“rattlesnake valley.”

My name is mark and at the time I was twenty six and in my third year in college. I lived out in Arizona. I was an active hiker I loved being outside. I didn’t know at the time that hiking would be the death of me. 

But let’s not get to far ahead of ourselves. Here is what happened. 

 

“It was July 18th 2008.” I had planned to take a hike outside of the university it was several  hours away kind of close to the Grand Canyon but not technically there. 

I called my parents to let them know I was about to go on a hike they were ok about it. I called a couple friends up to see if they could come but nobody was available so I was solo. The next day I picked up some gear and left in my car. I got to the trail around 11 am. The trail was called “Rattlesnake valley” despite the name I continued onward. 

The temperature was almost in the 90’s. I had plenty of water. The trail was for expirenced hikers and it was supposed to take two days to complete. Anyhow I continued the trail it was a pretty day out. Around 6 I stopped near a valley to camp out I pitched up my tent and relaxed for a little bit but this is when things took a turn for the worse. 

I had fallen asleep exhausted and around 10 pm I was awakened to the most terrifying scream I had ever heard and it sounded like it was only a couple miles away. It was clear to me the women who screamed had been killed. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and I looked at my tent. 

I was nervous what had happened? Foolishly I unzipped my tent and went outside. I peaked over into  the valley. I saw smoke coming from below the valleys cliff. I slowly made my way down towards it and I peaked my head down I did so in a way where nobody could see me. Terrified I saw what looked to be sixty or so people all wearing robes and had masks on there faces. 

I saw what looked to be an alter in the middle of the open area where a man with a long ponytail and a Bull mask was dangling a knife over a recently deceased lady. He was yelling something then forced the knife into her chest and pulled it out and yelled again. Suddenly my water bottle fell from my pocket and landed on the ground next to one of the members of this group. 

I froze as he looked up I heard the man say to another guy “Somebody is here.” I suddenly and quietly made my way back towards the opposite direction of my tent. I hid in the bushes as a group of twenty of these strangers walked up a path on the cliff and saw the tent. I heard the man yell down “there’s a tent somebody is here.” I watched in horror as the men surrounded the tent and set it on fire. Content on hurting me. I stayed in the bushes and could only watch. This was the longest 8 hours of my life. 

These men staged camp right out in the open waiting for me to return. Just waiting. I stayed as silent as I could. I realized they were not going to leave my only chance to survive was to quietly sneak out from the other side of the bush and try to stay hidden and flee this area. Suddenly three men started to walk towards the bushes where I was at and one of the men said “if there is someone here we will kill them. Even if we need to stay here all night.” The next guy said “what if this tent belonged to the women who the leader killed and this was just a waste of time?” The other guy said “it’s a possibility.” The three men turned around and left. 

I was watching in fear as I started to back up and I snuck my way out of the bushes and crept as low to the ground as I could and crab walked out of there. 

Several feet away I heard a whistle and assumed the leader wanted the group back. I was wrong. I made my way up a cliff that was about thirty feet off the ground just long enough to look at a terrifying site. All sixty people were now near where  the tent  used to be. My phone suddenly went off. I turned it off as fast as I could too late as the leader looked in the direction. 

I got as low to the ground as I could as I heard footsteps the members walked passed me. It was the longest ten minutes of my life. I was afraid that they would climb up. Suddenly I heard a noice it took me several minutes to realize it was a rattlesnake warning me. I froze now I had this crazy group out looking for me who just killed a women for god knows what and on the other corner I had a rattlesnake. The cult members yelled back “he’s not here let’s return to the alter.” I heard the members start to walk back passed where I was. I was as quiet as I could I moved back and that’s when I felt a pain in my left leg. 

I looked back the rattlesnake had bit me. I froze in horror as I could only watch the snake and the cult. I grabbed my phone and wrote down a final message. 

 

“If your reading this it’s too late. I was bitten by a rattlesnake...there was a group of people who killed a young women by an alter I’m not sure what they wanted but they saw my tent and burned it. 

They are dangerous. I avoided them luckily but I didn’t avoid the snake. Tell my parents and friends I love them and they meant the world to me. I died doing what I loved and that was hiking. 

Please live life dont be afraid do what inspires you.” 

 

With that I clinched my phone in my fists and passed away. My parents the next day called the police since I had not returned and they had a search party look for me. It took another five days for them to finally find my body, next to the rattlesnake. They killed the snake and found the message. They showed my family. 

The cult was never found. They found the girl and did an autopsy and it said she died by severe stabbing wounds. To this day we don’t know who the cult was or what they actually wanted or what they intended to do.