This made me think of a funny story.

I can't remember how old I was, probably about 9/10, when we lived in the Downer house for the second time (not that I remember the first time we lived there!). It was summer and the night was hot and muggy. I was up in my room, with my little boombox on, Madonna or something like that, and I fell asleep with the lights on. At this time, my parents had bought those screw-in touch light things that all you had to do was touch the lamp and the light would come on. It may not seem important, but it's the only thing that I could come up with to explain my dream.

It was Earth and we were very happily playing, busying ourselves with mundane tasks. And then the UFO came. It hovered over Earth, but there was no communication as to why they were here. At first, everyone was excited to see it, but it didn't do much. Until it brought its "friends", and by "friends", I mean warships, because they started firing at Earth. They shot lasers that would destroy things, and predictably, there was panic - a lot of panic. People running everywhere, trying to find a safe place to hide. This was before they launched little saucers that could fly down to street level. When that happened, there was very little hope. They would laser any human on the street, hellbent on eradicating us all. I remember hiding in buildings, at first; they were destroying large buildings before the smaller ones. Anywhere where we could hide would be destroyed with swiftness. In the last moments, when I was hiding with another person in our little alcove of rubble from a building that once belonged to the college that we lived near, when I still had a sliver of hope, it fell silent. For a few moments, my companion and I just laid there. I'd lost my family; they'd made me hide somewhere where I couldn't be found, and when I emerged, they were all dead. Being that I was child, I didn't know what to do. I had no way to find out if any of my other relatives were alive. My companion, an adult, found me after a few days, and took me under her wing, helping to hide us, finding food and water. And we laid there, with her arms around me to protect me, terrified at the utter destruction that these creatures had wrought. We'd been in that hiding spot for a few days; water and food was scarce and quickly becoming scarcer. "It's quiet; let's make a run for it," she said. "Over there, see that little space?" I nodded. "We'll run there. Get ready." She unlaced her arms from me, and we positioned ourselves to run. "Ok, let's go."

We bolted out of there, my eyes focused on our destination, my attention drawn in making my legs move as fast as they could. Not far, I told myself. Not far to go. Keep running. Suddenly there was a scream, and I heard it behind me. Don't turn around, keep running! But it was there, I knew it was there, and I knew it would train its lasers on my back. But I kept running. For all I knew, I was the last of my family alive, and I didn't want to die. Please God, I prayed, please don't let them get me! I was almost there, when there was this bright light, oh so very bright, and pain, oh the pain, and screaming....

I fell off of the bed and woke up. It took me a few minutes to realize that I was in fact at home in my room, the tape still playing, and I was lying on the floor. My heart was still racing as I stood up. The light in my bedroom was going wild - off, on low, on medium, on high, then off, repeating the cycle over and over again. I guess the humidity was affecting the sensor. It was at that point that I chuckled to myself - lasers, indeed! I put on some pjs, unplugged the lamp, and crawled back into bed. As I drifted off to sleep in the dark, I stared out of the window and thought, Thank God that was just a dream!