I've told this story before but it's easily in the Top-5 craziest things I've ever experienced, and that's saying a lot. It'll trip me out as long as I live, and I'll never know what was really going on. It sounds like a nightmare or a creepy movie like Village of the Dammed or something, but it happened.
It was a Sunday morning in the wee hours after we'd finished our last gig for the week and were headed home. We'd played somewhere in Mississippi although I don't remember where. I do know that we only played there once, and we took a different route coming back than we'd usually take.
As per usual we were all in a great mood. We had the natural buzz from playing the gig plus we were a little homesick after four or five days on the road, and looking forward to getting back. Most likely we were probably having a few beers and a J or two.
Out of the total blue Doug got really sick, and I mean really, really sick. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I've seen people feeling fine one second and throwing up their toenails the next second, but never have I seen anyone get that sick that quick, and he never threw up. One second he was laughing and cutting up and the next he was deathly ill.
He went white and started shaking. He could barely talk and we were a little freaked out. We thought it might be something serious like a heart attack or a stroke or something but he didn't have chest pains or any signs of a stroke, but whatever it was it was serious. He was shaking like a leaf so we wrapped him up in a blanket.
Just a minute or two later we came up on a truckstop. That was good news, or so we thought. We thought we'd find out where the nearest hospital was, and get Doug some ice water and maybe a cup of coffee or tea or something.
I'd say it was probably around 2am. Due to blue laws, gigs in Mississippi shut down early, usually midnight on Saturday. After an hour or so to get paid, chat with the frat brothers and sorority sisters and pack up our gear, and having driven a while I'm guessing it was 2-ish, but it may have been closer to 3am.
The entrance went into a 7-11 type deal and the dining room was off to the side. There were a couple of Bubbas behind the counter and a grizzled old man who looked like Crypty from Tales from the Crypt. He was cackling away about something while the two Bubbas laughed. No one said hello or anything.
We went into the dining room and it was completely full. I'd say there were easily 250 people. Every table was taken so we couldn't sit down. I thought I'd flag down a waitress and get a water and coffee to go, and ask where the nearest hospital was, but I was totally ignored.
The place was a beehive, and I get that the waitresses were slammed, but at first nobody even looked at us. It was like we were invisible. A waitress scurried by with a pot of coffee and when I asked if I could get a cup for my friend, she acted like I wasn't there. It was weird.
Then I noticed the first anomaly. Nearly everyone there was dressed in their Sunday best-- suits and dresses, and not only that but there were kids at almost every table. They were all dressed up too. What were kids doing up at that time?
Not only were there little kids who were up way past what most people consider bedtime, but they were wide awake...every one of them. It would've been completely normal if it were 2:00 in the afternoon, on a Sunday after church, but it was 2:00 in the morning. Most curious.
For another minute or two nobody paid a bit of attention to us, and I scanned the whole room. You'd think we'd have been enough of a contrast to the local folk that we'd at least be noticed...five guys who look like a demented bowling team, and one if them hunched over and white as a sheet and swaddled in U-Haul blankets and unable to stand without being held up, but for a minute or two I didn't lock eyes with anybody.
But then, almost as quickly as Doug had taken ill, that all changed. Almost instantly everyone stopped eating, running around with coffee pots and everything else and started staring at us. You couldn't have planned it any better in a movie. It was one of the most serious "Oh, shit" moments of my life.
I know it sounds like bullshit or a tall tale or whatever, but four other guys witnessed it too. Well, you can't count Doug because he was so out of it he barely knew where he was, but the rest of us saw it.
I looked around the room and everyone in the place was silently staring at us. I want to say that even the music on the jukebox stopped, but that probably didn't happen. I do remember seeing the cooks poking their heads through the order window and looking at us. How did they find out so quickly? Everyone in the whole damned place was staring at us. We figured it was time to go, and right then.
As if to confirm our suspicions, about a dozen men got up from several tables at once, again on cue, and started walking toward us, with very determined looks on their faces. We literally picked Doug up and headed for the exit, and I don't think a moment too soon. We hustled into the 7-11 part and headed for the door as fast as we could move.
As long as I live I'll never forget that old man...as we were going through the store he was cackling and saying "They can't help you...no one can help you!" over and over. That was the icing on the cake.
I was asking myself how the hell we'd gotten involved in an episode of the Twilight Zone, but I was in too much of a hurry to get through the door, carrying one half of Doug, and all I wanted to do was make it into the van, which thank God we did. We slammed and locked the doors. I don't remember any of them following us out, but I had tunnel vision and I was only looking ahead. I didn't feel safe until we were five miles down the road and there was nobody following us.
Within a minute or so Doug returned completely to normal, except for being dazed, and understandably so. If it had been weird seeing him get sick so quickly, it was even weirder seeing him, or anyone else for that matter, totally recover instantly. It was like a joke almost except it wasn't.
It does sound exactly like a movie, and even though the basic theme has been done before, it stood up to any movie I've ever seen. How in hell did Doug go from being perfectly fine one second to being deathly ill, to being completely fine one second later? I know people can get sick and recover quickly, but usually there's a ramp-up of a few seconds at the very least. I've never seen anything remotely like it.
Why were people dressed up at 2am.on a Sunday morning? Why did they not look at us for a minute or two and then all look at us at once? Why in God's name would there be children up at that hour, and how could every single one of them be so alert and awake? What did those men who got up from their tables and were headed for us have in mind? Did they just want to run us out, or was there another plan?
Why was the old man saying that "they" couldn't help us? Who is "they?" Why did it seem like a scene from a movie? Was it something they do whenever outsiders drop in? That would almost make sense. seeing as how almost scripted it seemed, and still seems now. It's so utterly bizarre that it almost makes me think it was a dream, but it was real, and as is the case with the majority of my crazy stories, there were witnesses.
Except for the "wild dogs" incident, the experience at the studio in Muscle Shoals and a couple of other things I'd have to think about, it one of the craziest things I've ever experienced. Ever since that night I've referred to that incident as the "Vortex of Evil," which would make a cheesy but okay title if it were ever brought to the big screen. It straight-up reeked of evil. Many times I've been scared and creeped-out, but I can't recall a time when they were combined in such a way.
Was it just something that the locals do for fun, or was there really something evil about it? That gets my vote, but what do I know? We know for a fact that satanic rituals are performed at midnight, and that kids are involved, but usually they're dressed in robes. Was it some weird cult that the whole town was in on? It's happened.
Whatever it was I've never been so glad to get away from a place. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I believe that there was something "paranormal" going on, if not evil.
I think it had every bit to do with how Doug got so horribly sick in the blink of an eye, and then recovered just as quickly. I could be wrong but it sure had that vibe, and I'm not the only one who felt it. In.any case it was nice to say goodbye to Crypty. Stay safe.
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