Carli Richards Story of Survival. (Saved By Tear Gas)

Earlier this evening I posted the first hand account of  my friend Carli’s boyfriend Chris. The two of them went to see the New Batman Movie, and were terrorized by a crazed gunman in Aurora Colorado.  But His recap was only part of a two part story. This morning Carli posted her recap of the same night and with her permission I am posting her side of things as well. I would also like to add I think it is incredibly brave of the two of them to openly write and share such a horrifying experience with everyone, and I have to salute the two of them for being so damn amazing and brave at a time like this.

Chris’s recap can be found here: http://sinisterdreams.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/a-post-from-facebook-the-dark-knight-rises-or-at-least-thats-what-im-told-i-was-interrupted-by-a-douchebag-with-guns/

This is Carli:

This is a good view of some of Carli’s gun shot wounds.

Reading both of these stories together is heart-wrenching, tear jerking, and completely surreal.
Here is Carli’s Story:

I also finally wrote an essay about what happened, because I do get asked some questions that there weren’t answers to in Chris’s essay, and it is pretty interesting to hear accounts from different survivors. I hope that between this and the one that my boyfriend wrote, a lot of things are cleared up and people can maybe understand a little what happened to us. Either way, it is very therapeutic for me and helps me deal with it all:

I was saved by natural selection, and tear gas. That’s right- tear gas.

