1 The Coup

It was loud. It sounded like windmills... but faster, there were screams.

It was dark and my blankets was all messed up. I could see a bright light behind the curtains on the window. The air was... scary, somehow...

I got up. It was 4 am. I walked to the balcony, still half asleep. All the houses to the right were burning, to the left they were fine. The dark sky was somehow lit up, like a reflection from a bright source of light. The leaves of the plants in my balcony were moving, like a fan was blown towards them, the wind was fast, maybe because of the helicopters. I saw people running down the street screaming...

"Help!"

I saw helicopters, rubble and soldiers firing. I ran back to my room trying to get my family to wake up. My Mom and Dad's room was farther away from the balcony so I went to my brother's room. I started screaming "GET UP! We need to get out of here! Just get up!". I turned the light on, pulled my big brother out of the bed, still screaming like hell. He fell down but I dragged him, he woke up, I told him to run but just then the roof of the living room was blown away by a grenade, soldiers jumped in from the blown roof... it all happened so fast, they saw me..., I was shot.

I woke up, my alarm buzzing off, it was just a dream... which felt a lot real. The walls of my room were light blue, It felt like an exotic color when the walls were being painted... but why were they scary today, this darkness in them was terrifying. My own photo was scary. Just then I remembered the dream, I used to always smile about a dream, they were like a game, a VR game, but this dream, it was ridiculous.

"Get up! Its already 7:15. You'll be late for school", my mom screamed from the kitchen, which shook me back to reality from my thoughts. I got up and went to the bathroom. The rest of the day was normal but I always felt like something was missing... like something dangerous was waiting for me... like something was about to happen and another kind of feeling was created which I just could not understand.

***

It was loud... again. Screams and helicopters, it was just like in the dream... just to check I saw out of the window and saw helicopters and explosions. Vadar, my big brother got up and we tried to wake up Mother and Father but the soldiers ran in, blowing the roof away. We both jumped outside of the window, shattering the glass, I had always thought how the heroes in movies couldn't get hurt by the glass, now I understood, it was a simple thing, just the shoulder that hit the glass and the pieces would fall away from your body. We volleyed on the balcony of the neighbours, ducked down to hide behind the walls. The soldiers started shooting, but that wall protected us. They might have thought we died because they stopped shooting.

After the shooting ended we ran in the bedroom of this house through a window. A couple were asleep there but we didn't care to tiptoe because our life was on the line. After we passed that house's living room, I realized this was Uncle Berek's house, I just thought we should have woken them up.

We ran outside, out on the streets, the wind was cold. We found people running, we ran as well.

The streets were darker and scarier than usual, it so dark you couldn't see your own feet.

Once we went to the Talpes, the mountains to the east. I thought I had seen something shining in foot on the hills, I wandered towards it, I didn't look at my feet just straight to the place whete I saw the shining thing. Suddenly I just fell down, I felt the ground with my hands, I felt a root, I guessed at that time as it was so dark. I ran back to our car, without looking back or down. You literally can't see anything without lights, it was like that now.

At the end of the street was Berek Automobiles, Uncle Berek's Automobile shop where we found a car, a silver Renault Master van, it was of Uncle Berek. We got in, my brother knew how to hotwire cars and drive. Hotwiring was taking time, I didn't notice that, trying to collect my thoughts, but we were too late. The soldiers caught up.

It was just another dream... which felt real, like someone tried to warn me but I didn't know which night it would happen.

***

The next night I kept up all night, thinking just about the dreams, what if they happened tonight?

Those dreams just kept on coming like it was some Edge of Tomorrow nonsense. I would die at some point but would do everything better than before or just don't die.

These dreams kept on coming for at least 6 months. I met two other people in these dreams, they said they were dreaming too... I just hope they are real... like me. Just so I know its just not happening to me, these weird dreams.

***

Then one night, it happened. I knew it was real. I ran to Vadar's bedroom and woke him up. I knew from the dreams that my Mom and Dad dont survive so we just left them. We jumped to Uncle Berek's house, just like in the dream.

"Whats going on man?! I saw mom and dad get shot! Where'd these guys come from!?", said my brother. I ignored him, knowing the reality of the situation and that this is not a dream.

We ran and found the Renault Master. I had stolen the keys from Uncle Becker a month ago, he didn't even notice, driving the Honda Accord.

"Here use this key, we'll be outta here in no time!", I said, handing out the keys to my brother.

He started the engine and we rolled out of Orma, my hometown.