It was a clear day outside to be hiking. The sun was high and the air was humid. The forest was quiet other than the sounds of birds and bugs chirping. Eric was holding my hand as he parked the jeep. Eric had strong hands and arms. He was lean and tall. His hair was brown, it complemented his sharp green eyes. Maddy pulled up next to us in her truck, Eric and Christian were with her. Selen hopped out of our jeep, her black hair flowing behind her. Selen and I were almost twins, the only things were that she had brown eyes, mine were blue. And she was taller and a tad more lean than me. But our black hair, our laugh, our constant anger issues, and outspoken selves matched to a T. More than Christian, my twin, and I had in common. All we had was hair, eyes, and parents.  Our hair was thick, black, shiny. Unlike our parents. Our father had sandy hair, that was thin. Our mother had dark brown hair, thick like ours. But their eyes both brown with hints of green near the iris. Christian’s eyes and mine both were icey blue with the slightest green near the iris. Striking against our black hair.
“You drive like an ass, Eric. You could’ve took it slow for me.” Maddy said as she started to unload things from the bed of the truck.  She was a kind of small girl. Petite and tall. She had long blonde hair that was pin straight. She was a jokester, but she was caring.
Eric just smirked and gave her the finger. She laughed and threw his sleeping bag at him. I was looking into the forest, it was so dense and thick, as they usually are in Panama. Everyone was talking and making noise. But I heard something rustling the leaves. I walked forward slowly towards the noise.
I lean forward a little, I can hear more sounds and movement in the dense forest.
“BOO” Eric yells as he grabs me. I screamed loud. Everyone was laughing.
“You guys are a bunch of idiots.” I say as I walked away from Eric.
“What were you looking at anyways, Jasmine?” Eric was looking into the forest.
“I heard something moving in there, a lot.” I was picking up my bag and spraying bug spray. Everyone was ready to go but I just couldn’t help to feel as though there was something wrong.
We started to walk into the forest. Christian had a map of this forest, him and Selen in front of us all, guiding the way. The forest was dense and as everyone has always said, everywhere you look in the forest looks the exact same. Truly too easy to get misplaced in there.
As we walked on, the forest got deeper and more dense. Everyone was talking and having a great time. You could hear all the animals making noises and moving around. I was taking pictures of everyone, the trees, animals. It was absolutely gorgeous.
“Jas, take mine and Eric’s picture on this rock.” Christian said. I nodded. The boys climbed up on the rock and struck their poses. They were both showing off their biceps and grinning uncontrollably.
“You look ridiculous up there!” Selen said while we all laughed. I took a couple pictures of their various poses.
“We look smokin’!” Eric said as he fanned himself dramatically. We all started laughing again. Christian was standing on top of the rock and he stopped and squinted. His face went ghostly, his whole body changed, he looked scared.
I turned around to a man, my arms went numb. My heart dropped. He was tall, muscular, and covered in blood. He was grinning, his teeth were perfectly white. His eyes were dark, sunken in. My mouth was wide open. There was no sound. The forest had stopped in time. In his hand a machete, dripped as if the blood was coming out of it. My heart sank even further. I could hear my heart in my ears. He spoke but I could not hear.
“Hello? Are you all mute?” His voice was deep, strong, rough. He sounded as if he had amusement in his voice, a sort of laugh. I shook at the sound of that thought. I was paralyzed.
“You guys are a bit deep in this forest without a guide, don’t you think?” He was still smiling. He was slowly moving forward. He was proper. His hands were behind his back, his chin was up, and he wasn’t slouching. All I could do is stare at his face.
“Crazy hunt, huh? You’re a bit of a mess.” I heard Eric say as he put his arm around me trying to comfort me.
“Oh yes! I hit an artery on accident. I am usually pretty good at keeping myself clean. I go hunting as often as possible to keep myself busy. It’s a hobby I am truly proud of.” He brought the machete in front of him. He was twisting the end on the tip of his finger.
