J Moncrieff - Return to Dyatlov Pass

Nat held her breath, but Steven came forward to shake Andrew’s hand. “Done. I was genuinely worried for you, even though I’m sure it didn’t come across that way. We’re going to have to ensure you get the nutrients you need. Otherwise, with the frigid temperatures and the altitude, this will be extremely dangerous for you.”

“That’s okay. I’m not really a vegetarian. I just said that so you’d lay off Joe and Anubha.”

“Wow, I really have been an asshole.”

Igor clapped the mountaineer on the shoulder, and Nat noticed Steven didn’t so much as shift his stance. It was probably a good thing the argument hadn’t come down to a physical confrontation. She was no longer sure the Russian would have won. “Yah, you have been, but that is all over now. Now, we feast on plastic spaghetti, yes?”

The group laughed, and Nat watched the tension leave their gathering as if an actual cloud had disappeared. She resolved to sit beside Steven at lunch and get a handle on what was stressing him out. As much as he gave her the creeps, it was her job to take care of these things.

However, Lana beat her to it. “What’s bothering you, Steven? Anything we can do to help?”

He shook his head. “You’ll laugh at me if I tell you.”

“No, we won’t.” Lana’s insistence was accompanied by assenting murmurs from the rest of the team. “What’s going on?”

“How much do you all know about the Dyatlov group? I mean, really know about them?” Steven paced beside the fire, looking at each of them in turn.

Joe shrugged. “I know the basics. Nine Russian skiers went missing around here, and a search team found their bodies a week or two later. So far, no one knows for sure how they died, though some think it was an avalanche.”

“The avalanche theory doesn’t make any sense. It wasn’t the right time of year or the right place. Plus, there were no signs of an avalanche, none of the damage you’d expect to see done to their tent or campsite,” Lana said.

Steven nodded. “She’s right. Anyone know some of the other theories?”

“Being Russian, this is a big deal to us. I think I have heard them all.” Igor ticked them off on his fingers. “Weapons testing, government conspiracy, UFOs, animals, the wind going around the mountain made them crazy, the Mansi…” He tipped his head at Vasily, who was listening with no expression on his face. “Sorry.”

“You did pretty well. But you’re missing one. Do you remember what it is?”

“Wasn’t it Bigfoot or something?” Anubha said, and Igor snickered.

“Oh yah, Bigfeet . I forgot about him.”

“You’re close. Not Bigfoot, but the yeti. Otherwise known as the abominable snowman.” Out of everyone, Steven was the only one not smiling, but Nat had grown accustomed to that.

“So ridiculous.” Anubha rolled her eyes. “Aliens? Bigfoot? I’m sorry, yetis . Who believes that stuff?”

“I do,” Steven said. In the resulting silence, you could have heard a snowflake fall.

“You’re joking, right?” Joe asked, but Nat could tell he wasn’t. The mountaineer’s face was so grave it could have been cast in stone.

“I told you you’d laugh.”

“We’re not laughing, Steven. It’s a surprise, that’s all. You seem so…” Lana trailed off.

“What, sane? Level-headed?”

“Serious, is what I was going to say.”

“I am serious. My beliefs do not preclude that.”

“So, what do you believe in? UFOs, yetis, or all of the above?” Andrew asked.

“I can’t speak to UFOs, although I do think it’s incredibly self-centered of us to think we’re the only planet with intelligent life—using ‘intelligent’ very loosely in regard to our species. But that’s par for the course, isn’t it? Human beings are extremely self-centered. We have no concern for anything but ourselves.”

Aaaand, just like that, Steven was back to being the happy soul they’d grown to know and love. “That’s a cheery thought.”

He pinned her to the spot with that alarmingly intense gaze of his. “No, Nat, it’s downright depressing. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

“So, it’s yetis. That you believe in?” Igor said.

“Yes, but hear me out. I have my reasons. A few years ago, I was hiking in the Six Rivers National Forest, near the Oregon border. As usual, I was on my own, which didn’t bother me. I actually prefer it that way.”

It was difficult not to roll her eyes. Big surprise there.

“Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t alone. Something was tracking me. At first, I thought it was a wild animal, but it was too intelligent. Whatever was following me was capable of critical thinking. And it had opposable thumbs.”

“Whaa?” Lana said. “How could you tell?”

“At night I kept my supplies up in the trees, in a net, and when I woke up, my pack had been rummaged through and every scrap of food that wasn’t canned was gone. Here’s the strange part—whatever went through my stuff had untied the net and unfastened my pack without damaging it or making enough noise to wake me up. What kind of wild animal is capable of that?”

“So it was a person,” Andrew said, echoing Nat’s own thoughts.

“That was my suspicion too, so the next night I set up a camera. And trust me, what I found on it the next morning was not human.”

Nat shivered in spite of herself. Asshole or not, the man could tell a story.

“Are you saying you have the Bigfeet on video?” Igor asked, eyebrows disappearing under his fleece cap.

“Yes, I do. I suspected it was a hoax, some wiseass wearing a costume so he could steal from campers, so I brought it to these video production guys I know. Then I showed it to a few zoologists. They all confirmed it. This was no hoax.”

“But if you have genuine footage of Bigfoot, it would be priceless,” Nat said. “You’d be famous.”

“That kind of fame I do not want.”

“So what did you do with it?” Anubha asked. “Just put it in a drawer somewhere?”

“No, it’s far too precious for that. Let’s just say I’ve got it somewhere safe, somewhere no one will ever find it.”

“But why? That kind of evidence, if it exists, could change everything.” Andrew raised an eyebrow at her. Nat guessed his thoughts. If they could convince Steven to let them publicize it, what a podcast that would be. The resulting glory could lead to a lot more than a raise.

“Oh, it exists. But the way it would change things is exactly what I don’t want.”

“What do you mean?” Lana asked, but Nat was pretty sure she knew where the mountaineer was going with this. It was in his comments about the destructive nature of their species.

“Think about it. Once I released my evidence, people would descend on that forest, searching for him. In the process, they’d destroy one of the most beautiful wild spaces we have left. And if they found the creature? They’d destroy him too, all in the name of science.”

“What kind of track did it leave?” Joe tipped his head at his wife, who handed him the bowls so he could fill them with steaming spaghetti. It looked and smelled every bit as good as what you’d order from an Italian restaurant. Nat’s mouth watered.

“That’s the thing. Aside from its immense stature, that’s how I knew, without a doubt, that this wasn’t some dumb animal. The creature wore a type of homemade shoe that looked like bits of plant and bark strapped to its feet. It made a kind of drag mark on the ground that could have been anything. It certainly wasn’t as distinctive as a footprint.”

The group fell silent, pondering the notion of a Sasquatch wearing shoes. It was an incredible story, but Nat didn’t think the mountaineer was lying. Either he’d seen what he said, or he believed he’d seen it.