This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised.

I'm punching, I'm kicking, I'm scratching, I'm biting, I'm pulling his hair.

Real people. I immediately saw a black wall of, you know, impending doom just coming right at me.

Who faced death.

It was me and dead people, and no one's going to come there to save me.

And live to tell how.

And I was thinking to myself, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I'm going to die.

This is I survived.

Music This is I Survived. It's May 1988 in Pensacola, Florida.

18-year-old Rhonda has just completed her freshman year of college.

She's working as a cocktail waitress in a five-star restaurant.

It was a great time for me.

I was experiencing life away from home at the beach.

I love the beach.

And it was just one of the best, most peaceful, exciting times of my life.

That particular day, it was two days before my 19th birthday.

It was about 1 o'clock in the morning somewhere around that time. And I remember my manager asking me, you want me to walk you out to your car. And, you know, I was 18 years old. I felt invincible. I said, oh no, that's okay. I'll just walk myself out to the car. So I'm walking to my car.

And this guy who's in a Jeep that's uncovered just jumps out out of the blue. He was like, hey, hey, can you give me a ride? My Jeep won't start. I can't make it home. And, you know, at 18, I was full of spunk. And I kind of smarted off. I'm not giving you a ride. I don't know you. I'm not giving you a ride.

In my mind, I was thinking all I had to do was tell him no,

get my car and go home, That'd be the end of it. It wasn't. As I stick my key in my car, I felt him come up and stick something to my side, and I glanced down and realized he's a knife. Immediately, I realized I'm danger. He says, you're going to give me a ride.

And so all I can remember is I just kind of froze and I panicked and I didn't know what to do.

The next minute, he's pushing me over into the seat. I'm crawling over into the seat and he gets into the driver's side and he starts it up. It's obvious that he doesn't know how to drive a five-speed because he starts to take off and we're jerking. I asked him, I said, what are you doing? Where are you going? He said, I'm just going home. I'll drop you off. The minute I get home, I'm just going home. My mind is half blank, and then it's racing too. And I'm thinking, what do I do? How do I get out of this? We come to the first red light and I think, okay, here's my chance to get away. I immediately opened my door and try to get out. And as I'm getting out, he grabs me by the hair and just yanks me back in the car.

...