In my dream the scavenger hunt ends where a treet top brushes against the balustrade of a stone bridge: I reach into the branches and pull out  a couple of gifts, including a scroll that lets me speak to Vincent Price’s granddaughter,who gives me that caftan that her grandfather wore when he would take mushrooms in the Seventies.

In my dream the five of us lay face down in the snow, trying to look dead and listening for the sounds of the other survivors’ horses, so that we can ambush them when they come to investigate us. They are better equipped, so this is going to be hard.

In my dream my tools are laid out on a table for examination. A creature, a flying furred snake no longer hovers outside: it pokes its face in the air vent, threatening us. Downstairs, they lube the waterslide with swirls of multicolored shampoo.

In my dream the green vinyl dinette chairs are stacked in interlocking patterns ,waiting to be tossed in a garbage truck. When I look at the ladybug in my hand, I can see how much the radiation has mutated it.