Who isn't familiar with the cliché
of the poor victims of horror movies falling flat on the ground, for no obvious
reason, during chase scenes? Up until recently this seemed like a totally
absurd thing, even to me. However, in light of recent events, I have realised
that I am, sadly, no better at running than these characters...
It so happened
that I was walking back home a rather gloomy night. I am currently living on
the Japanese countryside, and I had been visiting some friends who live about a
5 to 10 minute walk from the place I am staying at. I often go to their house,
and during the last few weeks on my way home I have had the misfortune to cross
paths with a rather big-sized wild boar, and while it's never actually charged
straight at me it has been slightly aggressive in its behaviour. Because of
this my nerves were already in a jumble, and just to be on the safe side I had
decided to take a slightly longer route back home, simply in order to avoid
this beast.
Of course it
didn't work out quite like I had planned, because this wild boar had apparently
made tormenting me its goal in life.
As I am rather
confidently walking on by, still on high alert because of previous evenings but
calmer now that I had found an alternative way home, there's sudden rustling in
the bushes. My heart starts to beat like crazy and for a fraction of a second I
freeze; my ears attuned to catch even the slightest indication of movement in
my direction. And of course it's moving towards me, and fast. And of course it
has to be the wild boar, poking its ugly head out of the tall grass...
I just set off
running like mad. I was totally overtaken by my instincts, and my brain was
screaming loud and clear: you have to flee!!! The problem was that my legs
couldn't quite keep up with the speed I was trying to make them function at.
Now here my memory gets slightly fuzzy, and I can't really remember in which
order these events happened, but the following took place.
- I realised the
boar was still after me.
- There was a
sudden shift in the terrain, a dip in the road I think.
- All strength
from my legs evaporated, and they became useless pieces of meat that could not
keep up with the momentum of my upper body, causing me to lose balance and
topple over. I was running with my phone in one hand, so I couldn’t even soften
my fall properly (because protecting my phone was way, way more important than
any bodily harm that could be inflicted upon my person when falling on hard
asphalt while running at high speed... Never realised how scarily attached I am
to that piece of junk...). But, really, it was like a mini-paralysis had taken
place in my legs, and they just couldn't do as I commanded.
- I saw the wild
boars eyes shimmer in the dark.
- I quickly
scrambled up and continued running.
I have seriously
probably never been that frightened in whole my life. Not even when facing what
has probably been more dangerous situations in my previous line of work. As a
security guard I still felt like I had more control, and I was dealing with humans. Here it was a wild
animal, and I was alone and defenceless. Excellent factors for breeding fear.
But yeah, I kind
of understand how you can fall even though there is no apparent reason for
falling. Fear can do that to you. So, on that point, I can relate to horror
movie victims. Yet, quickly getting up again to pursue the vital task of
fleeing took place in the blink of an eye. Yes, I almost had to force my legs
into action with sheer willpower during the first few steps (not because of the
pain but because they still felt kind of paralysed), but my need and want for
survival took care of that I somehow still got away, and fast.
All in all, what I
want to say is that it's not totally unlikely that a horror movie victims falls
during a chase. However, I do think it's an overused cliché, and if/when you
fall it does not take years to get of the ground nor is it very likely that
you'll topple over again only minutes later. I think the adrenaline more than
well takes care of that. Personally I couldn't sleep for hours.
Thinking of the
incident now I have come to the conclusion that I was probably never in any
actual life threatening danger. A more likely scenario is that both I and the
wild boar were simply unlucky enough to flee in the same direction, but that
fear...it really clouded my judgement. It's frightening to think of.
This certain brand of fear will
definitely be etched into my mind for years to come, of that I am sure.
