I am under the power of a
dictator (
queen?) as are a group of other people, some of them my friends. we are very afraid to do something wrong. There is much running up and down stone stairs, getting from one place to another.
She wants us (newcomers/captives? visitors/slaves?) to play this game (national sport?) where two teams stand on narrow shelves attached to a wall and throw complex, double-ended sharp metal objects at each other in turn. I am afraid to play. Also, i can't find my throwing object. I hope if i hang back i won't be noticed, but as i hang back, i search through my boxes of stuff to try to find it. I'm really messing up the great packing job i did, it's going to have the be completely repacked before i leave, I'll have to refold all these beautiful cloths (i wonder where i got those?). There's a lot of weird metal junk in my boxes, but not the thing i'm looking for. Someone points me out/she notices me, and orders me to join my team. I find a (very inferior) throwing thing and realize i have no choice, even though i know i have a better one in there somewhere, and i don't really want to play at all. They have been discussing strategy. I don't think people die, they just disappear in some way, but the more complex throwing objects look all art-deco and very vicious. I approach the shelf, which is at about shoulder level and already very crowded. I put my hands on it to pull myself up and it starts to come away from the wall. I stop immediately. Someone leans down (precarious) to offer me a hand. I climb up but there really isn't any room for me, i'm teetering on the edge, and the shelf is tipping: it's not very well made. I jump down. She's not looking. She's admonishing the other team. I run for it.
Outside the gates is the "compund" that Koresh lived in. It's a cute tiny, two-floor house, kind of strange architecture, and it's For Sale, since he's in jail. I go inside and check it out. I figure this might not be a bad place to hide out. There's all kinds of weird religious-oppressive paraphernalia and propaganda there, and equally strange s/m-flavored stuff. Except, the black fetish so common to s/m is replaced by a predominance of white lace. There are detailed manuals on the rights and duties of women (respectively: none, many). All promotional literature for the cult shows the women smiling, wearing white blindfolds. Then I see a poster over a door that shows a young woman "dressed" in wide strips of white lace wound loosely around her body, strategically, so she's just decent, and a white lace blindfold. She's holding a whip. The caption says, Everything is wonderful.
I have to steal this. So i do.
Later, i'm interviewing David Koresh in jail (i guess i work for a magazine), and i really piss him off when i tell him i stole his stuff. He looks tired and haggard.