Latest / Crime and Horror / Don’t follow the tracks Campfire Stories with MrBallen - MrBallen

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Don’t follow the tracks Campfire Stories with MrBallen - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey guys, I'm backed by the fire and I have
0:02
Speaker 1: another awesome story to share with you. Today's story is
0:06
Speaker 1: this epic survival story, and I mean the story itself
0:09
Speaker 1: is truly unbelievable, but I'm telling you the twist at
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Speaker 1: the end, basically how this.
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Speaker 2: Person was able to survive. You will not see coming.
0:20
Speaker 2: Great plot twist, great story. I know you're gonna like it.
0:23
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:26
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:29
Speaker 1: then you come to the right campfire, because that's all
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Speaker 1: we do, and we.
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Speaker 2: Upload two, three, even four times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please invite the
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0:44
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:11
Speaker 1: Around ten am on March eighteenth, nineteen forty four, a
1:15
Speaker 1: twenty six year old Finnish soldier named Iimo Koivunin sat
1:19
Speaker 1: around a campfire with a group of other soldiers inside
1:22
Speaker 1: of the Arctic Circle in northern Europe.
1:24
Speaker 2: They were very.
1:25
Speaker 1: Deep into the wilderness in this forest that was covered
1:29
Speaker 1: in several feet of snow, and i Emo was melting
1:33
Speaker 1: a pot of that snow over the fire so the
1:35
Speaker 1: group could drink some tea. And at the same time
1:38
Speaker 1: that Imo was doing this, even though it was kind
1:40
Speaker 1: of relaxing to be sitting here, Iimo, I mean, his
1:43
Speaker 1: whole body was basically aching number one.
1:46
Speaker 2: It was five degrees outside.
1:49
Speaker 1: And this was also the first time that he and
1:51
Speaker 1: the other soldiers had stopped to rest in about two days.
1:55
Speaker 2: They had been on the move the whole time.
1:57
Speaker 1: So Iimo and his squadron were all members of the
2:00
Speaker 1: Finnish military, and at this point during World War two
2:04
Speaker 1: they were actually allied with Nazi Germany, not because you know,
2:08
Speaker 1: they were Nazis, they were not, but because Finland and
2:12
Speaker 1: Germany shared a common enemy, the Soviet Union.
2:15
Speaker 2: Right now, Iimo and.
2:17
Speaker 1: His squadron were in an area called Lapland, which used
2:20
Speaker 1: to belong to Finland, but four years earlier, the Soviet
2:24
Speaker 1: Union had invaded Finland and ultimately forced Finland to cede
2:29
Speaker 1: this land to the Soviets. But now during World War Two,
2:34
Speaker 1: Finland wanted to get their land back, and Germany was
2:37
Speaker 1: helping them do that. And so Iimo and his squadron
2:40
Speaker 1: were in Lapland on essentially a reconnaissance mission. They were
2:44
Speaker 1: there to try to figure out sort of what the
2:46
Speaker 1: Soviets were doing in this part of Lapland and how
2:49
Speaker 1: many Soviets were out there again in this particular part
2:52
Speaker 1: of Lapland. However, Iimo and the others had spent the
2:55
Speaker 1: past two days skiing all over the place in their
2:59
Speaker 1: area of operation, but so far they hadn't seen any
3:03
Speaker 1: Soviet soldiers or any Soviet basis. But you know, for
3:06
Speaker 1: Iimo and probably for the other soldiers that he was with,
3:09
Speaker 1: I mean, this.
3:10
Speaker 2: Was ultimately a good thing.
3:11
Speaker 1: They were trained for combat, but they didn't necessarily want
3:15
Speaker 1: to come across Soviets and have like a full blown shootout,
3:18
Speaker 1: in part because the Soviets were just a bigger, more
3:21
Speaker 1: well equipped military, and you know, they were also more advanced,
3:25
Speaker 1: and so if they got into a gunfight with them,
3:27
Speaker 1: who knows what would have happened.
3:28
Speaker 2: And so even though i Emo.
3:30
Speaker 1: Is like sitting here feeling very sore and very tired
3:32
Speaker 1: as he he melts his his snow, he was ultimately
3:35
Speaker 1: feeling kind of grateful that this reconnaissance mission had proven
3:39
Speaker 1: to be pretty low key. However, just as the water
3:43
Speaker 1: began to boil, Iimo and the other soldiers heard the
3:48
Speaker 1: unmistakable sound of machine gun fire coming from somewhere that
3:52
Speaker 1: had to be nearby. And so immediately Imo and the
3:55
Speaker 1: others they jump up forget what they're doing, and they're
3:57
Speaker 1: just they're looking to see where this gunfire is coming from.
4:01
Speaker 1: But then before they could even make sense of the situation,
4:04
Speaker 1: Iemo's lieutenant yelled like, hey, get ready, get.
4:07
Speaker 2: Your guns, and so they all scooped up their weapons.
