Adrenaline Rush | Campfire Stories with MrBallen

0:00Hey guys, I'm back by the fire, and I have another awesome story to share with you. Today's story is this epic survival story, and I mean, the story itself is truly unbelievable, but I'm telling you, the twist at the end, basically how this person was able to survive, you will not see coming. Great plot twist, great story. I know you're going to like it. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right campfire, because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come on down to your campfire.

0:41But when they get there, just immediately push them into the flames and then leave. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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2:20Around 10 a.m. on March 18, 1944, a 26-year-old Finnish soldier named Aimo Koivunen sat around a campfire with a group of other soldiers inside of the Arctic Circle in Northern Europe. They were very deep into the wilderness in this forest that was covered in several feet of snow. And Aimo was melting a pot of that snow over the fire so the group could drink some tea. And at the same time that Aimo was doing this, even though it was kind of relaxing to be sitting here, Aimo, I mean, his whole body was basically aching. Number one, it was, you know, five degrees outside. and this was also the first time that he and the other soldiers had stopped to rest in about two days.

3:04They had been on the move the whole time. At this point during World War II, they were allied with Nazi Germany. Not because, you know, they were Nazis, they were not, but because Finland and Germany shared a common enemy, the Soviet Union. Right now, Aimo and his squadron were in an area called Lapland, which used to belong to Finland. But four years earlier, the Soviet Union had invaded Finland and ultimately forced Finland to cede this land to the Soviets. But now, during World War II, Finland wanted to get their land back, and Germany was helping them do that. And so IMO and his squadron were in Lapland on essentially a reconnaissance mission.

3:48They were there to try to figure out sort of what the Soviets were doing in this part of Lapland, and how many Soviets were out there, again, in this particular part of Lapland. However, IEMO and the others had spent the past two days skiing all over the place in their area of operations, but so far, they hadn't seen any Soviet soldiers or any Soviet bases. But, you know, for IEMO and probably for the other soldiers that he was with, I mean, this was ultimately a good thing. They were trained for combat, but they didn't necessarily want to come across Soviets and have like a full-blown shootout, in part because the Soviets were just a bigger, more well-equipped military.

4:28And, you know, they were also more advanced. And so if they got into a gunfight with them, who knows what would have happened. And so even though IMO is like sitting here feeling very sore and very tired as he melts his snow, he was ultimately feeling kind of grateful that this reconnaissance mission had proven to be pretty low-key. However, just as the water began to boil, Well, Aimo and the other soldiers heard the unmistakable sound of machine gun fire coming from somewhere that had to be nearby. And so immediately, Aimo and the others, they jump up, forget what they're doing, and they're looking to see where this gunfire is coming from.

5:06But then before they could even make sense of the situation, Aimo's lieutenant yelled like, hey, get ready, get your guns. And so they all scooped up their weapons. IMO, he's picking his weapon up, and as he looks up, he looked off in the distance, maybe a quarter mile away, and he was shocked to see an entire pack of Soviet soldiers bearing down on them. They were literally skiing down this mountainside right nearby, and they were obviously shooting their machine guns, not in random directions, but right at IMO and the other men. They were clearly being attacked by these Soviets. Now, Aimo and the other men have clearly been trained for this.

5:46This is literally why they're out here. They are soldiers. They're ready for this type of encounter. But for a moment, when Aimo sees this overwhelming force that's descending on them, they're clearly outnumbered, like this is going to end badly. All Aimo had in his head was just this overwhelming feeling of just terror. He was the oldest of six children. and when he first enlisted in the military, he had promised all of his little siblings that he wouldn't get hurt. He would come home. He would be okay. And now he knew that wasn't going to happen. Like he was going to get killed. He just knew it.

6:20But at this point, IMO, he looked over at his lieutenant to get orders. But IMO, after sort of breaking out of this initial thought, he looked over at his lieutenant and his lieutenant looked terrified too, but he quickly composed himself and yelled for IMO and everybody else to flee. Just moments later, Aimo and the other Finnish soldiers were on their skis, skiing as fast as they could away from the Soviets down the backside of this mountain, just doing anything they could to survive. And as Aimo is skiing away, he can hear the sound of gunfire ricocheting off trees, zipping by his head, like he's thinking, at any point, I'm going to get hit, or one of my teammates are going to get hit.

7:03There's nothing we can do. We just got to go as fast and as far as we can. And so he's skiing. And actually, Aimo was at the front of their formation. So he's actually leading the pack. And so really, it was his job to kind of create tracks in the snow that the others could follow in behind. It was easier for them. But it meant he was expending a lot of energy, basically pushing all the snow down as he was making his escape. And as much as he wanted to maintain that position and do this for his teammates to to continue to make tracks here. It was so exhausting. And also like when you're in combat, you have this unbelievable adrenaline rush that sometimes can lead to like a massive crash of energy.