I guess I’ll start my story by boring you with what I did that day. First we drove to Boulder because I had a photoshoot. The photos will be used for Suicide Girls or Zivity, whichever the photographer decides on, and I looked absolutely smashing. Little did I know that my favorite bra, shorts, and underwear (which I wore in some of the photos) would later be cut off of me, stuffed in an evidence bag, and never seen again. I also remember telling the photographer that my zombie unicorn hip tattoos were the worst pain I have ever felt and that I was scared to get my ribs done. Oh, the irony. I had no idea I was about to have a whole new understanding of the word “pain” later.
The day continued and was nice, but not very eventful. After my photo shoot, we got some delicious calzones at D.P. Dough in Boulder and went home for a little nap and TV time. Later, we went on a walk with our precious little dog, where I declared that I absolutely hate running and will probably walk most of the 5k run for political prisoners that we are attending on the 2nd of September. “I only run if I’m being chased,” I said. Little did I know that I would eat my words late that night. We got home, relaxed a bit, and then got ready to go see the awesome new Batman movie. I was excited to be wearing my batman plugs and the Joker t-shirt that my dad wore in the 80’s. Needless to say, it had a great deal of sentimental value, and I felt ultra-hip to own a t-shirt with the original Joker on it. On the way out the door, I remember having to yell at my dog for something and feeling bad, thinking “this could be the last interaction I have with her”, and then quickly brushing it off because Chris is a good, experienced driver, and of course I would see her when we got home from the movie. If my day had been a movie, I imagine this would have all been a great deal of foreshadowing, but of course I was oblivious.
We got into the car, and I promptly turned on some music. We went to the gas station to get some candy and drinks (sure as hell beats the movie theater prices!) and pressed on. I remember one of the last things I heard in the car was Chuck Berry’s “Rock n Roll Music”, the only Chuck Berry that Chris had on his ipod. I was in a great mood.
That’s all pretty irrelevant, however, and I think I just mentioned it because I am still really scatterbrained and not sure how to properly word some of this stuff.
Anyhow, we got our tickets, used the restrooms, and headed into the theater. It was packed. There were four theaters showing the film and this one was still totally packed. Upon surveying the scene, I saw that there were two seats at the bottom, next to a little kid, but we didn’t want to strain our necks to see the screen so we moved upward. I was about to go for two seats at the end of an aisle, about halfway up the stairs, but since Chris really wanted to sit close to the center, he lead us to two seats in the middle of a group, who told us that the two seats were taken. We then moved to the two end seats that I had previously intended to sit in. Chris was on the outside and I was seated next to a fairly large woman who took up part of my seat and then complained to her spouse that even though nobody was sitting there, we should have asked first. I was pretty thoroughly annoyed at this point but I thought “maybe I’m just being paranoid,” and “I shouldn’t get all hostile with her because what if we get kicked out of the movie theater?”… Now I kind of wish I would have told that person what was on my mind.
To briefly explain where we were sitting: We were facing the screen, and from our point of view, we were at the far left side of the theatre, maybe ten stairs up from the bottom. There were two emergency exits and two regular entrances/exits. Since we entered from the one on the left, we sat on the left. I am not good at being effectively descriptive, but I hope that was good enough.
Anyhow, the movie started and we were all very excited. I saw Baine (msp?) and his creepy mask. I saw Christian Bale and catwoman and the movie had barely gotten moving but I was already pretty into it despite having anxiety and a tic disorder, which usually prevent me from being able to really focus on much of anything. Now, I’m about to tell you what happened, maybe a good 5-10 minutes into the movie, and I’m going to use a great deal of words- however, this all happened in a matter of about 5-10 *seconds*. I’m amazed at how fast the human mind works, and how, in the event of an adrenaline rush, your body can work just as fast. This is all also a little bit foggy, because when I’m experiencing a traumatic event, my mind usually blocks out a good deal of it- even when I’m having flashbacks. But here goes.
So I’m watching the movie and the emergency exit to our right, by the big screen, comes open. It doesn’t violently swing open, and it also doesn’t very quietly creep open. The door opened as anyone would normally, nonchalantly open a door. A man enters, wearing what appears to be a gas mask, and for some reason it looks just like the one worn by the villain in the movie (or at least, that is my messed up recollection of it). It also appears that he is wearing some sort of combat gear, with a helmet and everything. I was immediately a little freaked out, but I assumed that it was a promotional stunt from the theater and was meant to do so. I think I heard a weird popping noise and then a can or something came flying towards us. The girl next to me and I both swatted at it and it almost hit me in the face, it seemed. At this point, I still think it’s a promotional thing. Perhaps it was a t-shirt gun, or some idiot was throwing us cans of some up-and-coming energy drink. Maybe it’s a prank, who knows.
Well, the can landed and our feet, and as Chris is saying something like “what the fuck is that?”, I am smelling it to see what it is. In a split second, I recognized that it was tear gas, meaning that this was either a bad joke or it wasn’t a joke at all and either way, it is time to run. The next second is a blur but according to Chris, I jumped over him to get out of the aisle and we both ran for our lives. I dropped my purse on the way out with all of my cards- insurance, ID, bank card- as well as my cell phone and car keys in it. But the instinct to keep running overpowered any other thought in my mind. “Fight or flight” is an extremely basic human survival instinct to me, but apparently it wasn’t to some of the others in the theater that night because there were only a couple of other people running with us, I believe. I wasn’t even thinking about this at the time, though, so this is all just in retrospect. The thought did cross my mind that there might be another guy at the exit/entrance, but I knew that