“That is very nice but we have to go back to our hike so we can finish it before dark.” Christian said his voice was shaky. I clung hard to Eric, I finally was able to shift my body closer to his. I was sweating profusely. Not only from the warm Panama air, but from my own fear. The animals were still silent, my heart was still in my ears.
“Yes, you guys probably should leave. You never know what you’ll run across out here in the dark.” the stranger smiled again and waved good-bye with his knife in hand. Eric and I turned to start walking away.  As we turned, I didn’t hear the man move.
“Is he still standing there?” I whispered to Eric.
“Yes, just ignore it. Keeping walking, do not look at him.”  Eric whispered back. He was looking at Christian, Selen, and Maddy. They were facing us all looking just as startled as me.
Selen was next to Maddy. Standing hugging herself, looking at me with wide eyes. She was also sweating. Out of nowhere I hear a whistling sound. Boom. I feel a warm, wet substance hit my face and neck. I heard screaming and gurgling as I opened my eyes. Selen had an arrow, through her eye. Blood was streaming down her face as she fell to the ground. I was screaming at the top of my lungs.
“No! Oh my God, no! Help me, someone help me God damnit!” I was trying to turn her over, maybe I could stop the bleeding if I hurried. Eric was standing there in shock. Christian was helping me turn her over. He was sobbing, uncontrollably. Maddy was screaming and crying on the ground next to us.
“Is she alive?!” Please! Tell me she is alive!” Maddy was crying to me, but everywhere I looked for a pulse there was nothing. I was crying, screaming even.
I looked up to see a man walking towards us with a crossbow, but along with him came the man covered in blood. It was then I knew we had no choice but to go. We couldn’t stay, we couldn’t take Selen’s body. These men were going to kill us. All.
“We gotta go now! Come on,” I was grabbing everyone.
“They are coming,”I was pointing at the upcoming murders. They were laughing at us. Our pain. Our fear.

Everyone started to run, as fast as we could. Eric had my hand. Christian and Maddy in front of us, sobbing. We all were.
“I love it when they run! Don’t you!” A new voice was yelling yet laughing. They were amused.
“Of course! I love a good game!” It was the voice of the man covered in blood. We were running, I could hear them behind us, laughing like little children. The trail was becoming steeper and the terrain was becoming thick. We were running rampant in a forest we didn’t know how to navigate. Being hunted.
Christian was leading the way in front of us all. He knew how to navigate a forest better than any of us. I couldn’t see much in front of me or where we were going. I was behind Eric and he was leading my way.
Snap. The sound of a metal on metal, a snapping sound, then a scream. The another scream, first it was Christian, then it was Maddy. I rushed to them. Christian was on the ground screaming in agony.  His foot was caught in a bear trap. Blood was gushing out of his leg, he bone was exposed. There was blood everywhere. His foot was motionless.
“Get it off! Oh my god! Just get it off. Now!” Christian was screaming.
“Eric, I need you. Now!” I was rushing trying to think of the best place to shove my finger to clot the bleeding. “ Give me your goddamn belt  Eric. We need to stop the bleeding. He will bleed out if not.” Eric gave me his belt. I took off my flannel.
“Put pressure here, hard, try your hardest to restrict the blood.” I was working as fast as I could. I cut the flannel up. I looked at the trap, but there was a lock. No way to get it open without the key.
“I can’t get it off. Oh my god” I looked at Eric then looked at Chris.
“What?” Maddy looked at me.
“Chris, I’m sorry but-”
“But what? Get it the hell off now. Right now, Jasmine!” He and Maddy were crying She was holding his head, holding him as close as possible.
“Chris, there is a lock on it, I can’t get it off. We have to cut it off. Unless you want us to leave you here. You don’t have a damn choice, Chris.” I felt terrible. I tied the belt as tight as possible to cut off circulation. We have to do it fast.
“Bite this.” I gave him a stick.  “Maddy hold his hands so he doesn’t move too much. Eric, I’m going to cut, hold his legs down as best you can as you pull the belt as tight as possible.”
