What does it mean when you dream that you almost died?

This is the question I was presented with this morning as lay in bed at 5 am. Note that sometimes I dream in first person, and I almost always dream in sound/color/smells, etc.

There was some sort of battle or war, and they were beige wearing-Chinese or something similar (probably related to my semi-interested following of what is going on in Korea right now, coupled with economic concerns and China). *We* were holed up in a school that resembled the one I attended for high school, but the land around it resembled more the first college I attended for 3 years. The aggressor shelled the exterior, and then used a type of flat, frisbee shaped artillery through the holes in the facade so they would bounce around inside the building first. We left via the rear of the building as the enemy was beginning to advance personnel towards the school. I sighted in a group of 4-5 and managed to neutralize them, but I called attention to my position behind a tree/mass of roots and was found.

I was shot three times. I woke up. It was around 4 am.  I then went back to sleep, and entered the same dream again, but I woke up back in the school again. I found myself in the company of a person I can only describe as "Gene Hackman"-esque from the Superman I era, coupled with his role in Enemy of the State. He had this cage/workshop/safe area built in the basement of the school that we had to get to, with a few other people that had straggled along back into the building. We, a small group, traveled through some tunnels, presumably to hide out.......


and I woke up again and lay there again for awhile, before deciding that I may as well wake up.