Or Elmakayes, a student, marathon runner and now survivor, was at the Nova music festival in Re'im in the October 7 massacre. She managed to save herself despite being shot in the leg. After hours of running, and when reunited with her parents she allow herself to cry. "It was only at this point that I was done being a hero," she said, "and I could become my parents' little girl."
Read more:
Elmakayes (26) worked as a ticket scanner at the festival. She planned to join the revelers in the morning, at the end of her shift. "I came to the party at a stage in my life when I had accomplished goals," she says. "I completed my Bachelors in psychology, I worked as a teacher. I am certified to teach and planned to start a master's degree in educational psychology. I was able to run long distances and ran a half marathon. A week before the party I came back from abroad and I knew I would meet many friends there. But the celebration rurned out differently."
The sunrise saved me
During her shift, Elmakayes did not have enough time to eat or drink, and at seven a.m., when she was extremely tired after a sleepless night, one of the managers asked her to stay on for a few more minutes. "But I asked to leave because the sunrise was amazing, and it saved me because I went to the car to change clothes and put on tights that ultimately helped stopped my bleeding."
She returned to the party and then the rocket fire began. "Those who were inside could have thought it was part of the music, but I came from outside and immediately realized that something was wrong and went into a small panic attack. We are in an open area, unable to protect ourselves, and it was only at this moment that I realized how close we are to Gaza. I ran towards the parking lot to get to my car. There was a very long traffic jam and I decided I wasn't staying."
Did you just decide to run away?
"Every decision in this situation is a gamble. There is no right or wrong. I got into the car and started driving in the direction that one of the security guards directed me to. After a few minutes, someone I know in the car in front of me yelled at me, 'Or, turn around, there are terrorists,' a shout that I can still hear In my dreams. I manage to turn around but the people in the cars in front of me were shot. I saw it as if in slow motion with their windshields shattered. I shouted to the cars behind me to 'turn around'. Me and a few other cars were driving in the opposite direction, I heard shots and understood that terrorists were coming from that direction as well. We were surrounded."
And what happens then?
"Everyone abandoned the cars, I took my phone and some other bag that I had with me, closed and started running with everyone eastward. All around me people were running, shouting, crying. Some fell. Someone next to me started vomiting and I grabbed him and told him to calm down and run. The sun was rising, the view was beautiful and pastoral, and I'm in a scene from a horror movie with bullets whistling and dust rising from the ground. The scariest situation ever."
What do you say to yourself in this situation?
"I love survival movies. My favorite movie is 'Unbreakable,' which tells the story of an Italian-American boy from a struggling family who became an Olympic runner, enlisted in the army, was captured by the Japanese in World War II and survived severe torture. I'm not a soldier, no one prepared me for this, but in times of need you probably know how to activate your craziest survival instincts. I just kept running towards the east. What's there? I didn't know. It's a split second decision but I ran."
Ran like in an action movie
She ran for maybe an hour without a break until she saw an orchard to her left. "All the running up to that point was in an open. I thought maybe this was my chance not to be exposed. I gave it everything I had and turned to the orchard. As I entered the orchard, I hear a loud burst of automatic gunfire, and someone who was running next to me fell. In that second I felt a crazy pain in my leg, and I shouted 'landmines.' I don't know where I got that idea from. I saw my leg bleeding. A terrible sight, and I still didn't realize I was shot. Nothing in life prepared me to know what a bullet in the leg feels like. Someone I didn't know then was running to me, today I know his name is Shay Arbel. He took a scarf off my neck, put a tourniquet on me and continued running. He stopped his running for me and saved my leg."
What's going through your mind?
"I'm still in shock but I'm starting to give myself a pep talk. 'Or, calm down. There's no time to cry. You can't lose your cool. Go ahead.' I took a picture of the leg and the time was 8:31, so that there would be some evidence of what happened to me. I also sent a message with a location to a friend and one of Nova's managers. In the innocence of that moment, I asked them to send me an ambulance. There are almost no people around me. I do see many people lying motionless and I didn't want to come any closer."
And what about the pain?
"I was in a lot of pain and was pushing back the tears, but It was clear that I mustn't make any noise. After a few minutes I realized there was a slight decline in the gunfire and decided this was my chance. I started moving forward slowly, crouching and running from one row of trees to another like in some action movie. I got out of the orchard and continued running. hiding behind every bush or tree. I was not a combat soldier in the army, maybe I saw it in some movie. You should probably watch war movies."
5 View gallery
'There's something in my mind that makes me focus'
(Photo: Adi Orani Styling: Limor Maya Rihana )
How did you manage to move with a bullet in your leg?
"The answer is adrenaline. There's also something in my mind that makes me focus. I put everything aside, everything will wait, I have to run. I simply have no other option. During the run I saw shocking sights but I could not help anyone. It's a very difficult thought. luckily I was fit. There not a moment that I wanted to give up because of exhaustion."
