It starts at my house. Out in the street, there are a few guys, I think four, fighting. They have guns and they are holding them right up in each other's faces. I think I'm just about to see somebody get killed.

I go outside and try to find a hidden place from which to observe them. Somebody else is doing the same thing, and they've chosen to lie flat, belly down, on the step in front of my house. That seems like a pretty low-profile hiding place, so I get into the same position a few feet further away.

But then the guys with guns turn toward us and start spraying us with automatic-weapon fire, and we realize that our hiding places are not actually very protected. I can see each bullet approach, and I'm pretty sure I've been hit by at least one, but I don't seem to be injured. Both of us jump up and run around the side of the house, where a small group is gathered. We're fenced into a kind of a three-sided box, with the open side facing into the street. I point out that we're in a position that's pretty difficult for somebody to find, but if they do find us, we have no way to escape, we will just be sitting ducks. We need some defense.

I go in my house to get my rifle. It's in its usual place, so I get it out, but the trigger is tied up with that shiny, colorful little ribbon that one might use on a Christmas package, as a makeshift trigger lock. I start picking at it, but it's tough stuff, and takes me a while to pull it all free. Meanwhile some guy I don't know comes up to me, as if just milling around at a party, and starts admiring my gun and asking me technical questions about it. He asks about the size of bullets, is it one inch, I say yes it is, and he asks me some other question to which I don't know the answer.

I'm not sure if the gun is working or loaded, so I point it at the floor and pull the trigger, and - click - nothing happens. I pull it again - click. Then I realize how stupid that was, if it was loaded, I would have just done some significant damage.

Society has broken down. There's a war, and people are going around and randomly shooting people, terrorizing them. Everybody is afraid.

I sling my rifle, folded in half for convenience, over my shoulder and go out into the city. I think I just want to be where there are more people. But nobody is safe. People look at me with frightened eyes when they see the gun, but I say "it's for defense", and they seem to understand that I'm on the good side.

Then I realize that I forgot the bullets back at home. The gun is empty. I have to go back there and get them. But it's not Portland now, it's some foreign city. I don't know where I am, and I don't know where my house is, or anything. Maybe if I had a map I could find some familiar landmarks. Also I need a pen.

Ok, find a restaurant. You can always steal a pen from a restaurant. Right nearby is a pub with outside seating, and somebody's bill is on the table with several pens. A guy is sitting right there at the table, but he's talking on the phone. I think he sees me snatch one of the pens, but he makes no move as I run off with it.

At a small roadside stand a kid is selling maps, so look through them and pick out the one that seems to have the right scope of information, where I can see the neighborhoods well enough to identify mine. Somebody who is with me pays the kid 350 units of local foreign currency - I have no idea if that price is right, but I need the map now, no time for haggling.

I need to look at the map privately, in a safe place where I don't need to be always watching out for my defense. I find this trail that goes into a secluded valley of woods, and walk along it, but each person I see might be an enemy, and they could easily kill me here. I see a guy walking alone with a gun, so I depart from the trail, and scramble up the steep embankment on the side, about 40 or 50 feet up where I can keep the trail in view but not be seen. I settle in behind a tree, but I keep accidentally kicking rocks and dirt down, giving away my position. There is a guy just down the hill from me, at the level of the trail but in a clearing off to the side just below me, who looks dangerous, and he notices me by the rocks and dirt being kicked down around him. On his shoulder is a parabolic microphone, and headphones on his ears. He's scanning all around the woods, listening for people. It's not safe to even whisper. He looks up at me, and makes no move, but I know I can't stay here.

So I go back to the city and go to a bar or disco. I think I want to ask somebody to help me with the map so I can go find my bullets. It's night now. As soon as I walk in the door, people see my gun, and immediately I'm approached by two big security guards who also have guns, very tough and threatening, blocking me from going any further. I tell them it's just for defense, and they escort me through the bar to the far end, where there is a security check.

There's a girl at the table I have to talk to, in order to make sure I'm not dangerous. I tell her that I just have the gun for defense. She apparently does security checks at various places around town and she says "you've passed my security check with all sorts of sketchy things", and I don't quite understand what she's getting at, but she explains that she lets all sorts of things get by. "Including semiautomatic weapons?" I joke.

She asks me if I'm going to the war, which I don't know about, and she explains that there is a front line, and if we can, we're supposed to go and fight. And also we're supposed to work in the mines.