Table of Contents

Excerpt

I-I The Dream Impasse

Wherever I was, I wanted no part of it. On my back in the middle of a canyon with steep, jagged rock face blocking any chance of escape. Gurgles, grunts, moans, and screams of pain came from all directions. The fetid smell of blood-soaked soil seeping through the cloth of my shirt. My God, was the only thought, while my brain searched for a clue. What was happening? Where was I? A man fell just beside. Damp fur covered his body. His forehead bulged over his eyes, keeping blood from his vision, sending droplets down the perimeter of his cheeks. His mangled teeth were riddled with dirt and cavities. He gazed at me with one last breath of life, one last look of quizzical fury. A stone carved to a point and fixed to a wooden dowel came smashing into his skull just above his temple, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He died with dire certainty. The weapon was jerked out of his skull, splashing remnants onto my collar. Blood oozed out of the wound, joining the pool on the ground. The executioner dragged his ax away in search of another victim; there were many. I rose to my feet and brushed off the dirt and blood as I faced the vision of all the others: the countless others, screaming, maiming, destroying. Tens of thousands of men, perhaps more, clad in animal wears, stabbed and slashed, punched and bludgeoned one another. Victims dropped to the ground. It was difficult to make out who was fighting whom, but most of the dead looked just like the figures of ancient Neanderthal-like men I’d seen in historical museums in my youth. The others had smoother, more familiar features with midtoned brown skin. The blood. The carnage. The screams and moans of anguish. The grunts of barbarians, swiping any in their paths. Where did it all fit in? How was it relevant?