Annapurna 1
Ryan turned up the radio, looking towards his friends. "-Amp below Khumbu Icefall... Severe Weather Warning—A category four blizzard is expected around 7 p.m. Evacuation of Everest, Nuptse, South Col, and Lhotse is mandatory. Climbers and Skiers on Everest are encouraged to retreat to C1 Camp or Everest Base Camp below Khumbu Icefall."
Rubbing his gloved hands together, he looked further up the mountain, then towards his friends and teammates. They all nodded to one another. Choosing to ignore the warning, they continued their way up Everest.
Ski equipment on their back for escape or to simply ride down after they completed their task, the team of four set their pace—two hours until the storm came and an hour and a half before it went dark. The blizzard would make its debut around that time and hit with its full fury around the designated time.
Even with the storm, their determination to complete their mission wouldn't cease. They wouldn't stop their search until they found him—the cryptid of Mount Everest.
Voices In The Snow- Annapurna 1
"Team B, Chavez reporting, one found. Condition:
Pushing the button to the walkie-talkie, the white noise it made blended with the blizzard's song. "How bad is this Code Three? And how many bags is the climber transporting?" she questioned, releasing the button. Anne looked around at the other members of her team. As a senior patrol member, only thirty-two, despite the title, she was responsible for informing her companions.
Again, the radio crackled back to life, the voice of Chavez returning. "Many micro-lacerations, hypothermia, and fast-setting frost burns on face, neck, arms, hands, and feet. The IIP evidence will give you an idea of what we are working with. Additionally, we see one, two, three, four. Four bags. Splitting his gear between two snow boxes shouldn't be a problem. We will meet you back at the station."
The radio cut out again, so Anne turned to her patrol squad. Lifting down the mask from her face, she was forced to shout over the screaming winds. "Team B has a climber; count one, and we will search for another thirty before turning in when the blizzard rolls in. We won't find anyone else in that kind of weather!" The members of her team, only four in total, nodded. Of course, it didn't seem that way with all the layers they wore, their nods resembling blobs of fabric jiggling like gelatin.
Punching in the ignition to their snow boxes, Anne took the lead as their vehicles made tread-marks through the packed and flurrying snow. The dark clouds above darkened as night began to fall. They didn't have long until their already limited vision became even more muddled under the darkness.
The squad rode in a reverse 'V,' with Anne at the lead. Wade led the left wing, and Kaizen led the right. Sam capped off the left wing with Mobie on the end of the right.
Their ride went on for ten minutes, reaching a cliff. No one could survive a fall from this height; if they did, no one would find them. They would plunge under dozens of feet of snow, condemned to die of frostbite, suffocation, or hunger.
Anne had found many corpses while working for the Himalayan Ski Rescue Patrol. A good number of them were families and friend groups of people they hadn't been able to find in time, the members resorting to the horrors of cannibalism. They would usually start with the kids, stripping them of the terror of freezing or starving to death—both an atrocious and merciful action.
Anne waved her arm, signaling for them to turn around. They began making their way back, taking a different, longer route as they drove back towards the patrol station. She kept her attention ahead, looking for anything unusual in the snow—objects with odd coloration, bumps that didn't match the geography, and figures in the distance.
The violent flurry made it harder to see, rendering the search less efficient. Spreading roughly twenty meters between them, they searched the strip of snow and ice they covered on their return.
"Found something," Mobie called out over the radio. Anne came to a stop, and the other three followed suit. "What did you find?" she asked over the forty-meter distance between them.
"Three bodies. They are in pretty, um… bad condition…" His voice paused.
"Oi, ha bad's it look'n oe'r'ere, Mo-boy?" called another voice over the radio, hoarser than Mobie's and with a heavy Scottish accent. It was a miracle that any of them could understand him half the time.
"Bad, their corpses are pretty fresh; we just missed them. Also, it's almost like they were torn apart. Like, take a shredder and shove them through it, but only their skin and the first few layers of muscle."
Anne swore she could sense Kaizen's excitement at Mobie's grotesque description.
She tapped the walkie-talkie, replying to Mobie, "I'll be there in a second. Kaizen, go check the situation while I get turned around."
"On't, boss-lass."
