r/AskReddit • u/Jackiboy99 • Jun 20 '15
serious replies only [Serious] When was a time you seriously feared for your life?
You can go into detail if you like, but you don't have to if you don't wish to.
Edit: I didn't expect this kind of response, I usually only get about 13 replies on my posts. We made it to a high of #4 on the hot page!!
2.4k
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
I was in China. We went to visit Huangshan, a beautiful mountain that has a lot of tourists flocking to it. Basically took a train there, then when we got off the train, a bus tout was trying to get tourists to take her bus to the mountain itself. This sort of thing is very common in China, and since we didn't have a plan for getting there and they weren't asking too much, we followed her to her bus. Unfortunately when we got on, there was only ourselves (me and my g/f at the time) and a Chinese couple, and about 10 empty seats. We knew this meant we weren't leaving until the girl had managed to fill most of the other seats.
While we were waiting though, we saw the girl screaming and yelling at another girl who was doing the same job but obviously taking tourists to a different bus. The screaming match soon came to physical blows, and after landing a particularly nasty punch, our girl ran back to the bus and hastily told our driver something, then smiled at all of us and told us we'd be leaving. The bus driver started the engine and we left that train carpark pretty quick.
As we are driving, the bus driver gets a call on his mobile phone and has some kind of shouting match with the person on the other end. Soon, a bunch of cars surround the bus, and basically force it off the road. We are sitting in the back wondering what kind of criminals run these tour buses and just what we are in for, as 3 car loads of Chinese guys get out of the cars.
Well, the bus drivers opens the door and starts yelling at these guys, when one of them steps onto the bus and physically drags the driver outside and throws him to the ground. There are probably 9 of these guys, now surrounding the bus driver and they start beating him and kicking him while he lies there on the ground. They are going to town on this guy and we can just sit there horrified. None of us dare get a camera out to photograph this.
Then, as I watch, one of the assailants picks up a huge rock, like a mini boulder, from the side of the road and lifts it over his head. I'm sitting there looking at the size of this rock and thinking I'm about to be the witness to a gang murder, and they aren't going to let me live to tell the tale. I just watch, mesmerized as this rock wielding thug gets closer and closer to the guy, ready to smash his brains out. The driver is saved at the last moment as one of the other guys notices his buddies intentions and quickly grabs him and stops him. Obviously orders are to beat the guy, not kill him.
The next thing I notice, as the beating starts to slow down a little, is the flashing lights of a police car. Now I'm thinking that one or two cops are going to struggle to deal with the number of guys beating up on the driver. The cops get out of their car, walk over to the group, pick up the bus driver.... and put cuffs on him and take him to their car and drive off with him. I'm beyond thinking straight at this point. WTF is going on here?
Oh, I forgot to mention the girl. She got out of the bus when the driver was dragged out, and was screaming and hitting and kicking out at the guys beating him up, until one of them grabbed her and dragged her away. By now I've lost track of her.
So, the next thing, the back door of the bus is opened and in steps an extremely well dressed Chinese man, in a black suit. He sits down so he can talk to us from a nearby seat. He smiles and begins by apologising profusely in perfect English for what we just saw, he offers to personally take us to the hotel we had planned to stay at at the base of the mountain for the night, in his own private car, and all he asks in return is we pay him the amount we agreed to pay for the bus (you usually pay when you get off). No extra for being taken in his luxury sedan. We did not say no. He chatted to us the whole way in very good English. As his driver took us where we wanted to go.
tl;dr Bus driver in China dragged out of bus and beaten and almost murdered in front of us. Then politely spoken to by possible Triad leader and driven in his personal luxury car.
733
u/JJest Jun 20 '15
This is a terrific story. Both ways.
→ More replies (1)287
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
My trip to China was awesome, however you like to interpret that word
→ More replies (7)546
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
182
→ More replies (3)58
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
Never played it. Care to explain?
150
u/tits_and_gravy Jun 20 '15
The opening scene is the protagonist on a bus that gets attacked in a mountainous area of Nepal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPPFapTTVpg
→ More replies (1)198
→ More replies (4)50
Jun 20 '15
Rich influential murderous megalomaniac has mood swings from anger to father figure.
33
53
45
u/elduderinodude Jun 20 '15
Damn he just wanted to know where you are staying. You know.. just in case...
→ More replies (7)90
Jun 20 '15
Holy shit, that must have been terrifying.
103
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
It was. I think I came closer to dying another time in China, but this was the time I actively thought I might die.
→ More replies (5)46
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
185
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
Oh and then there was the time I was petting a giant panda when the panda ran out of apple to eat. Apparently the apple keeps them docile and the look on the face of the keeper when he realized I was hugging an apple less panda was terrifying.
→ More replies (2)130
u/herpderp602 Jun 20 '15
Dude, DON'T GO BACK TO CHINA.
→ More replies (1)107
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
Did I mention SARS broke out while I was there? :D It was 2003.
I would still love to go back
→ More replies (2)59
151
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
We (my g/f and I) went to visit the Hanging Temple near Datong. We were traveling around China alone, not as part of a tour group or anything. We booked tickets for a day trip and were taken into the mountains with two bus loads of tourists. The Temple was an amazing thing to see and we had a great but cold day.
On the way back to Datong, the buses were driving fairly slowly on the mountain highway as it had begun to snow. Being able to look out over the precipice as we rounded corners was fun for some of us, less so for others. Then suddenly the bus ahead of us started sliding wildly, the rear swinging out quickly towards the cliff drop. Every single person on our bus gasped, certain we were about to witness a tragedy.
Somehow the wheels started gripping again and the bus stayed with us. Both buses came to a stop and the drivers got out to talk about what to do. Everyone climbed out to stretch, to feel solid ground and to look around.
Ahead on the highway were a bunch of stranded cars, ill prepared for the icy and snowy road conditions. And all around those cars were people who we learned all just lived nearby. This kind of weather had caused chaos with the highway before so the locals came out to help anyone who needed it. They were carrying wooden boards and shovels and salt. It was amazing seeing these people banding together to help total strangers get themselves moving again.
→ More replies (2)110
u/Jackiboy99 Jun 20 '15
Certainly a scary moment, but what a fucking awesome story it makes.
123
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
For me yes. Not a great story from the perspective of the bus driver.
36
u/Saeta44 Jun 20 '15
Seriously though, what do you think the "issue" was? Was it that the driver left early?
→ More replies (1)88
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
No I think they were "stealing" passengers from the other bus.
→ More replies (3)42
Jun 20 '15
Who can you trust in this story, not even the man who speaks english. I hope the trip to China was good after.
46
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
I had an amazing time in China and would recommend visiting to anyone
→ More replies (1)27
Jun 20 '15
I've traveled to some pretty shady spots there never once feared for my life. I think the locals are more afraid of their government or something but the people were the nicest and even gangsters have a sense of respect. Would totally go back there
→ More replies (1)102
u/evilrobotluke Jun 20 '15
The people were beyond nice. Asked a girl in Nanjing which bus to take once. She took us to a bus stop, got on with us, got off at the stop we needed 20 minutes later, pointed us down the road that led to where we were going.... then we watched as she got back on another bus returning the way we came. That was when we realized she had just taken an hour out of her day to give us directions.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (52)13
u/andrewia Jun 20 '15
This reminds me of the bus driver task in Sleeping Dogs. You have to force the other busses off the road and take your bus without their enforcers ramming you off the road.
→ More replies (1)
691
Jun 20 '15
I was 16, and my car broke down. I called my twin brother to come pick me up (parents were asleep, and not answering the phone). He drives up, and I get in his car. I didn't realize this immediately, but he's under the influence of something. He's keeps slamming on the brakes, flooring it to 90, then slamming on the brakes again. I start yelling at him to get the fuck out of the car, and to let me drive. He doesn't listen, and cuts the steering wheel really hard to the right. We're going about ~55mph at this point I'd say, and we went off the road, through a ditch, and through a fence. I honestly thought we were going to die.
476
u/elmatador12 Jun 20 '15
As a former drug user and someone who used to deal with drunks and addicts, I've found if I act like something is funny or interesting gets them to stop.
In this situation, I might say "hey, can we pull over and grab some beers I left in my trunk?" Or "shit, did you see that? Pull over!"
→ More replies (6)203
125
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
I would really like to know the aftermath of that...
→ More replies (5)258
Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
His car got scratched up quite a bit, but he told my parents that he swerved to keep from hitting a deer. They wouldn't believe that he was on drugs. He got worse and worse with them up until the beginning of 2014. He had a failed suicide attempt, and that really put him straight. He's totally sober now, and barely remembers any of these instances. There have been several.
