TWISTED DELIRIUM: THE INFINITE DREAM

Hannah awoke to the sounds the sea, the cool splash of the water on her face signaling her eyes to open. The wave receded into the ocean as a second swell readied its charge. Hannah sat up, finding herself laying at the waters edge of a beach. The next wave surrounded her with a gentle crest over her toes, then further up over her legs, receding back after the wave came no closer then her waist. She looked left, then slowly right, nothing initially sounding but the overture of the ocean meeting the beach with seemingly precisely timed waves. Both ends of the beach seemed to stretch on forever, neither side providing a measurable end. She twisted on her hip and found that a steep hill had crept up behind her, no taller than one hundred feet, but it seemed much greater with the sharp upward angles and jutting cliff at the top. Hannah found that she was dressed in her academy graduation clothing, save for the hat which was missing. And to her amazement, knowing that she had likely been laying at the oceans reach for a long while, they were clean, dry, and perfectly pressed, just as she'd had them on that day so long ago. A sound suddenly grabbed her attention, her head bolting skywards with the monotonous drone of a bomber's engines flying just high enough that vapor trails had formed behind its exhaust ports in the sky. One lone bomber flying high and fast, quickly disappearing behind the cliff's edge. Her eyes followed it until she could see no more, suddenly catching glimpse of a wooden staircase and single rope cut into the cliff directly in front of her, where there was none before. A small sign stuck out of the sand, carved from wood with scorched text reading "THIS WAY", an arrow pointing up the stairs. She cautiously approached the sign, noting how her gloss dress shoes neither left a print, nor would the sand stick to them or tarnish the shine that they projected. She continued up and onto the stairs, proceeding up each stair as they creaked. As Hannah climbed one stair higher, the stair behind her would collapse into dust and blow away. She paused, watching as the stair beneath her began to disintegrate, her footing loosing its integrity as she stood. She began to climb faster, running up the stairs double time until she reached the top, looking back to see the rest of the staircase blow away with a strong and sudden gust of wind. Hannah stood at the top of the cliff, her eyes scanning over the flat landscape of sand, a lone red and white umbrella sitting out among the desolation. She began to walk towards the umbrella, though the nearer she got to it the more it began to sound as if the occupant under the umbrella was tuning into a radio station but unable to get clear reception. Hannah cautiously approached the umbrella from the left, the radio's scratchy tuner not clearing, and found a pale white man laying in blue swim trunks with a glass of lemonade in hand. She was well within sight of the man, yet his eyes remained focused out on the empty horizon. She was standing at the man's nine o'clock, staring intently at his face which lay partially obscure behind a pair of flashy black sunglasses, the mirror finish reflecting Hannah's curiosity. She finally broke the silence, questioning the man intently as she had a flashback, remembering the identity of the sun tanner. "You... the assassin at the club and the hotel. What are you doing here?!?" The man never broke his stare, instead raising his right arm while sipping the lemonade that never lost volume in his left. "I'm watching." "Watching what?" Hannah turned her head and was instantly shocked by a massive explosion a hundred feet away directly in front of the beach umbrella, the fireball mushrooming into the air with various vehicle parts swallowed up inside of it. She ducked onto her knees, covering her head as she shrieked in horror. "Fuckin' christ!" The man continued to lay in leisure. Hannah slowly unraveled herself, looking at the man who seemed to be laughing. Another explosion from the same direction sent shockwaves through the sand, the unmelted ice cubes in the pale man's glass clinking off each other momentarily. A gentle breeze blew across the desert, the scent of burning oil, plastics, human flesh sprinkled in the wind, filled Hannah's nostrils. Secondary explosions shot skyward, masking the heinous laughter beginning to emanate from the man on the beach chair. The slaying of silence from the bombs' continuous blanket extended for several minutes, fire and black smoke taking control of the landscape until the vehicles of the convoy were all destroyed, burning and motionless. The single bomber performing strafing runs disappeared from the sky, and once again, the silence of desolation took hold of the desert, save of the dying laughs of the albino on the lawn chair and a few crackles from the hellfire. He set his glass into the sand, the beach devouring the it into itself. The pale man unexpectedly sat up and glanced himself over, acknowledging that the sun had not penetrated the whiteness of his skin, a smirk painted into the creases of his grin. "I don't think I've made any progress, do you?" Another round of dry laughs from the pale skinned killer filled the air before the man began to speak again. "Take a walk with me, won't you?" "Uh..." Hannah was lost, both mentally and physically, unsure of where or why she accepted the invitation to walk with the ghost man. "War. It is the definition of insanity between men, don't you agree? Of course you do. Can you imagine what one must sacrifice in their mind in order to take the life of another? Its absolutely maddening really. Pitting two men against each other, staring at the face of your enemy, who is really just as simple a man as yourself, and the only reason you are going to kill him is because the President said so. Sounds like playing God to me. But that's just like the government. There is no separation between church and state. One mimics the other like a photocopy, only the holy men and women wear different uniforms..." Hannah listened to the killer speak as they neared the road where the iron tears had killed the men in the trucks, tanks and SUV's on steroids. Giant craters still smoldered as they cooled, one wheel giving resemblance to what had formerly rolled along the road. Bodies lay everywhere around the hole, some burned to the bone, others lay crisped and charred, laying where they had died trying to extinguish themselves. "Here, look at this poor soul. Imagine what he felt, his skin aflame while dangling from muscle and bone, the horrible searing pain. Imagine that this man died just because he was riding in a truck that was put here by a man that would sacrifice his entire countries' populous for a few barrels of oil, as long as he knew he would be protected and safe, never truly knowing the horrible travesties of war that he ordered to take place. And this is just one man's story who died for no reason at all, except that he was here instead of there. Makes a person a little... upset knowing the truth, wouldn't you agree?" Hannah could only nod, her eyes filled with tears. Her stomach took control and pushed its contents in reverse. She spat directly towards her feet, the vomitous mess mysteriously deterred around her shoes, directed everywhere but on her. Hannah's face betrayed her feigning calm appearance, both as she walked along the road, and now, watching the road soak up her lunch like a sink drain. "What the fuh-" "Exactly my thoughts when I first got here." The man smiled as Hannah looked up between the black strands of her hair. She stood and wiped at her mouth that was perfectly clean, her breath even spiked with mint as she began to breathe with effort. "And I suppose you now want some answers about what's going on, don't you." Hannah nodded in disbelief, unsure of what to make of everything she had just seen, everything experienced since awakening on the beach. "Yo