My best friend and I traveled to Las Vegas for a weekend-long country festival. On the third night of the concert (our fourth in Vegas), we decided to take it easy, stay on the outskirts, drink water, and enjoy.
When we heard the first shots, a few songs in, everyone was looking for the fireworks that we’d obviously heard. As the sound kept happening and no fireworks came, it almost felt like the world was silent. My fried grabbed my hand, looked me in the eyes and said, “We need to leave.” We took off, and a guy in front of us picked up a barrier and tossed it aside. We followed the crowd, running as fast as we could, and kept checking behind us to see if the person shooting was following us. When we got to a fence that blocked us from the road, everyone helped the person in front of them over. Running in between cars, I lost a shoe and ran down the back streets barefoot. We called our families, our boyfriends, and kept running. When we finally got into a room, we just held each other and cried.