regardless, we needed to keep moving. It’s hard to hit a moving target anyway, and I wasn’t sure if it was gunshots or fireworks that I heard behind me. Two of the other runners almost stopped at the entrance. I yelled frantically for them to keep moving and I ran out. We kept running until we were within maybe ten or fifteen feet of the car, at which point we slowed down a little bit and I noticed that my right blazer sleeve was soaked. I was still convinced that this was all a bad joke, and that it was probably fake blood or some kind of liquid from a badly done beverage toss. Chris unlocked the car. I got in and took off my jacket. I was covered in blood, but my initial reaction to it was “it’s either fake or it’s someone else’s blood”. Suddenly, the pain began to sink in. I think my brain had blocked it out so that I could make the run out of the theatre (seriously, our basic survival mechanisms amaze me so much), but now that I was safe in the car, it all hit me at once. My legs were in pain too. But my arm was in so much pain, it hurt too bad to even cry. I grabbed his phone and turned it on, after we established that we needed to go ask the cop around the corner for directions to a hospital. I was going to call 911 about what happened, but after we saw a police car come barreling around a corner, towards the theater, we knew that wasn’t necessary- which was fine because, at this point, I was in total agony. There’s no way I could have even dialed those three numbers. I had never, ever felt pain like that before in my entire life. No matter how I positioned my arm, I couldn’t seem to find any comfort whatsoever. I had even tried biting down on my jacket to dull the pain. Nothing helped and all I could do was yell and hyperventilate. I don’t think I have ever felt so helpless.
The police officer said that he would flag down a firetruck or ambulance so that a paramedic could take a look at me. The only thing I could say or think was that I wanted the pain to go away. He flagged down an ambulance and the paramedics came to look at me. They asked me all kinds of questions about my age, name, etc, to make sure that I was coherent or whatever. I couldn’t do much but beg them to make the pain go away. I have never felt so helpless or pathetic in my entire life. I was entirely at their mercy and begging and pleading for them to make the pain stop. They tried to get me to walk to see if I was “ok enough” to just have Chris drive me to the hospital, and that was a very bad call, because I almost passed out. I could feel the head rush and my legs were in excruciating pain and they felt like jelly, as if I couldn’t stand on them. Thankfully they made the right call and got me into an ambulance, after a little bit of debate. There was some waiting before we could go anywhere, and I was in so much pain that I asked the paramedic to hold my hand and started babbling to her about how my mom is a nurse and this is definitely the time when I want my mommy the most. Looking back on it, I am quite amused by this, but at the time, I really needed someone to hold my hand. She was a rookie, so she probably wasn’t appreciated much by her coworkers at the time, but I hope she knows that simply holding my hand when I was in so much pain meant the world to me.
They told Chris which hospital I would be taken to and that he could follow us. We had to go back to the theater to grab a few more people, which obviously confused my boyfriend and caused the ambulance to hit his car- or maybe it was the other way around, I am really not sure. There wasn’t any damage done, though, and no matter what we just had to keep moving.
The paramedics started an IV and oxygen for me, and got two more guys in the cabin. I was moved to a seat. It was made of that plastic, leather sort of material, and my back wound stuck to it. Every time we hit a bump, it would un-stick itself and I would wince. I tried to meditate and go to my “happy place” but I wasn’t going anywhere, except for a totally different hospital than the one we had told Chris I was going to. Apparently the original one was very full. I cannot imagine working in health care at that time, in this town. The paramedics did gymnastics to get around the cabin, taking all of our vitals and getting everything situated. They cut off part of my shirt to get to my arm, and maybe 15 minutes of a bumpy ride later, they administered my pain meds. Sweet relief! Some of the agony was gone, but I was still in a state of total panic.
Before we got to the hospital, they had to cut the rest of my Joker shirt off of me. I was actually pretty upset about it, and I held onto it until I got out of the ambulance- at which point I dropped it, and was too incoherent to do or say much about it but get on the damn gurney. I needed them to fix me up now and now that I think about it, it was probably all covered in tear gas.
They wheeled me into a room where they cut or pulled the rest of my clothes off, and felt around as doctors do, saying “does it hurt when we touch here”? They even stuck something up my bottom (“EEK WHAT IS THAT?!”…”checking to make sure your nerves are all working ok”) and gave me a catheter. What a terrible night. I lost my clothes, had things stuck up my butt, and nobody paid me for it. I’m just as amazed as you are that I can make such morbid jokes about it all. They gave me some more pain meds, asked me a metric ton of questions, and then took me in for a cat scan.
The CAT scan was not fun. It was the first moment I got to be alone, in a quiet room, since the shooting. I was shaking from what appeared to be a combination of being cold and still being in utter shock. I can’t even tell you how hard it was to calm myself down with only breathing exercises and hold still for the procedure. I also received X-rays later, which were also very painful because of the ways I had to move my arm. I think that’s when I finally cried. The nurse who was wheeling me around asked me questions about my band and other things to keep me fairly calm. I felt bad for crying and yelling so much but the nurses and everyone assured me that I was doing fine. I think I’m a bit overly critical of myself sometimes and that night just proved it.
I got back to my little ER room and was told that I had gotten hit in my right arm, both of my legs, my chest, my back, and my butt. I asked them what the hell hit me, because I thought it sounded like fireworks or a bomb or something going off behind me, and they told me it was a bunch of “buckshot”. “What the hell is buckshot?” I asked, in my stupor. They said that shotguns either take slugs, which are just big-ass bullets, like the ones we used in Navy boot camp, or buckshot- basically, a plastic casing holds a bunch of pellets, and when the shot is fired, these pellets disburse all over the place. All this meant to me was that this asshole really wanted to hurt and scare a lot of people. If his main mission was to kill, he would have gotten out the automatic weapon right away. The rumor is that he had a shotgun, automatic rifle, and two pistols with him that night. Thankfully he just used the shotgun and did not use slugs, because otherwise, the back and chest wounds might have been fatal.