7:43And it was like, he had this huge rush of energy and now it's like, he's, he's collapsing despite the need to escape here. It's like his body just cannot go any faster than he's going. And so before long, it's like he found himself slowing down and his teammates are zipping by him because they can't stop. The bullets are flying fast. Like their only hope of survival is just to keep on going. And so IMO knows that like, basically if he can't keep up, he's dead, but his body, it was just, he couldn't, he couldn't go any faster. He was slowing down. He was going slower and slower. He can hear the sound of the gunfire getting closer and closer.

8:20And he's thinking about his siblings and how devastated they're going to be to find out that He was killed in this war. And so slower and slower he's going. The sounds are getting louder and louder behind him. And he sees the last of his teammates pass him. And he sees them just kind of drift off down the mountain into the white abyss beyond. And they're gone. He's alone. And he just can't keep up. And then finally he just loses control of his skis. He veers off to the side. He starts tumbling down the mountain, smashes into a tree. And he passes out.

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10:14Powered by an AI model trained on over 500 billion monthly signals, Realize delivers smarter prospecting with privacy-safe targeting. The result? Higher conversion rates and scalable funnel at lower cost. To learn more, visit Realize.com slash podcast. When IMO woke up, it was light outside. But he had no idea how much time had passed. He also really had no idea how he was even still alive. Like, what, did the Soviets just decide not to kill me? Or did they not see me? Like, what happened to my teammates? Like, what's going on? he had a lot of questions, but in addition to feeling confused about the whole situation, he also had this really distinct other feeling.

10:57He had this immense sense of being alert, like hyper alert, more than really he had ever been in his whole life. It's like he could hear and see everything at like a 10 times level. It's like, oh my God, I know everything going on around me. I'm totally aware. So with his like hyper vigilance that he suddenly was having sort out of nowhere, he began to, you know, take stock of a situation. Right away, he, you know, was able to see that he's alone. Like, the Soviets are not nearby. He's not, like, being held captive. And again, his comrades are nowhere to be seen. So he's alone in the middle of the Arctic Circle, in the middle of the wilderness, which is quite bad.

11:35But he also could see that, okay, well, I still have my skis, so I can still get around. He still had his boots on. He still had his equipment on. Like, he had the things he needed to survive. He even had his compass still, which had been in his hand, but he hadn't lost it. And so he had a way to navigate, and he had his weapon still. And so he's thinking, okay, you know, the situation's bad, but I have what I need to survive for some time. And he also realized that sort of amazingly, despite clearly crashing as a minimum and smashing into this tree that he was laying near, despite that, he didn't feel any pain in his body.

12:09And he didn't appear to have any injuries. So he's thinking, you know, what a miracle here. that the worst thing that's happened here is I've basically been abandoned and I'm effectively lost, but it could be worse. And so Imo, after taking stock of his situation, he stood up and just began looking all around him. And again, he has this hypervigilance thing going on, which he's thinking is the product of a huge adrenaline rush from nearly dying maybe. But either way, he's hyper aware and he's looking around and he notices off in the distance, maybe like six, seven miles away, there's this mountain that immediately looks familiar to him.

12:44It looks like the mountain that he and his squadron had agreed would be their rendezvous point if they got separated. And so he's looking at it, thinking that that's got to be it. And then he sees on this mountain, as he's kind of squinting and staring at this mountain, he sees what appears to be smoke coming off the mountain. And he's thinking, that's it. That's where my teammates have gone. Like, they haven't abandoned me. They've gone to the rendezvous point. They're going to wait for me. I just need to get to that mountain. I got my skis. I got my equipment. I don't think I'm hurt. I can do it.

13:14I'm going to get over there, and I'll be saved. So Aimo scooped up his backpack and picked up his gun and whatever other equipment he had on the ground, and then he started skiing towards this mountain. And for a while, he just kept on staring up at the smoke coming off the mountain, making sure he was going in the right direction. And as he got closer, he was nearly positive he could see that in addition to the smoke, he could see what appeared to be little lean-to tents on the mountainside, which were telltale signs that those were Finnish soldiers. That's how they set up their tents. So he's thinking, this is it.

