death, muppets, and hand puppets

This dream was weird with a capital EEEEE. Bear with my writing here. I typed quickly to get as many details as I could before they disappeared.


there were three muppet-like characters, all female.  they had been research subjects in a lab, at which point they were small children.  some friends and I had ridden a mini bullet train (it moved slowly, but was sleek and black) through the large building containing the lab, shops, and a stage area, to show off.  we rode through stadium seating where dozens of people were waiting for something to happen on a catwalk-like stage.  my friends and i sat in the open-topped mini cars acting like we didn’t know we were the center of attention and trying to be nonchalantly cool.
back to the muppet things.  they were able to escape while everyone’s attention was on us and our train.
when the creatures were in the lab, they were small children, and ghostly-looking.  very pale, almost translucent skin, and looked like they hadn't been fed enough. they had large, dark, creepy eyes, and no expressions on their faces.  when we came through on the train, they escaped their cages, and they somehow weren’t seen while researchers were running around looking for them.

the train and my friends disappeared from the dream at this point.  then i turned into a 30-something man.

i was in trouble, i figured, for my part in the escape, so i tried to lay low.i was sitting in the same room or hallway as the three test subject children.  suddenly i was reading a printout that was a couple pages long and it got pretty eerie.  it was a story about myself.  in the middle of the last page, it started talking about how, because i had inadvertently helped the kids/test subjects escape, i was going to die.  i read about a bright red stain spreading on my shirt.  then the story went back to me worrying about getting in trouble for accidentally helping with the escape, but every few words would be something like: IT HURTS. then more words. then: THE RED IS SPREADING.  and other creepy things that eventually turned into YOU WILL DIE. YOU WILL DIE.  YOU ARE DYING.  these were between every other sentence in the narrative.  the font of these sentences was bold, and then bold and red, then highlighted in red and larger text.  there were about 20 variations of the message that I was in pain and dying. 
of course, as i read it, i was trying to ignore the fact that there was indeed a bright red stain on my chest, and it was spreading.
then i decided the best thing to do might be to pretend the document was correct (i thought this might make the omen nullified or something) and i pretended to be dead.  this ruse consisted of kneeling on a chair that was in a row of chairs against a wall, sitting under a chrome, wall-mounted coat rack. i hooked my fingers through a couple of the bars of the coat rack and slumped my head down on my chest with my eyes closed, and tried to breathe very shallowly.
sure enough, one of the main scientists walked into the room/hallway then.  he was angry, and muttering about the situation, then he stopped and saw me.  he looked at me for a couple of seconds, then left without caring about my condition.
at that point, the ghosty kids turned into muppet-like creatures.  they were still across the room from me, looking at me with concern.  i realized that i actually did have a bit of pain coming from what i assumed was a wound in my chest.  i looked back at the three creatures helplessly, let go of the coat rack, but didn’t know what to do.  then the one in the middle who was a cross between Miss Piggy and Janice (she had a busybody personality, but was well-meaning and orange), ran forward and hugged me.  when she let go, the red on my shirt was gone and i felt fine, even energized.  the orange gal watched me with concern, evaluating how i felt.
at that point i realized i needed to get those three out of there because they had something special going on with them, and were being hidden and probably mistreated by the scientists who were researching their powers.
the world needed these muppet gifts!
i got out of the building with them because they had a jedi-like power of persuasion.  when guards or scientists encountered us, I would either stand around, waiting to be noticed, or walk directly toward them while muttering to my fuzzy friends out of the corner of my mouth.
“do something. do something now!  they see me!  they’re going to take me away!  use your powers or whatever!”
the trio would say something, or do a magical gesture, and a variety of effects occurred.  either they’d be invisible to the guards, or the guards would believe anything we told them, or they’d just become total idiots and we’d walk right past.  there was at least one interaction that was very much “these are not the droids you seek,” but it was more like “this guy is totally okay, and the scientists want him to do whatever he wants, especially if that is walking out of the building.”
so we got out and ended up on a grassy lawn in front of an old cathedral.  the muppets went inside while i stood around outside and waited for them to complete their mission, or do whatever they had to do in there.
meanwhile a family of about 9 people, seniors through small kids, showed up and wanted to tour the church.  i waylaid them, making them sit on the lawn while i improvised a puppet show.  unfortunately, i didn’t have any puppets, so i used my hands as if i were making shadow puppets.  it was horrible. i was just holding my hands in weird positions in front of the audience, not even trying to cast a shadow.  i couldn’t remember how to make anything once i started to perform (i use that term loosely).  i tried making a dog, which i can do in real life, but it just wouldn’t work.  then i pretended i was making fancy shapes and just fiddled around with my hands, counting on the fact that each observer would assume he or she was the only one just not seeing it.  it was basically an ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ approach.  eventually i just used my hand as a puppet mouth and made it talk to the group in stupid voices.

i think my three fuzzy friends came out of the cathedral at some point so we could regroup and make a new plan.

then the dream changed or i woke up.