I am told that surgery will not be necessary, but that my skin will have to push out some of the fragments because it will do more harm than good to pull them out. I’m ok with that, but what’s next? I did a great deal of waiting and being monitored, as well as talking to the police while they bagged up my smelly clothes as evidence.
This whole time, I had been worried sick that something might have happened to Chris. I didn’t have my cell phone to retrieve his number because it was in the purse when I dropped it, so I had very low hopes of getting to see him. I also know that even if he had been hurt, he would have told them to take me to the hospital and not worry about him, so it was very possible that he was hurt. But four or five hours later, there he was, standing at the door! I was so overwhelmed when I saw him. He had gone to about 4 different hospitals and gotten a lot of hassle to find me. He even had to call our friend/room mate to come help him find the hospital, because he was probably really panicking at this point. I’m amazed at how collected he was through all of this. He stayed strong for me, because being strong was the only choice we had at the time. It was such a relief to see him. After much waiting and talking to various people (such as the chaplain and social worker, who were also very kind), I was able to get my wounds properly irrigated and go home with a prescription for Vicodin and Tylenol. I absolutely hate vicodin because it makes me nauseas and barely dulls the pain (must be the Tylenol, man I hate Tylenol), but Chris took me and my bloody scrubs to the pharmacy to get my medication. This was about 8 in the morning, so I just couldn’t wait to get home and get some sleep. I could barely walk and I probably looked pretty pathetic. I think I cried that day but honestly, the worst part was when I finally took a shower later. That’s when I got to not only see how many wounds I really had, but I go to clean them all. Every time I felt a sting or an ache during the shower, I’d hear a gunshot in my head. Flashbacks are no joke. People ask me how many I have and I say that I still haven’t counted yet. If you include the giant bruise/welt on my arm and the one on my underarm, there are 9 on my arm alone. There’s more on my back, butt, chest, and both legs. It hurts like Hell to walk on my right leg but I did today because we needed to get out of the house for a minute and go to the store.
I honestly don’t know how to answer broad questions like “how do you feel?” or “what were you thinking at the time?” I honestly wasn’t thinking about anything but running. My parents always taught me, as an itty-bitty child, that when your body senses danger, you go into “fight or flight” mode. It’s this basic part of your system called “adrenaline”. In a split second, I was able to see that there was no fighting a dude in what appeared to be full combat gear, so I ran. I hope to not offend anybody by saying this, but I wasn’t touched by an angel, I wasn’t “blessed”- I had a good head on my shoulders and I used it. It actually worries and saddens me that most people do not possess such basic animalistic survival instincts, that so many of them curled up on the floor and kissed their own butts goodbye. I don’t want or need to think about all of that, though, because all it does it bring on a barrage of emotions, where I feel angry with them and then guilty and then sad and then run-on sentences. It’s just not a good idea. And no matter how they reacted to it, the event itself was nobody’s fault but that of the criminal who did this. People can believe in whatever they want to, and perhaps the universe or a higher power or something else said “hey, it’s not her time”, and that is definitely possible (I mean, it’s possible to get shot when going out to the movies, so I am no longer ruling stuff out), but I’d like to give credit where credit is most certainly due, and thank the ones who need to be thanked the most because I don’t think they get enough credit sometimes;
If my partner and I had not taken responsibility for ourselves at some point in our lives and joined the US Navy, we would not have immediately recognized the smell of tear gas. If we had not been so sharp, or just born with common sense and basic survival instincts, we would not have ran. If we were lazy and slow, we would not have ran as fast as we did (glad we go on those nightly dog walks). If we were not brave, we would not have kept moving even though someone very well could have been blocking the exit, with another gun (though I seriously didn’t even process that it was gun shots behind us- we both really thought that it was fireworks or something ridiculous but still potentially dangerous). If Chris wasn’t a smart, level-headed guy, he would not have stayed calm enough to drive me where I needed to go and handle the situation. If the medical personnel had not been absolutely amazing, I would not be in the shape I am now. I am not trying to talk down to anyone who thanks their higher power for this miracle (and I will agree that that’s a very appropriate word for this) at all, so please do not take it as such because that’s not what this is about. This is about me wanting you all to realize the immense feeling of gratitude that I have for Chris and the medical staff who took such amazing care of me. From the paramedics and the one who held my hand in the ambulance, to the nurses, radiologists, doctors, chaplain, social workers, and even the pharmacy tech at Safeway, I want you to know that you all are the reason I am ok and in so much less pain right now. You made the pain “go away”, as I had kept begging and pleading for somebody to earlier that night. And if I didn’t have Chris here, if I had lost him in the incident or something, I don’t know what I would have done. I thank our instincts, Navy training, and the universe itself that he is here, alive and unscathed. However, the physical stuff is all just one part of the pain we have endured, and most likely will endure. I had already been shopping around for a therapist due to PTSD from other times in my life. The flashbacks and things were getting too hard to deal with. After that night, I now pretty much have a novel to give the next therapist I talk to. I hope they’re ready for this.

