The Siberian Incident 2 Read online

  Maddock saw that the black box Colin held was a Crossfield Communication Device. The ancient tech had always had reliability problems, and despite the numerous updates, it was still unreliable.

  “Goddamn it!” Colin said as he threw the device as far as he could while still clinging to the beast.

  The yetis began to trot down the path toward the main trail that led to the cavern.

  “Why didn’t it work?” Colin whispered to himself as he bounced along on the back of the yeti.

  As the yetis merged onto the main path, the entrance to the cave came into view. Strovenyevich’s guards had just noticed the group moving onto the main trail. Maddock saw them take aim at the group.

  Suddenly, a low rumble could be felt. Then a violent blast sent tons of rock and ash spewing forcefully from the mouth of the cave. Strovenyevich’s soldiers were sent flying by the black debris ejected from the cave. When they landed, several hundred feet from where they had initially stood, they did not move.

  “Why did that take so long?” Colin questioned.

  “Better than my Crossfield Communication Device,” Maddock replied, “It sent my Merry Christmas message to Mason after New Year’s back in 2002. For a Crossfield Communication Device, that was a blazing delivery.”

  Colin bitterly rolled his eyes. Above, violent explosions rocked the cave, the cave entrance had already imploded, and several areas on the rock formation containing the Magadan’s lair were now collapsing in on themselves. Scott was glad that they were no longer standing on top of it. Nothing that was in the cave would be coming out now.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The Assembly

  "THIS WAY?" SCOTT remarked, seeing the light in a tunnel that went steeply up.

  "Look at the conduit, it continues this way, but that's light, it has to go outside, do we really need to rescue these Snow Yetis?" Colin remarked.

  Scott ducked into the tunnel and emerged only seconds later.

  "It doesn't matter. There's a steep rock wall, probably goes fifty feet up. That would be a challenge even if we had cams, ropes, and the rest of the right gear. Anybody bring that?"

  Scott's comment was met with silence, but Colin made a move toward the corridor as if to check it out himself.

  "Trust me, don't waste your time," Scott remarked as they continued along the path of the conduit and lights.

  Again they crossed a fork in the cavern. By now, they paid it no mind and simply walked past continuing on through the lighted corridor. Fixated on what was in front of them, they felt spines of fear stabbing through their backs as they heard a quick guttural roar behind them. Stepping out of the darkness was a massive yeti. His white, matted fur hung on him like the coat of a Komondor dog, and he stood staring at the trio, who nearly tripped backward in fear as he towered over them. He'd appeared from nowhere and given them no warning save the grunt that had alerted them to his presence.

  Colin and Scott raised their guns as they scrambled backward, attempting to crawl out of the reach of the thing's gigantic paws from which hung knife sized claws which could filet a man in seconds.

  "Wait! Wait! Don't fire, you'll alert all of them!" Maddock urged as he too backed away. His gaze momentarily shot to Colin, who held the one hand grenade remaining in their arsenal. He had scrambled too far away in his panic. Maddock could not reach the weapon.

  Unlike the other two, Maddock had kept his feet and slowly and steadily backed away, his Savage 99 aimed squarely at the beast's mouth.

  As he looked under the Swarovski scope, through the iron sights, he saw the terrifying beast cock its head inquisitively. It hadn't shown its fangs, it hadn't shrieked at them like the other creatures had. It did not growl now, it stood silently contemplating them with an almost friendly expression on its broad face.

  "Uh, Colin, is this a good yeti?"

  "A what?" Colin said, now frozen, too scared to move further down the corridor and far enough from the yeti that he was sure Maddock would be torn apart first so that he could escape if needed.

  "A good yeti, is this one of the good ones?" Maddock repeated, lowering his gun and staring into the eyes of the beast now standing silently before him.

  "Like, a Snow Yeti?" Colin asked.

  "Yeah, one of those," Maddock said as he contemplated approaching the massive monster.

  "I…don't, I suppose it could be, a Magadan would have torn you to pieces by now," Colin said as he attempted to get to his feet.

  "Yeah, its gotta be. Hey, big guy, I'm a pretty cute person, right?" Maddock said as the yeti cocked its head while he approached.