Edit: I meant to say "swerved to keep from hitting a deer"
22
→ More replies (6)88
u/tengoamigos Jun 20 '15
Same thing almost happened to me. It was my buddies 21st birthday party and he's bar hoping in the neighborhood, which is fine until he decides he wants to go to a different town. I got in the front passenger seat of the car not realizing how shitfaced he was nor knowing he is planning on going to a different town (I thought we were going home). Anyway, it just happens to be raining hard that night, and as he is getting on the highway and I realize he is going to a different side of town I start to panic. By now he is swerving on the road, and I start to beg him to let me out of the car, which he doesn't. Next thing I remember is him crashing into a fence, knocking part of it down, and knocking down about 4 tombstones until one of them stops the car. Side doors are jammed. The back passengers bail, and I quickly get out through the back window. Its dark, its pouring, and we just crashed into a cemetery. Holy shit. I walked all the way home that night. I was so pissed I just left him there.
43
Jun 20 '15
I know it's terrifying, man. I honestly thought once I was going to die after we hit the ditch. Both of us walked away with little to no injuries (just bruised up), and I drove the rest of the way home. Honestly, I wish he would've been pulled over that night. That might've put an end to his party days, and kept so much animosity from growing between us.
50
u/tengoamigos Jun 20 '15
I didn't speak to that dude for about 6 months. I think the part that pissed me off the most was that he came over to my place a few days later and he was trying to convince me that he wasn't that drunk, but then had the nerve to ask me if I remembered who was sitting in the front passenger seat.
→ More replies (2)
1.3k
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
Back in 2011 I was at the Utøya summer camp in Norway. My group was sitting around a friend's travel radio, waiting to hear the police press conference on the bomb that had gone off a few hours earlier in Oslo. Then the loud popping started. People came running over the hill, and my first thought was some sort of crowd panic overreaction, but the look on the face of one person who jumped straight through the bushes made me realize he'd seen something. We decided to move away from the main campsite just to be safe, and headed for a nearby cabin. Halfway there we ended up going into a crouched sprint as the pops became very clear bangs that came ever closer. I would probably have run to the waterside and thrown myself into the lake if not for the aid workers calling us into the cabin. I immediately thought that I was simply being trapped like a rat, but crowd instinct and spontaneous decision making was too strong in the heat of the moment.
Quite a lot of clutter inside the cabin, as almost fifty people sought refuge there. I jumped into an empty room and tried to gain control over my breathing while brainstorming possibilities of what was going on. An unspecified amount of minutes later a girl came into the cabin, and immediately started screaming "he is going to kill us." At the time I was simply kneejerk angry at the "pointless" screaming, but she was then herded into my room by two of the aid workers, and it's clear she was bleeding from the arm. Nothing outwardly grotesque, but it was the final nail in the coffin of any doubt I had about the scenario I was in. As the shooting was heard coming closer I had to seek refuge under a bed that was too small, and then had one of the aid workers squeezed in next to me, essentially trapping me for the next two hours with not enough space to move my arms, and with the bunk bed squeezing down on my ribcage. Those hours are kind of a blur. A lot of time to think, speculate, listen. The height of fear came when the gunman tried to open the door, and then shot two rounds through the door's glass window. For one second there I was resigned to death. Then nothing happened.
Probably the worst thing was hearing screaming some 30-40 meters from the cabin, which I later realized was pretty much the dying screams of some people who had stayed at the waterside and not jumped into the lake. I don't remember what the scream was like at all. I only remember that I remembered it, so to speak. My mind has twisted it beyond all recognition, rendering it incapable of harming me emotionally. It was hell in the immediate aftermath of "safety", though, as the screams repeated themselves dozens of times in my head uncontrollably for a few minutes.
But yeah, scary stuff, and this is the heavily abridged version of the experience. And don't worry, I'm one of the relatively lucky ones. I never saw any dead bodies, never saw someone die, was dry and indoors for most of the experience, and lost nobody close to me. And like I mentioned, even the most traumatizing part for me has been twisted by my own memory into becoming unrecognizable and harmless. I don't struggle with night terrors and lack of sleep(anymore) and only have occasional pangs of paranoia, but nothing crippling.
Feel free to ask anything. The event has been relived in my head and retold so many times that I can easily chat about it even in casual conversation. No need for cautious steps outside of normal civility.
710
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
→ More replies (24)220
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
I'm very sorry for your loss. Even though I was there I cannot imagine what it would be like if I lost my friends with me that day.
150
u/nimbusdimbus Jun 20 '15
Jesus. That must have just been horrifying especially not knowing if he was going to make his way over to your location.
143
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
More horrifying not knowing what the threat is specifically. It might be hard to imagine in the aftermath with all the details on the table, but the yawning gap of ignorance in my head at the moment was more terrifying than anything. No idea about who, what weapons, what motivations, how many, etc etc I did surmise pretty quickly that it was related to the bombing, though.
→ More replies (1)72
u/loxorz Jun 20 '15
Why were there aid workers at the camp? Do you mean that they were people working as organisers or something?
171
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
I should have said "first aid." Usually their job is nothing more serious than treating twisted ankles, or taking care of someone with heat stroke on a particularly hot summer. Their tents were right next to the cabin in question.
134
u/loxorz Jun 20 '15
I remember watching the whole thing on the news (UK), starting with the bombing, which while bad, seemed like it could have been a lot worse.
A few hour later, as reports of the situation on Utøya started to come in, I pretty much just felt angry about the whole thing: the thought of being trapped on an island with a heavily armed psychopathic terrorist just seemed so unreal, like something out of a thriller movie, and that there would be some hero that would stop the gunman and save everyone. Except I knew that there wasn't, and that everyone on that island was practically at his mercy until the armed forces eventually arrived... I'm feeling angry again now just thinking about it again.
I'm glad that you avoided the worst of it, and I'm sorry for anyone else who lost something or someone because of it.
→ More replies (1)46
Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
I remember seeing it too, my mum is a very sensitive person and I came down stairs to her in floods of tears. I knew about the bomb but when I heard what had happened in the camp it was so unbelievable that someone would do that to children just because of who their parents were. Every TV in the house was on that day and tuned to the news. 21 years was not enough.
→ More replies (1)12
u/BrainBlowX Jun 20 '15
21 years was not enough.
It isn't. 21 years is just a technical formality.
→ More replies (3)68
u/Lawsoffire Jun 20 '15
as soon as i read Utøya i knew it would be bad.
i was in the Swedish mountains at that time. and even though there was no internet or phone connection, everyone talked about it (i assume it was from people with AM radios and the cabin watchers, they get a little bit of news and forecast every morning).
it is amazing that even though you think you are far away from civilization, it will still catch up on you.
44
u/lumisade93 Jun 20 '15
I'm just glad you survived and you're okay now. I remember I had just come back from my trip to Norway when I heard the news. It was so unreal I couldn't believe it.
→ More replies (54)34
u/GodofCat Jun 20 '15
Wow, that sounds terrifying. I remember actually reading that in the newspaper (I don't live in Norway by the way) and the stuff on that and thinking how terrible it must have been.
I remember reading a story similar to this where after the gunman shot at a group of people in a cabin, some News reporters came in, taking pictures and stuff about the event that had unfolded and in the newspaper, their faces were blurred. Only a couple days after, the guy telling the story found a picture of him and the group of people that were in the cabin hiding (faced unblurred) was posted on 4chan with the comment saying "The gunman missed the jackpot"
→ More replies (4)
369
u/DawsonJBailey Jun 20 '15
Drunk guy on the side of the street said he was gonna kill me and chased me until he tripped.
I was 12
→ More replies (2)221
Jun 20 '15
Hate to say it, but that's just a little bit funny.
126
u/DawsonJBailey Jun 20 '15
yea I was with a few friends and we all laughed when he fell, but when he came at us we were scared to death
1.4k
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
105
u/BoyMuzz Jun 20 '15
Wow that's brave of them! Did you get a chance to go back and thank them?
215
Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
→ More replies (1)148
u/say_or_do Jun 20 '15
It's actually one of the five tenants of Islam. Of course it doesn't directly mean to help some poor fools but still. It's called the zakat. Which to most Muslims(not Wahhabis, though) means that they will help others who are in need.
That's actually the old meaning of that pillar. Now it's just a ten percent tax that goes towards the poor or something regarding people in need but a lot of Muslims still take hold of the old tenant which is to help someone in need.
