Nightmares On the Beach

      Nightmares, mostly of missing limbs, strange hairy wet creatures rising from their kelp covered slumber and lumbering up on to the beach while I was trying to roll up our sleeping bags and blankets. For some reason I couldn't just leave everything and run up the concrete stairs to the bluffs above.
      I dodged the creatures while carrying one bag rolled up under my arm and the other by the string closure was slung over my shoulder. It kept dropping off and swinging around to smack me in the thigh and get in the way while I was trying to fold the blanket. (Which looked like our old King sized bedspread had been quilted to a thicker under layer.)
      The creatures smelled like rotting fish and rancid cat food. I was struck in the back and tumbled into the bedspread, momentarily becoming tangled. The tide was coming in and the bottom of the blanket got wet, making it nearly impossible to fold.
      There were dozens of people on the bluffs overlooking the beach, all of them were screaming. The creatures were distracted by the noise and shambled to the bottom of the cliffs and howled up at the people on the bluffs above them. I tried to make as little noise as possible while making the final folds of the wet blanket. I wrung as much water out as I could and picked the soggy mess up and shouldered it along the waterline around the beach to the stairs.
      As I climbed the stairs I thought about how the nightmare part of the dream was over and it could only get better. M was about halfway up the stairs. His family had gone ahead and he was wrestling with his wheelchair to get up the last 20 steps or so alone. He was complaining loudly about the problems with his numb feet and having to walk up because no one was strong enough to push him. I tried to get him to quiet down a little bit, but he insisted on yelling up after his family. I put the two sleeping bags in his wheelchair. The shambling furry, seaweed covered beasts had honed in on his shouting and were shambling up the stairs behind us.
      I made my way down towards them and swung the wet blanket out like a floppy club. They didn't even try to dodge my blows. The wet blanket struck with my full swing and its own considerable weight. The first of the shamblers toppled down the stairs. It was too bad the stairway was so wide that it missed all of its followers. I stepped down and over, wound up to take the next one out. That one ducked. At least it wasn't advancing. I wound up and swung again, this time making a full circle and catching it as it stood back up. With a loud wet "smack!" it tumbled down after the first.
      I ran over to the next one, it ducked, twice. I realized I was going to have to do something different to stop each one, and there were still five of them coming up the stairs. I didn't know that the ones I'd knocked down would stay down. I swirled the blanket around in the other direction. It didn't seem to even see it coming that time and down the stairs it bounced squishing and gurgling at is rolled. The next shambler went down to the circle trick after ducking the initial blow. All I could think of for the next on was a double swing. It ducked twice, and sure enough my third pass struck it smack in the face, leaving a green ooze all over the blanket. It went tumbling down, but I knew that stain was going to be hard to remove. I advanced on the next across the stairs. Spinning in the opposite direction I managed to take it out also on the third pass.
      I was already dizzy, and had almost tumbled after that shambler, so paused to climb back up a half dozen of the wide steps. I looked down at he base of the stairs. The one I'd knocked down last had taken two of its fellows with it. There were only a couple left on the stairs, so I moved to be directly in front of their advance. The stopped, looking at me, thinking.
      When they moved to my left I moved with them. They stopped and thought again. The one further back stepping up closer, but the closest not advancing. They moved to the right.
      I moved with them. Again the one behind advanced to the step directly below its predecessor. I hefted the blanket into a circle and stepped down towards them. The first one ducked, but the second one took a full swing to the head and toppled over. The rolled up blanket dropped on top of the ducked shambler. It grabbed on. I tugged to the right, and then the left, but the shambler would not let go, and would not be moved. It was so heavy I wondered how I'd been able to knock any of them down. It pulled on the blanket, but rather than resisting I shot towards it, using the blanket like a battering ram (crash pillow?) and body checked the soggy mass. It dropped on its butt with a fish scented "floomp!" then tumbled backwards down the remaining steps. Taking my blanket with it the first couple of rolls. I raced after to recover the blanket, not so much now because N would be angry if I returned without it, but because blanket fu had been successful and I really didn't' want to try hitting them without it.