As I recall from my college days, if there's a fire drill (or an actual emergency), you're supposed to head for the nearest fire stairway and proceed downstairs in an orderly fashion. Recently, I had a crazy dream that basically threw out all these rules.
In the dream, I was hanging around in a lounge on one of the higher floors of a college dorm, when the fire alarm went off. At once, many students rushed out of their dorm rooms. But some of them didn't head for the stairs. nstead, some ran up and down the halls, screaming things like "Where's the fire?" and "Is there an active shooter?" It took an effort to make my way through them to the stairs.
As I proceeded downstairs, one of the guys stopped suddenly and said, "When you smell smoke, go the other way!" With that, he turned around and ran upstairs despite my protests that I didn't smell any fire.
Finally, others (the sane ones anyway) and I made it outside onto a courtyard where other people also waited. I didn't bring my purse or phone or keys, just a stupid pair of sunglasses. Even though I was fully dressed, i felt kind of naked.
I couldn't see any smoke of fire in the building, so I asked one of others what was going on.
"I think someone pulled a fire alarm," someone replied.
Figures.
The dream sounds terrifying on paper, but it was more frustrating, trying to deal with crazed people and trying to get out. And now that I look back, the dream was kind of funny in a black comedy way.
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