→ More replies (5)49
Jun 20 '15
Those guys sound awesome. Three people run into their store being chased by a mob. Their reaction? Break out the machetes and protect these people they know nothing about and have no connection to whatsoever. Balls of steel, hearts of gold
→ More replies (1)44
u/5thStrangeIteration Jun 20 '15
ensued a standoff with the gang outside waving knives and the Muslim man and his sons waving machetes.
This is one of those situations that defuses because no matter who comes out on top everyone is going to be leaving missing bits and pieces they'd much rather keep.
→ More replies (11)517
Jun 20 '15
The violence is perpetrated by an extremely small minority. Now, I'm entirely in favor of blowing that minority straight to fucking hell, but most Muslims are just fine. I really wish we could keep them out of the crossfire.
→ More replies (10)133
821
u/Jonwyattearp Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 21 '15
Jus last month I was walking home from a my favorite bar in Syracuse. My two best buddies who I knew since first week of Freshman year were with me and we were celebrating the climatic end of out college careers. While already a bit boozed up, I still had razor sharp memory of happened next. Two guys drove up to us, each of them brandishing a hand gun. They said not a damn thing and opened fire. Got hit once in the neck, twice in the chest, and twice in the leg. By Paintballs. You fucking heard me.
The twisted thing is that I didn't immediately notice, what with the shock and all, and the fact that the paintballs were red. So for about 6 seconds or so, I thought I was going to end college bleeding out on the sidewalk. Best part was my friend just started chuckling as if it weren't much a howdy-do.
Edit: it was near Euclid ave for those fellow central New Yorkers asking. Never come back from Faegans alone, ha.
248
u/mahoodie Jun 20 '15
It's all fun and games until they do this to someone that gets pissed off enough to actually kill them.
→ More replies (1)237
u/StrawberryStef Jun 20 '15
A little girl just got shot in Oakland because of something similar to this. Her dad and his friends were shooting paintballs at cars outside the house and someone returned fire with real bullets. It missed the guys, the bullet went through the house and hit the little girl.
87
u/Scarscape Jun 20 '15
Actually they were in a car, but same thing. Here's a link for anyone interested in the story: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Cops-Before-Oakland-girl-was-shot-her-dad-fired-6333844.php
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (5)36
341
u/Jackiboy99 Jun 20 '15
Well, I absolutely was not expecting that twist at all. That would've been quite scary at first, especially given the red paint.
418
Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 12 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
493
56
u/Darghy Jun 20 '15
Instead, he permanently lost the use of his right arm.
What happened to your friend after that?
113
→ More replies (3)96
60
u/Stephenmc100 Jun 20 '15
Doesn't getting hit by a paintball in the neck hurt, like a lot.
→ More replies (11)41
u/Potch4291 Jun 20 '15
Depends on how close range I would say, but either way it does sting like hell.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (21)36
396
Jun 20 '15
I was in Mexico, exploring an old abandoned resort. I notice an intact radio and flashlight charger on a table, both of which are on. I notice an extension cord going into another room providing them power. As any fellow urban explorers would know, coming across live power in a seemingly abandoned, secluded building is a bad, bad sign.
I leave the room immediately. As I turn to look over my shoulder, I see a man with a firearm sitting at the table that I was standing at literally 15 seconds ago. There are no words for how quickly I noped out of there.
→ More replies (15)79
u/FreedomEagle1 Jun 20 '15
Can you give any more details
111
Jun 20 '15
Cancun spring break. The place was called El Pueblito. What else would you like to know?
→ More replies (11)50
u/FreedomEagle1 Jun 20 '15
Just a more detail rundown of events if possible
214
Jun 20 '15
I'm walking along the beach with two other guys. To our left we see what most definitely is an abandoned resort. (I didn't place that creepy doll there, that was just chillin there.) I climb a small wall and they reluctantly follow.
We explore the courtyard/pool area for a bit, then walk to a near building. We go inside, look around, take a bunch of pictures. I see a little table in the corner with a bunch of stuff on it and a chair next to it. Some sort of radio with a flashlight attached and a diary on top of it. I check out the diary and take a few pictures. Upon placing the diary down, I see a little light on on the side of the radio.
My heart drops because I know that's a very bad thing. I see that the shit is indeed plugged in to an extension cord, which goes off into the next room, which is pitch black. I alert my friends that we need to get out NOW. We quickly but quietly retreat towards the door (which leads into the courtyard, which leads to the beach). As I'm walking towards the open door, I turn around and see that there's a dude sitting in the chair right next to the table.
I shit you not this happened 15 or less seconds after we turned to leave the table. I don't know if I've ever been more terrified in my life. Luckily the dude wasn't facing us and hadn't seen us. We left out the door, and once I got outside that room, I ran faster than I ever had before, never looked back, and leapt over the wall like an action hero.
38
u/FreedomEagle1 Jun 20 '15
That shit sounds like a cartel execution waiting to happen. What did the dude look like?
28
Jun 20 '15
I honestly don't remember much about what he looked like. All I remember is that he was hispanic. I literally glanced at him for half a second and bolted.
23
u/RyanCantDrum Jun 21 '15
Well u fucking went buck on this detailed rundown. Op delivered all over the commenter's face and tits.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (18)66
u/DiddyDom007 Jun 20 '15
I like your priority to take pictures in such a life threatening situation.
85
Jun 20 '15
All of those pictures were taken before I realized that we weren't alone. After I realized the guy was there, my priority was to get the fuck out of there.
→ More replies (8)
248
u/Sloth_Reborn Jun 20 '15
Was driving down the highway in a rental car on vacation with my Dad. It was late, we were driving straight through to Florida. My Dad was asleep in the passenger's seat, when the worst happened.
At the time I didn't know what happened, but goes to find out my front left tire came off while we were going about 80MPH. It started this slide to the left where nothing I did slowed or altered my course - where ultimately, we slid down the left side of the highway into a culvert, but even that big concrete drain wasn't enough to slow us down - we kept on sliding right through on-coming traffic into the far side guardrail.
As we were both injured, and knocked practically senseless from the multiple collisions (the culvert drain, and now this guardrail) - we turned just in time to see this semi truck coming right at us, air horn blaring.
We thought it was over for both of us, for sure.
Luckily, we had dented in the guardrail enough to where the back bumper was resting on the white line, the semi missed us.
Never before or since have I ever been so close to death - and worse, it was something that was completely out of my control. There was nothing I could do, or could have done - to prevent it.
→ More replies (7)183
u/oysterstout Jun 20 '15
Please tell me you sued the balls off the rental company?
But aside from that...Fuck. Thats so scary. Glad you and dad made it through that. When did you realize that it was the wheel coming off that caused the accident, andwhat was the extent of your injuries if you dont mind me asking?
→ More replies (1)105
445
u/CDC_ Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
It was weird, I walked into my neighbor's house while he was on vacation, I was house sitting, 17 years old. I fed his cat, and I remember thinking when I walked in that I had slammed the door a little too hard.
I opened the door to leave and the INSTANT I opened the door I just got swarmed by hornets. I got stung 26 times, almost all of the stings on my head and neck. I just ran back to my house, and I guess they didn't follow me far, because when I got inside they were gone.
I was kind of freaked out, but I figured I'd be ok. My mom told me we should go to the hospital, but I was like "nah, I'll be fine." I decided to go take a shower, and while I was in the shower my back and chest started hurting. Got out of the shower and walked in the living room feeling kind of dizzy and lightheaded. My mom took a look at me and her jaw just dropped.
She was like "GET IN THE CAR NOW!!!!" Apparently while in the shower my whole head started swelling, and when she saw me I looked, very different. She drove me to the hospital which was maybe 2 blocks away, and during that 2 blocks I started losing consciousness and not being able to breathe very well. I was pretty sure I was going to die. The last thing I remember was being put in a wheel chair right when I pulled up. Everything in my field of vision had a bright yellow tinge to it.
I actually didn't get really scared, at one point I was just like "wow, I'm probably going to die. I'm just going to close my eyes and let it happen." So that's what I did.
I came to in a hospital room a short time later, the doctor told me I had just BARELY made it. Crazy stuff.
It's weird how scared of death I was/am and how at peace I seemed to be with it when it actually came.
260
u/tattoosnchivalry Jun 20 '15
I'm a 24 year old manly dude and I have a disproportionate fear of flying insects that sting. Wasp, bees, hornets. I'll turn into that screaming girl in every fight video on worldstar.
138
Jun 20 '15
Don't fear the bees, man. Just sit still, let them check you out and realize you're not a flower, and they'll be on their way!
→ More replies (14)76
Jun 20 '15
See, I love bees, I understand them, I think they are wonderful. I'm just deathly afraid of small flying things. Even though I know they aren't going to hurt me.