13:47Like, I'm going to be saved. I just got to get there. And he had so much energy, maybe, you know, because he was so close to being rescued or something, but he felt like this huge surge of energy. It was like nothing could make him tired. And then finally, Aimo got close enough to this campsite on the side of this mountain that he actually could see faces. He could see the other soldiers, and they were his Finnish comrades. They had clearly gone to the rendezvous point, and they hadn't seen him yet. And so here he is, feeling full of energy. He's barreling towards them, and he starts calling out to them.

14:22He's thinking they're going to be totally shocked that anybody would just come out of the wilderness towards their campsite, let alone Aimo, who they must have assumed by this point was dead. Also, he's thinking, I don't want them to shoot at me, thinking I'm a Soviet soldier, so I better get their attention. And so he's yelling out for his comrades. And at some point, one of the men, they turn and they see Aimo. And their reaction is not what Aimo wanted. Their reaction was being really shocked, grabbing their weapon and shooting at him. And before long, all these soldiers, all of his comrades are opening fire on Aimo.

14:59And Aimo's like, come on, like, I'm one of you, what are you doing? but he's already going so fast, skiing so fast that his only move was to basically ski right down the middle of their camp and just go to the other side of the mountain. And so he literally skied through this campsite with all of his comrades shooting at him who miraculously missed him so he doesn't get shot somehow. The bullets are whizzing past his head and he's thinking, oh my gosh, they think I'm a Soviet. Come on, I'm calling out you guys. I'm not a Soviet. But he barrels past them. And then after he's pretty far away from this campsite, he's yelling back to them like, guys, it's me, it's Imo, what are you doing?

15:37But they still, they're yelling and they're shooting in his direction. And so he had no choice but to just keep on skiing away from them, away from safety or what he believed was going to be safety. And so on he went for hours and hours just skiing and skiing away from this ambush, if you will. And the whole time he's thinking like, what happened? And even if they shot at me at first, couldn't they have figured it out that like I'm one of you? Like wouldn't you have realized that eventually as I skied right through your campsite? I have the same uniform as you. I have the same weapon as you. You recognize me?

16:10Like what was that? And so he has no idea what happened. But he's also he's like, how do I have so much energy? Like how am I able to do this? I've been skiing for hours and hours and hours. I've been shot at so many times. Like this is this is surreal what's happening. Like what is going on here? And so Aimo just continued skiing for hours and hours until it was abundantly clear he was not in shooting range. He didn't hear the sound of any gunfire. Like, he's safe again. Still very confused why this was even happening, but he's safe. You know, the sun's gone down. And so he thinks, like, okay, I need to stop.

16:48I need to make camp. I need to regroup. But it was at this point that he's thinking to himself like I haven't eaten anything I haven't had any water I've basically been at a full sprint like skiing at a full sprint here for basically practically the whole day I've had multiple near-death experiences. I smashed into a tree during that initial, you know skirmish But I feel great. I feel like I have more energy than I've ever had my whole life and so he's just caught by like how am i able to do this is this what it's like when you're in a true survival situation like your your body just goes into like overdrive or something like he he couldn't understand it and so he's standing there like basically telling himself you really need to stop even though you have the energy to go pretty much indefinitely you need to stop you need to make a fire you need to have food you need to have water you need to rest but it was like he was, he was forcing himself to do these things.

17:43He didn't feel compelled to do them. It was like, oh, that's right. I need to like do human stuff. And so that's what he did. He stopped, he built a fire, he made some food and he's like not hungry at all, but he's eating the food, you know, forcing himself to, he's having some water. And then he said, okay, I'll rest. And then in the morning I'll figure out what to do next. But he lays down to go to sleep and he should have been completely exhausted, but he wasn't. He couldn't even sleep, like not at all. He just laid there completely wide awake as the wind and sleet and snow whipped all around him, and he just laid there, again, feeling great, but just not tired at all.

18:21The next morning when the sun came up, IMO had not slept at all, but still he was able to get up, put his skis on, and get his stuff, and continue skiing, basically in the direction that he believed would bring him back to Finland. And as he was skiing, you know, he's thinking to himself, it's kind of interesting because when he first got attacked by the Soviets, it was like his mind was clear, but his body failed him. Like his legs got so tired from trying to cut those tracks in the snow that he fell off and crashed. And that sort of led him to this position. But now, for whatever reason, it was like his mind was delirious.

18:56Like he couldn't keep his thoughts straight, but his body was like a terminator. Like he just kept on going no matter what. and so he just kept on skiing almost like without even thinking his body was like on autopilot and so all day that day IMO just skied in one direction and just didn't stop and the whole time he's skiing he didn't see another soul he is out in the middle of you know the arctic circle there's no more soviets there's no more teammates nothing he's just out in the middle of the wilderness and realistically he didn't know if he was even remotely going in the right direction but he was just going to go.

