Tour Manager's Daughter

Waking up in panic

The following tour stop, we had a 'day layover' which meant we had all of today and tomorrow before the concert. Unfortunately Shawn and myself had made bets with another crew member who does grocery shopping in a race around the arena. I was a pretty fast runner growing up for having short legs and I assumed Shawn was fast and had enough stamina to get us in 1st place. Well we lost and our crew member was UNBELIEVABLY fast. The bet was winner doesn't have to shop for dinner and the following days snacks.. also bus food. 

So, now Shawn and I had the duty of going grocery shopping. We got in an uber and without any form of security hit the local grocery store. 

"Are you nervous going into public without people to protect you?" I asked Shawn who was typing out a list in his phone. 

"Uhh, kinda in a place where people KNOW we are. But I think we should be fine. If we meet people though, people will find out and we can't stay long." He replies.

It was actually kind of fun grocery shopping. It was a change of pace and I liked hanging out with Shawn. He is just a sweet dude. We had a remarkably full cart of food when we hit the check out line.

"Next Time we go shopping we need to get better food." I told him looking at our cart. 

"Agreed.. so there will be a next time?" he half smirked at me. 

"I'm sure there will be.. I mean we have a lot of stops.. Next long stop is DC." I explain. 

"Right D.C.. and the ice skating.." Shawn stated. 

"Yeah, they do ice skate there.." I said awkwardly. What was he getting at?

"You still wanna do that even after I embarrassed you?" He asked sincerely.

"Yeah, of course. If you still want to."

"I do. Cool." He smiled.

We were sent our own driver on our way back from the venue because of tour liability or something, didn't trust us taking an uber. But we also had so many groceries. After checking out we went out and loaded in our big black SUV and back on the road we went. It was absolutely freezing and apparently there was ice forming on the roads. 

We had just gotten off of the freeway and at the bottom of the off ramp was a light and we were behind a Prius and it suddenly couldn't stop and slid through the red light going probably 40mph before getting slammed by another SUV and then another car hit them and two more cars swerved around. It was heart wrenching.

I felt like I was in slow motion. I heard our driver and and Shawn say in sync, "Oh SHIT!" and I was silent. I was up from my seat unbuckling as our driver pulled over to the side. I could feel every heart beat in my chest. I got out so fast and Shawn grabbed my arm, "No, People aren't gonna be able to stop. Its slick! You'll get hit!"

"Those people need help, Call 911." I told him. I didn't run in the road, I wasn't that dumb, my adrenaline was pumping and I felt pretty invincible. I ran in the grass and avoided the road until I would have to. Until I heard commotion behind me and a car was slipping and flew up into the grass behind me. I thought I was gonna die. It startled me so bad I had slowed down and felt my legs get wobbly. Then I remembered what I was doing, and all the panic was gone again. Cars were all stopped and I heard sirens but didn't see any. People were slowly getting out of their cars.

One woman was running for the accident too and saw me. One victim stumbled out of their car. They were the 3rd person to hit. He looked frightened and out of breathe but was visibly okay. The woman ran up to the Prius which was crunched. The suv person, I went to after I watched the other womans reaction to the Prius driver. She looked panic stricken and she looked side to side at everything round us. Sirens were approaching but never fast enough. The person In the suv was knocked out against the steering wheel, they were not bleeding externally or visibly hurt. I pulled the woman back against her seat and found a pulse. I let out a sigh of relief.