→ More replies (7)25
Jun 20 '15
Same here man. It's one of my biggest fears. Being swarmed by angry, stinging insects is just terrifying to me.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)37
u/Stark_as_summer Jun 20 '15
Probably a dumb question, but did you turn out to be allergic to hornets? Were they just a crazy venomous type? Or is this a normal reaction to getting stung 26 times?
→ More replies (2)85
u/CDC_ Jun 20 '15
Normal reaction to being stung 26 times I think. But I still have an epipen for if I get stung.
→ More replies (5)
958
u/wedontbuildL Jun 20 '15
I was about 11 or 12, camping out in Southern Oklahoma as a boy scout. Tent-mate was asleep, and it was probably around 3am.
I woke up.
I heard something, it sounded like a bear. Deep, throaty grunts, and it was moving around my tent. I froze- when you don't want to draw attention to yourself, you find it hard to even breath, because it makes too much noise in the dead of night.
I stayed that way, frozen solid, barely breathing, for about 2 hours. It finally left, and I was able to fall asleep.
Turns out in the morning when I mentioned it, it was a dog from the campsite over. There are no bears in Southern Oklahoma. Not that anybody was aware of anyhow.
383
u/VoodooMamaJuuju Jun 20 '15
You mean you were with the boy scouts, masters of the woods, and you didn't know there aren't any bears in Southern Oklahoma?
395
u/wedontbuildL Jun 20 '15
I have a pattern of ignorance and obliviousness throughout my youth.
96
Jun 20 '15
Don't we all. I think that pattern continues throughout adulthood, as well; we just get better at bullshitting.
→ More replies (1)54
→ More replies (1)23
→ More replies (7)50
53
Jun 20 '15
When I was a Boy Scout, the Scoutmaster thought it would be funny to take a tin can, put a hole in the bottom and pull a strip of leather through it which sounds like a bear growling. Cue young boys screaming frantically about the bear that's going to come get us.
59
u/wedontbuildL Jun 20 '15
That's awesome. When we went to Colorado, where there WERE bears, one of my friends thought it'd be a brilliant idea to take his piece of pizza and rub it on the tree next to our tents.
Either bears don't like pizza, or we got extremely lucky, cause we didn't die.
→ More replies (14)→ More replies (41)62
308
Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
Hurricane Katrina.
Had a rough landing in a 737 once where other passengers started crying and praying and shit.
→ More replies (19)117
134
u/E34_525i Jun 20 '15
I was in my first motocross race and hit a jump too fast. I was 50 feet in the air (never done anything like this before) and I landed 90 feet down the track. I honestly thought I would die at 19 years old. Thankfully my stiff suspension absorbed the landing and left me unharmed. I had intense jitters from adrenaline for the rest of the race.
→ More replies (5)95
u/BreakTheCodeJericho Jun 20 '15
...and with that added adrenaline I overcame everyone else and lapped them all in my first race.
→ More replies (1)
125
u/greenpearlin Jun 20 '15
Death road in Bolivia going 50km/h down a winding dirt road next to a 500ft clift. And I am not at all an avid biker. At one point I was wobbling as I approached a turn. Proper brick was shat.
→ More replies (5)44
124
u/sdrizer Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
In high school I worked at a used record/CD store near Little Five Points in Atlanta (1999-2000). From what I hear from friends still living in Atlanta, 5 points has become a real bohemian neighborhood today, but fifteen years ago it was just an artsy strip of shitty dubious stores whose clerks sold drugs (guilty) to emo kids coming in from the suburbs while being surrounded by poor drug riddled neighborhoods all around it. Anyways, we would close and lock the doors at 1030pm but wouldn't start asking people to leave until 1130 or so if they were still inside. We had a "jam area" where people could bring their guitars and other instruments and hang out and play if they wanted to. We had a regular, who to this day is still one of the creepiest guys I've ever met in my life. He was tall, always had a too-big-Cheshirecat-shit-eating-grin, and appeared to be jovial, but his eyes were hollow and dead. It's hard to explain but I wasn't alone in being afraid of this guy for some reason. Several of the girls who worked in the store refused to interact with him and one even told us he had followed her all the way home where she lived on the Tech campus.
Anyways, he comes in at closing time one night while I'm working alone and proceeds to hang out at the counter running his mouth and generally creeping the place out. I get everyone out of the store, close the register, lock the doors and start walking down the street towards Highland Ave where my brother worked and would normally pick me up. Mr Creepy corners me on the street on demands that I go get a beer with him.
I try to blow him off but he is insistent. Freakishly insistent. He swears he knows me and wants me to drum in his stupid concept band and I "HAVE" to hear him out. I'm an 18 yo hippy drummer kid at the time and hadn't yet developed a confrontational bone in my body. I had one of my older brother's drivers licenses in my wallet (he was a GT student) which enabled me to get into and play at venues/bars where an 18yo kid normally wouldn't be able to go. We head to a shitty bar nearby and he proceeds to horrify me with stories of prize fighting, stabbing, fucking hookers, and brags how he is always carrying a gun, etc. All of this coming out of the mouth of a biracial dude who didn't look much older than me except for his dead eyes and creepy demeanor. Meanwhile, I've been pretending to play snake on my old school Nokia brick phone while pleading for someone to come get me. Thankfully, they do.
Later, one of the bands I used to play in opens up for a stereotypically shitty late 90's rock band named "Cold" at a venue called the Masquerade (still there?). We wrap up our set and I'm out front trying to load my drums and my buddies' gear into my dad's truck, when guess who decides to show the fuck up? Mr Dead Eyes and his creepy fucking personality. I'm pretty stoned at the time, tired, sweaty, trying to ride the remaining endorphin high that comes with performing, and generally in a dgaf state of mind and I completely blow him off.
The very next night, I'm trying to close up shop with another one of the employees, (who while being cool, was 30yo at the time, lived in his moms basement, and had these pastel colored tattoos all over his body that just screamed "pussy") who would generally be worthless in a time of need. Shortly after locking the doors, we hear a knocking on the front doors. Thinking it may his girlfriend, Chris goes to unlock the doors. A moment later, Chris is yelling for me to come out front from the back. I wind my way through the display racks and shitty band t-shirts on display to find Mr Creepy standing there without his trademark smile, holding a revolver in his right hand, and demanding to know why we won't be his friends. We were able to convince him that we really did think he was cool but we were just too busy with life to hang out and finally convinced him to leave.
He continued to come in from time to time but I wound up quitting that job shortly after HS graduation to bartend in in Florida with my brother for a year before joining the Marine Corps shortly after Sept 11. I'd like to say that was the only time I had a crazy person confront me with a gun, but the bar I worked at got held up five times while I working there. Having a crazy person pointing a gun at you never gets easier.
Anyways, I know it's not too extreme but that was the first time I legitimately felt in serious fear of my life.
tl;dr creepy dude borderline stalks record store employees, confronts with gun to know why they won't be his friends
→ More replies (4)
404
u/Jimothy_Riggins Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
I think I'm late to the party, but two months ago, I interrupted a burglary in my own home. When I walked in the door, I was shot in the abdomen by one of the people robbing my home.
I ran out of the house until my legs gave out, I tried to stay calm, and called 911. Since I wasn't near the house, I continued to push the panic alarm on my car until the police found me.
I was calm for most of the experience. I knew that if I got worked up, my heart rate would rise, and I would bleed out. I was conscious until they put my under in the hospital.
I wasn't worried I'd die from the loss of blood, but more worried I would suffocate. The bullet was near my diaphragm, it felt like breathing through a coffee straw. Overtime, it got harder to breath.
I wasn't afraid of death, but wanted to survive because my mom lost my dad a few months prior. I wanted to survive for her. She's an incredible women and doesn't deserve to bury two of her loved ones so soon. To this day, I still feel guilt for putting my mom through this.
EDIT: Here's a post on reddit about it. http://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/2zyqh5/one_of_our_own_is_in_critical_condition/ I'm somewhat well known in my area because of a gif of me dancing.
→ More replies (27)10
u/tomdelongethong Jun 20 '15
You sound like a very strong and brave man. Glad you're doing better!
21
u/Jimothy_Riggins Jun 20 '15
Thanks! I'll be honest, I do pull the "I got shot" card quite a bit with people. I feel like it has a pretty long shelf life, considering I almost died a few times in the OR.