I hope I’m ready for this.
♥

*new photo update* Carli’s words. Shared from Facebook.

If you would like to help out Chris and Carli with medical bills/therapy please donate at Carli’s website.

Fundraiser for Carli and Chris: http://www.indiegogo.com/careforcarli?c=home

Carli’s Website Click Donate!: http://www.carlirotten.net/donate/

And you can find her story here on her Blog: http://www.carlirotten.net/my-blog/

UPDATE: 7/27:  Carli’s Official Statement. 

Regarding the Controversy- Official Statement

 

UPDATE: 8/8: A wonderful interview with Carli, done by Secularwoman.org. 

Check it out: http://www.secularwoman.org/carli_interview

 

A post from Facebook “The Dark Knight Rises (Or At Least That’s What I’m Told, I Was Interrupted By A Douchebag With Guns)”

In Aurora, Colorado a crazed gunman entered a theater during the midnight showing of The new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”, waited a few minutes, went out through the emergency exit, grabbed his guns and tear gas and opened fire on the movie goers inside, killing 12, and injuring 50 others physically, and everyone in the theater mentally.  I am not writing this blog post to talk about that crazy asshole though. I am writing this to tell you all about my friend. She attended the movie, with her boyfriend, and was shot several times, the tear gas landed right by their feet, and that, as it turns out, is what ended up saving them both, because Carli and Chris are former Navy, they knew what the gas smelled like, and they knew right away the gas wasn’t some special effect the theater was putting on, so they high tailed it out of there, and Carli got shot in the process.

This is Carli’s Arm, still all bloody.

This is a good view of some of Carli’s gun shot wounds.

This is a recap of the events that took place at the midnight showing of Batman from Carli, and her boyfriend Chris.  This is a heart-wrenching story of survival, and I for one am happy as hell they survived this ordeal.  Chris Townson is the author of this piece.

