The Last Man Standing

“Guys, keep up!” Yudin yelled a bit too aggressively at Zinaida, Dyatlov, and Alexander who were struggling to run behind him. They had decided to run north, away from the yells they heard coming from the tree line. Dyatlov had wanted to run towards the screams, to help his friends, but Yudin had talked sense into him. As much as Yudin wished they could turn back and help their friends, he had a feeling that if they didn’t get away from the commotion in the trees, they would be next.

Yudin, Dyatlov, Zinaida, and Alexander had been running north for a while against the blizzard’s battering wind. It was becoming more apparent that their bodies were starting to give in to the negative degree weather by the way their steps became more sluggish and heavy. Their faces that had become red and chapped from the wind were now turning blue in color. Dyatlov and Alexander had stopped running and were double over, breathing heavily. Zinaida was crouched in the snow, her body heaving from exhaustion.

Yudin doubled back, kneeling down and wrapping his arms around Zinaida to pull her to her feet. Yudin tried yelling again to his friends, “If we stop, our bodies will give in to the cold! Zinaida, plea––” Yudin’s sentence was immediately cut off by a heavily gloved hand covering his mouth and pulling him backward. Yudin struggled and tried to scream, but the hands holding him were much stronger than his now fatigued body. Yudin looked around and could see other men in dark uniforms emerging through the snowy haze. They started closing in on Zinaida, Dyatlov, and Alexander who had succumbed to their exhaustion in heaps on the ground.

Yudin could hear loud growling and rattling chains and then saw a group of four men in dark Soviet uniforms emerge through the blizzard struggling to pull forward the largest beast Yudin had ever seen. It had matted white hair, long-clawed fingers, and towered over the men pulling it with thick metal chains. Its fur was decorated with streaks of bright-colored crimson and at the sight of this, Yudin started shaking uncontrollably in the soldier’s tight grasp. To the right of Yudin, two other uniformed men were coming forward holding chains in a leash-like fashion attached to the necks of two other creatures. Yudin narrowed his eyes, staring hard through the snow-filled wind, and could see that these human-looking creatures looked rotted and they also had large empty black holes where their eyes had once been. They looked like walking corpses. When the two corpses spotted Dyatlov, Zinaida, and Alexander on the ground in front of them, they rushed towards them with their arms outstretched, a horrible shrieking noise coming from their mouths. The two soldiers yanked them back harshly cutting off their shrieks and zapped them with long glowing tasers. On his left, Yudin saw a very tattered-looking man with a muzzle wrapped tightly around his head covering his mouth and a collar with chains around his neck. Two Soviet soldiers held the ends of these chains. When Yudin met the man’s eyes, Yudin jumped back in shock because the muzzled man’s eyes glowed bright red. Yudin struggled hard in the soldier’s arms, tears stinging his eyes. Looking up Yudin saw a large man in an official soviet uniform walking towards him. The man stopped and bent down slightly to look Yudin in the eyes.

The man spoke to him in a loud, deep voice, “Do you understand anything that has happened today?” Yudin stared at the man in front of him, clearly the captain of all the soldiers around him, and shook his head, unable to speak. The captain stood up straight and clasped his hands behind his back. “There’s a reason nobody hikes this mountain. This mountain is home to the Soviet government’s weapons testing facility.” The captain turned and walked slowly towards the tall yeti-like creature. When he stopped a few feet in front of the beast, it growled menacingly and the captain smiled at it, clearly delighted by the red streaks decorating its white fur. “It looks like some of your companions have met a few of our weapons already,” said the captain. He slowly started making his way around the circle looking at each creature chained up and glancing down at the now unconscious bodies of Dyatlov, Zinaida, and Alexander.

“How many were a part of your group?” the captain asked Yudin, absentmindedly fixing one of his gloves while he spoke.

“T-ten sir,” Yudin choked out.

“Very well,” said the captain, “What’s your name boy?”

“Yuri Yudin,” Yudin answered unwillingly.

“My weapons have had enough practice for the evening, Yudin, so I’ve decided I’m going to let you live. There are just a few things we need to chat about first.” He turned and looked at the soldier closest to him and said, “Leave these three.” He looked down at the unconscious bodies of Dyatlov, Zinaida, and Alexander. “The cold will finish them off.” At this, the captain turned and started walking north towards the tip of the mountain the other soldiers following behind him obediently. The soldier holding Yudin pushed him forward and they started walking north too. Yudin could hear the chains holding back the creatures behind him rattling as they were forced forward as well. Yudin just stared at the captain’s back, wide-eyed and dumbstruck. He couldn’t believe everything that had just happened. They walked for a few more minutes before Yudin could see a red light blinking over a large metal door up ahead. The captain placed his hand on the scanner to the right of the door, and with a loud groan, the metal door swung open and the captain stepped aside, ushering Yudin inside. Yudin stared into the pitch-black hallway that dipped downward and seemed to go on for miles. With stinging tears finally brimming over, Yudin took a deep breath and walked forward into the black abyss of Mount Ortorten.

THE END