WHAT IF?
You’re in that state between waking and dreaming, where you’re not quite sure if what you heard was imagined or not. It’s approximately 3 in the morning, and someone just entered your room. Since you’re spending the night at your friend Paula’s house, perhaps she’s looking for something. But at this hour? This doesn’t make sense. As you open your eyes and the blurriness fades away, you hear something that sounds strangely like duct tape being unrolled. Your heart rate begins to race as you realize whoever is in the room with you isn’t Paula at all. It’s someone who shouldn’t be in the house.
As you turn your head to get a better look at the situation, the stranger realizes you’re beginning to wake up. The man immediately jumps on top of you and covers your mouth with his hand. In a low, threatening voice he growls, “Shut up! Make a sound and you’re dead!” Overcome with the immediate shock of what’s happening, you fear for not only your life, but Paula’s as well.
You’re turned over on your stomach, your mouth and eyes are covered with tape, and your wrists are bound behind your back. You have a knife in your purse, only a few feet away from you. If only you could reach it, you’d have a better chance at escaping your unknown assailant. Whatever their intentions are, you’re not sure at this point. You adjust your breathing to try to dampen the feelings of panic and think clearly about how to free yourself. You may only have a few minutes to live — or maybe they just want to immobilize you so they can rob the place. There’s no way to be sure at this point. Every decision you make could determine whether you survive or not.
In this issue’s What If? column, we look at a topic that’s often in the back of people’s minds — an aggressive home intruder with unknown intentions that could be kidnapping, abduction, or worse. While we often see these incidents reported in the media, we find that they’re accompanied by little, if any, information about what you can do if ever faced with a similar situation to improve your odds of survival. We plan to change that here, with feedback from two of our writers on what they’d do to sway the given scenario in their favor. We asked Morgan Rogue of RoguePreparedness.com and firearms instructor Sheena Green to offer guidance to help you think through some possible ways to turn victimization into victory.
It’s a Friday night, and you drive over to