There are more seriously injured than me
After leaving the orchard, Elmakayes saw a group of young men. "I yelled that I'm shot and two boys ran in my direction and picked me up. It was clear to me that I could not keep running for much longer. With great luck, after a few minutes a car passed by and I got into it. The young men who helped me prefered to continue on foot because a car is more visible. One of the men in the car, Yosef Gez, hugged me. He speaking calmly he said, 'Relax, I'm saving you. Everything will be fine.' For 40 minutes we drove in the field, while rockets were intercepted above us, until we arrived at a makeshift clinic in Kibbutz Tze'elim. I thought that I was now saved and would soon be taken to a hospital. But that is not what happens. In the clinic there is chaos, many wounded. A nurse approached me, looked at my leg and said that I have some shrapnel in it and that there are currently more seriously injured people who need to be taken to the hospital."
After a short wait, the nurse saw that blood was coming down from the back of Or's leg. She called out to a doctor who said there was an entrance and exist wound and Elmakayes must be evacuated. "At that second I collapsed. I realized that the situation was worse than I thought. They gave me something to calm me down, and when I arrived at the Soroka Hospital after about an hour I lost consciousness. When I woke up in the afternoon after all the medical tests and treatments, with a bandaged leg."
During all this time you didn't talk to your parents?
"I only talked to them for the first time in the car on the way to the clinic. I didn't want to talk to them before because it was clear to me that they were light years away from me and had no way to help. I had a scary scenario in my head that my father, Mickey, who is a retired police officer, would decide to come to me. I had a kind of feeling that because I didn't tell them what's going on and didn't say goodbye to them, it strengthened my commitment to survive. In the car, when Yosef called my mother for me, I started crying, 'Sorry, sorry I was at the party, sorry I was shot.'
I am a reluctant hero
In the afternoon, when Elmakayes woke up at the hospital, her father was already on his way to take her home to Nahariya. "I woke up to the nightmare, realizing what happened to me and what happened to others." Since then, little by little, I am in rehabilitating. "I slept for about two days," she said. "my parents rented a house in Netanya, away from the northern border and since then we have been living here with my brother, who is 15 years old. Every sound makes me anxious."
Today, Elmakayes uses crutches, undergoes physical therapy, meets with a psychologist once a week and dreams of walking without without pain. "I know I was very lucky," she said. "I'm here and my leg is here, and I still have difficulty seeing myself with the crutches. It's a disability. It sounds superficial, but it's hard for me. I'm a young girl, I want to run and be free."
What is your routine during this period?
"Most of it is made up of physical therapy and treatments. I also got involved in advocacy trying to explain to the world what has happened here, not through my story though. It is important for me to be active. I want to move on, with all the difficulty, and not to be stuck in that day."
What about your story? Do people regard you as a hero?
"I am a hero by choice, along with many others. I am not a combat soldier, I did not put myself into the situation and I did not consciously take a risk. I do think that I acted to save myself, I did not panic and I did not collapse. The hero that came out of me that day simply knew how to say: 'I love my life, I'm not ready to give it up and I'll do everything to get out of here.'"
Giving up is not an option
Until October 7, Or's life was planned and organized with her studies and sports. During the COVID pandemic, after breaking up with her partner, she returned home from Tel Aviv and started training for a marathon run, with her mother, Meirav, who is an athlete and at the time coached a running team. "I was in a group with women in their 30s and 40s. I was the youngest and the most out of shape," Elmakayes says. "In the beginning, I would run behind and wheeze. Slowly I began to enjoy running and the social gathering and discovered that running in a group is motivating. I improved and discovered that I am quite good. I increased the distances, participated in half marathons and even stood on the podium in my first race. I did not progress as fast as I wanted to because I had a spinal disc herniation, so I had to slow down."
Do you think your training helped you that Saturday and is helping in your rehabilitation?
"Obviously it was easier for me to run because I had good endurance that I didn't have before training, but there was also something in the mind. I didn't give up on myself."
What will happen next?
"The doctors said that in the next two years I won't be able to run. And it's hard. I'm doing physical therapy and hydrotherapy and have to learn everything from the beginning. Right now I'm limping, and I tire very quickly, the pace is slow and it's frustrating. But I have the drive to get better."
What do you say to yourself?
"In the first month, I went to quite a few funerals on my crutches. At the first funeral, a friend told me that he would bring me a wheelchair so that it would be easier for me. But I refused. I came to all the funerals with the crutches even though it was difficult for me. But I am stubborn and giving up is not an option. I mean, there were days when I gave up on myself. I was tired of staying strong, tired of being dependent on others, but that's okay too. After October 7, I understand that I can do anything."
Are there other things that have changed for you since that day?
"I don't take anything for granted, I'm really grateful for what I have. It's clear to me that my story could have ended differently. Every morning I pray and am thankful that I got up, that I'm here. It's interesting that on one hand my trust in the country was damaged, but on the other hand I want to become a mother sooner than I planned. I want to leave something of me behind."