Dream: An invasion, love, and bioelectricity

I dreamt I was stuck in traffic along SLEX. Cars weren't at all moving. Suddenly, bombs started dropping on the expressway. Some country had invaded -- China, I think -- but it could bomb only the main highways.

We ran to an area around Merville, where the survivors eventually built a small community. For months the bombing continued, and sometimes other survivors would stumble into our little safe place.

I fell in love with one of them. He was a fighter -- I can't remember if he was Filipino; my dream was in English -- and he'd been hurt. We nursed him back to health and had strategic meetings -- none of which I remember, because we were holding hands every time, and I would marvel, sometimes half-awake, at how warm and dry and solid his hand felt and how perfect the fit of my hand in his.

One day, the bombings stopped. He said it was time to go; he had to return to the other fighters. He had to go during the lull or else he would miss a chance to go back to his team safely. I understood and did not despair.

"You are coming back?" someone said.

"Yes," he replied too quickly. Then he looked at me, and I saw the excitement in his face. He took my hand and said, "How do I get out of here? I don't know the way."

I gripped his hand tightly -- feeling, once again, how warm and dry and solid it was -- and replied, "I'll walk you out."

When he left me, he didn't look back. I was sure I'd never see him again.

So I moved on to searching for sources of bioelectricity, first in plants, then in animals. It got interesting when space fish started swimming in the sky.