ground; (4) open ground; (5) ground of intersecting highways; (6) serious ground; (7) difficult ground; (8) hemmed-in ground; (9) desperate ground.
First see the distance timing and the background timing. This is the main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing; otherwise your strategy will become uncertain.
How many ways are there in and out of the office you are working in, the bar you’re drinking at, the restaurant where you eat, or the house you are visiting? Can you see the front door? Do you know who is coming and going? Where are the exits, both front, back, and emergency? Which exits can you see and monitor and which ones are hidden from your view? Are there windows you can fit through that may be opened or broken out? How far away are you from these exits? If you want to get out quickly, who and what stand in your way? If you leave the building by a side or back door, where does exiting that way place you once you get outside? What can you expect to find there?
It is very important to understand your territory regardless of where you are, maintaining awareness of all entrances and exits as well as what you might expect to find should you take one of them. Know all the various routes by which you might escape should something bad start to happen. Violence can happen anywhere. It does not matter whether you are sitting in a building, walking down the street, or driving in traffic; you must always be aware of avenues for escape.
Be aware and leave any area where trouble seems to be brewing. The way you came in is usually a safe way to retreat. Nevertheless, it’s more important to move to safety than to move away from danger. Slinking off quietly is generally best. Rash or aggressive movements might make you the target of violence that was meant for someone else. Here are some general guidelines to follow.
• Walk away normally if you only have a feeling that things are not right. Listen to your intuition. It is better to be embarrassed and safe than seriously injured if you don’t take heed of your internal warnings.
• Evade potential or developing threats by crossing the street, turning, and walking back the way you came from, turning down another street, or otherwise moving toward a safer location. Whenever possible, moving toward heavily populated areas is best.
• If actual trouble becomes apparent, move away from it quickly but calmly. If the bad guy(s) starts after you, run away swiftly.
• Call attention to your predicament by yelling for help as appropriate. Pointing out an attacker’s weapon or shouting “fire” or some other attention-getting phrases tends to work better than a generic cry for help.[9]
Wilder once had an instructor who, when going to a restaurant, would always ask the wait staff to reseat him. Without exception, he would choose a different table from the one where he was originally placed by the host. When Wilder noticed this behavior, he found it rather odd, asking his teacher why he always did that.
Hopping fences can be a good way to escape, but be sure you have a good lead on your pursuers before you try it. Getting dragged off a fence and slammed onto the ground is absolutely no fun.
The explanation was interesting. His teacher wanted to see as much of the restaurant as he could. He did not like having his back to a window and always wanted to be able to see the front door. That way nobody could come up behind him and nobody could come in the restaurant unobserved.
Paranoid behavior? In today’s world, maybe not. After all, restaurants have been shot up, crashed into, and even blown up on numerous occasions. Case in point: On July 18, 1984, James Oliver Huberty walked into the San Ysidro, California McDonald’s restaurant and murdered 21 people, including five children and six teenagers, and wounded 19 more victims before being killed by a police officer. That incident was one of the worst mass murders in the United States at that time.
Choose your friends wisely. Knowing your territory also means understanding the proclivities of the people with whom you spend time. Hang out with people who like to cause trouble, and it will eventually catch up with not only them but also with you.
If you are part of a group and find yourselves in a hazardous situation, the best policy is that you either all run at once or everyone stays to fight. There should be some prearranged signal to ensure that you are all on the same page. Running away together, even if you flee in opposite directions, leaves no one in a tight spot. If the person you were counting on to cover your back flees, on the other hand, you could be in serious trouble. Similarly, you should not leave your friends to the wolves either.
With or without a group, if something bad happens you will need a way out. The way in which you escape is dependant upon how many attackers there are, how bad they want to catch you, and the tactical situation you encounter. Most people you will encounter on the street will not be motivated to chase you beyond a certain distance. If, for example, you encounter a couple of thugs looking to make a quick buck, they should be relatively easy to distract and escape from, especially if you throw a few dollars their way before you run.
Bad guys do try to go after you on occasion though. The longer you keep out of an adversary’s hands, the more likely they will be to give up. Dragging stuff into a pursuer’s way, dodging around obstacles, over fences, or through hedges, or otherwise slowing them down is a good way to string them out, facilitating your ability to escape successfully. Your goal is to get enough of a lead to lose your pursuers completely, find somewhere safe to hide, convince your opponents to give up, or otherwise gain safety. In the meantime, however, you need to ensure that as few opponents as possible are in striking distance to engage you. After all, if one opponent can tie you up by engaging in combat, the others may have time to join in before you can end the battle.
You may find shops you can duck through, fences you can climb over, gaps in hedges you can worm through, and other bottlenecks where only a single person can slip through at a time. Be careful about climbing anything though. Unless your pursuers are a good distance behind you, slowing your forward progress long enough to overcome an obstacle may let them close too much of the gap you have created. Getting dragged off a fence and slammed into the ground is too easily the outcome.
If something bad happens, you will need a way out. Knowing your territory gives you a significant advantage whenever you need to escape from trouble. This not only means having an awareness of entrances, exits, and avenues for escape, but also understanding the proclivities of the people you hang out with as well. Hang out with people who like to cause trouble, and it will eventually catch up with not only them but with you as well.
Hopping fences can provide an extra level of safety if you are friendly with a neighbor’s dog and have enough of a lead to do so successfully. This assumes that the dogs will leave you alone and harass your pursuers, of course. If you have a choice, going over a fence at the corner where four yards meet is an excellent location. That way, if you choose unwisely and the dog or neighbor is not as friendly as you expected, it is just a short hop into a safer yard.
In areas that are less familiar to you, you must be especially cautious about what is on the other side of a fence, however. If you cannot see through the fence, you may wish to choose an alternate route. After all, it would not do to hop over a fence only to discover an angry Rottweiler, land in an empty pool, become entangled in thorny rosebushes, or break your ankle from an unexpectedly long drop.
Crossing a busy street is another good, albeit dangerous, way to escape pursuers. To be most successful, run parallel to traffic, choosing your best moment to act before crossing. If there are multiple lanes, you can implement this “run parallel then cross” method for each lane.
If someone is chasing you in a car, he can travel a whole lot faster than you can. He can also use it as a weapon to squash you. Vehicles can cause a whole lot more damage than firearms. Be sure to cut 90 degrees at your first opportunity, bolting between parked cars, through any convenient business, housing complex, narrow alley, or other area that the pursuing vehicle cannot easily pass through. Travel a couple of blocks then change directions again so that your pursuers cannot simply go around the block and catch sight of you all over again. Be cautious if you see or hear some of your pursuers leaving the vehicle because they may be able to split into more
