I've just arrived in New York. I'm walking across a field toward a large, ugly mall which I think is the "National Mall". Just before the entrance, there is a small hill on the right, and I have two cigarettes in my pocket, so I go up on the hill to smoke one of them and look at the city before I go in. A dirt trail crosses the field toward me, parallel to the mall, and a few city-dressed people walk along it.

People start gathering on my hill, looking and pointing toward the city, and I notice a skyscraper burning. It has a big break in the middle, from which back smoke pours, and the top part tilts ominously. The building is brick, in the shape of the KOIN center building in Portland, but in the dream is a famously recognizable building, and I keep my eyes fixed on it expecting something exciting. In a few seconds, it topples into a huge cloud of dust. Two other buildings behind it fall shortly thereafter.

I notice that both my cigarettes are lit, so I put one of them out.

Suddenly a skinny Mexican-looking fellow starts yelling at us in Spanish from down the stairs at the mall's entrance, as if giving us urgent instructions, but I can't follow what he's saying. Another Mexican-looking fellow beside me immediately runs down the to mall entrance, so I follow him down many flights of stairs to what appears to be a subway terminal. I doubt the subways are running, because of the buildings. It is a small terminal, with just a few ticket machines and two security guards.

I ask the Mexican-looking guy if he speaks English, and he answers "Yes", but when I ask him what the guy above was saying, he has no answer, and doesn't seem to understand.