4:09
Speaker 1: Imo he's picking his weapon up, and as he looks up,
4:12
Speaker 1: he looked off in the distance, maybe a quarter mile away,
4:15
Speaker 1: and he was shocked to see an entire pack of
4:19
Speaker 1: Soviet soldiers bearing down on them. They were literally skiing
4:23
Speaker 1: down this mountain side right nearby, and they were obviously
4:26
Speaker 1: shooting their machine guns, not in random directions, but right
4:31
Speaker 1: at Iemo and the other men.
4:33
Speaker 2: They were clearly.
4:34
Speaker 1: Being attacked by these Soviets. Now, Imo and the other
4:38
Speaker 1: men have clearly been trained for this.
4:40
Speaker 2: This is literally why they're out here.
4:42
Speaker 1: They are soldiers, They're they're ready for this type of encounter,
4:46
Speaker 1: but for a moment when Imo sees this overwhelming force
4:50
Speaker 1: that's descending on them, they're clearly outnumbered, like this is
4:52
Speaker 1: going to end badly. All Iemo had in his head
4:56
Speaker 1: was just this overwhelming feeling of just terror. He was
5:00
Speaker 1: the oldest of six children, and when he first enlisted
5:03
Speaker 1: in the military, he had promised all of his little
5:06
Speaker 1: siblings that he wouldn't get hurt, he would come home,
5:08
Speaker 1: he would be okay.
5:09
Speaker 2: And now he knew that wasn't going to happen, like
5:11
Speaker 2: he was going to get killed.
5:12
Speaker 1: He just knew it. But Iimo, after sort of breaking
5:15
Speaker 1: out of this initial thought, he looked over at his lieutenant,
5:19
Speaker 1: and his lieutenant looked terrified too, but he quickly composed
5:23
Speaker 1: himself and yelled for Aimo and everybody else to flee.
5:28
Speaker 1: Just moments later, Iimo and the other Finnish soldiers were
5:31
Speaker 1: on their skis, skiing as fast as they could away
5:35
Speaker 1: from the Soviets down the backside of this mountain, just
5:38
Speaker 1: doing anything they could to survive. And as Aimo is
5:42
Speaker 1: skiing away, he can hear the sound of gunfire ricocheting
5:45
Speaker 1: off trees, zipping by his head like he's thinking, at
5:48
Speaker 1: any point, I'm gonna get hit or one of my
5:51
Speaker 1: teammates are going to get hit.
5:52
Speaker 2: There's nothing we can do. We just gotta go as
5:54
Speaker 2: fast and as far as we can. And so he's
5:56
Speaker 2: skiing and actually Iimo.
5:58
Speaker 1: Was at the front of their formation. He's actually leading
6:00
Speaker 1: the pack, and so really it was his job to
6:03
Speaker 1: kind of create tracks in the snow that the others
6:05
Speaker 1: could follow in behind. It was easier for them, but
6:08
Speaker 1: it meant he was expending a lot of energy basically
6:11
Speaker 1: pushing all the snow down as he was making his escape.
6:15
Speaker 1: And as much as he wanted to maintain that position
6:18
Speaker 1: and do this for his teammates to continue to make
6:20
Speaker 1: tracks here, it was so exhausting.
6:24
Speaker 2: And also, like.
6:25
Speaker 1: When you're in combat, you have this unbelievable adrenaline rush
6:28
Speaker 1: that sometimes can lead to like a massive crash of energy,
6:32
Speaker 1: and it was like he had this huge rush of energy,
6:34
Speaker 1: and now it's like he's collapsing despite the need to
6:37
Speaker 1: escape here, it's like his body just cannot go any
6:41
Speaker 1: faster than he's going. And so before long it's like
6:44
Speaker 1: he found himself slowing down and his teammates are zipping
6:47
Speaker 1: by him because they can't stop. The bullets are flying fast,
6:51
Speaker 1: like their only hope of survival is just to keep ongoing,
6:54
Speaker 1: and so Iemo knows that, like basically, if he can't
6:58
Speaker 1: keep up, he's dead.
7:00
Speaker 3: His body.
7:00
Speaker 1: It was just he couldn't He couldn't go any faster.
7:03
Speaker 1: He was slowing down. He was going slower and slower.
7:05
Speaker 1: He can hear the sound of the gunfire getting closer
7:08
Speaker 1: and closer, and he's thinking about.
7:10
Speaker 2: His siblings and how devastated they're going.
7:12
Speaker 1: To be to find out that he was killed in
7:14
Speaker 1: this war, and so slower and slower he's going. The
7:18
Speaker 1: sounds are getting louder and louder behind him, and he
7:21
Speaker 1: sees the last of his teammates pass him, and he
7:23
Speaker 1: sees them just kind of drift off down the mountain
7:26
Speaker 1: into the white abyss beyond, and they're gone. He's alone,
7:30
Speaker 1: and he just can't keep up, and then finally he
7:33
Speaker 1: just loses control of his skis. He veers off to
7:35
Speaker 1: the side, he starts tumbling down the mountain, smashes into
7:39
Speaker 1: a tree, and he passes out. When Imo woke up,
7:43
Speaker 1: it was light outside, but he had no idea how
7:46
Speaker 1: much time had passed. He also really had no idea
7:49
Speaker 1: how he was even still alive, Like what did the
7:52
Speaker 1: Soviets just decide not to kill me? Or did they
7:55
Speaker 1: not see me? Like what happened to my teammates?
