It was the day before my senior year was about to start, and some of my closest friends wanted to spend our last day of freedom together, so we sought out Six Flags since we’d wanted to go for a while. The drive there was pretty long; however, with the company of my friends, it made hours seem like minutes. Once we arrived around noon and bought our tickets, we were ready to start our Great America dream.

I remember my friends seniors Dominic Anania, Keandre Miles and Sophomore Lola Caruso-Reyes playing games like What Am I? and UNO while we cracked jokes waiting in lines. From the rides, funny interactions and the phenomenal performances everything was great.

Around 7 p.m. my friends and I headed towards the front of the waterpark near the parking lot. As we were walking towards the area, we heard a loud pop. We just ignored it and moved on, thinking it was something related to a roller coaster.

“I at first thought it was a roller coaster breaking or something,” Anania said.

“When I heard the [noise], I thought it was just from the roller coaster,” Caruso-Reyes said.

We continued to walk toward the area where the noise came from and ended up seeing a whole mob of people screaming and crying– trying to get away. It wasn’t until later on that we collided with another group, yelling about gunfire coming from the area we were headed. It was at that moment we assumed that multiple shooters were present.

“I didn’t hear the [noise]; however, I did see a large group of people running,”  Miles said.

My group of friends and I ran straight for 30 minutes, trying to find a nearby exit; however, everything was locked. We ended up stumbling upon this guy who started leading people to a fence to jump over. But not everyone was able to make it above the tall wall.

“When I saw everyone running, I was confused and scared– some adrenaline ran through me. The scariest part was when babies and strollers were thrown across the gates. And seeing people scream the names of their friends and significant others,” Caruso-Reyes said.

I found a nearby trailer bed, the one you see behind trucks, and pulled it to the fence where others could jump over, and I was able to help catch people. After we got across, we stumbled upon another fence; only this one was a lot higher and barbed, with the only way out being a locked door.

During this time, it started to hit me as several people were jumping over the wired fence, cutting themselves. People were removing their sweaters and shirts and used it as protection to cover up the barbed wires. This ended up severely hurting people.

Several people recorded and cops drove past us. We were terrified.

Multiple videos also went viral on Twitter, where a couple of other people and I were trying to force the gate down.

We were literally trapped between two fences until a police officer showed up and opened the gate.

Afterwards, we called our parents to assure them that we were safe. We left there smiling– I had no idea why we were. I think it just had to do with the fact that we didn’t know how to express ourselves.

Ty Carter is the mother of Keandre Miles, and she was one of the first people to contact us as soon as she heard about the incident.

“Honestly, I wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap and put him away from the world. I already stressed about him growing up in this crazy world, but this solidified I can’t be everywhere; I had fear, anger, and rage all at once– I wanted to be there to protect him. Pissed off at the people who brought harm to hundreds of people and my kid,” Carter said.

I was later brought to a hospital that night with tears turning on and off as I tried wiping them away. I then answered some questions and had a check-up. I sprained both my shoulders, slightly sprained my ankle and had multiple cuts cleaned up.

The worst thing by far was my mental state. I couldn’t stop thinking about the several families and small children crying and screaming from across the park.

I never ended up getting treatment. I stepped away from everything and tried to process what had happened. Six hours later I had to start my first day as a senior. I don’t think I’ll ever go to an amusement park again, and the fact that they handled the situation so poorly, even after hundreds of cops were present, petrified me.

The constant thought of losing my friends had trapped me to the point where I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was the only thing that filled my mind.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that shootings are real. They’re scary. Traumatic. Life changing. Horrifying. As of now, those of us who are effected by shooting should speak about it and try whatever we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.