Story by E
Gunpoint
Posted on by E.
When I was 20 years old I was with a group of friends heading home after a late night of clubbing. "Hurry!" Mike shouted, "We have to catch the ferry or we will be stuck here all night!!" he shouted as we continued to sprint towards the ferry dock. Thankfully, we entered the ferry with 30 seconds to spare. The ferry was empty, maybe 3 cars in the lower deck and 10 passengers besides myself and 4 friends. <br /><br />We finally settled down and cooled off from running. We were all drunk and acting foolishly. Laughing how we could have been stuck sleeping outside if we happened to miss the ferry. <br /><br />A man in his mid to late 40's came up to us and started asking us questions. He said "Where are you coming from?" and "Are you from around here?". We answered the man and thought he would just walk away. He appeared to be a normal guy, nothing unusual about him as far as we could tell. So, we continued to talk to him. <br /><br />We told him that we were partying at the club. Then he asked us how old we were. I told him, "Mike is 19, Joe is 20, Sam is 17 and I am 20". He then said, "How did you get alcohol?" - and we answered, laughing a bit, "We had a friend who was 21 buy us some beer before we went to the club and we snuck it in". He was like "Cool! I remember doing that when I was younger. Ahh, the good old days" he said. <br /><br />At this point, we were about 20 minutes away from our destination. We were still talking to the older guy. Then, Mike said to the guy, "Hey, do you think you could buy us some more beer when we get off the ferry?" The guy responded without hesitation, "Of course, guys! Absolutely, I will do that for you. I know just the spot." he said. We were so happy, the guy turned out to be super cool and understood that we're just kids and were having fun. <br /><br />As we approached the ferry landing, the guy said "How much beer do you want? How much money do you have?" Sam, the youngest of our crew quickly opened his wallet and said "I have $300 cash. Guys, how much do we need for beer?". It was almost 2:00am at this point, so we didn't need to party much longer, however we knew tomorrow we would also want to drink, so we said "How about 48 cans of PBR?", we all agreed this would be perfect. "Sam, can you get us two cases of beer?" Mike said. "Of course guys, I got you!" Sam said. <br /><br />We were all walking towards the store to buy the beer and the older guy said "Alright, give me $40.00 and I'll run in this liquor store quick and get the beer for you". As Sam pulled out his wallet and started rummaging through his money, the older guy pulled out a gun and said "Give me your wallets instead, all of you!" The guy pointed the gun directly in Sam's face. Sam turned ghostly white and his eyes were frozen in a state of shock. Sam trembled with fear and his hands shook as he handed over his wallet to the guy. Mike, Joe and Sam all complied with the gunman's demands and handed over their wallets without question. I, the 20 year old super hero was resistant. I called the guys bluff and said "You don't scare me. I'm not giving you shit!". Then in a matter of seconds, the guy struck me with the butt of his gun directly in my face. I could feel the blood immediately running down my face as I heard my friends screaming for help, yet still shocked and not moving to help me. The guy started getting more violent and I could feel him kicking me in my chest as I lay helplessly on the ground. Blow after blow, he continued to kick. Then, he reached his hands into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. He mugged me and took my friends wallets too. <br /><br />The guy ran off, we were devastated, betrayed, and scared. We couldn't call the police. We feared we would be in trouble for underage drinking. We couldn't go to the hospital, for the same fear. <br /><br />That night changed me forever. I stopped drinking entirely and had difficulty with relationships for years. Naturally, I had trouble trusting people after this incident. I also never carry a wallet now. I rarely carry cash. These kinds of things happen every day in every part of the world. To this day, I wonder how many times this older guy did crimes like this. I wonder if he was ever taught the same lessons. <br /><br />Stay aware of your surroundings. Protect yourselves! <br /><br />