PTSD from a Dream

I need to get this out of my head.  I can not focus on my homework with flashes of this dream pushing its way into my head like a mild case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The best way I know how since I am now alone is to type it down.  Katrina used to get an ear full of all this but what I think that I never told her was how it helped clear my mind of it all.  Anyways, to the dream!

I do not remember where I came into the dream but the memory flashes put me as in the timeline where the action is already happening.  I am in a city and it is pretty sunny out.  There are people screaming and running away from this giant monster that is moving through the city.  It seems to be almost a vehicle of sorts because it is probably like four or five stories above ground, kind of boat/box-shaped, and also is breaking through the ground since I can only guess that it had another story or two under ground.  Well, like I said, everyone was running away and screaming...that is everyone but me.  I dodged out of view from the traveling destruction and sneaked my way around a red brick building with a pretty solid cement base.  I made my way to the corner where I could quickly peek around to see its location.  I took a quick glance and saw it was just about to pass the building that I was hiding behind.  I held my location as it went by.  I could hear it breaking the ground but even more I heard something coming from beneath ground that peaked my curiosity.  It was heavily mechanical sounding with a bit of what I perceived as possible voices of the enemy.  As it passed the building's foundation broke from the ground and pushed itself against me for a good half a foot.  I looked back around the corner to see that it was not only beyond my location but it completely took out two smaller buildings that where against the wall of the building I was behind.  I glanced across the street to see a bank that seemed pretty empty.  I dashed across the street and pushed my way through the glass doors.  Inside there was one teller behind the desk and a security guard just sitting on a chair next to the door.  He arose as I came in as if I startled him.  Both kept their eyes on me as I sized up the place for safety and other exits.  I told him to not worry and that we needed to contact others to tell them that this is a safe place.  He argued for some reason but I do not remember his argument.  Behind the guard there was a door that led to a basement.  The electricity must have been out because the basement was extremely dark.  The upstairs had enough windows to keep it bright without the need for light.

At this point I think the story skipped a bit because there were some other survivors now with us in the bank...I guess I convinced him to let us use the place as a safe house.  I wanted to get a better look at what that sound was and I had the idea that we could find out through the corridors in the basement since it was most likely tore open from  that machine going by.  I made the announcement that I needed some people to come with me and that we needed guns.  There was some bickering again but I forgot what it was about but I remember saying "Listen, we need a leader in these situations.  If we do not have a leader there will be chaos. We need a leader even if the leader does nothing but guide everyone through."  In this I was referring to myself without actually saying it.  There was only one guy that said something when I looked at him and he said "Why are you looking at me?"  Beyond that, no one argued my point and guys started to stand up to join me.  In fact, the guys joining me were some of the guys from my squad when we were in Iraq.  As they were gathering up they pulled out their guns to show they were armed.  We only had three or four pistols of different types for the six or so guys that were coming with me.  One of the other survivors that was not coming even passed his pistol off to one of the guys joining me.  I myself remained unarmed since I did not have a weapon of my own.

As soon as I saw that everyone was ready I pushed open the door and lead my team down into the dark basement.  I turned on my long steel flashlight and cut my way through the darkness and into the underground corridors.  This is where I woke up.  As soon as I woke up or partially woke up I started to play with the last part a bit where I wondered why the electricity was out or if the lights were just off.  I altered the dream and turned on the light which caused a rift within the dream and it basically caught itself in a sort of loop where it went back and forth between the electricity being out and me being able to just flip a switch to turn on the light.  It was fairly strange but I would have loved to just have followed the dream a bit more to see what we found.