’t draw them down onto me. Sometimes not, hardly worth taking the chance. Some of us people from broken units or deserters (no stigma anymore really) coalesce into groups where we defend each other. Sometimes monsters leave these groups alone. We stay out of the way, at the lowest levels, looking at the detritus and former glory of this world.
Brought back, living in a pleasant park like place. No passageways of missiles front ranks swept away, no deep caverns, no crisscrossing paths with demons deciding who will die first when they leap. With green all around, trees, relaxed people, and some old soldiers taking the same break from neverending war. A bad idea but the most minor infraction from one of us gets escalated by hateful other humans, ugly . Deadly force in their hands and threatening to call the gov. We’re gonna get dragged back to the war. The green and tan and brown and mediocre little stream wasn’t paradise, but it was all we wanted. Off to the side, I hold my hand up to the evil men, saying I had no part in this. Turn around and slowly walk off. Waiting for the first shot. Will I ever know? Will it be in my back, hard not to tense. Hard to not speed up. Angry at them, and myself. Get to the bike and the gun I should have had on me. Not trying to kill them, but don’t really care. Give the guys who could have been me a chance to scatter. Ride hard.
End up fighting monsters less. Easier to get away. Fewer illusions. Unzip and climb through the low tent-habitat door where civilians pack themselves. Still room on the world, they just naturally stay close. I go in naked, have to clamber past people. Not really self-conscious. People everywhere, touching, not sexual, just like animals. Hard not to think of them as being close to animals though they look healthy and human and the women are pretty. They don’t have any spark. Children everywhere. Lounge around, make minor repairs, play with kids, they explore and find old passages and tech and show me. The women smell good, sometimes we sneak off and sometimes fuck right there. There may be males but no men around. It’s okay there but I want to be free, out in the world, roaming, hunting, not in close quarters. Meeting people with depth and soul and brains. Also don’t want the war but know there is no escaping for long.