19:31But that night, as he's still just skiing in a straight line, not stopping, sort of unbelievably, he looked up ahead and he saw somebody. The first person he had seen since, you know, the ambush at the campsite. And even more unbelievable is the person he saw was one of his teammates. It was this guy named Matty. He was a comrade of his. They had been together when the Soviets had first attacked. And so immediately, Imo's thinking, like, clearly Maddie got separated as well. And it's just serendipity that we have wound up at the same place. And so IMO, he skis right up to Maddie and he's waving him down.

20:09He's so relieved to see him. And Maddie, when he looks over at IMO, he doesn't shoot at him, but he sort of tells him to like, be quiet, like calm down. And he kind of beckons him over. And when IMO comes up next to Maddie, he has all these questions like, what do we do? Where are we going? But Maddie just tells him like just to be quiet and then gestures to lay down on the ground. And so Aimo doesn't really know what's going on here, but he trusts Matty. You know, Matty is not shooting at him. That was a good sign. And so the two of them just laid in the snow. They laid down right there. And for the first time in what felt like a very long time, Aimo was able to feel tired enough that when he closed his eyes, he did drift off to sleep almost right away.

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22:00When Iemo woke back up again, he was not still lying down in the snow next to Maddie. He was instead standing up on his skis, skiing down a mountain, like on a mission, Maddie's nowhere to be found. And on top of that, he didn't have his backpack and he didn't have his gun. Had no idea how long he'd been skiing for. He didn't know, like, where he was going. it was like he went from passed out to skiing, just magically skiing. Now, realistically, at this point, I am always thinking to himself, clearly what's happening here is I'm like hallucinating or something. Because how is it possible that I was just with Maddie laying on the ground sleeping and now I'm here?

22:39Like, it didn't add up. And so as he's just sort of mindlessly skiing along, he's like telling himself like, this is you dying. Like, this is you losing your mind before you die. Like your, your mind is all over the place. Your body's still going for reasons he didn't really understand still at, you know, full tilt, you know, full energy. Didn't know why, but at some point that's going to give out and you're just going to die. Like that's, what's going to happen here. And so Iemo's only hope was that between now and when he died, that hopefully somebody would see him and save him. He knew it was an outside chance, but at this point, that's all he had.

23:16And so on he skied. No weapon, no backpack, no supplies. You know, he's basically operating on no sleep and he's just skiing. And for days and days, he doesn't stop. He can't believe his body is keeping up as well as it is. His mind is like totally gone, but he is just going for days and days and days. Doesn't run into anyone. but then one day, again, days later, he's skiing along and magically almost in front of him appears this building. He can't tell if it's necessarily a military outpost or civilian. He doesn't know if it's Finnish or German or Soviet, but he knows even in his totally fractured mental state that attempting to go in that building and hoping there are people in there that will save him, even if they won't, even if they kill him maybe, that is a better outcome, a better choice than doing what he's doing right now, which is the sort of endless ski to his death.

24:16And so Aimo starts skiing faster and faster towards this building, just like full reckless abandon, fully committed to this is my rescue or this is my death. And as he gets closer, he sees sort of unbelievably that this is a military installation and it is a German military installation. And And remember, the Finnish are allied with the Germans at this point. And so this is a safe place for him. And so he's so relieved. He can't believe he's going to potentially survive this thing. He takes off his skis and he starts running towards the front door of this building. But before he gets to the front door, he steps on something.

24:56And then there was a loud bang. And he's thrown into the air and comes crashing down. And when IMO opened his eyes and sort of took stock of what had happened, he didn't feel any pain, but he looked down and he saw his foot was just a bloody mess. There was literally bones poking out of his ankle like he could see. Clearly, he sustained a horrible injury and he must have just stepped on a landmine. But IMO, determined to get into that building, he pulled himself up, again, sort of channeling this unbelievable just endurance he had been feeling the past several days that he'd been out here, he stood up and on one foot began hobbling his way towards this installation.

25:37And he finally gets to the front door of this German military base. And he grabs the doorknob and he's about to open it when there's another banging sound and he's thrown again into the air. He had stepped on another landmine. And he comes smashing down and he doesn't die. He doesn't feel any pain, but he looks down at his legs and he sees his other leg that was not injured a minute ago is now also mangled. So now he can't even stand. He's incapacitated. And on top of that, even though he's near this military outpost, he turns and looks at it. And now that he's a little bit closer and he's sort of looking more, you know, intentionally at this building, he realizes it's abandoned.