7:57
Speaker 2: Like what's going on? He had a lot of questions.
8:00
Speaker 1: But in addition to feeling confused about the whole situation,
8:04
Speaker 1: he also had this really distinct other feeling. He had
8:08
Speaker 1: this immense sense of being alert, like hyper alert, more
8:14
Speaker 1: than really he had ever been in his whole life.
8:16
Speaker 1: It's like he could hear and see everything at like
8:18
Speaker 1: a ten times level.
8:20
Speaker 2: It's like, oh my god, I know everything going on
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Speaker 2: around me. I'm totally aware.
8:24
Speaker 1: So with his like hyper vigilance that he suddenly was
8:27
Speaker 1: having sort of out of nowhere, he began to, you know,
8:29
Speaker 1: take stock of a situation right away. He you know,
8:33
Speaker 1: was able to see that he's alone, like the Soviets
8:35
Speaker 1: are not nearby, he's not like being held captive, and
8:38
Speaker 1: again his comrades are nowhere to be seen. So he's
8:40
Speaker 1: alone in the middle of the wilderness in the Arctic Circle.
8:44
Speaker 1: But he also could see that, Okay, well I still
8:46
Speaker 1: have my skis, so I can still get around. He
8:49
Speaker 1: still had his boots on he still had his equipment on,
8:52
Speaker 1: like he had the things he needed to survive. He
8:54
Speaker 1: even had his his compass still, which had been in
8:56
Speaker 1: his hand, but he hadn't lost it, and so he
8:58
Speaker 1: had a way to navigate, and he had his weapons still,
9:01
Speaker 1: and so he's thinking, Okay, you know, like the situation's bad,
9:04
Speaker 1: but I.
9:05
Speaker 2: Have what I need to survive for some time.
9:07
Speaker 1: And he also realized that sort of amazingly, despite clearly
9:10
Speaker 1: crashing as a minimum and smashing into this tree that
9:14
Speaker 1: he was laying near, despite that, he didn't feel any
9:17
Speaker 1: pain in his body and he didn't appear.
9:18
Speaker 2: To have any injuries.
9:19
Speaker 1: So he's thinking, you know, what a miracle here. That
9:22
Speaker 1: the worst thing that's happened here is I've basically been
9:24
Speaker 1: abandoned and I'm effectively lost, But it could be worse,
9:27
Speaker 1: and so I'm o after, you know, taking stock of
9:30
Speaker 1: his situation, he eventually stood up and he looked off
9:34
Speaker 1: into the distance, and he saw maybe six or seven
9:37
Speaker 1: miles away, there was smoke up on this mountain off
9:41
Speaker 1: in the distance, and he immediately recognized that that mountain
9:45
Speaker 1: was actually what appeared to be.
9:46
Speaker 2: The rendezvous point for he and his squadron.
9:49
Speaker 1: If they ever got separated, and so he's looking out
9:51
Speaker 1: of this mountain and seeing, you know, the signs of
9:55
Speaker 1: potential life over there, and he's thinking, oh, my gosh,
9:58
Speaker 1: those are my teammates.
9:59
Speaker 2: That's or they've gone. They've gone to the rendezvous point.
10:02
Speaker 2: All I need to do is go to that mountain.
10:04
Speaker 1: So iimo scooped up his backpack and picked up his
10:07
Speaker 1: gun and whatever other equipment he had on the ground,
10:10
Speaker 1: and then he started skiing towards this mountain.
10:13
Speaker 2: And for a while he just.
10:15
Speaker 1: Kept on staring up at the smoke coming off the mountain,
10:18
Speaker 1: making sure he was going in the right direction. And
10:20
Speaker 1: you know, as he got closer, he was nearly positive
10:23
Speaker 1: he could see that. In addition to the smoke, he
10:25
Speaker 1: could see what appeared to be a little lean to
10:27
Speaker 1: tents on the mountain side, which were telltale signs that
10:30
Speaker 1: those were Finnish soldiers.
10:31
Speaker 2: That's how they set up their tents.
10:33
Speaker 1: So he's thinking, this is it, Like I'm gonna be saved.
10:36
Speaker 1: I just got to get there.
10:37
Speaker 2: And he had so much energy.
10:39
Speaker 1: Maybe because he was so close to it, to being
10:41
Speaker 1: rescued or something, but.
10:42
Speaker 2: He felt like this huge surge of energy. It was
10:45
Speaker 2: like nothing could make him tire.
10:47
Speaker 1: And then finally Iimo got close enough to this camp
10:51
Speaker 1: site on the side of this mountain that he actually
10:53
Speaker 1: could see faces. He could see the other soldiers and
10:57
Speaker 1: they were his, you know, finished comrades. They had clearly
11:00
Speaker 1: on to the rendezvous point and they hadn't seen him yet.
