The Pass (Wattys 2019)

Chapter Six

There was something seriously wrong with Lev Ivanov.

Of course, Nika had known from that first talk in UPI's mountaineering clubhouse that the man was a little quirky and eccentric. She couldn't have cared less about that: she'd found that people who didn't have something just a tad off about them were more boring than her mathematics professor. Ivanov's damage, however, went beyond that.

That became obvious to her from the moment he arrived at the location the first body. Most people reached something like how Nika, Peter,and Rufina had reacted: panicked, with a touch of horror and fear. Nika figured that the famed investigator Lev Ivanov, the man who'd headed the Dyatlov investigation, would be a little calmer about it. Stoic, grim, but calm.

And how did he actually react?

"I heard you guys found a Russian on ice," Lev said with an obnoxious smirk, as if he'd just told the greatest joke ever.

Peter began to shake his head in disbelief. "Not funny, Ivanov. Not funny, at all."

"C'mon, Peter: having a little humor at a time like this is going to make it a hell of a lot easier to digest." He squatted near the body and let out a low whistle. "Sure looks like hell, don't he?"

Rufina grunted. She hadn't said much since they'd found the scientist's body. It made Nika feel a little sorry for her, but frankly, that suited her just fine.

Lev looked back at her. "Well, you certainly aren't your cheery self, today. What's wrong?"

Rufina didn't answer for a moment. "Remember when they buried them, Lev? The way... they looked."

Lev nodded. It wasn't until then that Nika finally saw the grim, focused look on his face that she'd expected from him, at first. "I remember: don't know I can ever forget it." He looked up at them. "The coroner'll have to decide for himself, but I think it's pretty safe to say that bash to the head's the thing that did him in."

"What could've caused that?" Nika asked.

"That, my friends, is for the people getting paid a hell of a lot more than me to decide," Lev said. She could see the other search parties beginning to come over the ridge. "There's still four more people missing out there, and judging by the looks of this body, we don't have another second to lose. Head out, and I'll make sure that nobody goes in the same direction as you."

It didn't take long to find the other bodies: luckily for the search parties, they were all fairly close to one another, though some were buried more than others. By the time the sun was starting to set, they had all five missing people. All of them were dead, all of them had the same, odd coloring to their skin. All of them had various injuries, ranging from cuts and bruises to their noses being bashed in so far, their face lay flat. The entire time, Nika found herself thinking back to the Dyatlov investigators. Was this how they'd felt? How Lev had felt five years ago as the snow yielded another body? As they continued, Rufina grew more and more bitter and cold, and Lev's cheery demeanor gave way more and more to a grim calm.

Peter, however, seemed to be the one effected the most. Poor Peter hadn't seemed capable of bringing himself to say anything when they'd found the first body, but with each additional scientist found, he grew more and more quiet. By the time they found the last body - that of a Kazakh named Pavel Grigorovich - he was practically mute.

"Are you doing alright?" Nika asked him once they'd found the last body. They'd lined each of them up at base camp, where a helicopter would come to take the bodies to Sverdlovsk's coroner in the morning.

Peter shook his head, but he didn't say anything. That was enough for Nika: he was anything but alright.

"Alright, team," Lev said, rubbing his hands together now that everybody was assembled. "Great work, today. Really: I didn't think we'd find all of them in one go. The helicopters won't be able to pick us all up until morning, so we'll be staying out here, tonight."

That made people uneasy: they began to shift between their feet, looking around, as if waiting for somebody else to speak up. Rufina looked like she might be sick. Peter couldn't look anybody in the eye: he just stared at his feet, as if they would reveal Lev's reasoning if he looked at them long enough.

"Now, don't you guys worry about it," Lev said. "We're not staying on the mountain: I know that a lot of you think this place is cursed."

"We don't think it's cursed," someone nearby muttered under his breath, but Lev either didn't hear it or didn't care, because he continued talking as if he didn't.

"There's a Mansi village nearby that has been good enough to allow us to stay the night," Lev announced. "We'll shack up with them, then come back here in the morning to get picked up and taken back to Sverdlovsk. Any questions?"

People were still looking around at each other, still uneasy about the whole idea. Then, one of them raised there hand.

"You don't have to raise your hand, kid: we're not in school," Lev said.

"Sir, what if the Mansi are responsible for this?" He asked. "I mean... couldn't they kill us for looking into this or something?"

"I heard that they were responsible for Dyatlov, too," someone else added.

Lev sighed. "They weren't responsible: they were exonerated pretty early in the investigation. They're a peace-loving people, and I'm pretty sure if they didn't want us there, they wouldn't invite us in the first place." He pulled his pack onto his back. "Saddle up, boys and girls: we've gotta move out pretty soon here if we don't want to get caught in the dark."

***

Just as Lev had promised, the Mansi village was very close to where they'd found the scientists. Small izbas dotted the landscape, and a few corrals held reindeer. They reached the city just as the sun was nearly set, turning the snow and the sky various shades of purple, orange, and blue. There was only one person out there, at that point, and Nika could only assume that it was their welcoming committee.

"Welcome, searchers," the Mansi said grandly as he walked towards them. "I'm happy to see you here, Lev. That being said: I wish you wouldn't have had to come back."

"Same here," he said. Lev turned to the rest of them. "Gang, this is my friend, Avksentiy. He's been good enough to get all of you beds in the houses around the village."

Avksentiy nodded with a broad smile on his face. "Yes. Everybody here is very happy to have you. There'll be dinner for everyone, as well. And I promise: all of these houses have great cooks in them!"

Avksentiy and Lev chuckled to themselves, as if it were some sort of inside joke. Nika looked around at everybody else to see if anyone else thought it was funny.

"We'll just split up by search group," Lev said. "Rufina's group and I are going to be with Avksentiy and his family." He looked to his friend. "Avksentiy, if you don't mind, I'll take them to the house while you're leading everybody else around to their quarters."

"Of course, of course," Avksentiy said. "Boleslava has stew on and ready for all of you."

Nika had to admit: that was tempting. She didn't like the idea of sleeping in the home with a whole other family that she didn't know and could've been responsible for the deaths of five people, possibly the Dyatlov nine, but the stew changed things a little. She was hungry. Really, really hungry. Frankly, she probably would've willingly go with a man she knew full well would kill her in a horrible way if he told her he had food.

"What're we waiting for?" Nika asked. "Let's get going."

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Hello, everybody, and happy Saturday! I hope the day treated you well.

I don't really have any housekeeping items, so we're going to get right to the dedication. This one's going out to my newest follower, ChavonPowell! She's also a writer, so be sure to check out her stuff if it strikes your fancy. Thanks for the support, mate :D

As always, be sure to vote and comment, and we'll see you next week with another exciting chapter of "The Pass" :D