This story happened to me and my friend last Winter. We were freshmen, so we didn’t have our driver’s licenses or cars. We did a lot of stuff outdoors and rode our bikes everywhere we went. There is a pretty big shopping center that has a Walmart and a ton of restaurants 3 miles from our neighborhood.
It was the last day of school before winter break, and I remember that day also being the first snowstorm in our area. We decided it would be fun to head to the shopping center after school on our bikes in the snow. Once we were all geared up, we started to head to Walmart. There are a few ways to get to the place. You can take the back roads through the neighborhoods, the main busy road with all the cars, or there is a quiet, peaceful trail in our neighborhood that has been known to be a place where runners and bikers have been jumped and abducted. We took the backroads to get there that day.
On our way there it started snowing harder and harder, so once we got there we hung out around the shopping center for a few hours hoping it would die down before we went home. My friend, Ethan, said that we needed to start heading home before it got too late, as it was already pretty dark and the sidewalks had an inch of snow that would be hard to bike through.
Wanting to show off how “brave” I was, I told Ethan we should take the trail home, as it was dark and I told him it would be exciting and fun. To get to the trail from the shopping center you have to cross a few really busy roads and lift your bike over a guard rail. Now, keep in mind, Ethan and I had taken this trail a few times before with no problems. I mostly liked it because Ethan had a Bluetooth speaker that he would use, and it was easier to hear since there were no cars close to us.
I like to split this trail into 3 parts, the first part we would be going through had a lot of trees on the sides of the trail, to the point where you couldn’t see anything but the trail. There was also a part with a lot of water, mud, and bridges, and the part closest to our neighborhood was some kind of crop, which we had heard that’s where people like to hide when they rob people using the trail.
Shortly after we started biking on the trail, I got nervous that someone would be hiding in all the trees, so I turned my flashlight on and held it with one hand while steering with the other. Ethan stayed right next to me, blasting his music.
About a mile in, I noticed an unusually bright light quite a ways down the trail.
“Jonah, what is that?” Ethan asked me.
“I don’t know, it’s probably just a runner or something.”
“Yeah, but look how bright it is.”
“Well, they want people to know they’re coming down the trail so they don’t collide or something.”
“I don’t know man, it looks really weird.”
“We’ll be fine.”
We continued down the trail, Ethan would pause his music every once in a while, to tell me his concerns about the light. I pushed him on and told him we’d be fine, and we were the ones to be scared of anyway. If you couldn’t tell, I was prideful and confident in my actions during my freshman year, filled with stupidity.
Once we got closer to the light, we realized it was two lights right next to each other.
Ethan stopped. “Dude, let’s just turn around and take the main road, those lights look so shady.”
“We’re almost there bro, I promise you it’ll be fine, it could just be people playing games or filming a video on the trail, it is a pretty good spot for horror movies with all the trees and stuff.”
Ethan reluctantly followed me towards the lights.
“Don’t worry, we’ll just bike past it quickly and go home.”
We got about 10 yards from the light when my heart sank. It was a car. The lights were LED headlights, and that’s why we could see them from so far away. I got nervous. Why would a car be out so late? Why is there a car on the trail in the first place?
I stopped. So did Ethan.
“Hey Ethan, are cars allowed to be on here?”
“I don’t think so.”
I turned my light off in fear of whoever it was seeing me. Being on the trail when it was dark already had us spooked, and something like this would make us even more paranoid. I got off my bike and started turning it around. That was when I saw four tall men hanging out by the car, doing something that I couldn’t see. I never understood the phrase choking on your words until that moment. I literally could not speak. If I had my flashlight on I’m sure Ethan would’ve had the same terrified expression I had. I couldn’t feel my body, and I started to become weak. I continued turning my bike around. I know this is so cliché, but I slipped on the edge of the trench on the side of the trail and fell, my bike crashing to the ground. It was so loud.
The four men looked at us in sync. Ethan screamed “Go!” and took off.
I yelled “Wait!” and picked up my bike.
Not before throwing up in terror, I hopped on my bike and followed after Ethan. I had never biked so fast in my life. I turned around and saw the four men hop into the car. I heard the loud sound of the engine turning on. I threw up again, trying to continue down the trail, scared out of my mind. The car moved forward towards me. I pedaled harder. I couldn’t feel my head, I felt like I wasn’t even pedaling, but I was flying down the trail. The car continued towards us, starting to go faster. I feel like the only reason they didn’t step on it and speed towards me is the fact that the trail could barely fit a car. After all, it wasn’t meant for cars.
I had never gone through that trail faster than on that night. We got to the guard rail, crossed it, and set our bikes down. We were on the side of a really busy road, but we didn’t care, as we felt safe with all the cars and lights. Ethan called the 911 and a police car came in about 5 minutes. We told him everything that had just happened, and he said he’d check it out. He told us that a homeless man lived in his car on the side of the trail and that he’d have to remind him that he isn’t allowed to drive on the trail. But I knew that wasn’t the homeless man. There were four men, and they chased us.
Ethan and I decided to take the main road home, still shaken. We eventually got to our neighborhood, and it was around 11 at night. We live one street away from each other, so I said goodbye and we went our separate ways. It’s a pretty steep incline to my street from where we split, so I was moving pretty slowly. I don’t know why, but I suddenly had the instinct to look behind me.
Again, my heart suddenly felt like it stopped. There was a car on the side of the road, moving slowly, no lights on. It stopped suddenly when I looked at it. I threw up for the third time that night.
I booked it up the hill and down my cul-de-sac. My house was at the very end of the cul-de-sac. I got up my driveway and looked behind me. There was the car, heading down my street towards my house. It would’ve been normal for me, as my neighbors work late shifts and some get home around this time of night, but the car was moving so slowly, and there were absolutely no lights. I put the garage code in, left my bike out, and slid under the small opening. I then hurried and pushed the button before it opened more and closed the garage. I didn’t care about my bike at this point.
I really didn’t want to wake up my parents and get them scared too, so I ran upstairs to my room and called 911 again. I looked out my window, which was above the room next to the garage, so I could see the car pull up to the curb in front of my house. I told the operator what was happening, and she told me that the police were on their way. The driver’s door opened. A tall man with a hoodie stepped out. He sat there for a second, then slowly looked up at my window.
I quickly shut my blinds. I felt light-headed and I dropped my phone, the operator still on the line. I couldn’t speak or move. I could hear the operator on the other end. “Hello? Hello? Are you there? Jonah, are you ok?”
I heard sirens in the distance. Yes, they were almost here. Suddenly, I heard pounding coming from the sliding glass door in the backyard. The man started screaming to open up. I heard my dad burst out of his room and run downstairs. But, by that point, the man must have heard the sirens, as I heard the car peeling out down my street.
The police arrived, and I told them and my parents everything that had happened that night.
To this day, I still don’t know if the two events were linked, and if the man at my house was one of the men from the trail, or if the other three men were just hiding in the car. But it still terrifies me knowing that the men from the trail may know where I live. I don’t know what they were doing on the trail, but I wonder if it was something illegal and that’s why they were chasing us, wanting to shut us up or something. The police never found anything. And every night, I think about what happened and I wonder why it happened, and what that man wanted. Nothing weird has happened since that night though, and I am very glad about that.