Coincidental Tragedy.
1/3/09
So in Australia at the end of every year there is a huge celebration called “Schoolies” located in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. A celebration for people who have just graduated high school. This dream took place one year when me and all my friends from Sydney went there to party, relax and enjoy. It’s a Thursday and the second last day of the holiday. It was nearing night time and had just started to storm. The clouds put a gloomy tone in the sky, the whole area looked darker than usual and it was becoming harder and harder to see. I was very unnerved as I usually get in a storm plus nightfall approaching was not helpful. There is a sense of panic in everyone’s actions, people are rushing around everywhere but I had no idea why (you should understand there are literally thousands of kids roaming around the streets at Schoolies).
It looked like the night has already been very chaotic but little did I know it would get much worse, for me anyway. There are police everywhere and I see units from the riot squad spraying high pressure water on big groups of people who I presume were causing trouble. Some people drove to Schoolies whilst others (like me) caught a plane. I planned to walk back to my friend Ryan’s car where I thought I could find some friends and find safety. I wasn’t thinking right as I was in a rush just to get away from the chaos so the thought of going back to my hotel room wasn’t present in my mind. So I start walking to his car by myself, hoping that someone will at least be there. I just wanted to be in a safe place for I felt some kind of imminent danger approaching. On my way to Ryan’s car I see a very good friend of mine Tom, who is sitting on the ground with his head hanging down in between his knees. I approach him to see what’s up and he tells me that our friends Beckett, Jaber, Jesse and James (all from back in Sydney) had been hit by a car and were killed. I was absolutely shocked hearing this and question him how. I look up and see now a group of people had come around listening to Tom. He continues to say that all five of them had mistaken a grass field/oval for a road and they had decided to sit down in the middle of and smoke some marijuana. He was the only one who had survived. I remember feeling quite lucky as I had quit smoking the stuff a couple of months back so I wasn’t hanging around these guys any more, I was hanging around with some other guys who I went to school with.
I found it quite bizarre that they could mistake a grass oval for an asphalt road so I asked Tom with a kind of demeaning tone, “How the hell can you mistake an oval for a road??” A girl chuckled as I asked him, making it seem as if I was making fun of the situation or something but my intentions were not that. I was just in disbelief of what had happened. Tom did not reply.
Right then I hear some loud noises coming from up the road, around 60ft away from where Tom was sitting. I see a helicopter hovering very low to the ground; they are air lifting two people out of a wreckage of some kind. I couldn’t see where exactly because there was a building in the way sort of blocking my view but I could see the helicopter perfectly. Once the people were on the helicopter I realise that oddly the blades on the helicopter were not spinning at all, the chopper was hovering on its own which was impossible. Right at this moment people started to yell and scream “Watch out!!! Oh my God watch out!!!” the chopper was veering uncontrollably down closer to some kind of protruding structure on top of a building. There was no hope for the chopper. The blade hit the structure causing a reaction forcing the chopper to plummet into the building creating a huge explosion. I was in complete shock and awe. I was frightened and felt really bad seeing what I just did but I also was angry at myself for not recording the chopper making the save of those people because I would have got a really good shot of the crash too. Anyway I decide that there are too many things going wrong here and I was not safe at all so I choose to leave, again by myself.
I’m walking through a crowd and spot my good friend Mike. I ask him if he saw the chopper crash but he said no and did not want to hear about it. He seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere so I assumed something terribly bad has happened him also or someone he knew so I left him and kept walking. Somehow now the scene has changed. I appear in a street in Sydney on a main road very close to my house but even though I’m in a totally different state I still feel in danger. I hail a taxi and get in. Everything seemed much quieter and less chaotic now that I am in the taxi. We get about 200 yards down the main road until I tell him to pull over. He pulls off into a side street. I open the door when the taxi just coming to a halt and jump out and run across the street back onto the main road, hiding in the bushes on the side. For a brief moment I think the taxi driver is coming after me but in my experience of running from cabs they just tend to drive off.
I walk back onto the road and start walking up towards my house. The road is very quiet but a big semi trailer drives past. I don’t pay much attention to it and look away for a brief moment then I look back at the truck and see it has somehow tipped over onto its side, on the shoulder of the road. I thought this was amazing and a total coincidence that all this stuff could happen on one night. Annoyed that I did not get a video of the helicopter crash I took out my phone to get a picture of this truck. I must have realised I could not read the screen of my phone because I woke up instantly when I went to look at it. I had the chance to become lucid but whenever it seems like I am given the chance of lucidity I wake up instantly.
