The condensed version is that I was on my way, with a number of other people, to a family reunion to a building that was a laboratory that had a convention room.

  There was a scientist there who was able to clone a human, but they would be inanimate.  He found a way around this by putting some sort of electronic chip into the decapitated heads of the person being cloned.  BTW, he worked only with already dead people.

  The chip was programmed with personality traits of the person, but their behavior could also be modified.  Also, the chip animated the head with controlled electrical impulses.

  I was transported the head of a man's wife.  All the transports were carried in light green buckets with lids, and because the heads were still technically dead, they were packed in ice.

  Through the course of the dream, by various means, including the words of the head herself, the husband had killed her, and now wanted her back, only with a modified personality.

  The husband was, at times, abusive and cruel to her, in the privacy of their home.  The woman's head was getting back some memories, and they were in conflict with her programming.

  She was in part happy to be with her husband, but would then be scared.  It was in her actual dialogue.  She would say something like, "I can't wait to be brought back to life..." (with an almost robotic smile).  Then she would suddenly sound like her original self, and continue the sentence in fear: "... so he can kill me."

  This was not her exact sentence, because I don't recall it, but that's the gist of it.

  At the lab, another woman was holding the head up and out, so the doctor could take care of the problem of the old memories coming back.  She held the head out as far as she could in front of her, but it seemed as if I were holding in front of me.

  The doctor picked up a knife and then stabbed the back of the head.  As this happened, the head took on a sort of frozen mad/insane open-lipped grin, and she seemed to rush towards my face.  This startled me awake.

  I've notice, lately, that when I have dreams that startle me awake (not scare, just startle), it happens "because" the startling thing is suddenly rushing towards my face.