11:03
Speaker 2: And so here he is, you know, feeling like full
11:05
Speaker 2: of energy.
11:06
Speaker 1: He's barreling towards them, and he starts calling out to them.
11:09
Speaker 1: You know, he's thinking they're going to be like totally
11:11
Speaker 1: shocked that, you know, anybody would just come out of
11:14
Speaker 1: the wilderness towards their campsite, let alone Iimo, who they
11:17
Speaker 1: must have assumed by this point was dead. Also, he's thinking,
11:21
Speaker 1: I don't want them to shoot at me, thinking I'm
11:23
Speaker 1: a Soviet soldier, so I better get their attention. And
11:26
Speaker 1: so he's yelling out for his comrades, and at some
11:29
Speaker 1: point one of the men they turn and they see Iimo,
11:33
Speaker 1: and their reaction.
11:34
Speaker 2: Is not what Aimo wanted.
11:36
Speaker 1: Their reaction was being really shocked, grabbing their weapon and
11:40
Speaker 1: shooting at him. And before long, all these soldiers, all
11:43
Speaker 1: of his comrades, are opening fire on Iimo, and Iimo's
11:47
Speaker 1: like come on, like I'm wanting you what are you doing?
11:50
Speaker 1: But he's already going so fast, skiing so fast that
11:53
Speaker 1: his only move was to basically ski right down the
11:56
Speaker 1: middle of.
11:57
Speaker 2: Their camp and just go to the other side of
11:58
Speaker 2: the mountain.
11:59
Speaker 1: And so literally skied through this campsite with all of
12:03
Speaker 1: his comrades shooting at him, who miraculously missed him so
12:07
Speaker 1: he doesn't get shot.
12:08
Speaker 2: Somehow, the bullets are whizzing past.
12:09
Speaker 1: His head and he's thinking, oh, my gosh, they think
12:12
Speaker 1: I'm a Soviet. Come on, I'm calling out to you, guys,
12:14
Speaker 1: I'm not a Soviet. But he barrels past them, and
12:17
Speaker 1: then after he's pretty far away from this campsite, he's
12:21
Speaker 1: he's yelling back to them like, guys, it's me, It's
12:23
Speaker 1: I'm oh, what are you doing? But they still they're
12:26
Speaker 1: yelling and they're shooting in his direction, and so he
12:28
Speaker 1: had no choice but to just keep on skiing away
12:31
Speaker 1: from them, away.
12:33
Speaker 2: From safety or what he believed was going to be safety.
12:35
Speaker 1: And so on he went for hours and hours just
12:38
Speaker 1: skiing and ski away from this this ambush, if you will,
12:43
Speaker 1: And the whole time he's thinking, like.
12:44
Speaker 2: What happened? Even if they shot at me at first?
12:47
Speaker 1: Couldn't they have figured it out that, like I'm one
12:49
Speaker 1: of you, Like, wouldn't you have realized that eventually? As
12:52
Speaker 1: I skied right through your campsite, I have the same
12:54
Speaker 1: uniform as you, I have the same weapon as you.
12:57
Speaker 2: You recognize me? Like what was that? And so he
12:59
Speaker 2: has no idea what happened.
13:01
Speaker 1: But he's also he's like, how do I have so
13:04
Speaker 1: much energy?
13:05
Speaker 2: Like how am I able to do this?
13:07
Speaker 1: I've been skiing for hours and hours and hours, I've
13:09
Speaker 1: been shot at so many times?
13:11
Speaker 2: Like this is this is surreal? What's happening? Like what
13:13
Speaker 2: is going on here?
13:15
Speaker 1: And so IIMO just continued skiing for hours and hours
13:19
Speaker 1: until it was abundantly clear he was not in shooting range.
13:23
Speaker 1: He didn't hear the sound of any gunfire. Like he's
13:26
Speaker 1: he's safe again, still very confused why this was even happening.
13:30
Speaker 2: But he's safe.
13:31
Speaker 1: You know. The sun's gone down, and so he thinks like, Okay,
13:33
Speaker 1: I need to I need to stop, I need to
13:36
Speaker 1: make camp, I need to regroup.
13:38
Speaker 2: But it was at this point that he's thinking to himself,
13:40
Speaker 2: like I haven't eaten anything, I haven't had.
13:43
Speaker 1: Any water, I've basically been at a full sprint, like
13:46
Speaker 1: skiing at a full sprint here for basically practically the
13:49
Speaker 1: whole day. I've had multiple near death experiences. I smashed
13:53
Speaker 1: into a tree during that initial you know, skirmish.
13:57
Speaker 2: But I feel great.
13:58
Speaker 1: I feel like I have more energy than I've ever
14:01
Speaker 1: had in my whole life.
14:02
Speaker 2: And so he's just caught by, like, how am I
14:04
Speaker 2: able to do this?