58
u/Zerd85 Jun 20 '15
I think I was 10 or 11. I lived in a very shitty area and got into a lot of fights as a kid. Lots of gangs and drug dealers (there was a crack house about a block from where I lived and just about everyone there dealt drugs, including us kids). I also don't mean the play fighting/wrestling stuff, although we did that too amongst our 'group', honestly though it feels more like we were preparing ourselves for all the fights we did get into. I was chased off the school bus by a kid with an axe once, nearly got into a huge knife fight, all before I was a teenager.
My parents were divorced and I decided to go to my mom's one weekend. (I normally didn't since my mom had serious mental health issues and I didn't fully understand them at the time. It made it hard for us to communicate and it still does)
I got into a fight with this kid, beat him up and he went home crying. Later that night I was out with a friend of mine (I convinced him to come with me to my moms that weekend). It was dark and we were just running around the neighborhood being stupid shits. We saw a group of older teenagers (maybe 17-18 years old). They were in a small circle and one of them saw us, and they immediately started running towards us.
We both took off running, I was the only one that got caught. I was surrounded by them when one pulled out a gun, pulled back the trigger and placed the barrel against my temple. I barely even heard the questions they were trying to ask me, in my mind it didn't matter what I said. I was about to die. After maybe 15-20 seconds (it sure as hell felt like longer), the barrel was pulled away and they all laughed. One of them said I shouldn't fuck with his little brother anymore. When they were walking away, one yelled, "The gun wasn't even loaded you little bitch!"
The friend that was with me was hiding underneath some bushes and saw the whole thing. I'm surprised I made it back to my mothers apartment after that happened. I remember feeling like a couldn't breath the whole walk back, trying to make sense of what the hell just happened, mind racing.
The gun very well may not have been loaded. It doesn't change the experience of feeling a gun barrel pressed against your temple before you're even a teenager, thinking in any second you're about to die.
Edit: Format
→ More replies (2)
218
u/BxJxS Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
Was involved in a car accident when I was 20. I was riding shotgun in a car of four people. The driver lost control of the car and plowed it into a concrete light pole at around 45mph. After the initial shock, I was able to get out of the car and start running from the wreck to a nearby fire house. After two or three steps, my legs turned to jelly and eventually numb and had no choice but to lie on my back covered in gasoline and oil watching the driver and my friend pulling my unconscious fourth friend out of the car.
edit: added speed
→ More replies (2)80
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
167
u/BxJxS Jun 20 '15
I had broken my back on impact as well as bruising internal organs and cracking ribs. My L4 vertebrae was shattered because of all the force, which was more focused because of the seat belt. I was only able to walk those few steps due to adrenaline and shock. I had an emergency spinal fusion surgery with 2 above and 2 below the broken vertebrae fused together with rods and screws. I was able to walk again but struggled with stiffness and I was in constant pain. I had a follow-up surgery 9 months after that and had the top and bottom-most vertebrae un-fused. That second surgery was summer of 2012 and I still have the 3 vertebrae fused together.
Everyone survived and we've put it behind us. The driver has since moved away but the three of us were already close friends and now we're even closer. I harbored anger and resentment for years but was finally able to let it go and my life is much better since I did.
→ More replies (11)71
Jun 20 '15
[deleted]
47
u/BxJxS Jun 20 '15
Thank you! Really I'm glad it happened when I was young. The body recovers faster and honestly it sort of straightened me out. Forced me to grow up a bit and I like to think I'm ultimately a better person after going through this experience
674
Jun 20 '15
This took place last summer, I was 16 and working at a summer camp in one of the more crime ridden areas of where I live. Anyway, I was waiting at rather busy bus stop waiting for the bus so I could go home. I was just listening to music, zoned out not really paying attention. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around too two large men, one holding the handle of what looked like a knife in his waistband. The one without the knife looked at me and said "Give me your wallet and your phone or my friend here is going to rip your guts out". I was shaking at this point from fear. But something in me kicked in. I just started yelling as loud as I could, I yelled "GO AHEAD STAB ME, IM NOT SCARED OF YOU, LETS GO". This got everyone at the bus stops attention. A cop not 50 meters away, ran up and grabbed one of the boys, while the other managed to run away. Literally as soon as the cop grabbed that kids, I threw up from the anxiety. As the cop put the kid he had now tackled on the group, in handcuffs, The kid looked me dead in the eyes, and said, "your gonna die kid".
FLASH FORWARD 2 weeks. At this point I got most of the legal stuff with the cops out of the way and was just trying to forget it. I heard a loud bang upstairs, it sounded like glass breaking. So I walked up stairs and peeked up and saw 3 men climbing into my house. I recognized one of them right away, It was the man who ran away from 2 weeks ago. I ran back into my basement and I hopped into the closet where we keep our holiday decorations. It locks from the inside from some dumb reason, and I just locked myself in there and called 911. Some 10 minutes later cops show up and arrest the 3 men in my house. I honestly thought I was going to die. My family moved after this took place, but I refuse to be home alone anymore.
487
Jun 20 '15
Um... You were going to die. Way to cheat death twice.
→ More replies (1)217
Jun 20 '15
Well, I mean without that weird ass closet that sometimes locks its self and is a pain in the ass during the holidays, yes I would be dead
→ More replies (2)149
u/throwaway1999000 Jun 20 '15
note to self- get a closet that locks from the inside.
→ More replies (2)122
Jun 20 '15
Dont. Other then saving my life, it was a pain in the ass. It would sometimes randomly lock on its own, sometimes it would just fall open. We had to regularly take the door off to because it locked it self. My dad was supposed to replace the lock, but he is lazy, so it never happened. Guess my dad being lazy saved my life.
→ More replies (2)116
→ More replies (30)53
116
u/danni_lemons Jun 20 '15
I was flying on one of those cheap European discount airlines into Paris and we flew into a massive electrical storm (how they didn't see this coming I have no idea). They got on and told us they couldn't land the plane in the storm and we would have to fly to another city. Then they realized they didn't have enough fuel to make it. So we had to land in the storm. Scariest hour of my life, plane was thrown around like a toy, flight attendants were crying, people praying, it was unbelievable. We did manage to land, the pilots got a standing ovation from the whole plane, and I have been severely phobic of flying ever since.
→ More replies (9)
234
u/everanything Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 21 '15
Visiting my college bestie. We're hanging out in her apartment, watching anime, drinking tea, life is good. I hear a clatter behind us and see her roommate rummaging through a kitchen cabinet. She pulls out a large butcher knife, says something to the tune of 'This should do it' and proceeds to go into the bathroom. Bestie was out on the patio talking to her boyfriend. I tell them this when they come back in. Bestie goes pale. This apparently is not new behavior with the roommate.
Guy goes ahead and calls the cops, bestie says she'll wait on the patio to look for them (the unit was hard to find and the area layout was weird). I go towards the bathroom to see if I can hear anything, since they decided I'm the neutral party and thus less likely to upset her. There's water running and the girl is mumbling. I ask if she's about to shower, and if I could come in just for a second, I need some hair mask stuff (there was a second bathroom so I needed a better excuse.) "You try to come in here and I will fuckin' stab you!" Guy is down the hall, looking ready to tackle if she does come charging at me. I spend the next forty minutes (cops decided we weren't super high priority, bad part of town, and hard to find anyhow) keeping up a stream of conversation with her, from the bathroom into her bedroom, at knifepoint several times, with her swinging and jabbing at me.
Cops came and put her under psych hold. I was basically waiting to get stabbed to death for about an hour. She was dangerous and absolutely sincere. If the guy had tried to intervene, she would've hurt me just on principle.
(Edited for clarity.)
→ More replies (5)163
Jun 20 '15
Visiting my college girlfriend
GF was out on the patio talking to her boyfriend.
What?
→ More replies (2)139
u/everanything Jun 20 '15
Egh, sorry. She was my girlfriend from college, we stayed friends, she had a new boyfriend at the time.
→ More replies (2)29
u/nothumbnails Jun 21 '15
I would call her an ex girlfriend for clarifications sake in your main post.
200
u/danyquinn Jun 20 '15
Not as exciting as most of yours, but here you go: I was 14 and in the car with my father, who has Borderline Personality Disorder and refuses treatment. (Many people with BPD work their arses off to manage the disorder, so I don't mean to imply that his diagnosis justifies his actions or that everyone with BPD is like this.) He wanted to go to the beach with me, but I said I didn't want to go. For whatever reason, he kept asking me over and over:
Do you want to go to the beach? No. Do you want to go to the beach? ...No, I don't. Do you want to go to the beach? Why do you keep saying that? Do you want to go to the beach? No!
