Don't Take The Freeway

I was driving home through the city one fine, sunny afternoon. I decided to hop on the freeway, figuring it would be faster since rush hour wouldn't start for another hour or two. The freeway on-ramp I took was a part of a massive interchange the city rebuilt a couple years ago connecting the two main highways of the city. I hadn't taken this particular on-ramp before and, because this particular ramp went up to join with the freeway, I couldn't see if there was much traffic. Since this monstrosity of an interchange was built, its been a bottleneck so i figured there would be some traffic so I kept it fairly slow, much to the chagrin of the person behind me. It was very fortunate I had been going so slow because, sure enough, when I crested the rise, I found a mass of gridlocked cars not moving an inch. I wait for a short minute or so for someone to let me in but the cars still haven't moved an inch so I figure I'll drive up the rest of the merging lane and see if I can see what happened, at least get a little rubbernecking done while I wait. I figured I might see some police and ambulances from some really bad accident or a semi tipped over across the interstate or something but what I found was much more confusing. Just beyond the limit of the merging lane was clear open road with one heavily armed army guy blocking it. I edged a little closer and he pointed his gun at me and yelled at me to stop. I roll down my window and ask what's going on and how much longer it'll be and he just ignores me. At this point I get out of my car since it doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere anytime soon. A number other people do the same and, as one might expect, rumors start flying. 'Some idiot from the ghetto must have been shooting at people on the freeway again,' 'the glare from the sun on one particular part of the interchange is really bad this time of day, someone caused a pileup,' 'my girlfriend's brother works for the police and they're doing some sort of training exercise in case of an emergency...' After a couple minutes, we notice a helicopter cruising toward our general direction. Thinking they must be taking someone off the road in a flight for life, I think we'll be moving again soon and make to get back in my car. Then I notice the helicopter is green. And has a giant machine gun hanging out of it. And when it passes by I see a good half dozen heavily armed army guys inside. As soon as the helicopter arrived on scene, the firecracker sounds break out from the stretch of road above us. The army guy guarding the road tells us all to get down and be quiet. Indistinguishable sprays of automatic fire are echoing off of the interchange's twists of concrete and steel so it is hard to tell what is happening and where it is happening but it sounds like it is all around us and it sounds like it is getting louder. I see some flashes and some puffs of smoke on another on-ramp. I guess that's where they are, not above us. Then I see more flashes and puffs of smoke from just beyond where the army guy stopped us. A stray bullet hits the bottom of the ramp just above us, someone yells sniper and panic ensues. People get back in their cars and try to push their way through, others run, others are frozen. I run toward the middle of the road hoping that the road above and cars around me will provide some cover. Just then there's a torrent of bullets coming down the on-ramp I was just on. I barely get a glimpse of the speeding SUV that was the source before I turn and make for the edge of the road. I jump down to the next level and from there continued to jump down. Fortunately, reality was breaking down in this dream because these were good 10-20m drops to other conveniently positioned on-ramps and I had no time to look where I was jumping. Below the interchange is a large parking structure which I continue to jump down level by level as quickly as I can. Nobody in the parking structure seemed to have any idea that anything was amiss because they looked at me like I was a lunatic. I finally made it down to the ground floor where I finally felt safe and woke up. I'm not sure how well I was able to describe this one but it was the most intense 5 minute dream I may have ever had.