Setting: Utopian future where it looks very much like present day, but "things" have the unnatural appearance of everything being awesome. There is an underneath tone that things at not good.
Additional Information: There is an academy for youth to go train to fight in the wars. Training at the academy is very prestigious and the entire population admires cadets, but failing out of the academy or leaving is very very taboo. It is seen as an embarrassment and cadets who leave will not be able to return home and/or will be attacked on site by gangs. in the city.
Story: A group of 3 cadets are fleeing the academy. There are actually 4 friends and as they are leaving the 4th friend appears and has to make a choice between staying or going with them. They decide to go with them.
It was a little dangerous escape, but it really escalates when they hit an overgrown embankment leading into a small woods. The embankment is like a valley with grass/undergrowth growing up both sides. As the group enters the valley they are accosted by a gang. The gang easily recognizes them as cadets and proceeds to attack them.
The fight is going poorly for them and almost ends horribly when the leader of the gang has one of the members at spear point and stops the rest from attacking. There is a recognition that this gang member (male) and this cadet (female) have a romantic history. The gang member says something about their past and orders the gang to let them all go. The cadet responds with something along the lines of "well, maybe you aren't entirely bad."
The scene changes to the 4 cadets in a house. They have broken into it. They are concerned with leaving no trace that they were there, apart from some food missing (enough to make someone wonder if another member in the family ate it or if it is truly missing; i.e. I thought I had a few more eggs than this, or that bread went really fast).
The scene changes to a car being driven by a 5th person and 6th person has joined them. The car can sit 6 in 3 rows, but is sporty. Think 3 rows like a minivan, but sporty like a Kia Cadenza.
The driver is talking about payment and how they are 1 person over their allotment. The 2 non-cadets are very skilled at driving and their job of helping others get out of the city. They are eluding police on an interstate and appear to reach a point where they are going collide with the police barricade.
It is at this point that you see the vehicle use a make shift ramp to jump over the police blockade, somehow shoot a cable out of the back of the vehicle an tether itself to the bridge and swing down.
The camera has panned back and you begin seeing the city more accurately. The world is a giant forest with pockets of cities/civilization connected by these interstates/bridges. The particular "city" is on the outskirts of civilization with only jungle like cliff on the other side. The car and group are swinging and are hoping their momentum will get them across to the jungle.
The non-driver passenger, 6th person, says, "I'll be right back" and disappears. The others wait, realize that they have likely somehow made it to the jungle and are going to help from that end. The other start swinging the vehicle and get it latched to a tree that is sticking out of the jungle.
They begin disembarking onto the tree and then nimbly walk across to the main jungle-land. The protagonist is accosted by a child-like indigenous person who begins to attack them. They look a lot like little mummies, but taller, and slenderer. (Imagine if the little sprout guys from Diablo 2 were slightly taller and more slender. You know how they stand on top of each other and 1 carries a big knife. Like those guys, but without the knives and standing on each others shoulders.)
The protagonist immediately recognizes something familiar about the creature but throws it aside. Then 3-4 more emerge from jungle. The theme here is that your part has harmed something/someone and these are spirit incarnations of the hurt/harm done to that thing. Each cadet has hurt them in some fashion whether it is removing an eye, cutting off limbs, or outright killing them in the case of the protagonist. The cries begin to make sense and you hear it crying for its body. It is realized that its body and your body are one in the same, but you have done something to it so that it has lost this connection. You plead and assure it that it can have your body. When you are finished with it and this seems to calm the being down. It is assumed that the other cadets have done the same with their specters.
Your being sees the walk way behind you and proceeds to walk up the limb to the tree. you encourage it on thinking it might be neat to see the vehicle. You are followed by the 6th member who has returned. They apologize for meeting your specter like that and they are going to begin burning the rope/vine holding the car to the tree. This will burn up the car, loosen it from the "cities" and prevent others from following them.
As the specter walks up the limb they see ghosts of their family/your family: brother, sister, mom, dad and addresses them by name. They cause the specter to stop, but they proceed on at your encouragement.
In the tree a faintly glowing woman is now present. She addresses the specter like a child and by first name. She says she has a gift them them (which in my dream is a frisbee) and throws it into the void. Them impression I was given is that it will return them in the appropriate time.
The scene changes to later at a river through the jungle. The river winds around and empties into the chasm/void between the jungle and "cities." One of the cadets is sliding down the river and it is blocked by 2 strange men. When you ask to go by they say sorry, but they did not want you to see your friend killed. You scramble past them and hear your friend clinging to vines. As they swing they are too heavy for the vine and it loosens and they swing to another one. You grab a much sturdier vine, swing down and grab them just in time. (All Tarzan/George of the jungle like.)
The dream ends.
Sorry for switching between first person/third person. There are elements that could make this a neat story so I may have taken some liberties with the narration.
