“We reversed out of there as quickly as we could, screaming and certain that we just stumbled upon something we shouldn’t have.”

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Note: The following content has mentions of death, sexual harassment, and other sensitive matters. Reader discretion is advised. 

"I took the scenic route home on the way back to Indiana from Arkansas earlier this year and I had to put a pin in the map to look up where I was at later. Cairo, Illinois.

That place didn’t even seem real. As I’m driving through, I’m looking at how NOTHING is alive. No businesses or anything. Then I see a guy leave a house and get in a car, and I’m thinking “where do you work?? What in the world possesses you to live here?” It was a super bizarre, real-life Nuketown." — McCHitman

"We were about five minutes up the road when we saw the lights start flashing behind us. The same officer who'd just "released" me to them, despite never having been officially "in custody,” was pulling us over. Spent a good 15 minutes trying to intimidate my friends, insinuating that I wasn't safe with them, and questioning me about how well I knew them, before letting us go.

Once we got on the highway, my friend, who was from AL and was driving, said, in the lowest "I'm freaked tf out but trying to stay calm" voice I've ever heard, "Have you guys ever seen 'Mississippi Burning'?" We all said yes. He said, "That's the police department where it happened." That was a quiet fucking drive back to school. I'm lucky they came to get me once they knew where I was, and in hindsight, I wouldn't have blamed them if they'd refused." — LucyJordan614

"They refused to serve us in two different restaurants (there were only two), and eventually a very chipper sheriff's deputy told us the only thing we'd be allowed to purchase in their little hovel was the fuel to leave. I, for the life of me, cannot remember the name of this God-forsaken shithole, but I can only imagine how much worse it would've been had either of us had any melanin." 

"There were about half a dozen guys standing around in the parking lot. The second my tires crunched on the gravel, they all stopped talking and just stared at me. Complete, dead silence. I got out to use my card at the pump, and the guy working inside came out to the screen door and just stood there with his arms crossed, watching. Not a single person said a word or broke eye contact the entire time I was standing there.

I pumped exactly ten dollars, just enough to get me back to civilization, and got back in my car. As I pulled out, one of the trucks in the lot turned its headlights on and pulled out right behind me. They tailed me so closely I couldn't even see their headlights in my rearview mirror for about five miles of twisting mountain dirt roads. As soon as my tires finally hit a paved two-lane state highway, they just stopped dead in the middle of the road and turned around. I have never been so relieved to see a painted center line in my life." 

"I told him what I’d been told on the phone, and he just shook his head in disapproval. “Well, you’re here. Probably would be unwise if you left, so park over there under that light post,” he said. “At least I can see you if they come over the fence during the night…”I didn’t sleep a wink. Just lay there in the dark and prayed for morning to arrive. I made it out the next morning in one piece, but I never went back. Once was enough for this cat. I was in my mid-20s at the time, and I’m Canadian. I’d never seen a city like East St. Louis before. We don’t have places like that here."

"The road took us into an area that was marked with a sign that said, “White Community.” He and I kinda laughed, but we both had a horrible feeling that we weren't safe. Neither of us is white; we are both Indigenous, he being Cherokee and me being Navajo, and we clearly look it. We couldn’t drive quickly because the road was still dirt and high up, but I will never forget how we had to stop to turn onto a different road, and someone sitting on their porch gestured to the other people on their porch, and they just stared at us. We made it to Pigeon Forge, but I could have gone my whole life without finding out the hard way that there are still communities like that." 

"There’s no hooting, no hollering. No drinking, no coffee. Just a quiet, solemn series of people shamefully stuffing bills into slots. Hoping, praying really, that Joseph Smith or Jesus will make the reels align just right. The Golden Nugget Hotel was dirt cheap, but I don’t know if it’ll ever be worth the price of what my soul lost that night on the way through." 

"At the time I read this story, the guy hadn't been caught. The specificity of the man's smell, the kid hiding in a dog kennel, and the horrible detail about the poor puppy...yikes."

I also grabbed some responses from this thread. 

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.