  "You did fuck one of them, didn't you?" Colin said.

  "Shut up, Colin," Scott said as he got to his feet.

  Maddock let the Savage 99 drop to his side and reached his hand out to the colossal monster before him. The beast's razor-sharp claws gently reached out to him. Maddock put his hand against the yeti's enormous palm. It felt like it was made of solid rock, it had the texture of sandpaper, and the power within it was evident. Maddock knew that the beast could have crushed his hand instantly and taken most of his upper arm with it. But it hadn't, now it pointed down the dark corridor and began moving toward it, hesitating as it looked back at the three men.

  "I think it wants us to follow it," Scott said.

  "Into the fucking dark? You want to do that again? No thanks," Colin responded.

  "Yeah, into the dark, let's go," Scott said, flipping down his NVGs.

  "At least let me borrow those this time!" Colin pleaded.

  Colin and Scott's conversation was interrupted by an uncharacteristically high pitched scream from Maddock as the yeti picked him up by his arm. He gently set him on his back and grunted. Maddock grabbed onto two of the yeti's long matted locks of fur like they were reins as he knelt on the monster's back. It then motioned to Scott and Colin.

  "I think it wants both of you up here too," Maddock said, "Hey, it's more dignified than being carried by them like a toddler."

  Colin and Scott looked at each other and shrugged, they hopped on the beast's back and held on like Maddock, riding the yeti-like a chariot as it took off into the dark corridor.

  "I thought you said these things couldn't see in the dark," Maddock whispered as the creature moved through the darkness.

  "That's the Magadan, I don't know anything about Snow Yetis, we only started to study them!" Colin remarked.

  Scott's NVGs showed him that the beast was navigating the tight twists and turns of the corridor as if it had its own set of night vision goggles. These beasts could clearly see in the dark.

  The Snow Yeti began to slow his pace. He seemed to now be sneaking. Scott saw light up ahead. When the yeti finally stopped, it crouched to allow the men to dismount its back. They all walked up to the orange glow of the opening before them. They stood high above a large cavern, below fires burned on what appeared to be an altar. Torches lit the cavern. All of the fires were vented through holes in the ceiling, much like the Snow Yeti's cavern. This made the area in which the corridor had taken them hazy and choked with smoke. Scott was having a difficult time breathing, but he saw why the yeti had brought them here.

  Below them, forty to fifty of the gigantic Magadan yetis stood in formation, holding spears. On the altar was the Snow Yeti Mother Goddess. Two other females were tied to her right and left. Maddock had seen enough yetis now that he recognized them as the princesses from the Snow Yeti cavern.

  Blood covered the altar, and a yeti wearing a stole made of saber-toothed tiger fur stood holding a massive stone knife at the head of the platform. He had a headdress adorned with Siberian yak horns and the large saber teeth of the smilodon. Around his neck, he wore a string of what Maddock assumed were bear and tiger teeth. This yeti was some type of shaman, and the others stood with their spears and revered him. He screamed as he shook his arms, wildly swinging the blade back and forth over the Mother Goddess. Behind him was a giant statue of Colin Crossfield.

  "So, you're their god?" Maddo
ck said to Colin, "Why don't you just go down there and tell your followers to knock this off, that it displeases you."

  "First of all, I don't speak yeti, Maddock. Secondly, we tried to make them worship me, we thought that would be a good safety measure, but they are so dumb they think that statue is their god, they don't correlate it to me. Do you think this Snow Yeti would help us if he thought I was the Magadan god? I don't think so."

  The three men and the Snow Yeti watched helplessly as the Magadan shaman threatened the Mother Goddess and the two princesses, helplessly bound to the altar.

  "This guy can kill them if they are unarmed, right?" Maddock asked, pointing to the Snow Yeti, who softly grunted, urging the humans to act.

  "If you disarm the Magadan, any Snow Yeti is more powerful and will tear them apart in hand-to-hand combat, yes," Colin responded, "But there are so many of them down there, even if we freed those three and somehow got the spears away from all of them down there, the Magadan would still win. I think we just need to figure out a way to get out of here. Fuck these things, save ourselves and get to the extraction point."

