It’s July 19, 1986, Czechoslovak - Austrian border, close to 1 am.

Have you ever heard of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall? How about the DMZ line between South and North Korea? I am dealing with an improved version of it, and certainly a lot more electrifying as well.

I am crossing a segment of a 4,300 mile long Iron Curtain with absolutely no blind spots.

I am in the furnace of a highly restricted area where soldiers are under orders to shoot at even the slightest sight of movement. Normally, during my escape, I exploited all forms of concealment and cover but now, I am 50 meters high, as I am stealthily zipping down, almost directly above the military patrol outlook post, hanging from the top of the cable which runs between the power line towers. Raging electric inferno from flaming insulators and live wires is right below. Marcus is on the same cable, and since he went first, he is only about 3 meters ahead.

The frequent lightning accompanied by ear shattering thunder, now gives me the extra adrenaline kick that I need to push myself on. Overly exhausted, terrified, I am not giving up. I am doing this! It’s time to live up to my mission statement, meaning: “I refuse to be a slave to Communism, I am getting the fuck out, and I am doing it now!”

Despite the fact that I am still in the middle of killing fields, the bird’s eye view of the Iron Curtain, this wickedly smart security system is chilling, yet at the same time magnificent, is giving me a kind of victorious feeling as well. I am a risk taker; a dare devil but at that moment, the combination of 380,000 Volts, strong wind, and the downpour with the blinding lightning does bother me. It keeps me moving on, though. There is no turning back, not even if we get shot at, or the leprechauns booby-trapped the top of the next tower. Nothing is stopping this operation, no military, no amount of beer, parties, no titties or panties, nothing at all!

Perhaps the most puzzling question I still have till this day, why neither of us got hit by the lightning because the subsequent few moments made me freeze, clench my fingers into the pulleys, and skip a few heart beats.

I am practically sitting on the top of this huge, wet metal lighting rod, which is what this top cable is, holding on to a metal with every chance of getting obliterated by millions of Volts. Doing my best to concentrate on this treacherous and breathtaking ride of a lifetime, suddenly, during this symphony of raging elements and electric discharges, the sky lights up and this super bright flash of lightning slices the air just few meters from me, all leading this high voltage to an explosive crescendo. Bang, bang, and several more!!!!!!! That was uncomfortably close.

My heart leaps into my throat. It’s really difficult not to panic when you hear the deafening crack like God himself is ripping the sky open, and see the magnificence of lightning at the same time, which indicates that the storm is right above you. I am experiencing massive sensory overload. My adrenaline is out of control at this point. The pressure is relentless. Focus, focus, I am telling myself, focus!!! Then another lightning hits, seemed like closer than the last one, reminding me of my narrow chance of survival, and this super terrifying white hot incandescent light flashes in infinite brilliance, and of course an extremely loud bang follows. That was enough to turn my blood into ice water in my veins. Through my mind goes….. If I get hit by atmospheric discharge or just by a bleed out from the live cables below, and by some kind of a miracle I survive this, no amount of skin grafts and prosthetics will make me recognizable. If we hit one fish hook on this line, it’s gonna tear our hands apart and we are done. I think it was at that moment when I began to transform into someone who was willing to face his most terrifying fears. I keep on zip lining slowly, still struggling to refocus, again, and again because this is just simply too much.

I am soaked by the rain water and more water is cascading and bouncing off of the pulley right above my face. Actually, I am grateful that I can catch some of this deluge in my mouth to re-hydrate myself. Thanks to our meticulous preparations, we equipped these pulleys with brakes to jam the wheels, so we could rest a little, without fighting gravity, meaning preventing us from sliding backwards to the middle of the cable.

However, half the parts of the pulleys were procured from stolen parts from different types of machinery, so I was slightly nervous about Karma not showing us what a bitch she can be at the worst possible moment. No, we do not need any kind of malfunction or hideous surprises. Please God, not now! Just the notion of any kind of technical complication frightens me.

After a brief pause, I am getting ready to take off when this overwhelming mixture of anxieties begins to pray in my mind. I know that I will have to push hard mentally and physically. The weakened body has labored more than can be described. We are pulling ourselves hand over hand from a sitting position uphill, our backs towards Austria. This would be a very difficult training problem, but this was not a training and the ¼ mile distance now seemed enormous.

My thoughts, interrupted by repeated lightning, took me to dark places where only terror and crazy things live. For a few brief moments images of my family flash through my mind. I am scared, mad, terrified of what I am about to face and when I see the guard tower underneath me, I wish I could just scream: “Screw you all, I am out!!! Thanks for this zip line, though.”

Of course I can’t scream. This is one of the rare moments when I actually have to keep a filter in my brain and give up the urge to be my true self. More, I have to get a handle on myself. I have to calm the fuck down, go into Zen mode, and become my own Avatar. Meaning, I have to block whatever I perceive as reality, and kind of leave my body or project my consciousness, myself into what I want as an outcome. It works! Until …..

Now the route along the Iron Curtain is suddenly swarming with a terrifying number of patrols. Whatever is gonna happen here is gonna happen fast. If we get shot, we are gonna land into the multiple rows of coils of razor sharp barbed wire. Seriously disturbing….. Crossing the Rubicon has never been more challenging. All the guard towers turned their search lights on, guys with AKs jumped out, and this time we have no layer of protection. We are sitting ducks, literally. They are checking the fences, like there is something off, talking to the station patrol, and I am hanging up here, wondering about, just exactly what the “FUCK” did I do to get myself in this lovely crap!!!

Going into my Zen again…….. keeping on zip-lining……….