The Dark Knight Rises (Or At Least That’s What I’m Told, I Was Interrupted By A Douchebag With Guns)

So it’s Thursday and I’m totally stoked. “Why?” you might ask. Because it’s new Batman movie time, that’s why!!! I’m not saying I’m the superfan or anything, but let’s just say I own a shirt at least. Or, I did own it; I’m not sure where it is right now. The last time I saw it was covered in blood and teargas, and it was being shoved into an evidence bag along with my pants and boxers and shoes. But I’m getting ahead of myself now. Let’s go back a couple hours, shall we?
I started my day with a stretch and a trip to the computer to see if it was even possible to still buy tickets to the midnight premiere of the new Batman. Sure that my ticket-purchasing plans would be foiled by a “sold-out” message, I logged into Fandango and was pleasantly surprised to see that I would have no problem acquiring two tickets. One for myself, and one for my girlfriend Carli who is the absolute light of my life. Carli also happens to be amazing in that she is a Batman fan as well. She also has a shirt, as well as earrings and boxers (so one wonders who the real fan is…).
Like every time I go to see a movie, I try and insist that my roommate and best friend Jeremy comes along. Almost any other time he would have jumped at the opportunity (we just went to the midnight premiere of “Ted” a couple weeks back), but one of his buddies from New York had just arrived and he was a bit tired from the trip. So, Jeremy decided to stay back with his friend and not go to the movie. I feel like there’s a lot of foreshadowing going on beneath my fingertips right now.
That whole rest of the day seems pretty insignificant, so I’m just going to skip ahead to the end part. I know it’s what you really want to read, so I may as well get on with it. It’s not going to be easy for me, but luckily my puppy (Nibbler) is sitting right next to me and giving me the okay.
The movie started at 12:05 so around 11:15 we decided to gear up. I donned my Batman shirt and hat, while Carli strapped on the coolest Joker shirt I’ve ever seen. It was from the 80’s and was given to her by her father and held an irreplaceable sentimental value to her. The last time she saw the shirt it was being cut off her body in the back of an ambulance so the paramedics could have easier access to her many gunshot wounds. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
We decided to make a pitstop at the nearest Shell station to stock up on candy and sodas for the show. I grabbed a one liter of mountain dew, and a bag of sour-patch kids, while Carli grabbed one of those new Arizona hippie teas along with a bag of sour gummy worms. Our total came out to seven dollars or so, which compared to the guaranteed twenty dollars I would’ve spent on popcorn and a soda seemed like the logical choice. Everything except the sour patch kids went into her purse, while I stuffed those delicious treats into the right cargo pocket of my white Quicksilver shorts. Those were a nice pair of shorts. I really wish I still had those shorts. We then began the four mile or so drive to the Century 16 Theater, located just outside the Town Center of Aurora Mall. This had been our theater of choice lately, once we discovered that the theater we were going to before was a total yuppie magnet and was charging us literally double the price to see the same movies.
I turned left onto Sable Street, which is the road I use to get to the mall. Much to my dismay (at the time) there was some ridiculous night construction going on, and our progress was weary. The road I meant to turn into was blocked off, so I took the lords name in vain and continued following the orange cones. I really hoped that the next turn wouldn’t be blocked off because then I would have to do some recalculating, which is sometimes not my strong suit. I’m slightly directionally challenged at times, and this was most definitely one of those times. Luckily there was an opening for that street, with a police officer standing in the middle of the road. Stuck on traffic duty, tough luck for him. I would see that guy again in about a half hour and I would be extremely grateful to him for getting stuck with that bum assignment.
As I pulled up to the theater the first thing I noticed was all of the cars in the parking lot. There were so many, and I was reminded of when we came here months ago to see the premiere of “The Avengers”(yeah, we go to a lot of midnight premieres on Thursday nights. What’s your definition of “grown-up?”) I didn’t even bother trying to get a close parking spot, so I wheeled my Camry on over to the boondocks section of the lot, way over on the left side where parking was still ample. After getting out and stretching, we joined hands and began walking towards our fate, all the way jovially exclaiming “Batman! Batman!”
The place was packed! There weren’t all the costumed people like we saw at Avengers, but everyone had definitely turned out to see the movie. I noticed the theater had added two showtimes of the movie, so they were now playing Batman in four theaters! The times were staggered about four minutes apart. There was a 12:01, 12:05, 12:10, and a 12:15 I think. We had Fandangoed tickets for the 12:05. The theater was so packed that they actually had an individual line for tickets purchased online. I’d always known about the Fandango machines but, call me afraid of technology, I’d always steered clear of them and just purchased my tickets at the counter from a human being. But we stepped into the online line all the same.
When my turn came for the machine, I wasn’t sure exactly how to proceed. A lot of times I totally feel like John McLane in that fourth Die Hard Movie: “an analog man in a digital age.” But, there was a nice manager-looking guy standing there for people just like me. He had on a tan suit, and looked very much like some sort of secret service agent with his little radio receiver in his ear. He explained that I simply take the card that I used to purchase the ticket online and swipe it into the machine. I swiped my card, and out popped two tickets easy as can be. I was actually a bit startled by how simple the process was. I had heard of this phenomena before, but I’m just really stubborn and stuck in my ways some times. For instance, I will never ever purchase a kindle or an ebook, or any other form of book that isn’t made of paper. Now I’m getting distracted, but I don’t apologize to you.
We didn’t need to stop at the concession stand, thank god, but we did need to stop at the bathrooms first. Ever since I was very young and my father took me to see “Wayne’s World,” and got frustrated when we had to go to the bathroom halfway through the film, I have always gone to the bathroom before I see a movie. Whether I have to go or not, I make something happen. That was the case this time, and I finally strained out a bit of lemonade. I looked in the mirror on the way out, but I didn’t wash my hands. I don’t know why that’s important, and it’s kind of gross, but this is my recollection not yours. While waiting for Carli to finish her bathroom quest, I stared at the poster for that new movie about the neighborhood watch who discovers aliens or whatever. I was genuinely curious if the fourth guy with the curly hair even had a name, and it turns out he does. I just can’t remember it, so I guess it doesn’t matter. Carli came out, and I remarked to her that the curly haired guy actually had a name, and she was genuinely intrigued, and then we turned towards the theater. Theater number nine. 12:05 showing. Batman.

