The Night Of The Abandoned House.
It was about 6 pm on a Friday night in February and my friends, Mike, Paul and I decided we would take a bus ride to Northbend. It is a drag going home to a dark, damp tent so early in the evening, a leisurely ride to the Bend would make a nice diversion.
We had the mini bus to ourselves and I could have ridden on that little bus all night.
When we arrived our thinking was to buy some small Cokes and sit somewhere warm for a couple hours until the bus was ready to take us back. Big jukebox Friday night eh?
The Micky-Ds was festooned with 30 somethings and their riotous children, we stood there for about one minute and decided to flee for our very sanity.
The three of us ended up at Safeway with fountain drinks. Paul asked me once more if I were certain I didn’t want to buy his large can of pepper spray (I declined) and Mike was telling us about a crazy old man in a Chinatown hotel who used to spray bug spray in the face of prostitutes who erroneously knocked on his door.
I layed a couple of my best stories on ‘em, including the time I was trapped in a dumpster with two cops a few feet away.
We killed a couple hours, then the bus took us back to High Point and I think I arrived at my camp around 9 o’clock.
My “camp” was an old abandoned house, must have been empty for 30 years, completely trashed. We used to call it the haunted house.
I decided to set up in the garage instead of the house, it was pretty spooky and the garage was more open and not as dank.
About 2 am I got up for my nightly smoke break, it was very cold, my breath hovered in front of the smiling full moon. “Our friend the moon” I remember thinking and gazed at the pleasant, benevolent face I imagined looking over us all.
Suddenly two cars pulled up to the front of the house, two sets of identical headlights, I had to think it was a couple cops having a pow-wow or wanting to check the place out, I was not worried, but hid in the shadows.
No, these were not cops, just 10 teenage boys with baseball bats and axe handles twas all.
They all lined up before the front door of the house. It really didn’t quite dawn on me what they were about until the leader said “use that wheelbarrow for the bodies”, “there’s a hole right there, we could put ‘em there.”
Okay, these nice clean-cut, “some mother’s little angels” were hunting the homeless and I don’t think they were going to ask if they wanted to join the baseball team…
Fortunately, they didn’t check the garage. I was panicky, yet my thinking was fast and clear. I think your brain goes on auto-pilot at such times. If they sent one of ‘em to look in the garage I was going to either kill or hurt him seriously so he would want to go to the hospital. Also, I wanted his bat.
Well, upon signal they burst into the house, yelling and beating the walls. The leader took them down into the basement and that was the time I decided to boogie.
I didn’t even take the time to put my boots on, I left in my stocking feet as quickly, but as quietly as possible.
They left their cars unattended and idling, I could have easily taken one and been long gone before they knew. I would have trashed the heck out of it later, but I left my wallet there in my haste and just wanted to take the sure thing and get away on foot, I didn’t know if they heard me and would be in pursuit or not.
I hid in the woods for the rest of the night, I was in shock for a couple days after, I had never been so terrified. I didn’t know if these little angels would merely beat me to death or tie me up and torture me for months.
For a long time after I wanted to get even, and to this day I think I would want to mess ‘em up pretty good, especially the leader. I planned all kinds of booby traps for them and kept my eye out in town for quite some time.
Two days later I went back and all my gear was intact, they never looked in the garage at all.
So this is why I say never squat somewhere too obvious, you are better off way out in a tent where people seldom go.
Your wits are your best friend, comfort and weapon in tough times and dire circumstances, use them first.
Thx
______________________________________________________________
____A note: And it seems my fears were well founded...
About six months after the above incident, a girl from the local high school lied and said a guy she was interested in, but who spurned her had raped her...
I guess she told the guys that I encountered that night because they took the kid to the abandoned house, tied him to a tree and beat him into a coma that lasted six weeks.
Be safe folks, this is why we strongly suggest camping in the woods and staying away from obvious places like abandoned houses and bridges and downtown doorways!
