I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

I wasn't sure where else to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I've been an SAR officer for a few years now, and along the way I've seen some things that I think you guys will be interested in. <br><br>* I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time they just wander off the path, or slip down a small cliff, and they can't find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old 'stay where you are' thing, and they don't wander far. But I've had two cases where that didn't happen. Both bother me a lot, and I've thought about them a lot. In the first, we were looking for a very inexperienced climber who had gone out by himself for a few hours. When he didn't come back, his friends called us, and we went out looking for him. We found his car in the parking lot, but he was nowhere else. We knew he hadn't gone to another park, because his friends had his wallet, and he didn't have any other family in town. We searched that area for almost two weeks, and his body was finally found several parks over, in dense forest. There was no way he could have gotten that far, and we're all sure that he didn't start climbing until after he left the parking lot. <br><br>The other was a family who went out to a more well-trodden area. The father, mother, and two kids were all very experienced hikers, but they didn't come back when they were supposed to. We found their car, worked out which trail they had taken, and started looking for them. We found signs that they had been in the area almost right away, and started following what seemed to be their trail. The father, mother, and kids had clearly all been in the area, but after awhile we started to notice something. The father's footprints were getting bigger and bigger, and they looked more and more deformed. We realized he had hurt his foot pretty badly, and was limping along. We kept following the trail, and after awhile the father's footprints started getting smaller again. Not long after, the mother's started getting bigger, then they got smaller. Then it was the kids. The father, mother, and kids had all hurt their foot in the same place, and they all seemed to have the same injury. In the end, we gave up on finding them. We never did, and I don't think we will. <br><br>* I was teamed up with another officer because we'd gotten reports of bears in the area. We were out looking for a lost climber, and since he hadn't taken a trail we didn't have a lot to work with. We were searching a small stream, because it was one of the few places we could easily get to, when we heard strange noises. At first, it sounded like twigs snapping, but then it sounded like someone was moving through the underbrush. We drew our firearms and waited, thinking that it was the guy we were looking for, or a bear. When the person came into view, we lowered our guns. It wasn't bears, and it wasn't the guy we were looking for. <br><br>It was a little girl. She couldn't have been more than 10 or 12, and she was small. She was also pretty dirty, and I'm sure she hadn't been out here for long. She was wearing a bright pink raincoat, and had a little blue backpack on. We called out to her, asking if she was ok, and she didn't seem surprised to see us. In fact, she didn't seem surprised at all. She just kept coming, walking at the same speed, until she was right in front of us. Then, she stopped. She looked up at us, and I saw something that gave me pause. Her eyes were black. Not like her pupils were dilated, but they were actually black. We asked her if she was ok, and if she knew where her parents were. She didn't answer. We asked her if she was alone, and she still didn't answer. We asked her what her parents had been wearing, and if she remembered which way the parking lot was. We asked her if she was cold, hungry, scared, or tired. She didn't answer any of our questions, and after awhile, we gave up. <br><br>We called for pickup, and told them that we had found a survivor. We were waiting for them to come when I heard one of our radios crackle to life. It was one of the other teams, and they were asking for information on the survivor. We told them it was a young girl with black eyes who didn't talk, and they said they had found someone who matched her description. We were confused, because we had her with us. The other team said they had found a young girl with black eyes who didn't talk, and she was wearing a bright pink raincoat and had a little blue backpack. We were stunned. The girl we had found was right there, and she matched that description exactly. The other team told us that they had found the girl we were describing miles away, in the opposite direction. We didn't know what to do, but in the end, we both went back to base. When we got there, we went straight to the lost and found. There, we found two little girls in bright pink raincoats. They both had little blue backpacks, and they both had black eyes. They looked identical in every way, and they both didn't talk. We figured that they must have been twins, and that one of them had been the girl we were looking for. We tried to talk to them, and we tried to figure out which one was the survivor, and which wasn't. In the end, we couldn't figure it out. <br><br>We gave them both some food, and let them use the base shower. When they came out, they were clean, and they didn't have black eyes anymore. They were still identical, though. One of them stepped forward, and she talked for the first time. "I'm Rachel," she said. "This is Mark." We were stunned. We had never seen two people who looked so alike, and we couldn't figure out how we had misgendered one of the girls so badly. We asked Rachel if she knew where her parents were, and she told us where to find them. We asked her how long they had been out there, and she said they had been out there for a few hours. We asked her what had happened, and she told us that she had gotten separated from them, and she had gotten lost. We were still stunned that we had misgendered Mark so badly, and we kept looking at him. He didn't seem to notice. <br><br>We got Rachel's parents preyed by the time we had gotten all that information, and when they got there, they were overjoyed to see Rachel. They thanked us for finding her, and they took her home. Mark was also claiming that we had found her, and Rachel didn't do anything to stop him. We figured that he had been with her the whole time, and he wanted to be part of the family. We let them go, and Mark and Rachel were gone. We never saw Rachel again, but I saw Mark several times after that. Anytime we found a survivor, he was always with them. Sometimes we would find him alone, and he would claim that he was the survivor. Sometimes, he would be with someone else, and he'd say he was that person's brother or sister or something. Every time we found him, Rachel was never with him. But every time we found him, the person he was with always talked about a girl named Rachel. <br><br>I don't know what's going on with Mark and Rachel. I don't know if they're the same person, or if Mark is some sort of spirit. I don't know if Rachel is a spirit, and Mark is her brother or something. But I do know one thing. If you ever get lost in the wilderness, stay the fuck away from anyone named Mark or Rachel. And never, *ever*, go out alone.