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So, I live in one of those cities where its common to hear shooting outside at night, so a shooting in itself isn't all that surprising until I was in the middle of one. My friends and I went out one last time before we leave for college, so we stopped in this small shopping plaza on the way home to hang out. We walked inside of this small shop after standing around outside wondering what we should get. Literally 2 seconds after we walked inside and the cashier greeted us, there was a POP. Loud, powerful, and nearby. My one friend started to say "maybe it's a blown gasket" until 2, 3, 4 more POPs sounded, so we all sort of looked at each other for half a second. My one friend was still trying to explain after the first one, and me and the other friend and the cashier were slowly backing away from the door. Better safe than sorry, y'know. By the third POP, my friend (A) was already diving as far away from the door as possible, and I was right behind her, with friend B not too far behind. Obviously she had realized that act now, think later, was a good idea at this point. Due to corona, the store had tables lined up to block the path to the bathroom, so friend A dove under a table, I squeezed through the tables, and friend B pushed the tables out of the way. We were both all ducking in the alcove, when the cashier that had run to the back opened the door the kitchen for us to hide in there with them. Well, the shooting went on for almost ten minutes with 20+ shots fired, and I was 90% sure we were going to die.
1) the shooting was RIGHT OUTSIDE of where we were
2) the front door was still unlocked because no one had a chance to lock it and the windows and door were transparent so it could be a suicide move
3) the door to the kitchen had no lock
4)there was more than 20 shots in a span of 10 minutes. Either someone was exchanging fire or there was a psycho just shooting down random people. My mind immediately went to the second option.
Once we were back there, two people called the cops, so I went ahead to call my mom and let her know what was going on and not to come pick me up yet. She didn't answer so I texted. We were all sitting in a row behind the counter up against some cabinets. Friend A was sitting on the far end separated from us by the other workers and this crazy girl sent a 'namaste' emoji in the groupchat. Literally, we and the other workers were kind of making jokes while the shooting was going on as a coping method. Honestly, it didn't really settle in that we were getting shot at until the 10th shot, where we were like, "Wow, there's really someone shooting out there and we're gonna die". after that, we were joking and shaking and trying not to cry. I was thinking in my head that if the shooter came in, we were literally shooting ducks. I was also pissed that I was finally leaving the shitty town and we were about to die. We survived high school without a school shooting but now during the summer, the universe is like "HA sike". We were gonna be one of the announcements at the beginning of the school year about kids who somehow died during the summer.
At one point, the shooting stopped for two whole minutes and started again CLOSER to where we were by the back door. I really thought were going to die then.
Luckily, the cops eventually got there. They trapped us in the crime scene with polive tape for 4.5 hours. a bunch of cars were shot up and apparently it was the business in the same building as us getting shot up the most. We were trapped and nervous for three hours, so like normal teens, we posted on our stories and made jokes and tiktoks about how close we were to dying and how quick friend A was about sliding under the tables and how nice the workers were to give us free drinks after the shooting was over.
what's funny is that I came home and told my younger brothers about it, and they basically didn't care lmao ("oh...." and "yeah, mom told me"). I mean, my mom was pretty worried at least. I wondered if I was overreacting about it and it wasn't as serious as it seemed at the time hiding in the back of the restaurant thinking I was about to die. When I finally went to lay down to sleep that night, I realzed my entire body hurt and I had a hard time going to sleep. Then in the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of a door slamming and my sister staring at our door (our door needs extra force to close, and my sister has this paranoia about bugs falling on her when she opens and closes doors). I immediately thought someone invaded out house, and she was staring because she was scared they were going to come in and I almost hit her when I realized that wasn't the case. I swear if I have some type of PTSD, I'll riot. Literally, it wasn't so serious that I should be waking up at night in cold sweats. People have actual issues and problems, like veterans, and victims of sexual assault or terrorist attacks, yet here I am crying over two gun-toting idiots shooting at each other in front of the building I happened to be in. God, I'm weak.
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You aren't weak, you are human and could be suffering trauma from this. Don't be surprised if this has an effect on you. If you start to shake or become scared for no reason or feel any 'off' effect go to a doctor. You should get medication to settle you. I guess you are in the USA where people are allowed to and think it is their right to own guns. The citizens keep their population even by shooting each other I suppose. If guns were made illegal and handed in these unhinged people wouldn't be running around shooting each other. In the country where I am children have no fear of school at all apart from bullying because there has never been a school shooting at all. Anyone who has a gun has to have a license first and these aren't easy to obtain. People in the rural areas have them to shoot animals that are pests. I am glad you lived to tell the tale and hope you are okay. Years ago America wasn't like this. I watch the USA news and am shocked at what goes on.
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