When SHTF, nobody told me how hard is gonna be and what things I would have to do to survive. There was no training or simulations.

Most of the stuff I was going through for the first time in my life. I was hoping it was only a temporary situation, that it not going to last for a whole year.

A few events opened my eyes and somehow made me a survivor right at the beginning. I had the luck to understand in the very early stages how hard it was and what it takes.

The first lesson

During one of the first bigger events of killing in the streets, I was out together with my friend who also was a medical professional.

Fire from machine guns was on people who were standing in front of the main city bread factory, and people started to scream and run over each other.

My first impulse was to run to the nearest cover but my friend got down to help some lady, so I stayed one meter next to him.

I was confused about my decision and not sure to stay with him or run. Bullets from machine gun hit him over his legs, and I saw how his kneecap exploded. It looked like some bad movie special effect.

He just looked at his legs, then at me, in silence. Even though it was just seconds, moments like this feel very long.

I took him by the hands and dragged him some 20 or 30 meters to safety. Only there I saw that he was missing his leg under the knee. It stayed with the dead lady on the street.

And only then he started to scream.

I used a belt to stop the bleeding. The ambulance still worked in that period. He went to the hospital and then evacuated from the city. He survived but never came back.

Lessons learned?

In moments of chaos always listen to your instincts and do not hesitate.

Especially if you are involved in a situation when someone is shooting at you with a high caliber machine gun. Just accept that people will die and you have to survive. To help others is a great thing, to survive is even better.