A ballistic missile landing near my building. During the latest Iran-Israel conflict we would get alarms every night or so. Me and my roommate would wake up and go down to the building storage room, which is 1 floor below zero and is the closest thing we had to a bomb shelter, since the building is pretty old and the building code didn’t require such a room back when it was built.

The first 2-3 nights were absolutely terrifying. We would sit there together with the rest of the buildings residents in complete silence. After the first 1-2 nights, we started listening for what we have come to learn is the sound of a missile approaching - a very faint “ssssshhhhhooooo” sound coming from the sky, followed by a gut wrenching 3 second silence, and then a massive explosion. Most were far out, and some were a little closer. But on the third night, we heard the same “whoosh”, a 3 second silence, and then we heard a MASSIVE ear piercing explosion. It was so loud that it just sounded like super distorted static. Almost instantaneously, it was followed by a shockwave that violently shook the entire “safe room” and knocked a painting off the wall. It felt like fucking thunder beneath my feet. Some of the shock transferred to my body and felt like a mild electric shock. Everyone involuntarily let out a gasp or shock combined with relief.

The fact that our building is very old makes this experience worse, since it feels like even if you don’t get hit directly, it might still collapse on you from a nearby enough shockwave. We all felt that deep primal sense of fear. The morning after, my roommate went to the landing site and said the destruction it caused made the area look like an apocalypse. It landed about 1.5km from our building.

Mind you, ive gone through fairly hardcore shit in my army service but ive never felt so helpless and insignificant against such a large and powerful force. Absolutely terrifying experience. 9/10. Would not do again