  "You forget there is a Russian military unit outside waiting to kill us. Waiting to kill you, specifically Colin. We need to find a different way out of here. The only possibility of that is to get through this room. The only way I see that we can do that is to engage these things."

  "Cryptozoological super-soldiers, this was a great idea, Colin. How the hell did you get mixed up in this," Scott fumed, watching the events unfolding below with disbelief.

  "I just wanted to stay young. When you're in your forties, you'll understand."

  "Couldn't you just get a blood transfusion from a teenager or something?" Scott said angrily.

  "That doesn't work," Colin responded.

  "And this did? Did you get any superpowers, Colin? Cause now's the time to unleash them. Fly down there and take these things out," Scott urged.

  "Listen, you two," Maddock said in a fatherly tone, "This isn't helpful, stop wasting time arguing and let's figure out what to do."

  Maddock grabbed another grenade from Colin's chest.

  "Hey, that's my last one!" Colin protested.

  "Shut up, Colin. When you see me throw this, get on the ground, then fire down on the group when this goes off. You guys aren't going to kill any of them with your guns. Just make sure you hit as many of them as you can and make them know you're here." Maddock said as he climbed through the hole in the rock, through which they watched the events below.

  They saw Maddock climb over to a platform that jutted out from the wall just slightly. Barely perceptible, the platform gave him the perfect vantage point and complete cover from the assembly below.

  In the flickering torchlight, they saw him pull the pin on the grenade and watched it sail into the middle of the group of assembled Magadan warriors. They paid it no mind. Maybe they assumed it was just a rock falling from the ceiling. Perhaps their primitive protocol demanded that the actions of the shaman were of such importance that nothing could interrupt their focus on his taunting of the enemy females.

  The shaman raised the knife in what appeared to be the final act before he'd plunge it into her heart or pregnant belly, Maddock could not tell which was his target. But it did not matter when the grenade exploded. The concussion shredded the lower half of at least five Magadan who screamed in pain or now lay silently on the floor.

  The shaman, startled by the explosion, dropped his stone knife and looked out onto the chaos of his assembled warriors. Before he could grasp what had happened, a .300 Savage bullet tore through his mouth. Shearing his brain stem from his spinal cord and dropping him to the floor of the altar, a pool of nearly black blood seeping into the strands of fur jutting from what was left of the back of his head.

  Shrieks and screams came from the confusion on the floor of the cavern. Several more yetis had the massive spears stuck in their chests or now lay on the ground with the spearheads lodged in their brains, the force of the explosion sending the weighty stone weapons through their protective fur.

  Colin and Scott fired on full auto down at the crowd, causing further chaos. When Colin looked up as he reloaded, he saw that Maddock was already on the altar, and the Snow Yeti had climbed down and stood near him as well.

  Several of the violent beasts had retreated through the cave entrance, and Scott heard a commotion down the tunnel as they ran, presumably through the lighted hallway, headed to the safety of the forest. He pulled back the t-handle of his M4, loading another round into the chamber from his 30 round magazine. He then shot at a few of the disoriented Magadans standing around the entrance of the cavern. They retreated from the stinging pain of his .223 bullets, leaving only a dozen Magadans left in the cavern who were not dismembered, dead, or blinded by the shrapnel.

  On the altar, Maddock stepped over the massive body of the shaman, he looked like a smaller yeti, thinner than the rest. Still, up close, he was at least eight feet tall and probably weighed 400-500 pounds.

  Maddock took a folding knife from his belt and began cutting the twisted vines that held the Mother Goddess and her princesses to the stone altar. The thick braided cord was difficult to cut, even with the Buck knife's blade, which Maddock kept razor sharp.

  Seeing what he was doing, some of the Magadans on the floor attempted to rush the altar, but the Snow Yeti, who had now leaped down from the vantage point, held them at bay. Scott and Colin concentrated fire on the creatures who got closest to the altar causing bullets to zing dangerously close to Maddock's head.

