The Two Corpses and The Menk

Lyudmila ran as fast as she could through the thick snow quickly gathering on the ground. Nik, Semyon, and Rustem were having a much easier time getting through the drifts with their long legs. Rustem kept slowing down to make sure Lyudmila wasn’t falling behind. He was afraid of their small group getting separated after already getting separated from the other six hikers when everyone fled the tent. While struggling through the snow, Lyudmila tripped and fell. Rustem stopped to help her, yelling at Semyon and Nik to wait for them. The two men doubled back to help, waiting for Lyudmila to recover. She was breathing heavily and shaking uncontrollably.

“Guys, we have to keep going. Let’s loop around and head back to camp to grab our packs. I bet everyone else will try to do the same. We could probably hike back down to the Mansi Village before morning,” said Nik. He was trying to be as calm as possible but he knew his shaking voice gave away just how terrified he was.

Rustem and Semyon nodded their agreement still too out of breath to speak, and Lyudmila nodded as well. “Just give me one second,” she gasped between ragged breaths.

Lyudmila stood up, adjusting the layers of clothing she was wearing, and remembered she still had on Yuri K's big winter coat. Rustem was dusting snow off Lyudmila when a loud piercing scream filled the air. The group jumped at the noise and looked around for the source. “Was that… was that Yuri?” Lyudmila whimpered, looking down at her borrowed jacket. Everyone in the group looked at each other terrified. None of them wanted to say what they were all thinking, that the scream did sound like Yuri.

Rustem spoke firmly. “We need to go now.” Grabbing Lyudmila’s hand, Rustem pulled her forward and the other two men followed.

The falling snow was so thick now that Rustem could barely see his hand stretched out in front of him and hoped he was walking towards the tree line so that they could be more shielded from the weather. He shouted to his friends to look for the trees. Thinking he could see faint dark outlines of trees up ahead, Nik started to run towards them.

“Hey, look, I think that’s the tree line!” Nik shouted over the wind.

“Nik, wait, we need to stay together!” Rustem yelled at his friend but Nik had already disappeared ahead of them.

Rustem started to run after Nik with Lyudmila and Semyon running close behind him. Following Nik’s deep footprints, they saw an opening through the tree line and ran towards it. Just before they reached the tree line they heard Nik screaming, "No, stop, help me!" Rustem, Semyon, and Lyudmila sprinted towards Nik's cries for help. The wind wasn’t as strong in the cover of the trees so Rustem could see Nik a few yards ahead.

“Stop, STOP!” shrieked Lyudmila, but Rustem and Semyon didn’t need to ask her why. They could see the huge creature holding Nik up by his head. The creature had long white matted hair all over its body like an animal covered in fur. It had dark black eyes and long clawed fingers. The beast stood tall and upright like a man, but this thing was much bigger than any man they had ever seen. The large towering figure had to be well over seven feet tall which was why Nik was dangling helplessly above the ground. The snow below Nik was puddled with bright crimson liquid and Rustem could see the dripping lacerations all over Nik's body and face. Rustem wanted to help his friend but he could see that Nik wasn’t struggling in the creature’s grasp. Knowing what this meant for his friend, Rustem slowly took one step back, spreading his arms wide to push Semyon and Lyudmila back behind him while he slowly tried to retreat. The beast roared at them, crushing Nik’s head in one swift movement and throwing him into the snow behind him. The creature started coming at them so Rustem, Lyudmila, and Semyon turned to run. When they turned they saw the figures of two people standing in the break in the tree line. Rustem felt relieved, it must be his other friends that fled the camp when they did. After realizing this, his relief was replaced with worry for his fellow hikers.

“Run! Go! It’s coming!” Rustem yelled at them as loud as he could, but they didn't move a muscle. As the group got closer to them, Rustem, Lyudmila, and Semyon could see that something was very wrong. Both figures looked dead, like corpses. They each had rotting, peeling flesh, and they could see bone showing through the tears in their clothing. Where their eyes should have been were now just empty black sockets.

Rustem stopped abruptly, causing Lyudmila and Semyon to stop too. They were trapped, and Rustem didn’t know which path to take. He could hear the heavy steps of the yeti-like creature behind them closing in. Lyudmila and Semyon screamed behind him, and Rustem turned to see his two companions in each of the beast’s hands. Rustem watched in horror as the yeti closed his hands around Lyudmila and Semyon’s bodies, crushing their chests with a loud sickening crunch. Each of their screams slowly cut off as their lives ended. The giant beast threw Lyudmila and Semyon’s bodies over Rustem and they landed with a thump in the snow at the feet of the two standing corpses. The corpses pounced on the bodies, tearing at Lyudmila and Semyon's exposed flesh.

Shaking uncontrollably, Rustem turned away, tears stinging his eyes, unable to watch his friends getting torn apart and eaten. Facing the large creature behind him, Rustem couldn't get his legs to move and knew he was going to die. The beast reared its arm back and with one final blow, hit Rustem in the head knocking him into the ground and ending his life.