Its March 18th, 1944.
Finnish soldiers ski at high speed through the trees, deep in the snowy forest behind the Soviet lines.
Aimo Allan Koivunen from the 4th company of the 4th detached battalion of Finnish Special Forces
lays the track in the snow for his comrades following behind.
Not too far behind is a much larger Soviet force giving chase.
He is trying to go faster but the Finns have been on the 3 day mission and it's taken its toll,
his body beginning to fail him in the most crucial of times.
Feeling tiredness washing over him he hears “Aimo, don’t sleep!” from one of his comrades behind him,
he is giving it his all but it's simply not enough,
the Soviet soldiers are creeping closer and closer by the second.
Desperate, he pulls out a bottle of Pervitin.
A supposed wonder-drug supplied by the Germans, meant to increase combat capacity when exhausted,
but very dangerous and addictive if abused.
We know it today as methamphetamine.
He knows the risks but has no time to think about it,
he thinks if there is any moment it should be used, it's now.
Dumping the contents of the bottle onto his mittens while on the move, the pills come out in a clump.
Out of time, he eats the entire bunch.
Aimo feels energized as the pills take effect.
He feels himself speeding and getting faster.
Now he’s dashing through the trees with blazing speed and fearless commitment.
Soon enough they leave the Red Army soldiers behind in the snow.
The company stops to weigh their options, but Aimo is not well, he’s acting erratically,
looking in every direction, stumbling and seemingly hallucinating.
His comrades are completely puzzled.
Still in danger they cannot sit in place for very long.
Platoon commander Heikki Norri orders his men to scatter and regroup elsewhere.
The men obey, melting into the trees.
Heikki looks worriedly at Aimo,
he takes the ammunition pouches from him as Aimo continues to hallucinate,
earing he might shoot at one of their own.
Then Aimo runs away from him into the wilderness.
With the Russians still on their tail Heikki has to choose between protecting Aimo or
regrouping with the rest of the platoon,
with no real choice, he picks the latter and reluctantly leaves Aimo behind.
Time passes and he starts to come around.
Opening his eyes he finds himself in the middle of nowhere, laying on the snow.
He has no food, ammo, or any idea of where he is.
Standing up, Aimo is still delirious but just starts skiing.
He wanders aimlessly through the forest when suddenly something moves in the trees.
Soviet soldiers burst out of the foliage, weapons in hand,
Aimo turns to flee but only stumbles and falls to the snowy ground.
He’s hellbent on not being captured… But there are no Soviet soldiers.
Just the wildlife of the forest.
The apparitions happen over and over.
Several times he would see people, hear Russians shouting, and then find himself alone moments later.
Through it all he pushes on, skiing to wherever destiny may lead him.
Emerging from the trees he sees a base with smoke rising above it.
He runs towards it, overjoyed to finally find civilization, until it too vanishes into thin air.
Where he could swear he saw a Finnish camp, now was nothing but snow.
Heartbroken, he continues his journey.
He can’t stop skiing and carries on.
Over the crest of a hill he spots figures gathered around a campfire.
Germans! He is saved! Brimming with happiness he skis down the hill towards the camp.
But as he approaches he gets a better look. Those aren’t Germans…
Those are Soviet Soldiers! He is going too fast to stop now so he speeds up instead.
The Soviets see the approaching skier.
Thinking he's a messenger of some sort, they carry on resting in their camp.
Aimo races into the camp and flies right through,
the astonished Soviets see him go past and then suddenly they realize Aimo is wearing Finnish gear.
Jumping up they rush for their weapons and give chase.
Aimo finds himself once again on the run,
racing through the forest with no aim or direction fleeing from any Soviet troops that might be on his tail.
He keeps it up for a full half an hour, skiing non-stop as the wind and snow picks up.
Aimo pushes through the ever worsening weather even as it grows into a proper snowstorm.
Barely able to see two meters ahead of him his pace slows to a crawl,
but fueled by meth he carries on, making his way uphill while blind as a bat.
This carries on for two grueling hours.
The snowstorm slowly subsides, revealing his surroundings.
Looking around he realizes. The hill he was standing on! He recognizes it!
It’s 100km away from where he last saw his comrades, but it was something.
Night was falling upon the woods but now with renewed determination
he took out his compass and headed out again, this time, with a purpose.
He moved through the woods the whole night until his energy ran dry.
With the sun rising he finds somewhere to sleep.
By the time he awakes the sun is beginning to set, he had slept through the whole day.
Thirsty and hungry he gathers pine buds and starts a fire,
brewing the buds into a makeshift gruel.
Its two whole days since he last ate a sandwich for breakfast,
so he finds the sour mush oddly delicious.
He feels tired as he eats, and things start to get dark,
he falls asleep on the snow.
He comes to his senses back at his base,
his friends greet him happily and lead him to a huge feast going on,
he eats from everything, delighting in the selections much to the glee of his comrades.
