“Justin! Justin!!” Shrieked Liza and Katy. Running through the narrow trees with a flowing river beside them. Sweat pouring down their clammy faces.

“I don't’ know what to do! This is terrible! It’s getting cold outside, we need to settle down somewhere.” Liza exclaimed. So they went off to find a goodly covered spot to make camp. Just as they began to do that they heard a chilling scream of pain.

“THAT’S JUSTIN!!!” Both the girls yelled.

Just 12 hours ago it was 8 am, Katy who is tall, slender and has red hair, Liza, who is short and has blonde hair, and Justin who has black hair and is very tall, were in the parking lot of a remote dark forest. They were double and triple checking to make sure they had everything to go on a 25 mile backpacking trip.

“Headlights?” Justin asked.
“Check,” Katy and Liza replied.
“Bugspray?” Asked Justin.
“Check,” Liza and Katy replied.
“Matches?” Justin asked.
“Check” Katy and Liza replied.
“Machetes?” Justin asked.
“Check,” The girls replied. 

They spent an hour checking everything. Then, they were off. No communication with anybody for 7 days. Justin led, Katy and Liza followed. It was a hard, wet, treaturous hike, through creeksand trees so close together it was very hard to get through without having scrapes and bruises.

By lunch time, they had only traveled 1.5 miles. 

“Holy cow I’m pooped already” Liza said. Trekking through sticky, gushy mud was very hard to conquer! It took them multiple hours to get through it. It was getting to be 5 pm and dark.

“This is when its most dangerous. I’ll go ahead and scout out a place to lay down camp,” Justin said bravely.
Fifteen minutes passed and he hadn’t come back. The girls called for him…. No answer. They panicked.
“What do we do?! How could this happen?? He was just here, where could he have gone?!” Liza said while hyperventilating.

“We will stay right by side, and try to find him. Do you still have your headlight??” Katy asked.
“Yeah, I do,” Liza replied, still out of breath.

“Ok good,” Katy said.
They started running the way that he was going. They ran through a creek, trough sticker bushes, and then decided to stop. Just as they stopped to try to find a good campsite they heard Justin scream, “HHHHEEEEELLLLPP!! Somebody!! Liza, Katy!!”

Not far away from where they were. The girls ran in the direction they heard his voice. They saw that the ground had been scuffed up. They both pulled out their machetes, and walked forward.

In all the excitement of knowing Justin was near, the girls didn’t realize that they were being stalked by a cougar. Just before it was too late, Katy heard a stick break behind them. She turned around and the cougar pounced…

She stabbed the cougar in the heart, it cried a piercing cry, and slowly bled out. Katy noticed the cougar’s face was covered in blood. Adrenalin rushed through both of them. They ran in the direction the ground was scuffed up. Liza and Katy were surprised at the sight they saw. It was Justin bleeding out in a deep hole.

“OH MY GOSH!! What happened?!?!” Liza screamed. Jumping down into the pit. 

“I was running away from a cougar” Cough Cough. “It attacked me, and I fell down here,” He said in pain. 
“What do I do?!” Liza said shakily... She took a deep breath. “Ok, Katy. Use your machete to cut down some branches, we’ll make a stretcher to carry him back to the camp.” So Katy started to do that, she used strips of her jacket to tie it together. While Katy was doing that, Liza was trying secure Justin for the trip to the car.
“I’m cold Liza…” Justin said, muffled.

“I know, buddy. We are gonna make it.” A few minutes later, Katy finished the stretcher.

“Come on Liza! We have got to hurry! We don’t have a lot of time till dark,” Katy said. So, they rushed through the trees, mud, and creek 3 times faster than when they were going the other way. Just as they were getting to their car, Justin took his last breath…