Thx
It was about 6 pm on a Friday night in February and my friends, Mike, Paul and I decided we would take a bus ride to Northbend. It is a drag going home to a dark, damp tent so early in the evening, a leisurely ride to the Bend would make a nice diversion.
We had the mini bus to ourselves and I could have ridden on that little bus all night.
When we arrived our thinking was to buy some small Cokes and sit somewhere warm for a couple hours until the bus was ready to take us back. Big jukebox Friday night eh?
The Micky-Ds was festooned with 30 somethings and their riotous children, we stood there for about one minute and decided to flee for our very sanity.
The three of us ended up at Safeway with fountain drinks. Paul asked me once more if I were certain I didn’t want to buy his large can of pepper spray (I declined) and Mike was telling us about a crazy old man in a Chinatown hotel who used to spray bug spray in the face of prostitutes who erroneously knocked on his door.
I layed a couple of my best stories on ‘em, including the time I was trapped in a dumpster with two cops a few feet away.
We killed a couple hours, then the bus took us back to High Point and I think I arrived at my camp around 9 o’clock.
My “camp” was an old abandoned house, must have been empty for 30 years, completely trashed. We used to call it the haunted house.
I decided to set up in the garage instead of the house, it was pretty spooky and the garage was more open and not as dank.
About 2 am I got up for my nightly smoke break, it was very cold, my breath hovered in front of the smiling full moon. “Our friend the moon” I remember thinking and gazed at the pleasant, benevolent face I imagined looking over us all.
Suddenly two cars pulled up to the front of the house, two sets of identical headlights, I had to think it was a couple cops having a pow-wow or wanting to check the place out, I was not worried, but hid in the shadows.
No, these were not cops, just 10 teenage boys with baseball bats and axe handles twas all.
They all lined up before the front door of the house. It really didn’t quite dawn on me what they were about until the leader said “use that wheelbarrow for the bodies”, “there’s a hole right there, we could put ‘em there.”
Okay, these nice clean-cut, “some mother’s little angels” were hunting the homeless and I don’t think they were going to ask if they wanted to join the baseball team…
Fortunately, they didn’t check the garage. I was panicky, yet my thinking was fast and clear. I think your brain goes on auto-pilot at such times. If they sent one of ‘em to look in the garage I was going to either kill or hurt him seriously so he would want to go to the hospital. Also, I wanted his bat.
Well, upon signal they burst into the house, yelling and beating the walls. The leader took them down into the basement and that was the time I decided to boogie.
I didn’t even take the time to put my boots on, I left in my stocking feet as quickly, but as quietly as possible.
They left their cars unattended and idling, I could have easily taken one and been long gone before they knew. I would have trashed the heck out of it later, but I left my wallet there in my haste and just wanted to take the sure thing and get away on foot, I didn’t know if they heard me and would be in pursuit or not.
I hid in the woods for the rest of the night, I was in shock for a couple days after, I had never been so terrified. I didn’t know if these little angels would merely beat me to death or tie me up and torture me for months.
For a long time after I wanted to get even, and to this day I think I would want to mess ‘em up pretty good, especially the leader. I planned all kinds of booby traps for them and kept my eye out in town for quite some time.
Two days later I went back and all my gear was intact, they never looked in the garage at all.
So this is why I say never squat somewhere too obvious, you are better off way out in a tent where people seldom go.
Your wits are your best friend, comfort and weapon in tough times and dire circumstances, use them first.
Thx
______________________________________________________________
____A note: And it seems my fears were well founded...
About six months after the above incident, a girl from the local high school lied and said a guy she was interested in, but who spurned her had raped her...
I guess she told the guys that I encountered that night because they took the kid to the abandoned house, tied him to a tree and beat him into a coma that lasted six weeks.
Be safe folks, this is why we strongly suggest camping in the woods and staying away from obvious places like abandoned houses and bridges and downtown doorways!
Thx