Moving her hand to the knob on her radio, she shifted it to the right once, switching her mic to speak with the other patrol captains. With a click of the walkie-talkie and a brief instance of white noise, Anne spoke.
"Team D reporting, three found. Condition,
Turning her vehicle around, Anne went to check on the bodies when her radio sounded. "Bloody'ell, tis almost bad as Mo-Boy claimed."
Anne winced; she didn't like it when Kaizen agreed with anything, especially the state of mutilated corpses.
He was the kind of individual to call a frozen corpse a 'chilly fella,' an always laid-back personality. She punched the accelerator. The snow under her shot backward, her snow-box hauling ass.
Forty meters were crossed in seconds, and the snow-box came to a quick stop. Anne hopped off, her feet sinking almost half a meter deep into the snow. She looked at her two patrol-mates, letting out a sigh.
Mobie was looking on horrified as Kaizen was once again tampering with the evidence. He was touching the corpses, moving them around, playing with their limbs. She was confident he had likely used them as puppets within the first seconds of arriving to mess with the poor young patrolman.
He made getting IIP evidence a nightmare, but fuck was he an amazing paramedic.
For a forty-two-year-old man, Kaizen was relatively immature. He was hilarious and knew how to do his job damn well, but he was trouble. "Oi, boss-lass. Look 'ere, these basta'ds look'ite they'ere attacked by a pack o' pranha's."
"Oi, boss-lass. Ya good O'er there?" called Kaizen, dropping the arm of the victim as Mobie rushed to her side without a word. Mobie began to lightly pat her back, an action that seemed more trying to comfort than assist her. Despite being a senior and a fantastic patrol officer, she had the weakest stomach in the entire division.
Waving them off and subtly pushing Mobie away, she stood, wiping her mouth and now dripping nose with her coat jacket. "I'm fine… Didn't expect them to be in that bad of a condition." Swishing the saliva and bits of vomit in her mouth, she spat out a glob of green and brown coloration and deformed chunks of food.
Pulling her mask and scarf back up, snatching her miraculously untouched helmet off the compacted snow, and buckling it back on her head, she turned back towards the three bodies.
Two males, one female. All of them were covered in thousands of tiny lacerations. Each was five to ten millimeters deep and twenty to twenty-five millimeters long. Clothes were patchy, and only a few bits and pieces remained on their bodies, frozen to their skin. The first thought would be a weapon capable of shredding, but the cuts were too uniform, straight, and horizontal rather than vertical. Additionally, each small cut had residue of ice and snow, so whatever cut them was made from their surroundings.
Their clothes were torn to shreds, ripped apart by similar micro-slicing objects. Weapons? Bits and pieces of clothing were spread along the white terrain, some soaked in blood, though they were few. Their bodies hadn't actually lost much blood to soak their clothes, which led to the most significant and most disturbing realization.
They died of flash freezing, all the open wounds turning their skin into giant, fleshy, mesh hides that allowed the chilling, icy winds and freezing, snowy terrain free access to their bodies. The pain must have been insufferable, and it sure as hell looked the part with the way their faces froze. Absolute terror and agony scrunched up as tears rolled down their face only to freeze, frost-burn scarring their skin like fire.
Anne looked away as soon as she could, and thankfully, her eyes landed on Wade and Sam, who were not far behind on their snow boxes.
"You didn't give us any orders!" Sam called out, waving her hand high.
Anne's gaze moved to her, optimistic at all times. With her presence alone, she could turn almost any gruesome crime scene into an enjoyable time. Sam would have been kicked off the team if kept for only comic relief. Luckily, she was good at her job, just like the rest of the team.
"Captain, how bad are they?" Wade asked petulantly.
Anne shook her head. "
"It's like see'n feckin' Nessie crowlin' out tha Loch Ness," interjected Kaizen, stepping forward. "Ya won' believe't till ya see't".
Anne nodded towards Kaizen, stepping to the side as Wade stepped past her, looking at the bodies. It was barely audible, but Anne heard him curse under his breath, something he didn't often do.
"Sam, stay over there. It's best if you don't look. It's not as bad as other scenes, but it isn't better than them either." Now, climbing down into the small trench made by their moving bodies, the woman nodded, staying beside Kaizen. "Mobie, can I have your help bagging the bodies after IIP?"
