This should be no different then the response to an active shooter situation.
1: Flee
2: Hunker down
3: Fight
In that order.
If you can safely get out of the area, that's the best option
If you can't, then hide, I've been in the desert, the jungle, the mountains, and the Arctic. I've never been any place where I couldn't find a place to hunker down.
The third and last option is to fight, if you cant get out of the area, and you are discovered in your hiding place, fight. You have no choice but to cower and wait to die, or fight.
I have combat military training and experience. I have police training and have instructed other police including SWAT.
But I'm not so naïve to believe that in my old age, that I can take on drug cartels.
I certainly cant out run them, (or out run their grandmothers) but I know I can crawl into a brush pile, ditch, or whatever and wait them out.
I'm not a drug dealer, I cant believe they would hunt me down for sport.
I'm pretty sure, that if I can lay in a spot, from before sunrise to well after sunset hunting, then I can do the same if I cross the paths of some druggies. I'm not above laying in hiding, taking a nap even if there is no danger present.
But if cornered then you have no choice but to fight or cower.
I have a tendency to mind my own business now days, I'm not a threat to anyone, therefore I don't see reason to worry about running across bandits in the bush.
Also I will not curtail my late in life activities, if I wanted safety then I'd spend my life on a bar stool at the VFW. Even then I could be in danger of falling off the stool.
Don't let fear control your life. There is no safe place. Life is short, and running out for some of us, I plan on living and enjoying what time I have left.