About understanding the events in Revelation 12:6-17, the woman's flight into the wilderness must follow the Biblical context given in that chapter. Just because the Rev.12:6 & 12:14 verses use the idea of fleeing does not have to mean a physical flight.
Rev 12:13-16
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
(KJV)
This "flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth" is a pointer back to the subject of Revelation 9 events. We're told there the smoke, fire, and brimstone the locusts bring comes out of their 'mouths', and that their power in is in their mouths. Words come out of one's mouth, and that's what the stinging of Rev.9 is about. It's about deception; lies that cause deception, false prophets turning everything upside down. The very first sign of the end our Lord Jesus gave His disciples in His Olivet discourse was to not allow any man to deceive us, making deception the main battle front at the end of this world.
That's what the woman of Rev.12:6 forward is being protected from by going into the wilderness. It's protection against lies, not protection against physical persecutions. The two 3.5 years periods are specifically about the end of days, the prophecy in the Book of Daniel, and in Revelation 11 & 13 about the 42 months the dragon is given to work.
Another Revelation topic linked to this is what our Lord told the Church of Philadelphia that He would keep them from the "hour of temptation" that will come upon the whole world, because of their keeping the word of His patience (Rev.3:10). Being kept from that "hour of temptation" is linked to keeping the word of His patience, meaning His Word, and not the many deceiving traditions of men (leaven). That is about not being deceived in that hour while the rest of the world will be. That's how one is kept. It even relates to the idea our Lord gave about the first one 'taken' in the field. There is a 'taken' Message in the OT prophets too, which is about being deceived because of listening to and following falseness, instead of sticking to God's Word as written (Isa.28). All these type Messages our Lord gave in His Word should not be seen as separate ideas, for they are linked together to give us the bigger picture, especially the bigger picture for events leading up to Christ's coming. Apostle Paul well knew these things from the OT prophets, and he recounted them in his Epistles about events for the end.
The leaven traditions of men are designed to throw us off track in God's Word. For those familiar with the Bible history about the ten lost tribes, the Rev.12 idea of the 'woman' (Israel) fleeing into the wilderness where she is protected can be seen as relating to the scattering of God's people to the West among the Gentiles, both together forming the western Christian nations of history, and being blessed by God under His Son. But that's not the actual Biblical context of how the wilderness idea is being used in Rev.12.