14:05
Speaker 1: Is this what it's like when you're in a true
14:07
Speaker 1: survival situation, like your your body just goes into like
14:11
Speaker 1: overdrive or something like. He couldn't understand it, and so
14:14
Speaker 1: he's standing there like basically telling himself, you really need
14:18
Speaker 1: to stop. Even though you have the energy to go
14:20
Speaker 1: pretty much indefinitely, you need to stop. You need to
14:23
Speaker 1: make a fire, you need to have food, you need
14:25
Speaker 1: to have water, you need to rest. But it was
14:27
Speaker 1: like he was he was forcing himself to do these things.
14:30
Speaker 1: He didn't feel compelled to do them. It was like, oh,
14:32
Speaker 1: that's right, I need to like do human stuff. And
14:35
Speaker 1: so that's what he did.
14:35
Speaker 2: He stopped, He built a fire, he made.
14:38
Speaker 1: Some food, and he's like not hungry at all, but
14:40
Speaker 1: he's eating the food, you know, forcing himself too, he's
14:43
Speaker 1: having some water, and then he said, hey, I'll rest
14:46
Speaker 1: and then in the morning I'll figure out what to
14:48
Speaker 1: do next.
14:49
Speaker 2: But he lays down to go to sleep.
14:51
Speaker 1: And he should have been completely exhausted, but he wasn't.
14:55
Speaker 2: He couldn't even sleep, like, not at all.
14:56
Speaker 1: He just laid there, completely wide awake as the wind.
15:00
Speaker 2: And sleet and snow whipped all around him.
15:03
Speaker 1: And he just laid there again, feeling great but just
15:06
Speaker 1: not tired at all. The next morning, when the sun
15:09
Speaker 1: came up, Imo had not slept at all, but still
15:12
Speaker 1: he was able to get up, put his skis on,
15:14
Speaker 1: and get his stuff and continue skiing, basically in the
15:17
Speaker 1: direction that he believed would bring him back to Finland.
15:21
Speaker 1: And as he was skiing, you know, he's thinking to himself,
15:23
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting because when he first got attacked
15:26
Speaker 1: by the Soviets, it was like his mind was clear,
15:29
Speaker 1: but his body failed him, Like his legs got so
15:32
Speaker 1: tired from trying to cut those tracks in the snow
15:34
Speaker 1: that he fell off and crashed, and that sort.
15:36
Speaker 2: Of led him to this position.
15:38
Speaker 1: But now, for whatever reason, it was like his mind
15:41
Speaker 1: was delirious, like he couldn't keep his thoughts straight, but
15:44
Speaker 1: his body was like a terminator, like he just kept
15:47
Speaker 1: ongoing no matter what. And so he just kept on skiing,
15:51
Speaker 1: almost like without even thinking. His body was like on autopilot.
15:55
Speaker 2: And so he.
15:55
Speaker 1: Skied for hours and hours and hours just in this
15:58
Speaker 1: one direction that he sort of loosely believed would bring
16:01
Speaker 1: him back to Finland.
16:03
Speaker 2: And the whole time he's skiing, he didn't.
16:05
Speaker 1: See another soul. He is out in the middle of
16:07
Speaker 1: you know, the Arctic Circle. There's no more Soviets, there's
16:10
Speaker 1: no more teammates, nothing, He's just out in the middle
16:13
Speaker 1: of the wilderness. And realistically he didn't know if he
16:16
Speaker 1: was even remotely going in the right direction, but he
16:18
Speaker 1: was just gonna go. But that night, as he's still
16:21
Speaker 1: just skiing in a straight line, not stopping, sort of unbelievably,
16:25
Speaker 1: he looked up ahead and he saw somebody, the first
16:28
Speaker 1: person he had seen since you know, the ambush at
16:31
Speaker 1: the campsite.
16:32
Speaker 2: And even more unbelievable.
16:34
Speaker 1: Is the person he saw was one of his teammates.
16:38
Speaker 1: It was this guy named Maddie. He was a comrade
16:40
Speaker 1: of his. They had been together when the Soviets had
16:43
Speaker 1: first attacked, and so immediately i'most thinking, like, clearly Maddie
16:47
Speaker 1: got separated as well, and it's just serendipity that we
16:51
Speaker 1: have wound up at the same place. And so i
16:53
Speaker 1: Amo he stems right up to Maddie and he's he's
16:56
Speaker 1: waving him down.
16:57
Speaker 2: He's so relieved to see him and Maddie.
16:58
Speaker 1: When he looks over it, I am he doesn't shoot
17:01
Speaker 1: at him, but he sort of tells him to like
17:03
Speaker 1: be quiet, like calm down, and he kind of beckons
17:06
Speaker 1: him over. And when Iamo comes up next to Maddie,
17:09
Speaker 1: he has all these questions.
17:10
Speaker 2: Like what do we do? Where are we going?
17:12
Speaker 1: But Mattie just tells him, like just to be quiet
17:14
Speaker 1: and then gestures to lay down on the ground. And
17:17
Speaker 1: so Iimo doesn't really know what's going on here, but
17:20
Speaker 1: he trusts Maddie.