"Why do I have to do it? Can't Kaizen do it?" he whined, already making his way over nonetheless.
"Because we both know he will manage to break an arm off before we can get a single body done," retorted Wade perversely, grabbing a camera and snapping the scene from a few different angles, physically pushing Kaizen out of the way on multiple occasions. Not that this was anything new to Wade, Kaizen was a pain in the ass at all times of day.
When Wade finished taking images, he measured the victims and finally removed a body bag from the pack riding his back. Following suit, Mobie grabbed his body bags from his pack.
Taking in a deep breath, Anne turned around, grabbing for hers. "I'll help; I'll get the female."
The process took around ten minutes. Each body was now neatly, or as neatly as possible, inside the body bags, even with flurrying snow and impossible weather conditions attempting to hinder them.
The body bags were dragged up, latched onto the rear of the snow boxes, and ridden on long, slim, red trauma toboggans connected by two meters of rope.
With the small snow trenches cleared of life, everyone was back on their snowboxes and punching the ignitions. "Team D, reporting. We have three Full Code; the cause is spotty, but it seems like the cold did them in. On our way back to the patrol station, a more detailed report will be given when we arrive with the IIP."
Striking the ignition, Anne led their trip back towards the patrol station. The red sleds on the back of their snow boxes bounced around, a body harnessed to each with three ratchet straps to keep each fastened at the torso, waist, and legs. If they were to lose a loosely secured body bag in the snow at their speed right before nightfall with a blizzard on the way, the bodies would be nearly impossible to find.
Shrieking winds accompanied the team on their ride, never ceasing as they mimicked the cries of the damned. "Lottuh noise tu'nit ain'ere?" Kaizen asked over the radio, his figure barely visible across the snowy landscape.
"You can say that again; it's like turning on the telly and only receiving static, but it's white instead of grey."
Anne shook her head at Mobie's antics, waiting for Kaizen to comment again. Unsurprisingly, Kaizen did just that.
"Oi, Mo-boy. Try change'n da channel, dat'll work. Won'it." The Scotty joked, the radio cracking slightly as he spoke. The last few words were slightly distorted yet still discernable despite his accent, which was still nearly unintelligible.
"Alright, can we be serious for a minute here? We are dragging three bodies across the Himmilayan's. Now is not the time for jokes," spoke Wade, tired and stern. Any deaths usually left him quite irritable, more so than any other in the group.
Stress got to Wade quickly, and it always showed. He wouldn't blow up on anyone; he was too serious and professional to allow himself to do that. This knowledge came from the experience of working with him, and Anne wished that Mobie and Kaizen didn't have a betting pool with some of the other teams when he finally lost it.
"Aw, let them lighten the mood a little. We all need it," Sam countered, trying to be upbeat. I would much rather them joke around than think about the three bodies tied to the back of the snowmobiles."
"Snow Boxes!" everyone, aside from Wade, corrected. "Sorry, sorry. The three snow boxes hanging off the bodies…" Sam replied before laughing was heard over the radio.
"Wait, no. That's not; you all know what I was trying to say." She whined over the radio, only eliciting more laughter from the two goofballs of the crew, Anne chuckling and Wade letting out a sigh.
The mood lightened, even if only a little, and the group, with the exception of Wade, began to participate in their typical banter. It wasn't about much or anything in particular. Something, anything to keep their minds off the three dead bodies, was more than appreciated.
Every few minutes, Wade would say something, usually to correct someone. Occasionally, this would lead to short-lived arguments between him and the Scotty. Sam would break up these quick quarrels, trying to remain uplifting and keep some level of civility between them.
Anne greatly appreciated Sam's ability to break up fights between the two. She used to be the one to break them up, so leaving that chore to someone else was some weight off her shoulders. Even now, she is breaking up one of their stupid squabbles.
"An' I'm say'n dat we don' need ta do allat. All we gotta do's put da peppam'nt in da pot wit' all da cocoa an' wat'ah. Peppam'nt cocoa on'ce it's done." Kaizen stated as his radio still buffered slightly.
"And I said melt the peppermint in a small pot, then put it in after the hot cocoa finished steeping. That's how it is meant to be made." Wade argued, the irritation apparent in his voice as he argued about something as preposterous as peppermint hot cocoa.