I grabbed the machete from Christian’s bag, it was only meant for cutting thick vegetation. Trying to sterilize it as best it could get  with the blowtorch meant for starting a fire.  I looked at my brother. He was sweating, crying, and bleeding out. His ankle, swollen and pink, his skin was flushed with color where an infection could have been starting, from the rusty parts of the trap. 
“Pull it tight Eric. Ok. I am going to start now.”
I lifted the machete high, Eric pulled the belt tight.  Aiming for below the belt, I swung down the machete, blood splattered all over my face. It was warm and smelled of metal. More blood was coming out of the wound, I hit right where I needed to. Christian was screaming in agony, holding Maddy’s hand. I hit again, more blood hit my face. The bone was showing now, the flesh torn, spewing blood all over the trap, my hand, and the ground. I hit again, harder, the bone would be the hardest to get through. Two more hits on the bone, I wasn't even half way through the bone yet. Blood was going everywhere with each hit. Trying to aim was the hardest part, other than hearing my only brother screaming out i9n heart wrenching pain with each hit. I hit again and again and again. Eric pulled the belt tighter than normal for this last hit. I came down on his ankle as hard as I could. His foot came off with the last blow.
“Pull the belt Eric! As hard as you can so I can cauterize it! Christian, I’m going to make it stop bleeding, okay? It’s going to hurt, I’m sorry.” I looked at Christian, he was sweating. His face read pure relief that it was over, yet I could see in his eyes, he was scared and sad.  I was heating the machete with the torch again, the blade needed to be red. I held his leg up and pressed the cherry red blade to his cut. The blade made the flesh sizzle and burn. A dark smoke came up along with the horrific smell of burning flesh, making me gag. Christian was screaming, telling me to stop and that he couldn’t do it anymore.
“Eric,give me the water.”  I poured the water over the wound to clean it as best as possible. I tied the piece of cloth around it and pulled the belt around the top of the belt to keep it from slipping off.
“It’s done, come on we have to go. Who knows where those f***ing freaks are.” I said picking the knife up. Maddy was holding Christian’s head, giving him water. She looked up and me.
“Jasmine, we need to get him to the car. There’s no way he can keep going on -” A gunshot was heard not too far away then- BOOM. Maddy’s body jerked, she looked up, a bullet wound in the middle of her stomach started to bleed. She stuttered but fell over coughing up blood and gasping for air. I leaped towards her covering her wound with my hands.
“Maddy no. No, no, no, no, no, no. You stay with me! No, Maddy, do not close your eyes! Look at me god damn it!” I was screaming and crying hysterically in her face. Her body went limp and she stopped gurgling. My hands were covered in her blood as well as Christian’s still.  Christian was passed out from blood lose. Eric was staring at Maddy’s body, in shock, his mouth was open. But we had to go, fast before they could kill us all.
“Maddy was right, Jasmine. We have to go to the car. We can’t carry him around forever and those freaks know this forest better than we do.” Eric was looking at me. His face pale, no expression. He was in survival mode, every man for himself.
  I took a picture of Maddy’s body as proof. Then we picked up Christian’s body, I had his feet, Eric had his shoulders. We moved quickly, backtracking what we had already done. The path started to get bigger as it once did. We reached the rock where Selen had be shot, I winced at the thought of my once best friend, dead on the ground with an arrow in her eye.
“I need to get a picture of Selen’s body too. So let’s lay him down” I told Eric. We laid him down in the middle of the path, I checked his pulse. It was weak, but still going good.
Selen’s body was where we left it. Her long hair was laying over her face like a veil. The arrow was sticking out of her head, around her head was a pool of blood. Her body was on her stomach, I rolled her over onto her back. Her mouth was wide open, her other eye open. The arrow, covered in blood, was sticking out of her socket. Blood stained her skin and shirt.
Eric and I carried Christian to the Jeep. As we drove away, I saw the men waving to us in a mocking manner. I never saw those men again and I never really got myself back. My brother was never the same, he’s a different man now. His missing foot a forever reminder of what happened to us and all our friends that day.