17:21
Speaker 2: You know, Maddie is not shooting at him. That was
17:23
Speaker 2: a good sign. And so the two of them just
17:26
Speaker 2: laid in the snow.
17:27
Speaker 1: They laid down right there, and for the first time
17:30
Speaker 1: and what felt like a very long time, Iimo was
17:33
Speaker 1: able to feel tired enough that when he closed his
17:36
Speaker 1: eyes he did drift off to sleep almost right away.
17:41
Speaker 2: When Imo woke back up again, he was not lying
17:45
Speaker 2: down in the snow with Maddie.
17:46
Speaker 1: He was instead standing up on his skis skiing down
17:51
Speaker 1: a mountain.
17:52
Speaker 2: Like on a mission. Maddie's nowhere to be found.
17:54
Speaker 1: And on top of that, he didn't have his backpack
17:57
Speaker 1: and he didn't have his gun, had no idea how
17:59
Speaker 1: long he'd been skiing for. He didn't know like where
18:02
Speaker 1: he was going. It was like he went from passed
18:04
Speaker 1: out to skiing, just magically skiing now realistically, at this point,
18:09
Speaker 1: Iamo is thinking to himself, clearly, what's happening here? Is
18:12
Speaker 1: I'm like hallucinating or something, because how is it possible
18:16
Speaker 1: that I was just with Maddie laying on the ground
18:18
Speaker 1: sleeping and now I'm here, Like it didn't add up?
18:21
Speaker 2: And so as he's just sort of mindlessly skiing.
18:23
Speaker 1: Along, he's like telling himself like, this is you dying?
18:27
Speaker 1: Like this is you losing your mind before you die?
18:30
Speaker 1: Like your your mind is all over the place, your
18:33
Speaker 1: body's still going for reasons he didn't really understand still
18:35
Speaker 1: you know, full tilt, you know, full energy. Didn't know why,
18:39
Speaker 1: but at some point that's going to give out and
18:40
Speaker 1: you're just gonna die, Like that's what's gonna happen here,
18:43
Speaker 1: And so i Emo's only hope was that between now
18:47
Speaker 1: and when he died, that hopefully somebody would see him
18:51
Speaker 1: and save him. He knew it was an outside chance,
18:53
Speaker 1: but at this point that's all he had. And so on,
18:57
Speaker 1: he skied, no weapon, no backpack, no supplies. You know,
19:01
Speaker 1: he's basically operating on no sleep, and he's just skiing,
19:05
Speaker 1: and for days and days he doesn't stop. He can't
19:10
Speaker 1: believe his body is keeping up as well as it is.
19:12
Speaker 1: His mind is like totally gone, but he is just
19:15
Speaker 1: going for days and days and days, doesn't run into anyone.
19:20
Speaker 1: But then one day again, days later, he's skiing along
19:24
Speaker 1: and magically, almost in front of him, appears this building.
19:28
Speaker 1: He can't tell if it's it's necessarily a military outpost
19:31
Speaker 1: or civilian. He doesn't know if it's if it's Finnish
19:34
Speaker 1: or German or Soviet. But he knows, even in his
19:38
Speaker 1: totally fractured mental state, that attempting to go in that
19:42
Speaker 1: building and hoping there are people in there that will
19:45
Speaker 1: save him, even if they won't, even if they kill him,
19:47
Speaker 1: maybe that is a better outcome, a better choice than
19:51
Speaker 1: doing what he's doing right now, which is the sort
19:53
Speaker 1: of endless ski to his death. And so i Emo's
19:57
Speaker 1: starts skiing faster and faster towards this building, just like
20:00
Speaker 1: full reckless, abandon fully committed to this is my rescue
20:04
Speaker 1: or this is my depth.
20:06
Speaker 2: And as he gets closer.
20:07
Speaker 1: He sees sort of unbelievably that this is a military installation,
20:12
Speaker 1: and it is a German military installation, and remember the
20:16
Speaker 1: Finish are allied with the Germans at this point, and
20:18
Speaker 1: so this is a safe place for him, and so
20:21
Speaker 1: he's so relieved, he can't believe he's gonna potentially.
20:24
Speaker 2: Survive this thing.
20:26
Speaker 1: He takes off his skis and he starts running towards
20:29
Speaker 1: the front door.
20:30
Speaker 2: Of this building.
20:31
Speaker 3: But before he gets to the front door, he steps
20:35
Speaker 3: on something and then there is a loud bang, and
20:38
Speaker 3: he's thrown into the air and comes crashing down. And
20:42
Speaker 3: when Iimo opened his eyes and sort of took stock
20:45
Speaker 3: of what had happened, he didn't feel any pain, but
20:48
Speaker 3: he looked down and he saw his foot was just
20:51
Speaker 3: a bloody mess. There was literally bones poking out of
20:53
Speaker 3: his ankle, like he could see clearly he sustained a
20:56
Speaker 3: horrible injury and he must have just stepped on a landline,
21:00
Speaker 3: but I amo determined to get into that building. He
21:04
Speaker 3: pulled himself up again, sort of channeling this unbelievable just
21:08
Speaker 3: endurance he had been feeling the past several days that
21:10
Speaker 3: he had been out here. He stood up and on
21:13
Speaker 3: one foot began hobbling his way towards this installation. And
21:17
Speaker 3: he finally gets to the front door of this German
21:20
Speaker 3: military base and he grabs the door knob and he's
21:23
Speaker 3: about to open it when there's another banging sound and
21:27
Speaker 3: he's thrown again into the air. He had stepped on
21:31
Speaker 3: another landmine, and he comes smashing down and he doesn't die.