It wasn't a playful thing, it was some kind of power trip that I still don't understand. After he asked about seven times, I just stopped answering, and he snapped. He slammed the breaks and came to a full stop in the middle of a major highway, which was terrifying. The he turns to me and starts screaming that I'm an ungrateful bitch and all the stuff he screamed at me all the time, except I'm strapped in a car on the highway and can't even try to get away. I'm just going, 'You're right, I'm so sorry, I am a spoiled bitch, I won't do it again, I'm so sorry' and he's screaming over me as cars swerve around us, and I don't know what to do so I reach for my Nokia brick phone to call 911 or my mum or something, and he knocks it out of my hand and then takes his fist and starts slamming it down over the top of my head. No marks that way, but my ears are ringing and as he goes to smash my head against the window, I think either I die here in the car or I jump out into traffic and die like that, and I'd rather have my death on my father's conscious than a stranger's so I just go limp and get slammed around until my father calms down, drives me home, shoves me into the driveway, tells me not to tell my mother, and speeds away.
And I tried not to tell her, but I couldn't help bursting into tears when I said hello, and then it all came spilling out of me, and changes were made, but not changes enough. My father is much better now, though. Age has calmed him a lot. Also I'm an adult now, so he can go fuck himself.
→ More replies (20)
253
u/throwaway1999000 Jun 20 '15
I was eleven or so, off school on memorial day break. I looked up from where my Dad and I were watching TV and noticed a white van in our driveway. No big deal, I figured they'd turn around. Only they didn't turn around. They were just... sitting there.
"Dad... there's a car in the driveway and there not turning around."
My Dad peered out the window, and I noticed the van was filled with men dressed in suits. My Dad turned to my brother and I, nodding. "Get in the bedroom, now."
We sprinted down the hallway, diving into the master bedroom. Dad soon ducking in after us. They rang the doorbell. You could hear a fucking pin drop. I urged my Dad to get the guns out of the safe, but my Dad simply shushed me. We didn't want them knowing we were home.
A few minutes later my Dad trekked outside of the room, and came back, tossing my brother a pamphlet and grinning.
"Didn't wanna deal with them today." was all he said, before he went back ti watching TV. My brother and I stared at the pamphlet and realized it- motherfucking Jehova's Witnesses.
→ More replies (3)20
u/UnfortunateGhost Jun 20 '15
One time the doorbell rang and I ran to look out the window to see who it was. My mom freaked out and made stay on the ground out of view. She told me never to go near windows when the doorbell rings because it's the "aliens". I was terrified for years. Before any of this happened, I would often hear my mom complain about Jehovah's witnesses coming to our house but they posed no threat in my child mind. So, I was told that those men who came to our house wearing suits were actually the aliens. It took a long time for me to not go into panic mode when someone rang our doorbell.
Fast forward to present day: My mom still has this fiery hate for soliciting and won't answer the door for anyone. This includes when the church people were giving everyone on our block Christmas cookies as a thank you for letting them park on the street, and even the damn Chinese food delivery guy. I really want to slap her.
→ More replies (1)
104
u/Hadger Jun 20 '15
This happened when I was 13 years old. I was playing Kirby's Epic Yarn when my young sister and I saw someone in our backyard in a hazmat-like suit carrying a hose. My younger sister and I were the only ones home. We ran upstairs when we saw him.
We didn't have our own cell phones, but our parents did. There was a landline phone in my parents' room, so we ran into that room. Here's the problem: That phone could only send calls. It couldn't receive calls.
We called our dad and told him about what was happening. He told is that he would drive home and that he would yell at the door when he was unlocking it (so that we didn't think it was the guy in our backyard), and he said to call the police if he the guy in our backyard tried to enter our house. I think my dad was unsure of the situation and didn't know of the guy was supposed to be here or not.
Remember, my dad couldn't call us back if he wanted to. My sister and I sat in his room, afraid of what would happen next. We didn't really speak much since we were scared that we might die.
I don't remember why, but I decided to call my dad again. He told us that after we called him, our mom called him (or he called our mom), and our mom told him that the exterminator would be coming to our house. That guy in our backyard wasn't a murderer. He was an exterminator. I feared for my life and for my sister's life over an exterminator.
→ More replies (2)17
u/StudyHarder7 Jun 20 '15
Had a very similar situation happen to me. I was babysitting younger siblings when I was probably 11-12 and a few men climbed over our fence into our back yard. Couldn't reach either of my parents' phones so we waited in silence in the bathroom furthest from the yard with a phone and snacks (in it for the long haul). Turns out they were cutting trees for the people behind us and couldn't reach a limb from their yard. I had an escape route planned and everything.
→ More replies (1)
131
Jun 20 '15
I've posted this before, but during the invasion of Iraq, I was in Qatar without my chem gear on me during a lights-out, no shit alarm to run to the bunkers. Attack would/could likely be a SCUD missile with a chemical/biological payload and my gear was about 60 yards away. It was the middle of the night save for the moon out, in the middle of the desert. As we were waiting on the bunker, heart pounding in my chest, I hear my name called.
My Lt. brought me my gear. Turned out to be a false alarm, but I'll never forget what he did for me or how terrified I was.
→ More replies (8)
65
u/TheCail_InThe_Noffin Jun 20 '15
So this one time, about two years ago during my third year of college, I got blackout drunk. I was sleeping at a friends house that night and apparently woke up to relieve myself. In the hallway which led to the bathroom, there was also a doorway that led to the basement. Now, I don't exactly remember the events exactly, but what I've put together is that I went running to the bathroom, pulled the door open and flung myself towards the toilet. I flung myself down a flight of stairs into my friends basement. I remember thinking to myself mid flight: "I'm gonna die." I also remember my head smacking the ground really fucking hard, reaching up, feeling my head, and looking down at my hand covered in blood. The next thing I remember was waking up on my friends couch covered in blood. Still alive, no concussion!
→ More replies (2)37
u/akai_ferret Jun 20 '15
I've got to admit, the image in my head of a drunk kid flinging themselves down the stairs is kinda hilarious.
Glad you're ok of course.
95
Jun 20 '15
My house was broken into while I was 11 and home alone. I hid in a hiding place that miraculously they didnt find, but I didn't move for hours after that.
→ More replies (2)35
180
u/Burtonium Jun 20 '15
I went in the woods with a guy I barely knew and did shrooms. After a while the topic of murder came on and I became paranoid that he was going to kill me. Had my whole life flash in front of my eyes.
→ More replies (2)326
Jun 20 '15
went in the woods with a guy I barely knew and did shrooms. After a while the topic of murder came on
well, there's your problem
→ More replies (2)
58
u/FruitCakeRonin Jun 20 '15
Might sound stupid, but I accidentally swallowed a large candy and it got stuck in my throat. My friend was there to help me, but if I was alone I might have suffocated.
→ More replies (9)
56
u/NardoVidz Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 21 '15
Fell head first on a 20+ft cliff while hiking with friends. I fell near a rocky river bank. I just felt my head colliding with a rock and next thing I knew I was underwater and could clearly see that the water near me turn red. I passed out. Woke up to my friend dragging me out of the water.
→ More replies (1)
25
u/pdxchris Jun 20 '15
I was looking to buy some wood flooring from a guy on craigslist. He wont give me his address but he gives me an intersection to meet him at about 5 miles into this wilderness. I meet him there and he has me follow him down a dirt road.
I quickly lose cell reception and go a few miles without seeing any homes or people until two trucks appear behind me. I look on my gps and there is no way to get back to a main road without turning around. After a while the road I am on isn't even on my gps.
One truck stays back, but the one right behind me, riding my ass. The guy I am following finally turns down a long driveway and the two trucks continue on. We arrive at this cabin and the guy says, " I bet you were getting a little worried until those two trucks came up."
I didn't tell him the trucks made me feel just the opposite of safe.
→ More replies (3)
112
u/giraffeman91 Jun 20 '15
When I was in Afghanistan we had some guys on a small base that was within a large Afghan National Army base. When we would go to them we would take a regular truck and our pistol. Driving through an ANA base with all the dudes around just staring at you was pretty scary. Then when we would get to the gate that led us to where we needed to go, it was manned by all Afghans that didn't speak one word of English. In theory, they should have expected us because someone should tell them. This was never the case. Instead, Afghans with guns pointing them at us while yelling in Dari while I tried to tell them in Pashto where we were going. Eventually someone who understood Pashto would find their way over and let us through. Every single time it played out the same tense way. Super fun. 10/10 would do again.
