At one point, my family and I had set up a couple targets in my parents' back yard and were shooting at them. Now, mind you, discharging firearms within city limits is extremely illegal, and we've never done it. These weren't pellet guns we were firing-more like AK47's, FN-FALs, Moisn Nagants, etc. Even though it would never happen in real life (in city limits), it was happening in this dream.
We were in my parents' back yard, facing away from the house and toward the back fence. It was a weird juxtaposition of time frames, because the block wall had already been built, but the patio wasn't covered/enclosed yet, and in real life the patio was enclosed years before the wood fence was changed to block. Anyway, my father, my uncle, some of my cousins and myself were shooting various guns (mostly rifles, but a few pistols) at a couple small targets set up in the yard. The targets were actually next to the above-ground swimming pool (which is now gone, but was there in the dream). Eventually I realized that the only target we were really shooting at was a little metal toy dump truck that we used to feed the chickens out of (we filled the back of it with chicken scratch each day when I was a kid in order to feed the chickens). Surprisingly enough, it wasn't all shot up yet.
I wasn't getting to shoot much, as everyone else was up on the firing line most of the time, firing the rifles I wanted to shoot. My dad eventually asked me what else I wanted to shoot. I said something to the effect of, "As funny as it sounds, I'd love to shoot that old single-shot .22 rifle, but you probably don't know which gun locker it's stored in, do you?" He didn't.
At one point, my Uncle Larry was shooting, and his bullet hit what seemed to be empty space near the toy dump truck that we were shooting at (I had since put another large metal toy truck near it for us to shoot at as well). However, a large object began to appear through a mass of hazy, wavy, blurry lines forming an odd shape where his bullet had passed through. We were trying to figure out what we were seeing. Finally, my dad said "Oh my God" or something like that. He called clear on the firing line and walked toward the shape next to the truck. A strange seam had formed in a rectangular shape on the ground below where we had been shooting, as a square slab of cement was buried there and had started to rise up/break out of the ground.
He stuck his hand in the ground in the front seam and lifted. I didn't believe what I saw. A large apparatus lifted out of the ground as if suspended on a large hydraulic hinge. Some type of intricate electronic device was attached to the underside of the concrete slab, and was mounted underground on some kind of hydraulic lift. It was a small missile, approximately six feet long and half a foot wide or so. We were all in shock. My dad deducted that the government must have planted it in the back yard and had probably secretly placed a missile in thousands (if not millions) of people's back yards as part of a clandestine defense system in response to the heightened threat level after September 11th. He also said something like, "The direction that the missile is pointing probably rotates every few days or so."
For reasons unknown to me now (it made sense in the dream), we all took positions on the firing line and opened fire on the missile, which was now pointing somewhat in the direction of the house. I remember commenting that I didn't like the missile pointing at the house. "Shouldn't it be pointing away?" I said. "What if the launch function fails and it only shoots a few feet? It would blow up the house." After unloading a stream of gunfire on the missile, the entire apparatus was a heap of smoking rubble.
Minutes later, two government "repair" agents (they looked like guys from the local utility company) came through the back gate and were asking my dad what happened. He asked them what the missile was doing hidden below the ground in the back yard. They said, "You know you can disable it by using the panel next to your water heater, don't you?" They seemed annoyed, but not too upset, actually.
What followed is the strangest part of the dream. Not long after the "repair" agents arrived and the missile was destroyed, a steady stream of people began entering the back yard. They were all wearing Phoenix Fire Department shirts. A lot of them worked with my dad, but a lot of them were just people (kids, etc.) with FD shirts on. A couple fire trucks pulled in to the back yard through the wide gate. People were jubilant. It was almost like a celebration. I looked down. I was wearing a PFD shirt. I then put a fireman's helmet on. It didn't feel right though. It almost felt like it was an inflatable helmet that was too small... almost like it was sitting on top of my head instead of fitting over my head.
The rest of the dream is a bit foggy, but I remember talking to people about the missile launch apparatus that we had found in the yard and what a shock it was.