21:36
Speaker 3: He doesn't feel any pain, but he looks down at
21:39
Speaker 3: his legs and he sees his other leg that was
21:42
Speaker 3: not injured a minute ago, is.
21:43
Speaker 1: Now also mangled. So now he can't even stand. He's incapacitated.
21:49
Speaker 1: And on top of that, even though he's near this
21:51
Speaker 1: military outpost, he turns and looks at it, and now
21:54
Speaker 1: that he's a little bit closer and he's sort of
21:56
Speaker 1: looking more, you know, intentionally, at this building, he realizes
22:00
Speaker 1: it's abandoned, Like this isn't gonna save him.
22:03
Speaker 2: He's trapped.
22:04
Speaker 1: He's in the middle of nowhere, and there's no one here.
22:07
Speaker 1: And so at this point Imo just said, you know what,
22:11
Speaker 1: it's over, like I'm gonna die, and so he literally
22:15
Speaker 1: just crawled his way over to this nearby ditch, let
22:19
Speaker 1: himself roll into.
22:20
Speaker 2: It, and he just waited to die. He just knew
22:23
Speaker 2: it was over.
22:25
Speaker 1: But he didn't die for days. He just laid in
22:28
Speaker 1: this ditch like unable to die. He wanted to die,
22:31
Speaker 1: he wanted this to be over, like what else.
22:33
Speaker 2: Is he gonna do? Who's gonna save him?
22:35
Speaker 1: But he just watched the sun come up and set
22:38
Speaker 1: go up, set, over and over. No, he lost track
22:40
Speaker 1: of how many days he was just laying there again,
22:42
Speaker 1: bleeding profusely, like grievously injured. He hasn't eaten anything, he
22:46
Speaker 1: hasn't had any water, Like he can't believe he's still alive.
22:50
Speaker 2: He really can't believe it.
22:51
Speaker 1: And then as he's laying there, you know, one of
22:53
Speaker 1: these days he's just in this ditch, he looks up
22:56
Speaker 1: during the daytime and he sees what looks like a
23:00
Speaker 1: plane flying overhead. Now, at this point, Imo is in
23:03
Speaker 1: very bad shape. I mean, he's alive, but it's not
23:05
Speaker 1: going well. And he knows that, you know, So he
23:08
Speaker 1: doesn't know if he's hallucinating.
23:09
Speaker 2: This or what, but he felt like it was real.
23:12
Speaker 1: But after watching this plane circle overhead for a minute,
23:15
Speaker 1: Imo was almost certain he heard the sound of this
23:18
Speaker 1: plane landing nearby. And then a couple of minutes later
23:22
Speaker 1: he could have sworn from the ditch. You know, he
23:25
Speaker 1: can't really see anything. He could hear the sound of
23:28
Speaker 1: people speaking in.
23:29
Speaker 2: Finish, his native language.
23:31
Speaker 1: Again, he didn't know if he was hallucinating or not,
23:34
Speaker 1: but he sees this this head poke over the top
23:37
Speaker 1: of the ditch, and it was this young man, this
23:39
Speaker 1: young Finish guy, and he's looking down at Imo, and
23:42
Speaker 1: IMO's looking back up at him. And then a second
23:45
Speaker 1: later Imo was being pulled out of the ditch. Later
23:49
Speaker 1: that day, Imo found himself laying in a hospital bed
23:52
Speaker 1: inside of a hospital in Finland. Like the man in
23:55
Speaker 1: the plane. All that not a hallucination. He really had
23:58
Speaker 1: been rescued.
24:00
Speaker 2: He was at the hospital. It turned out he weighed
24:02
Speaker 2: just ninety four pounds. He was also badly burned.
24:05
Speaker 1: And frostbitten, and both of his legs were very badly
24:09
Speaker 1: mutilated and mangled, and his heart was beating and a
24:13
Speaker 1: staggering two hundred beats per minute, despite the fact he's
24:17
Speaker 1: just laying in bed, not doing anything. And even more
24:20
Speaker 1: crazy was they couldn't actually get his heart to slow
24:23
Speaker 1: down and just kept beating at this crazy high level. Now,
24:27
Speaker 1: at first, I mean, doctors and nurses and all the
24:29
Speaker 1: staff were like really shocked by Iamo's condition, not really
24:33
Speaker 1: just that he had survived, but again like his heart rate,
24:36
Speaker 1: Like it just seemed like, dude, how are you alive
24:39
Speaker 1: right now? Like your heart can't beat at this level
24:42
Speaker 1: for this long without eventually killing you. But after they
24:46
Speaker 1: spoke to Iamo and had him recount the whole ordeal
24:49
Speaker 1: of him being out, you know, getting shot at and
24:51
Speaker 1: lost in the whole thing, they learned one really specific
24:56
Speaker 1: thing that explained the whole thing. When Imo and his
25:01
Speaker 1: you know, finished comrades were initially ambushed by the Soviet soldiers,
25:05
Speaker 1: they decided to flee, but Imo he was having such
25:08
Speaker 1: a hard time physically keeping up with the other soldiers,
25:12
Speaker 1: like he was just getting so tired from trying to
25:14
Speaker 1: break the tracks, and then he fell off, and he's
25:16
Speaker 1: thinking to himself, if I don't find a way to
25:18
Speaker 1: keep up, I'm gonna get captured or get.
