That one night that made me run for my life

It has been more than two years since this incident took place but I cannot still bring myself to talk about my firsthand experience without shedding a tear of fear. The fact that I could've died there still sends shivers down my spine. I can still remember the fear in everybody's eyes as we ran for safety as the gunshots were getting louder. I swear, I even saw someone in white t-shirt running toward our direction and gunshots following him.

The moment the driver of the jeepney I was on hysterically shouted,

"dumapa kayo!"

"may nagbabarilan sa harap!"

"baka matamaan kayo ng ligaw na bala!"

....my mind went blank. I couldn't decide whether to run for safety or stay on that jeepney. But we, the passengers on that jeepney, were forced to evacuate the place and run for our lives. As I was running, the gunshots kept getting louder and people around me were as panic-stricken as I was. I did what I learned from watching "The Fallout", I hid in the bathroom of the Jollibee store while praying to Him to let me live. As I was calling my family to come and pick me up, I could still hear the gunshots and vehicles honking their horns and the people right outside the bathroom and I thought I was going to expire.

Being in that place and witnessing the whole encounter is the third traumatizing experience for me. Who would've thought that it'd make me realize that I'd never want to get killed by a stray bullet? There were moments I thought I wanted to die but when the opportunity presented itself to me, I realized that maybe sticking around for the hope of it all doesn't sound that bad. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if there's something I learned from this is that I should avoid going out at night if I wanted to live.