Then, he wakes up.
It's nighttime. The woods are quiet, the fireplace is all but extinguished,
and his bowl is on the floor with a bit of mush still in it.
He is heartbroken shaking it off
he summons his Sisu (a Finnish concept of toughness and perseverance)
and gets back on his skis and gets moving.
Between the woods he stumbles upon a good friend,
they greet each other and have a nice talk as they make their way through the fir growth.
They sat to take a short break before heading off again.
As he walks he suddenly realizes he can’t hear his friend anymore.
Lucidity hits him and he turns around, his friend has vanished, and so has his weapon and backpack.
He checks himself, taking stock of what he still has.
His compass is still with him, as well as the empty tube of Pervitin.
He doesn’t remember taking all 30 pills but can’t think about it for very long.
He gets moving again.
Hours later he sees a light, a window with a light inside! Hope!
He runs towards it, pushing branches aside as he rushes towards salvation,
but the images of houses slowly vanish, leaving him staring at a tree with a bright star shining through its branches.
He breaks down, he is angry, heartbroken, he shouts into the air and cries, cursing his luck
and the drug.
Then he is suddenly shoved into the ground! A wolf bites into his arm trying to get to Aimo’s throat.
He panics and pulls out his knife, he desperately stabs the wolf as he fights for his life.
Then once more he wakes up.
There is no wolf and no knife,
he is punching a tree with something in his fist, his compass is now broken.
Aimo stands there, dejected. But he can’t just sit down to die, he must push on.
He gathers himself and once again continues his journey, determined to find friendly forces.
The next day he stumbles into an abandoned cabin but at least it's real.
The door is open as is the tradition in that part of the world.
Tired and still delirious he makes a campfire in the middle of the cabin, lights it, and heads to sleep.
He feels hot, its warm in here, he must be too close to the fire.
He moves away a bit and falls right back to sleep.
Some time later he feels hot again, he moves again, eyes still closed.
Then it happens again, and again.
He hears the crack of crumbling logs, and he finally opens his eyes to check what is happening.
Barely escaping the inferno, Aimo can do nothing but watch as his shelter burns to a crisp in the dead of night.
The next day he gets moving again and finds an old road covered in snow heading to the west.
He follows it, until he finds an abandoned German camp.
He is excited and once again heads for the entrance,
this time shouting greetings in German.
Nobody answers much to his disappointment and he decides to head inside.
Leaving his skis and walks into the compound when suddenly an explosion sends him flying through the air,
he has just stepped on a landmine.
His foot is badly injured.
Using a ski-stick as a crutch he hobbles towards a dugout.
He pries open the door and another bomb explodes.
He flies through the air and lands 30 feet away.
He comes to his senses, the dugout is destroyed, pieces of wood are scattered all around him.
He rips his shirt with a nail found on the snow and uses the cloth to wrap his mangled foot.
Gathering splinters of wood from the explosion he lights a fire.
Then, he lies in the snow, watching his surroundings.
The reality of his condition hits him and he weeps,
there is nothing to do now but wait for rescue or death.
Hours of laying on the snow later he decides to make a fire.
Aimo stretches to grab as much of the wood scattered around him as possible for the campfire,
and on it he boils as much snow to have some water.
As it melts he uses a plank he saved to clear the snow around him.
Once the snow was clear, he uses the plank as a bed.
He spends several days laying on the snow, surviving off of the water he boiled.
A Siberian Jay landed next to him, examining him.
Aimo raises his ski-stick and hits the bird, killing it.
He plucks the feathers and eats it raw.
Days later he hears a bang and Finnish voices. He perks up and shouts for help.
One of the soldiers spots him.
“Our patrol commander is wounded and you’re in the middle of minefield!” the soldier informs him,
“We will bring our commander back first and then will tell HQ about you!”
Aimo can’t believe what he hears, they can’t just leave him there!
The soldiers carry their commander and leave, their voices and steps getting quieter and quieter.
They just left him there. Aimo thinks he has been left to die.
But some time later he hears something else, a plane!
He sticks his hat on his ski-pole and waives it around, the plane flies over and disappears.
Aimo is once again left on the snow. He doesn’t know it, but the pilot has seen him.
Later he hears more voices, the Finns are defusing the landmines to get to him.
Overcome with emotion, Koivunen knows his “bad trip” is over and he will live.
He was found a staggering 400 kilometers or 250 miles away from where he left his comrades.
On the 1st of April, 14 days after he took the pills Aimo Koivunen was admitted to hospital.
Weighing only 43 kgs he still had an incredible heartrate of 200 bpm.
His injuries were serious and he was in a hospital bed until late 1944.
Eventually he would leave the army due to his injuries, having lost some toes on his left foot.
Despite the hardships he endured he lived a long life and died peacefully on August 12th 1989, at the age of 71.
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