25:21
Speaker 2: Killed by the Soviets, and so he's desperate.
25:23
Speaker 1: Then, so before he ultimately crashed down the side of
25:26
Speaker 1: the mountain from exhaustion, he tried something to try to
25:30
Speaker 1: give himself some energy to try to make this escape.
25:34
Speaker 1: He pulled out these special military rations that he had
25:37
Speaker 1: been issued along with everybody else in his squadron. They
25:39
Speaker 1: were all given these rations and the reason you take
25:42
Speaker 1: these rations is to give yourself some energy. And so
25:45
Speaker 1: he takes these rations and he's thinking, this is going
25:47
Speaker 1: to do it. This is going to give me the
25:48
Speaker 1: boost I need to get out of here.
25:50
Speaker 2: And make the escape with my teammates.
25:53
Speaker 1: But the rations didn't work, and so he did sort
25:56
Speaker 1: of completely fall off. He was so tired to the
25:58
Speaker 1: point where he literally tom down the side of the mountain.
26:01
Speaker 1: You know, his teammates they skied off, and he smashed
26:04
Speaker 1: into a tree and he passes out.
26:07
Speaker 2: However, when Imo woke up one.
26:10
Speaker 1: He was amazed he had not been captured or killed
26:12
Speaker 1: by the Soviets. But he's realizing he's all alone and like,
26:15
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen to me? And then he starts to
26:18
Speaker 1: feel like, man, I just.
26:19
Speaker 2: Have a lot of energy. You know, I can, I
26:22
Speaker 2: can see and perceive things on.
26:24
Speaker 1: A level that I couldn't before. Well, that's because the
26:27
Speaker 1: military rations had kicked in, and now he had like
26:30
Speaker 1: this abundance of energy, and it allowed him to basically
26:34
Speaker 1: ski indefinitely, without sleeping, without having water, without food. He
26:38
Speaker 1: gets blown up twice as his feet have been blown off.
26:41
Speaker 2: Basically he's laying in a ditch dying, but he just
26:44
Speaker 2: can't seem to die.
26:45
Speaker 1: I mean, the guy should have died like several times.
26:49
Speaker 2: But these rations did their job.
26:52
Speaker 1: They gave him all the energy he needed to survive
26:55
Speaker 1: this crazy, crazy two weeks in the wild. Well, the
26:58
Speaker 1: military rations they're called pervetin in this drug. I don't
27:02
Speaker 1: know if it's still given to soldiers now, but probably
27:04
Speaker 1: not because effectively, what perveton is is just pure crystal meth.
27:10
Speaker 1: And so in essence, I'm most survived in the wild
27:13
Speaker 1: for all this time because he was on just a
27:16
Speaker 1: pure meth fueled rage.
27:19
Speaker 2: He was just completely high for two weeks and it
27:23
Speaker 2: saved his life.
27:24
Speaker 1: One thing to note about pervetin is it does have
27:27
Speaker 1: two distinct downsides. One it is incredibly addictive, and two
27:32
Speaker 1: it creates really, really intense hallucinations and so very likely
27:38
Speaker 1: he did not come across his own battalion, who then
27:40
Speaker 1: opened fire on him. He did not come across Maddie,
27:44
Speaker 1: you know, his teammate out in the wild, who told
27:46
Speaker 1: him to lay down.
27:47
Speaker 2: And who knows.
27:48
Speaker 1: We're not even sure if the military installation he saw
27:50
Speaker 1: was real, Like very likely all of that was just
27:53
Speaker 1: in his mind. However, the landmines, those were real, somewhat unbelievably,
27:58
Speaker 1: Imo would make of full recovery and he would go
28:01
Speaker 1: on to get married, He would have nine children, and
28:04
Speaker 1: he would live to the age of seventy one. And
28:06
Speaker 1: as grateful as he was to the drug that did
28:09
Speaker 1: save his life, he never took pervitin.
28:11
Speaker 2: Again, thank you so much for watching.
28:17
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
28:19
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember we have hundreds of videos for
28:22
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
28:25
Speaker 1: a recommendation for me of that one video that's worth
28:28
Speaker 1: your time, well it's this one right here, So give
28:31
Speaker 1: it a watch, all right, until next time, see you