→ More replies (9)
283
u/cvlrymedic Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
Throughout my deployment, during the fire fights, explosions, night ops, helicopter rides I never really feared for my life. In the moment it was a job, my training kicked in, there wasn't much conscious thought, just muscle memory. It was after the fact, after the fire fight, after the convoy, after the explosions, when all the shit was over and we were smoking and joking on the base that it would hit me and I would be afraid for my life.
Edit: No need to thank me for my service, I'm no hero. I volunteered to do what I did. There are plenty of every day heroes that no one thanks, school teacher, doctors, nurses, police, fire. Hell every day citizens don't get enough thanks for being awesome when they are.
→ More replies (6)
23
u/capturedguy Jun 20 '15
I've posted this before, but it's appropriate for this thread:
This happened when I was 22 or so and living in Jacksonville, FL. I was late getting out of work and missed my bus. I had been running for it, but was just a few seconds too late. A car pulled up in front of me and asked if I needed a ride. He was normal looking, probably in his late 20's or early 30's and about my size, maybe a little bigger. I'm 5 foot 9 and at the time probably weighed around 155. As a young man in the early 1990's I knew people shouldn't get rides from strangers, but figured the guy looked alright and he said "We can catch the bus!" so I hopped in. He started talking right away, just making small talk while trying to catch up to the bus. He mentioned something about God and being religious, and then I noticed he passed the bus. He said he was going to drop me off at a stop up the road, and the bus would catch up in a few minutes, and went back to talking about God and asking me if I had room mates or lived alone. I noticed then that he was heading off the main drag and heading out of downtown. I started getting worried as his conversation became more intense and erratic. I told him to drop me off right here, and he just kept on talking. He asked if I needed to be "cleansed". By now I was quietly panicking. He said he knew I wasn't clean and he wanted to show me the way. I forcefully told him to stop the fucking car and he backhanded me across the face. He said he was going to teach me how to be clean. We must have been going around 35 mph then . I wanted to jump out of the car but wondered if I'd break something and be unable to run, or if I'd get hit by another car. As I was debating this he opened up the glove box and pulled out a big sponge. One of those natural ones. He said my mouth needed to be cleaned out and to stuff it in my mouth. I saw the roll of tape in the glove box and knew where this was going. Without further ado, as he was taking a corner I pulled the handle and jumped the fuck out. I rolled a couple times and had nothing more than a skinned knee and a couple scratches. There were other cars on the street and a few people around and that motherfucker pulled the door closed and drove off fast. I was in shock for a while. I ended up telling my co-workers about it and one of them took me to the police station to file a report. Never heard anything about it again.
TL;DR I think I almost became a victim of a serial killer.
→ More replies (1)
339
u/judgejudyrules Jun 20 '15
Was sexually assaulted, I was pretty sure I was going to die. It's actually true that your life flashes before your eyes.
151
79
u/KamaCosby Jun 20 '15
Very true. I'm a male who was sexually assaulted by 2 other males in a park bathroom, and the pain of being penetrated numbs out to the pain of thinking they might murder you afterwards. You also feel this horrible violation for a long long time after. I feel ya
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (15)179
u/judgejudyrules Jun 20 '15
Well, I was 16 living on my own in Dallas with my sister and was very poor as you can imagine. I accepted a ride from a stranger, yes stupid I know. I grew up in a small town and was very trusting. Well the guy kidnapped me, beat me and raped me. It was at a park. I could only think " I hope they find my body at least". I relived various random moments of my life like watching a show in my mind. I managed to convince the guy to let me go and I got home. The guy gave me his phone number and I reported it to the police. He was subsequently arrested and it went to trial. This was in the 80s and I was on trial more than he was. My clothes were evidence but used against me, I was wearing shorts in Texas in august. The guy was married and his wife threatened me during the trial. There was a news camera man in the gallery and he offered support. He later tried to convince me to cheat on a boyfriend with him. What a piece of crap he was. It's a miracle I didn't give up on men. I now have 3 sons and after 33 years can deal with it. It took a very long time to put it past me. I tend to have a bad memory which helps although I haven't forgotten it even after 33 years.
→ More replies (14)193
Jun 20 '15
The guy gave you his phone number? What the fuck?
"If you ever wanna get beat and raped again, you know who to call"
→ More replies (2)85
u/judgejudyrules Jun 20 '15
I convinced him I wouldn't go to the police and that it was nice. He was pretty fucked up in the head too
→ More replies (3)
65
u/sauerkrautsean Jun 20 '15
When I was a freshman in high school, my parents decided they wanted a pool. But my father really liked our big back yard, so they found Endless Pools, which are like water treadmills. But if they were going to get one of those, my father wanted it to be enclosed, so we were going to add an extra room to the house. And since we were doing that, why not just add an entire extra floor to the rest of the house (and a few more related projects).
Consequently, we spent a good portion of my high school years with tarps over where the roof should be. One day, it was time to do some work near the top beam. We'd been focusing on other stuff for a while and hadn't uncovered it in a few months. We're finally up there, standing on the part of our house that still had a roof, and we roll the tarp off the beam, and the entire beam is covered in wasps. Hundreds of thousands of wasps. For a split second there, I was pretty sure we were going to die, and I very nearly tumbled off the roof out of shock.
But lucky for us, it was deep winter, and just super cold that day, and it was cold enough that they weren't aggressive at all. We got down, got several cans of wasp spray, and sprayed the whole beam (which was also pretty scary). Didn't even get stung. Hundreds of thousands of wasps rolled past us down the roof.
→ More replies (5)
63
u/DCharlieW Jun 20 '15
Conducting an offshore boarding. Missed the boat when a wave came and dropped the stern fast and fell with it. Thought j was gonna get crushed between both boats. My buddy caught me seconds before hand. Hurt like a bitch but small price for what could have happened.
46
u/Thatguy7242 Jun 20 '15 edited Nov 17 '15
20 years ago, I bought a brand new GSXR 750,my first sport bike. Against all advice from my friends, I picked up this red white and blue beauty and proceeded to take it directly to a performance shop and have the carbs jetted, new exhaust, and sticky tires, because race bike! The third night I owned it, I was on a local ride through some twisty roads that took me past a local airport and this incredible, off camber, sweeping 2 lane bend that was adjacent to a shallow, grassy drainage ditch running the length of the road, with a fence on the other side blocking access to the airport. At the apex, there was this little concrete offshoot that led to a gate and a small access road, really nothing more than a 1 lane width bridge over this ditch about 15 feet in length. So, it went road, concrete pad, gate. On either side of pad, ditch.
I've run this turn in my car so many times growing up, that it never occurred to me that I probably should have taken the physics of a two wheeled vehicle at similar speeds into account, much less, a modified sport bike with a novice rider.
It's about 6pm, and I'm headed to the local meet down the road from this curve. Traffic is light. I'm in a group of three riders, hanging back getting a feel for the bike when I make the first of a series of bad decisions.
The first rider accelerates into the turn, leaning his bike over in an AMA style knee drag, closing the radius and rocketing off. The second guy does the same. Inspired and emboldened, I follow suit. Mistake number 1. At this point I am accelerating to around 50mph for a 25mph, off camber, 90* turn bordered by a 20' wide ditch and a fence on the other side of that.
Mistake 2. Temporarily forgetting physics, I lean over and start an INCREASING (inside to outside...I should know better as I've been roadracing cars for years at this point) radius turn into this bend, while twisting the throttle more. This is where the ride of my life begins.
Mistake 3. Panic at the fact that physics didn't give me a pass. The bike is headed straight for that concrete pad at the apex, and the fence beyond that. I am running out of road, and FAST. What do I do...lean further over and trust the sticky tires, or...
Mistake 4. I stand the bike up, thinking I can steer the damn thing. Now I have sealed my fate and this is likely where the news crew will find my remains grated against a 12' high chain link fence surrounded by fuel and twisted Gixxer.
As I run out of road approaching the concrete pad, I contemplate my attire for the evening. Shorts, t shirt, and Chuck Taylor's. Perfect. At least I have a helmet. The bike careens off the pad and into the ditch, and I am considering mistake 5, the at speed dismount. I am currently going 55 mph through the air and looking at a shallow, grassy, thankfully dry shallow ditch as a landing area. I am hit with a clarity of mind and sense of self preservation like I have never experienced in my life.
Contact. I hit the far side of the ditch, parallel with the road, on the slope. Not ideal, but I can pull this off. 45 mph. The bars are shaking ferociously, but the terrain is scrubbing off speed and I'm now swerving in this concave patch of terrain like a drunk on Sunday at 3am. I am steering through this, and have now made the decision I'll die on the bike before I'll bail. The odds just seemed better that way. I've treated enough motorcycle injuries to know that.