For future reference, let me tell you how I’m going to lay out my directional point of view, so I don’t have to try to explain every time which side I’m talking about. When I say the right or left side, I’m speaking from the point of view of a moviegoer facing the screen. The right side is the side that would be on your right if you were sitting down and facing a movie screen. Okay, that part’s done. This has been pretty easy to type so far, but it’s about to get a lot harder because now I have to think about the bad parts. I just need to lay it all out there, so don’t feel discouraged if I get overly descriptive. I think I really just needed to record these events on some sort of medium so I could have it all layed out at my fingertips whenever I needed it. My medium is words on a piece of paper, even if it is a digital piece of paper on Word. I haven’t tried to watch much TV, because I’m all too aware of what is on the news right now, so I hope this is a fresh point of view from a pair of survivors. You see what’s happening here? I can even procrastinate while I am in the act of writing! I’m going to take a break and stretch for a moment before I continue.
So I just made a leftover cheeseburger at 9:40 in the morning. It was delicious. Nibbler really wanted it.
Okay, so back to it then. Carli and I walked into the theater holding hands. We decided randomly to enter the theater on the left side. Once we got past the downward slanted wall, we faced the crowd and attempted to locate two seats that were next to each other. The place was absolutely bursting with people! I’m not sure that when the movie started there was an empty seat in there. I estimate the capacity at a bit over 200 people, but that’s just a guess. I spot two vacant looking seats in a row almost exactly halfway up the theater. We climb about ten stairs until we reach the row, and then excuse ourselves as we awkwardly nudged past the first six or so people. Upon reaching the seats, we are informed that one of them is taken. So we, even more awkwardly now, back out of the row and look around again. There is a pair of seats on the outer left side of a row three or four rows down. I only passed them initially because I prefer to be more centered to the screen, but at this point I would take what I could get.
Carli took the seat on the inside and I the outside. There was still about five minutes before the previews started. The whole place was abuzz with conversation and excitement. After a four year wait, we were finally going to get to see the end of the latest and greatest Batman trilogy! A younger lady in front of us threw a piece of popcorn, missed her mouth and hit Carli in the leg. She apologized quickly, and I remember thinking that was fine then. As long as this thing didn’t turn into a foodfight, I wouldn’t be too upset. I really wish it would have turned into a food fight. I can think of absolutely nothing else right now that I would wish for.
I remember seeing the manager in the tan suit walk in from the left side, so I hesitated in pulling out my giant mountain dew. He was looking around and he spoke something into the radio in his ear. I remember thinking that I wish I had that dude’s job. Walking around a movie theater with a sweet walkie-talkie, asking people for stubs. Sweet. As soon as the first green preview screen popped up, Mr. Tan Manager turned around and disappeared behind the slanted wall.
There were a couple previews that intrigued me. I thought they could’ve made a better trailer for the Hobbit, but I knew I would see it anyways. Something about Tom Cruise trying kicking people’s asses. Sweet. I secretly like Tom Cruise as an actor, even though Tom Cruise as a person I would probably punch in the stomach. Anyways, Tom, just keep making cool movies, okay? Just no more Mission Impossibles, because I don’t have the attention span any more. Finally, the movie started. I screamed out, “WHOOOOOOOOO!!!” along with most other people in the theater. The movie was starting out a bit slow, but I expected that with a three hour movie. I was certainly intrigued. About ten or fifteen minutes into the movie is when it happened.
All of this happened within about ten seconds, but it replays over and over in my mind and it seems so much longer.
Something caught my eye on the right side of the theater. The right emergency exit, located directly under the screen, was opening up. It didn’t open slowly, and it wasn’t ripped open quickly. It was slowly and calmly opened up, and what came through was my worst nightmare. All of my secret fears and dreams came through that door. I saw a person who seemed a little tall, I guess, standing in the doorway. No physical description of the person could be made. I will try to relate how I saw him in my mind. I could see that the person was wearing what looked like some extremely thick body armor. Also, I noticed that he was wearing some sort of heavy duty mask on his face. Later I learned all about his body armor and gas/tactical masks, but this is what I saw. I saw a combination of Boba Fett from Star Wars and one of the main characters from Army of Two. Only with much thicker body armor.
It happened so quickly that it didn’t register something was wrong for a few seconds. I think that everyone in the audience thought it was some sort of promotional thing for the movie, which isn’t that farfetched. There were tons of people in costumes at the Avengers premier.
The armored man stood in the doorway and surveyed the theater for a fraction of a second before he went into action. He had something that looked like a big can or tube in his hand, and he threw this (underhand. He calmly lobbed it underhand) up into the crowd. I watched the projectile closely, and then grew slightly alarmed when I realized that it was going to hit either myself or Carli. I believe Carli even swatted at it. But it didn’t hit us, it just landed at our feet. Now, keep in mind this all happened in a couple seconds, and still to this point I still wasn’t sure that something was wrong. I thought maybe this guy was throwing some promotional prizes at us, and we just happened to be lucky enough to have whatever it was land at our feet.
Then it started hissing, and I saw smoke coming out of it. A second later, my nostrils were overwhelmed by what I immediately recognized as tear gas. That was the instant that it became real, and it became real to Carli about a split second before me, because she was up and outta that seat in a heartbeat. She stood up and started to run out, and believe me I was right behind her. Her reacting a hair of a second before me is what got her shot, but it’s also what saved our lives.
I just feel I have to say this because it is truth. Having served in the United States Navy very directly saved both of our lives that night. In Navy bootcamp all of the recruits are exposed to teargas so that they can recognize it and not be overwhelmed as easily by its effects. It burns like hell, and makes it nearly impossible to breathe. It has a very sharp, acrid odor that is very easily recognizable. If I didn’t know what it was exactly when it hit our feet, I’m not sure what would’ve happened. I like to think that I would’ve gotten up and ran pretty quick anyways, but it might not have been quick enough to save my life.
So, Carli gets up and essentially shields me from getting shot, and we start running. My nose is starting to run and my eyes are starting to burn from the teargas, but I know we’ve got to get out of there and quick. Fortunately, the downward sloping wall started only a couple rows down from us, and luckily we were sitting on the farthest outside seats. I kept my head low as we made it around the corner of the wall in about two seconds. Then we began racing down the dimly lit hallway, Carli right in front of me. While we were running, it registered to me that there were explosions happening all around me. As we fled down the hall, I remember some stubborn part of my brain trying to insist to me that some prankster was just in there lighting off fireworks. Another part of my brain told me, “No, man. That’s not fireworks and you know it. How bout you just keep on running?” So we did.
We came flying out into the main hallway of the theater. Carli and I were one of the first people to actually get out of there. I hear that most people just lay on the floor and waited for the worst to happen. My heart goes out to them, but nothing I could’ve done would have saved any of them, so I am trying really hard to not feel guilty right now about being alive and well. As we raced out of the theater, I noticed some very confused looks on the faces of the employees and all the customers standing around getting popcorn. I think some people were yelling, “they’re shooting,” but I’m not sure exactly what was yelled in there as my adrenaline was just starting to really kick in.
