Vera's Dream by MikeMacColin
taken from "Unicorn Riders - Pinch"

Like any other normal person Vera dreamt when she was asleep. But she never saw any significance in her dreams. No matter whether they were good or bad, in her mind they just happened. But this night when she was able to get some decent sleep, she dreamt intensely. And the dreams were not good.

In her dream she was running. She ran away, leaving Igor and Helen behind who watched her disappear with sad faces, but couldn't catch up with her. Butter the dog ran with her for a while, but when she started sneezing he stopped and fell back behind her until she couldn't see him anymore. She kept running and running, through Coock City and the Badlands, then through the Northern wilderness. She saw the crashed shuttle in the distance, saw Tammy lying on the ground in front of it, bleeding, with her hand pleadingly stretched towards her, but Vera ignored her and kept running. She ran until two foul smelling claw-like hands closed around her body, pressing all air out of her lungs. Before her two faces became visible: Sykes grinning gloatingly, and Johnson looking at her in disapproval and shaking his head. Then she felt tight ropes being tied around her wrists and ankles, pulling her into four different directions. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Balefully Johnson glanced at her, his face a mask of pure evil. The ropes kept pulling stronger by the second, and Vera knew that it would rip her apart any moment now. But at just the moment that she felt her limbs would give away, she heard but one sentence out of Johnson's mouth, and it echoed in her ears like thunder.

Then she heard the snap of her bones breaking... and woke up. Covered in sweat, heavily breathing, looking around in panic, but she was awake. She stared into the darkness of the cave, feeling with her fingers on the sleeping bag she had covered herself with. Everything was fine. As fine as things could be in this moment, still being lost in the wild and being looked after by four runaways and a dog. Things had been worse before.

But Johnson's words were still echoing in her mind, and she couldn't calm her beating heart. She knew that it had just been a dream, but those words affected her. After all she had been through she wasn't even sure that something could be true about them.

Your parents will be next...