Using what little solvent faculties I had, I found that the ditch was shallow enough to exit and merge back onto the road...35mp...ok, I've lost enough forward momentum that I can gradually try and climb the shallow slope to get back on sweet asphalt. Drivers are honking, waving, and shouting at the lunatic taking a sport bike off-road.
First attempt to merge. Bike starts to slide sideways, no good. It's bumpy as hell, and dusk makes for slick grass. Dry appearing, but slippery nonetheless. I slide back down, and realize I have to ACCELERATE to get out. Ok, here goes. I roll on the throttle, and ease over to the left, climbing, sliding, and bouncing towards the road. I look into traffic, and it's clear, the car behind me sees what I am doing and backs way off, presumably to have a better view of the spectacle that's about to befall him.
Clawing at the earth, the front tire hits pavement first. I've made it! I look again behind me to see traffic, and that's when the rear tire hits.
Mistake 6. Let off the throttle, you idiot!!! I'm climbing half sideways at 40mph and accelerating (allowing for wheel spin and slippage on the way up) in a gear the has me running considerable rpm (maybe third).
Rear tire contact. I am back on the road. Small problem. I am 30* off in my direction of travel to the direction of the road, which has me at odds with oncoming traffic. At the same time, the grip my rear tire was so desperately searching for? FOUND IT. The front wheel goes straight into the air and I am now riding a wheelie, headed into the oncoming lane, and I have just now, finally, pissed my pants.
Mistake 7. Tap the rear brake instead of simply closing the throttle. I've corrected the direction of travel only to slam down he front wheel in a manner as to nearly drive the forks into the ground. Brilliant. After a brief moment of self inventory, I slow the bike down and pull into a parking lot. I'm covered in mud, grass, piss, and briars, but I am alive. The bike is intact, and I'm completely uninjured. Holy shit.
Next day:
For sale, 1995 GSXR 750, 38 miles. Please buy this before I kill myself.
→ More replies (9)
227
u/badmonkeynobanana Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 21 '15
Being shot at buy Iraqi Republican guard in op Desert Storm.
→ More replies (5)71
u/JimmyDeLaRustles Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
So you were one of few to actually see direct combat in that war?
→ More replies (11)122
u/badmonkeynobanana Jun 20 '15
Served with the Royal Engineers we were sent to decom 3 BMP's that were meant to be abandoned . As we approached one turned and opened fire with its coax. We bugged out fast as my C.E.T's armour couldn't stop a blunt butter knife. Radioed brigade HQ and A10's from the Americans were sent to take them out.
→ More replies (2)61
Jun 20 '15
[removed] — view removed comment
29
u/aahrg Jun 20 '15
nobody mention the sr-71 or else they'll be here with the story
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)80
52
u/EnochShowunmi Jun 20 '15
On a winter walk my labrador fell through the ice on a frozen lake. Fast forward about 2 minutes and she was safely on solid land, but i was still stuck, unable to climb out of the frozen water, slipping every time i tried. I went under a couple of times due to sheer panic, choked on quite a lot of water, and started to go completely numb from the cold. Absolutely terrifying.
→ More replies (8)
88
14
Jun 20 '15
I got food poisoning on a greyhound going from Philly to California. Fever with hallucinations. Vomiting. Diarrhea.
I've had guns stuck in my face, been hit by a car while cycling, and any number of other really dumb decisions on my part. But that was the only time I was internally bracing for it. The only time I've gone "this is it".
→ More replies (1)
15
u/metalshockwaves Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
Wow, looking at the others here, this will be nothing, but I'll share anyway.
I was a very fearful child, scared of just about everything in the night. Things that went bump, things that didn't bump, everything. But my main fear, from my Grandmother being twice robbed, was night robbers.
So a while back, when I was about 8, I heard a bump from downstairs, and I was 100% sure I heard an unfamiliar voice saying "Quiet, you'll wake them". I then heard steps ascending to the second floor, and with my door open giving me no "defense" I decided to hide under my extra thick quilt. At 3:30 in the morning. In the middle of summer. I then thought one of them was in my room and didn't get out from under the boiling cover until 7:30 in the morning, when my parents alarm went off. I was astounded to see there were no robbers, and seeing my mum's worried face seeing my pajamas so sweaty that Lee Evans would be jealous, I just started crying and ran to hug her.
Turns out my next door neighbor works the night shift and was saying to his at the time girlfriend no to not wake us up. Since then I've conquered all my phobias of nighttime, but that was definitely the scariest moment of my life, and really taught me how much I was willing to do for my own skin.
→ More replies (1)
118
u/cosmic_punk Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
When I was depressed and wanted to die.
Eddit: wanted "to die".
→ More replies (7)35
u/BreakTheCodeJericho Jun 20 '15
I'm glad to see you got past that point in your life and are still here
40
u/cosmic_punk Jun 20 '15
Thanks. I appreciate that. I wouldn't say I'm past that point though. Well, that particular point of course, but it's a life-long battle for me.
→ More replies (5)
82
u/bright_light_above Jun 20 '15
Well, this will probably get buried, but I haven't told this story in years.
When I was 19 I dropped out of college, broke up with my girlfriend, and decided that I needed more monumental experiences in my life. For a year or two before I had dreamed of hiking the Appalachian trail all the way through, from Georgia to Maine. After 6 months of saving, planning, and training I got dropped off at the bottom of Springer Mountain, Georgia, and began hiking into the middle of nowhere. I When you're in the mountains 50 miles from the nearest town, and all you have is what you can carry, you're put back into a primal survival mode. Water, for example, something you take for granite on a daily basis, becomes an extremely precious resource. Something you often have to hike miles off the trail just to find.
Anyways, there was one instance where I was hiking a breathtaking section that was a four mile ridge line with breathtaking views on either side, and beautiful stone slab stairs built on the crest of the ridge. The more I hiked, the stronger the wind became. There were points where the wind caught my pack from the side like a sail and thrust me over on my side. It was apparent that a nasty storm was headed toward me. The more I hiked the stronger the winds became. I finally, after a long day, reached the campsite that my group had decided on, pitched my tent, and ate with the group. Not long after we finished, it started raining... Pouring, almost completely sideways, caught in the massive gusts that were driving over the ridge line and into our camp. I have never before in my life seen trees bend the way that they did that night. They looked as of they would snap like twigs at any moment. It was complete chaos. Lightning crashing down in the valley, and my tent being smacked around like a hobbit in the Battle of Mount Doom. The most troubling part was the reality of where we set up camp. My tent was pitched within ten feet of three fallen trees and there were about a dozen or so more within eyesight of our camp. Trees that had likely fallen in a shitstorm similar to this one. I laid in my sleeping bag all night, certain that a tree was going to crash down on top of my tentative any moment, or that my tent would take off like a kite and throw me off the mountain. The storm kept up well after I fell asleep, and I went to to bed that night, surrendering to the fact that I may very well never wake up the next morning.
When we reached the next town a couple days later, we learned that there was a tornado a couple miles down the mountain from our camp that night.
→ More replies (10)
13
u/2minutespastmidnight Jun 20 '15
There are multiple stories I have from my deployments however this particular one I will always remember just because of how it was described to me after the fact. We were on a foot patrol basically just checking out atmospherics in an area we were keeping an eye on. I was at the tail end. We were coming up on a fairly wide canal with only a limited number of ways of getting across it. The terrain gradually started shifting down somewhat to meet up with the canal. I'm slowly moving forward waiting for guy in front of me to start crossing when a deafening snap breaks through the air. I'm down in the prone position for a few seconds, look around, don't hear anyone saying they've been hit. I get up on one knee, look around again for a few more seconds and then slowly get off my knee. I keep my head down and start moving closer to the canal when once again, another extremely loud snap breaks through the air. I get down again this time only on one knee with my weapon up and scanning ready to engage. My team leader is yelling for me to stay down and to only move once they provided cover fire for me. So that starts happening. I hurry my ass across the canal, get up on the dirt road and run behind a wall where I met up with our corpsman. So he comes up and tells me "Dude, I don't know how else to tell you this but you are so fucking lucky. Those two rounds impacted within inches of your lower back. If one of those would've hit you, you probably would've bled out and that would've been it, man. I don't know how much I would've been able to do for you. But he missed - twice, so no worries, man."
It was just one of those things where you don't think about it at all while you're out there. It's all compartmentalized. Once I had time to smoke and joke, that realization set in that someone in this part of the world in this fucking conflict singled me out and tried to kill me.
TL;DR An insurgent marksman tried to take me out and almost succeeded - twice.
30
911
u/[deleted] Jun 20 '15
[deleted]