Two ATV riders were riding along in northern Minnesota on a Saturday and decided to take a shortcut as they were almost out of gas, which would prove to be a decision that changed the fate of a woman who had been stuck in quicksand for three days.

Adam Sandbeck said that it felt like something out of a movie, per the Minnesota Star Tribune, that the chance encounter almost seemed set up. Sandbeck was riding with his friend Mike Gravalin, a tradition between the two friends who are from West Fargo.

When they were around 30 miles east of their RV park, they decided to take a shortcut as they were running low on gas. They turned onto a minimum maintenance road, which turned into an unmarked trail full of mud. After going along, they came across a minivan that was stuck. As they approached the van, they saw a body lying in the mud.

“I just remember saying to myself, ‘Oh my god, please don’t be a dead person,’” Sandbeck said. “She was completely submerged.” As they walked closer, the woman submerged in the quicksand whispered, “Help me.”

“It scared the crap out of me. I watched Mike stop dead in his tracks,” Sandbeck said. “It was like, well, let’s help this lady. Neither one of us said anything to each other. We’re just like, ‘Are you OK? How long have you been here?’”

The woman was later identified as Kathryn Woessner, 68, of Alexandria. She had been missing for three days. She was last seen on June 3 in Hubbard County, which was about 6 miles away from where she was found stuck in the quicksand.

Gravalin said he could only imagine what the woman had to endure over the few days. “The water was almost coming over her mouth,” he said. “I mean, this has got to be one of the strongest women there is … You think about her just watching the sunset, the sun up and burning every day in the sun, and she still had the will to live.”

The two friends were able to call 911 and get authorities out to help her out. “My gut tells me if we didn’t drive through that trail, this would be a whole different outcome for Kathryn,” Sandbeck added. “There’s no doubt in my mind … this was the hand of God directing us to her, because there’s no reason why we would have ever gone down these little trails.”

“We were supposed to be there,” Gravalin said. “This was the last ditch effort to save this woman’s life.” Cass County Sheriff Bryan Welk said that Woessner wouldn’t have survived another 24 hours if she was not found.