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Don-t-follow-the-tracks-Campfire-Stories-with-MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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