All they would have been

concerned about was getting the hell out of there, by any,
and the fastest means possible. In fact their senses would
have been so honed that they would have noticed the modern
day sabre-toothed tiger, the skin head, long before the attack
and escaped before there was even a confrontation.
I know that it's easy to say in hindsight, but my friend
should have seen the threat and avoided it by over-riding his
ego. He should have gone the opposite way, or made a run
for it when avoidance was no longer an option, or talked
down his attackers if faced with a confrontation.
Unfortunately, he couldn't talk it down, he was so unused to
the amount of adrenaline that it caused 'freeze syndrome',
and he became monosyllabic.