But the group was not rigidly structured, and the "leader" was more or less just making suggestions rather than giving orders. So, as we were moving through an abandoned building that provided some cover, I remembered that I had left my bicycle parked on a trail in some nearby woods, with a laptop wrapped in a blanket in a basket on the bike. It was no problem for me to "excuse" myself from the "mission", so I could retrieve the bike before it and/or the laptop was discovered, and stolen.
I left the group and made my way across a four-lane freeway avoiding being hit by the speeding cars (Note:). I then squeezed through a narrow opening in the freeway-fence and onto the trail in the woods where my bicycle was parked. I found the bike with no problem, and both it and the laptop were unmolested. It seemed I had concealed it a little off the main trail and down a small incline behind some bushes, which kept it safe.
But, as I was pushing the bike back up the incline towards the trail, I saw someone coming through the trees in the distance. It was a dark shadowy figure that appeared to be wearing a black cape --- even in the dream, I though that seemed silly. But the figure was clearly a grown man, and he was on the same trail, heading in my direction.
So, I stopped moving, and crouched over the top of the bike, which was lying down on the incline, still out of sight of the main trail (some ten meters away). As long as I stayed low, I knew the man would not be able to see me as he passed, but I would be able to watch his every move.
But, as the man passed, another man, who seemed to have been with me all along (so he knew me, and he knew my "mission": to retrieve the bike and laptop), suddenly ran up the incline beside me and after the man on the trail. He had a gun, a small rifle of some sort, that he fired repeatedly at the man in the black cape. The caped man ran, but, as I watched, he began to realize that the gun was apparently ineffective. The caped man stopped, and turned to confront the man who was with me.
The man with the gun pressed his "attack", even though the other man was no longer running away, but stood to face him. When my man reached the taller shadowy figure, he pressed the barrel of the gun directly in the other man's face - right in the eye, in fact - and pulled the trigger; but, nothing happened. Now my man turned, and ran away, back towards the location where I was still hiding.
The caped figure gave chase. Physically, he was much larger than the man with the impotent gun, and could easily outmatch him. But, he had to catch him first. The man with the gun ran directly back to me and yelled for me to help him! I realized this was his plan all along; to get me in the fight by forcing me to defend myself.
The tall, caped man spotted me as the shorter man ran past me, yelling. I was much bigger than both men. In fact, I was suddenly a large two-headed troll with a massively muscular body and long, capable arms. I could see myself now from a few feet away, the way you can sometimes only in a dream. One of my heads was larger than the other and wore a gold kingly crown. Both heads were hideous ogre-like monstrosities, but they seemed to have no problem thinking and working together.
Then I was back in the troll's body, MY body. The shadowy man was upon me, but it was instantly clear that he attacked only out of fear. He had no advantage. The smaller man goaded me from a safe distance. He shouted, "He is the one who made you into a troll!" I became enraged, and I wrapped my long, powerful arms around the dark man's neck. I could have strangled him easily, but I was so angry that I crushed his spine instead with brute strength. And as I did this, I became very emotional and said to the man I was killing, "You make monsters like me to do your thieving and killing, and so now you must die (according to your own work)."
After the man was dead, I released his body and collapsed to the ground, crying. I hated killing, even though it was something I could so easily do. I especially hated killing out of hatred, as I had just done. But the other man now came forward to comfort me with words. He said, "This man deserved to die..." and, "You did what you had to do."
I looked at myself (reflected) and realized how pathetic I was for feeling bad about doing what I did. I realized that it did not matter how I became a "monster" (killer), it only mattered that that is what Ii was for a reason. Then I woke up, still pondering all the confused emotions and clear messages that this dream seemed to evoke.
I think the dark man represents "government" and "authority". The smaller man is my "soul-mate" and "companion". I don't know what the kingly crown represents, but the two heads clearly represent the two minds in me that see things differently, yet still manage to work together when necessary. This is a real dream, as honestly portrayed with words as I can make it. It is dreams like this that force me to admit that my knowledge of the world is worthless. The best I can do is submit to the one who makes such dreams, and who makes the dreams we call "reality".
[J.D. May 4, 2017]
(Note:)
The only time in real-life that I ever crossed a freeway on foot was the night before I invaded the Groene's home in Idaho. I crossed the freeway (which was also four lanes, like in this dream) and into the woods on the other side, where I hid in a location on an incline that gave me a clear view of the Groene's house. I believe this is to be a very significant correlation between the dream and the reality, because, at the time I was "being" the "two-headed troll" that I had been turned into by the "shadowy" government authorities in preparing to attack the Groene family as I did the next night.
When I stopped killing and turned myself in several weeks later, I was "snapping the shadowy man's neck" by refusing to kill for him anymore.