"I believe both ideas would work. Wade, yours sounds like the taste might be a bit stronger, while Kaizen's sounds like the mix between the cocoa would be more subtle and blend better," Sam countered. Wade huffed, remaining quiet, done with the topic he no longer wished to carry on.
"I could go for some hot cocoa right about now," commented Mobie. "The peppermint idea sounds good too. I think I'll mix the two ideas for good measure… Ooh, don't we have some brownie mix? I can make some peppermint brownies, too. That would taste good."
"Sounds good, Mobie. I will help out; I bought the brownie mix to begin with," Anne said, thinking about how good brownies sounded now. As she continued to drive along the snow, something caught her eye.
A bright orange glow bloomed, spreading upwards into the sky. The color burned through the snow, visible like a beacon even as it began to die down.
The sight left Anne breathless. The world around her went out of focus as she stared at the spectacle.
"-ey! Hey! Anne! Snap out of it!" Anne shook out of her daze, clicking her radio. "Thanks, Wade. Sorry about that." Twisting the accelerator, her snow box shot forward. She scowled as she continued to gaze upon the color that bled through white.
"Everyone, step on it. There is an emergency at the station, and I'm sure you all saw it, too. I can expect one of the other captains to contact me within the next minute or two; I will relay everything regarding the situation."
Affirmations came from all four members.
As Anne predicted, as they were speeding through the snow on their way to the burning ski rescue station, a call over the radio came in within two minutes.
"This is team C Captain Oscar Maddock, reporting Ten-Fifty-Four. We have an emergency at the ski station.
Oscar didn't have a scratchy voice, so it was apparent he had been injured. It made Anne worry a bit, especially if he wasn't the only one harmed in the explosion.
"This is team D Captain Anne, reporting. Team D is on its way. What's the current status of all personnel at the station?" She replied, cursing under her breath.
"Five Full Code, seven Code Three, five
With a sharp inhale, Anne clenched her fist. Far too many people had died, and too many were injured. Additionally, she didn't think Oscar was being honest with her. The sound of his voice made him sound like a Code Three.
"Shit, OK, what's the condition of the patients and the director?"
"Director Mandal is
"Do you know what caused the disaster? And why do you sound much worse off than you say you are?"
"Ahh... I will be fine. I inhaled a bit of smoke when trying to get the director and some of the patients out." The next cough was far harsher, seeming to leave him hacking on something.
"For what caused the disaster, I'm not sure what happened. The entire side of the station was just gone. It was frozen over, and I'm pretty sure the wave of ice covered the heating unit and caused something similar to a steam explosion.
All I knew was that extreme cold filled the entire station, followed almost immediately by intense heat. I don't understand what could cause such a catastrophe. There was no avalanche, no rock slide, nothing."
Anne tried not to think about it too much; she had to get her team to the station to help. "Has team B returned yet?"
"No, but we contacted them first. Team A has a loss and the most injuries. Mike is LOC; his team is pretty distraught, too, about their loss."
Relaying all this information to her team won't be taken too well. There was barely any explanation for the actual cause, and five were dead.
"Alright, Oscar. I will relay the information to my team. We are on our way; we'll arrive within the next fifteen minutes, give or take."
Switching from the frequency for Captains, transponders, and the director to her team's, Anne couldn't help but speak. "We have casualties. Director Mandal is LOC and Code Two. The cause of the explosion is likely a thermal shock. Something broke through the side of the station, flash-freezing it and setting off the heat generator. That's all I know as of now."
Oscar knew little about explosions, and this was evident in his thought of it as a steam explosion. He wasn't far off, though, just a different name and a few more steps into how the heat being chilled at a breakneck speed would cause it to explode.
"Oi, boss lass. Wha kinna feck'd up shet's go'n'on up 'ere?" Kaizen questioned, genuine worry in his voice as he spoke.
The next to speak was Mobie, half terrified to death. "What? How? That, but- The station is supposed to be nearly impossible to take down. It's fortified to put up against the elements of the Himalayas."
The sky got darker as they rode, slowly approaching the still-burning station. They could see the vibrant ashes now as they fell around them, still bright with color, raining down red and orange.
"Kaizen, Mobie- I don't know," Anne replied, gripping her accelerator even tighter. "I really don't."