We exploded out of the main entrance and began running to my car, which was inconveniently parked way far away in the boondocks section of the parking lot. As we ran to the car, I kept expecting to get cut down by gunfire. Surely there would be other shooters hanging out in the parking lot to shoot the ones like us that got away. But nobody cut us down. We made it to the car and, surprisingly, I didn’t fumble for my keys like you see in the movies. I got that key right in there first try, and unlocked the doors. While we were running, I remember Carli saying something about being covered in someone elses blood. I, too, had a good amount of mystery blood on me. The blood on Carli, however, was mainly from herself. This is when I realized that some asshole had just shot my girlfriend.
Everybody wants to know how they would react to extreme situations like this. There were lots and lots of ways that I wanted to react: sit down and cry, start screaming maniacally, punch god in the mouth. But, Carli mentioned that she needed me to be calm or else she was going to freak out. So that’s what I did. I was probably the calmest dude in history that night, until it was all over at least. I remembered the police officer who had been stuck on the traffic crew, and decided that was my quickest bet at getting some help. I drove calmly but efficiently out of the parking lot, managing to not run anyone over. As I turned out of the mall entrance I spotted the same officer standing in the same spot on Sable street. I also noticed a police car come whipping around the corner so fast that he slid sideways for a moment before correcting himself and racing towards the theater. I obviously wasn’t stopping that guy, so I continued towards the guy in the street (whose name I can’t recall).
I came up to him honking my horn like crazy, and yelled to him that I needed an ambulance. My girlfriend has been shot I need a goddamn ambulance!! This whole night I tried to take everything with a grain of salt, because I knew that all the police and firemen and paramedics and doctors were going to have their hands full after this. The officer told me to park my car next to the curb, so I did. Everything around me was going crazy. Firetrucks and ambulances and police cars all flashing their lights and sirens around us in the nighttime lent a surreal quality to everything.
After a couple of scary minutes where Carli screamed in pain and I could think of nothing else to do but hold her and tell her she was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. A paramedic finally showed up and took a look at her. I got out of the car, and listened to the paramedics debate about whether or not her injury was severe enough to warrant putting her in an ambulance. I remember thinking, “are you serious? She’s been shot and you’re arguing about whether or not she deserves to ride in an ambulance?” that’s when the first fang of reality gave me a little bite, and I had a brief thought that we just escaped with our lives. And some people did not. But, I pushed that thought away quickly in order to keep some level of sanity. I just wanted to collapse on the ground and let someone else take care of me, but I needed to be strong for Carli, so I did an incredible job at pretending that I was somewhat calm. Maybe I have more acting potential than I am aware of.
Finally, after some debate about letting me just take her to a hospital (which horrified me because I wasn’t actually sure where the closest hospital was, and I was having trouble following the directions the officer gave me) the paramedics decided that she could ride in the ambulance after all. I, however, could not. So I was told to follow the ambulance. I told Carli that I would find her, and I like to think that she heard me because she was in so much pain, she kept saying, “please just make the pain stop just make the pain go away.”
I followed the ambulance for a couple of blocks before I realized that they were going back to the movie theater. I didn’t realize they had to pick up other people, so this confused me. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t in the correct mental state to be driving, but I did a surprisingly remarkable job. We got to the movie theater and then the ambulance stopped for a minute. I was praying that they were doing the best that they could for Carli, and that’s when the ambulance started backing up quickly. I threw my car in reverse, noticed a firetruck directly behind me but realized I was being hit by one or the other. Somehow the ambulance just bumped me a little and I was able to maneuver my car out of that mess unscathed. So, now I had to find the hospital on my own. Great.
I got to the hospital that the police officer had given me directions to, after much fear that I would never find it. I kept asking, but as far as the desk knew, Carli wasn’t there. But, they didn’t have everyone’s name and several people were trying to talk to me at once. I called my roommate Jeremy, and asked if he would come down and help me find Carli. He said he was on his way. Some old doctor found out that I had been exposed to gas, so twenty minutes later I am told to strip down and shower in front of the old dude, who is now outfitted in a full body plastic spacesuit. He hands me a sponge and watches me shower for about ten minutes. Oddly enough, it didn’t feel that weird.
They confiscated my clothes. I spent at least an hour there until I became certain that Carli was not at this hospital. I tried to leave, but was forced to make a police statement. I did that quickly, and tried to get at least my car keys back, but it ended up taking me quite some time to convince them to let me have my keys and wallet and phone back.
Three hospitals later, I found Carli. I have never been more happy or relieved at any moment in my life. You really find out, or are reminded, what a person means to you when you almost lose them. And Carli means the absolute world to me. It was about 4:00 a.m. when I finally found her and was able to be there for her. Luckily, the buckshot that has wounded pretty much her whole right side from shoulder to knee, did not pierce any organs or cause any mortal damage. Around 9:00-9:30 she was being wheeled out to my car, which reminded me again of what happened because the interior is covered in blood.
We stopped at a Safeway to fill her prescription for pain medication, and then we stopped at a McDonalds drive-thru to grab some greasy breakfast to take home. She got into bed, and I told her to let me know if there was anything at all that she needed. She appeared to be as comfortable as I can imagine possible, and so I sat down. I turned on the news, which I hadn’t really been paying attention to.
Then I started to cry. I couldn’t stop myself for a while. The whole night of trying to be calm and keep myself together came crashing in on me all at once, and I had myself a good old fashioned cry. Carli couldn’t even hold me because her arm is riddled with holes, and that made me even more sad.
So, that’s all of it for now. I think I typed a great deal more than I expected. I’m not sure how to conclude this, because I don’t think it will ever be concluded in my brain. Every time I shut my eyes I see that emergency exit coming calmly open and the monster that stood behind it. Literally, I see this, and I don’t know what to do about it. A toilet flushed kind of loud in the hospital and I about jumped to the ceiling. This man has changed a lot of things for me, and taken away some things that I will probably never get back. Like peace of mind and the calming effects that a movie theater has always had for me. A movie theater is supposed to be my sanctuary. I’ve been known to disappear and just go to the movies by myself because I like sitting there in the dark sometimes and not having to talk to anybody. Where’s my sanctuary now? Where the hell am I supposed to go? I certainly won’t be going to the movies for a while. Are you serious? Last night I was too afraid to turn off the light before I went to sleep.

I haven’t been afraid to turn off the light since I was five years old.

If you would like to help out Chris and Carli with medical bills/therapy please donate at Carli’s website.

Fundraiser for Carli and Chris: http://www.indiegogo.com/careforcarli?c=home

Carli’s Website Click Donate!: http://www.carlirotten.net/donate/

The original post can be found Here: https://www.facebook.com/chris.townson1/posts/506305459395181

Carli’s first hand account can be found here: http://sinisterdreams.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/carli-and-chriss-story-continued/