Jackson man and friend are on the run in ‘Hunted’

JACKSON - Hilmar Skagfield knew his answer immediately when he got a text from his friend, and Jackson Escape Rooms owner, Lee Wilson.

“Want to go on the run from the FBI?” was the gist of the message from Wilson, Skagfield said; of course the answer was, “Yes.”

Later, the two were fugitives on the run from skilled investigators in the brand-new television show “Hunted.”

“To go on the run from the NSA, the CIA, the Navy SEALs, the U.S. Marshals, detectives, the whole gamut, and to put yourself up against people with all the tricks of the trade and try to evade capture with your fledgling resources, it’s just a fascinating challenge,” said Skagfield.

On “Hunted,” nine teams of two people will attempt to evade capture for 28 days in a 100,000-square-mile region. If they succeed, each team will win $250,000.

Wilson is owner and of Jackson Escape Rooms, and he said his experience with puzzles and trapping people impacted his time on the show.

Skagfield also has Jackson ties. A “nomad” with a background in technology, he graduated from Union University in 2010.

He met Wilson while a student. During his second semester at Union, tornadoes flattened much of campus, and Skagfield found shelter at Wilson’s home. At the time, Wilson was director of discipleship at the university, and the two became friends.

Originally from Florida, Skagfield is staying in Jackson while the show airs.

While on the show, the teams faced intense psychological pressure to stay ahead of the hunters, who included some of the most incredible and gifted law enforcement, Special Forces and technology experts in the world, Wilson and Skagfield said.

The teams didn’t learn who the “hunters” were until after filming stopped, they said, so Wilson and Skagfield called the faceless hunters their “boogiemen” while they were on the run.

“When you put people under that much pressure, you have incredible things happen and you have incredible disasters take place,” Wilson said. “You get to see the full range of human experience.”

“Hunted” premieres at 9 p.m. Jan. 22 on CBS.