  When the Mother Goddess' hands were free, she was able to use her razor-sharp claws to brush away the cords binding her legs like they were annoying cobwebs. She stood to her full height and let out a monstrous roar. Several of the Magadan retreated as the female's primal scream echoed off the walls. She then removed the Magadan shaman's necklace and placed it around her own neck. Then she quickly used her claws to release her princesses, and they joined her in pouncing on the closest Magadans.

  Their spears broken, the Magadan warriors succumbed to the powerful attacks of the Mother Goddess and her princesses. The male Snow Yeti stood back from the battle lest he be injured by the fury of the females of his tribe.

  A line of three Magadan warriors, wielding spears, now came at the Mother Goddess. But one fell as the back of his head exploded. From the altar, Maddock racked another .300 Savage round into the chamber of the Savage 99.

  The two remaining Magadan warriors held the Mother Goddess and the three other Snow Yetis at bay with their spears. The yetis jostled for position. Then a hail of fire came down from above as Colin and Scott unleashed full auto fire on the two spear-wielding beasts. Distracted by the stinging copper-jacketed steel bullets impacting them, the Magadans turned their heads for enough time that the princesses of the Snow Yeti tribes snatched their spears from their hands. They dropped the weapons on the floor and pounced on the two genetically engineered abominations, tearing them to shreds, fur, and flesh, and blood flew as if they had been thrown into a grinder.

  For a moment, the altar room was calm as the Mother Goddess and her children looked around for any foes remaining. All were either dead, dying, or had fled up the exit tunnel.

  Maddock shouted to Colin and Scott, "Meet us down where that tunnel connects to the lighted corridor!"

  He followed the Mother Goddess and her Snow Yeti children out of the cavern and into the lighted tunnel.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Escape from the Magadan Lair

  SCOTT TOOK COLIN’S hand and led him down the dark corridor. He turned on his NVGs to navigate the pitch-black corridor but walked quickly, knowing there were no endless pits and the floor was relatively free of large rocks that could be a tripping hazard. Ahead he could hear Maddock calling them and the grunts of the Snow Yetis that accompanied him. However, he found that his way was blocked by what appeared to be a massive amount of snow in the middle of the corridor blocking their way. Had their been a cave-in?


  “You could at least make out with me if we’re going to hold hands this much,” Colin snarked.

  “Shh!” Scott demanded as he attempted to make sense of what he was seeing in his NVGs.

  The pile of snow was moving, heaving up and down and that was when Scott realized that it was not snow but a yeti that blocked their path. At that very moment the smell of urine and wet fur hit his nostrils confirming that it was indeed a yeti that hunched before them.

  The smell must have reached Colin simultaneously because he did not protest Scott’s admonition to be quiet.

  “Oh fuck,” he said in barely a whisper, his voice quivering again.

  He slinked down into a fetal position and leaned against the wall as he let go of Scott’s hand.

  The beast then turned, realizing something stood behind him. It let out a terrifying scream, Scott felt the hot humidity of its breath and saliva droplets landed on his face.

  He watched as it blindly searched the darkness for whatever shared the corridor with him. It stabbed and slashed forward with its spear. Which came sailing out of the green darkness too close to Scott’s face as he ducked and moved like a prize fighter attempting to avoid being skewered by the gigantic spear head.

  Again the beast roared, frustrated by its inability to see and certain that a threat lurked behind it. Scott raised his M4, with a fresh magazine, he had 30 rounds he could pump into the beast. He’d succeed in maybe irritating it enough that it would run toward him and he could maybe dive out of the way before it crushed him or found him. He glanced back at Colin who appeared to be shaking in the darkness, crouched down holding his knees. He wished he could tell Colin to flatten himself against the wall. Would it be a great loss if he was killed by the Magadan though? Maybe not.

  Scott pressed the button near his trigger that turned on the beam of the IR scope. The Magadan’s flailing made a shot in the face impossible. He’d unload the magazine in the beast’s chest and hope for the best.

  His finger touched the trigger and depressed it. Only three rounds came out of the barrel as the Magadan flew backward. Scott was so shocked by what had happened that he stopped firing and watched as a dervish of white fur exploded before him.