Last night I had the strangest dream. I was in the waning days of what had been a long and brutal war. Our once proud regiment had been worn down to just a handful of men. We were tired, filthy, hungry, and out of ammunition. When the enemy called upon us to surrender, I refused. Although I was just a lieutenant, I was also the senior surviving officer. Unwilling to surrender, I called upon the surviving men to fix bayonets. I then ordered us to advance.
We were so few in number that we could only form a single line. As we marched forward behind a single tattered battle flag, things got strange. Our ranks swelled. Marching in formation with us were comrades whom I recognized as having fallen earlier in the war. These men did not look like the corpses they had been but were instead hale and healthy as they had looked before their deaths.
Our ranks were further swelled by men in old fashioned uniforms carrying outdated weaponry. Some of the men were wearing combed morion steel helmets and breastplates from the Renaissance period. Instead of rifles, they carried pikes. Other soldiers wore leather hauberks and chainmail. These men carried swords and shields.
Despite their different appearances, the men had the feel of the regiment. I did not fear them as ghosts but welcomed them as my comrade in arms, brothers of the regiment. Somewhere beyond the serried ranks that had formed behind us, a military band had begun playing the regimental march. The single tattered flag that we had carried at the start of our assault had been replaced with a trio of flags which included, our regimental banner (now made whole), the army banner, and the national flag.
And with that final thought, I woke up feeling momentarily sad over the loss of a sense of belonging that I have rarely felt in life. In thinking about this dream, I think that my dream self (and surviving men) must have died in our forlorn attack, and yet we had lived on in spirit, joining our fallen brothers to forever march wherever it is that soldiers go when they die.
I have never had a dream like this. I am also not a veteran and have never served in the Armed Forces.
As I observed at the outset, it was the strangest dream.
Have any of you ever had a really strange dream?
03 Jan 2024, 10:15 am
