Into the Flames

Chapter 1: Scavengers

The next morning, we decided to scavenge from the destroyed helicopter, anything that would be useful for the rest of our travels. "I've found some water, Cortez!!" John shouted while throwing the water in a pile we made. "Definitely, gonna need that if we are going to try and survive out here for 6 months!!" I said with some relief, while throwing some pots into the pile. "I'm going to see if I can salvage any gas from the tank, since it didn't explode that bad!?!" He replied. "Go ahead, but don't be an idiot!!!" I joked. Just as John began to approach the tank, a gunshot goes off.
"What the hell, I thought no one comes this far into the jungle." John shouted, grabbing his weapons. "Me too, but apparently we're not alone." I replied grabbing mine. "Wanna, see if we can track them!?!" asked John. "Yeah, let's be careful since they are obviously armed with some powerful rifles, maybe it's a search and rescue team looking for us!?!" I yelled. Suddenly, John shot three rounds into the sky, a hunter's sign to tell another his location. "Now, we wait." John said. "Now, we wait." I repeated while, crouched behind a patch of trees.
After about 2 hours, we suddenly heard voices in the distance coming from the brush. "I think the shots came from here" someone said. "Come out with your weapons surrendered and hands where I can see" I yelled. John began to aim his rifle towards their direction. "We come in peace!?!" said a man stepping out of the brush with a revolver in his hand, accompanied by two men armed with hunting shotguns and a woman with a rifle. "Throw your weapons on the ground, now!!!" I yelled without being seen.
Suddenly, all of their guns and supplies were tossed into a pile. "Is that better,... can we help. We saw the bird go down!?!" yelled the man with a confused look. I suddenly signaled to John, who was still aiming, to come out of the brush. As we both came out, the group looked as if they've seen a ghost. "We didn't even hear you guys" the woman said in a shocked voice. "We're ok. Just a few bumps and bruises, here and there. Thanks for checking on us." I said. "Unless, your weren't, you people could have been trying to steal our supplies." snapped John, with a stern look. "No, no we are on a tracking expedition to track down endangered Jaguars and we just happened to see your bird come crashing down from the sky " said the man with a smile. "You've better not be poachers otherwise, your heads are going on my wall." I snapped. "You people don't look like wildlife explorers, why did you fire your weapon?" John snapped, looking directly at the woman.
The woman shocked that John knew she made the shot replied, "Its what you do in hunting in case of emergency, to fire once and see if you get a reply, and how did you know it was me." "Your rifle." I replied. "Wow, you guys are skilled I see" replied the man holding a shotgun. "17 years of hunting and tracking." We both replied, almost simultaneously. "Where were you guys headed to before the crash?." Asked the short man, who seemed to be the group's leader. "We're explorers, my friend we have no specific destination." I quickly replied. The man shocked by my response replied, "Well I guess, we'll be on our way then, since you gentlemen seem to be alright and can handle yourselves." They picked up their weapons and began to leave but something was telling me that wouldn't be the last we see of them.
"Did you see that!?!" asked John. "You mean their questioning, yeah I saw it!!" I replied. "I don't trust them." John snapped. "We'll sleep with one eye open, tonight John." I replied, while packing up what we scavenged from the wreckage. "Exactly" replied John, aiming down his sights. "You ready to set out" I asked. "Let's get going." John replied, loading his rifle. We made a lean-to shelter to sleep in that night. I grabbed some timber and started a fire to boil some left overs into a broth. After we ate, I grabbed my notebook and began to write:
"While living in the wild, you slowly start to unleash the animal side in you. You start to realize that when people ask "what makes humans different from animals?" The correct answer is nothing. We as people like to separate humans as a whole from the animal kingdom, when in reality we are in the animal kingdom. We shouldn't separate ourselves. Because eventually, we become animals."
After writing, I grabbed my rifle and prepared for day 2 to finally end.