1. The alarm clock went off suddenly in the room ringing louder than Lyle's ears were in the dark of the day. It was four a.m. He wasn't even sure if the sun had ever gone down and was amazed at how cold it really was in the room even with the steam pipes screaming their way through the quilted bed covers.
His hand hit the clock hard as if to destroy the damn thing. Ancient and ringing causing his head to spin even further from all of the vodka he had drank last night just to try and keep warm.
All this way for a stupid bullshit story that probably wasn't even true.
He slowly climbed out of bed taking care of his normal duties as best he could while standing on the frozen floor and put on every bit of warm clothing he had.
Winding up in Russia was a really bad idea in the first place but the curiosity killed him, he thought, as he tucked his camera away in an insulated bag and shut the Velcro flap.
At fifty below zero nothing worked out there and you had maybe an hour to live if you got caught in a jam. No time for a frozen zipper. Crazy.
"Stupid ass Lyle." He scolded himself finally putting on two layers of socks and a heavy pair of winter boots.
A slight knock came from the door and he turned his head to see a young girl about fifteen standing and watching him get dressed as the door slowly swung further open.
He squinted at her as if he were wanting to avoid the entire situation and then cracked a half smile.
"Yes?" He Chimed
"Excuse me Mr. Parker but the man you have arranged to meet will be here lately."
The girls accent was so thick it made his hair stand up.
"You mean shortly?" His grin slightly widened.
The girls face grew red as if she had done something horribly wrong. She quickly looked down to the ground.
"Yes...yes sir soon." She mumbled something in Russian at herself and then looked back up.
"There iz food downstairs if you want some Oates and a half an apple my father saved for you before he left for his work."
"Thank you Catia." Lyle smiled largely now and brushed her away with his hand watching her hurry down the stairs.
He grabbed the rest of his things rattling his way down the stairs into the kitchen setting a hundred dollar bill on the table and grabbed the sliced apple off it with his hand.
He turned and jumped trying to settle his pack on his shoulders as he heard and extremely loud rumbling noise coming toward the small home.
His knees buckled as his back hunched down and he covered his ears.
"What the hell! Is that a tank? What's that noise Catia?"
"No Sir. Not tank. Iz Snow Cat."
"Jesus all mighty!" Lyle said standing straight again looking through the ice covered window seeing only driving snow and a blur of bright red paint.
A large man got out slamming to the ground with both feet and a hooded fur lined jacket walking proudly to the door.
Not even a knock.
The man quickly threw the door open and closed faster than he had opened it pushing his large frame into the tiny kitchen.
Reaching out a large mitt he pushed a long chrome cylinder at the girls face.
"Cati...Coffee...Please. Now." The large man stared.
Another thick accent.
The girl grabbed the thermos from him and went to the stove filling it to the top with something looking terribly black and old.
Then the man turned toward Lyle pulling a giant hand from a frozen mitt grasping his almost crushing three of his fingers.
"Hello Lyle...We spoke earlier this week. I am Ivan. I hope you are ready."
There was a silence and you could hear the loud diesel outside growling its way through an idle as Ivan stared at him waiting for a reply.
"Su....Sorry. I, I'm Lyle. Yes."
Ivan's face instantly brightened as he smiled and bellowed out.
"Ha Ha! Yes you are!" Slapping Lyle on the back of his pack hitting his camera bag.
"You are good man! Yes! Good man!"
The thermos was shoved back into Ivan's giant hand and Catia turned to Lyle with a worried look.
"Please Mr. Parker, take this. For you. Iz Important."
The girl shoved something sharp and cold on a chain into Lyle's hand leaning slowly into his ear breathing and whispered.
"Iz for protection.Make sure you wear. Promise me."
Lyle's face grew blank and pale as he opened his hand and looked at a shiny silver cross on a tightly woven chain.
It looked old. Almost ancient.
"You bring back to me no?" She smiled.
"Yes Catia. Yes I will. I promise."
Ivan's eyes grew narrow... his face slightly changing color.
"Time to go my friend." Ivan said with a lowered growl.
Lyle quickly threw the cross over his head and felt the chain dance around his neck as the door flew open to the outside and both men walked quietly toward the snow cat.
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2. The thing just sat and growled and seemed to get louder for every foot they traveled toward it.
It was old and rusty but seemed to be well taken care of. Some spots had been repainted in an almost matching deep red. The glass was solid with not a crack anywhere. The massive treads were already icing up as the bone chilling winds blew snow and ice against its massive square structure.
"Iz loud no?"
The back of Lyle's neck started to hurt.
He put his hand on the side of the Cat and ran it across some hull numbers and part of the mismatched red paint.
"Iz good color...Russian Red."
Ivan leaned back bellowing in laughter slapping Lyle once again on the camera.
"We go Lyle. Get in."
The men climbed into the giant beast. Ivan moved the drive levers as the Cat lurched forward and growled.
Inside it was at least somewhat warm and quiet but still the floor had a slight buzz through the rusty diamond plating.
When it got settled and moving for a while Lyle looked at the giant man almost afraid to ask any questions.
What the hell was he doing there anyways he thought. 'Here ya go Lyle getting into a mess again chasing some stupid story for some bullshit reason and its all really gonna be bullshit.'
His head down now feeling a little queasy from the rough ride and the snow crossing the windshield without anything to look at further than fifteen feet.
He spoke to the diamond plate between his boots.
"Is it really out there? I mean...How far is it?"
"It is there Mr. Parker. You pay me Ten Thousand dollars to see this thing I will not disappoint you."
"How long has it been there?" Lyle picked his head up looking over to the giant Russian who was juggling his thermos with a fresh bottle of vodka.
Ivan stayed quiet until he was finished trying not to make a mess and managed to get most of the bottle into his thermos.
"Long time...It has been with my family at least two hundred years. Maybe more. I've been five times to see it. It is a long ways. Hid good. I think people know where it is but no one goes near. Only me and once my niece Catia and her father twice maybe. So they know in case something happens." Lyle's face got a little pale. "Happens? Wait I thought you said this was frozen. You didn't say something would happen."
Ivan let out a small almost uneasy chuckle.
"Nothing happens yet friend."
An odd silence fell over them as the snow drift started to clear and Lyle could see they were on a wide ice covered plain with mountains on either side and giant pines surrounding them with nothing else in sight.
The silence finally broke again. "This is old military road. There are thousands like this out here. Easy to get lost." Another comforting chuckle.
Lyle again started to picture himself to never return to his writing job in L.A. Forever being trapped out in the icy tundra frozen dead against a something somewhere.
"My niece likes you maybe." Ivan said in a low tone.
Lyle's eyes widened as he stared straight through the windshield now without moving.
"Uh."
"What Mr. Parker you think I am being funny guy?"
Ivan turned his head to look straight into the side of Lyle's face.
"You look maybe like twenty five?" Ivan asked with a bit of curiosity.
"Six." Lyle squeaked.
"Hmph. Act like girl. Ha! She is seventeen I think. Maybe you take her back to your country no?"
The Cat rattled and groaned its way down the snowy path.
Lyle stayed frozen thinking how cute she was but now also was worried about getting forced into a shotgun mail order bride wedding. Instead he played it cool letting some of his city life attitude take over just a bit.
"You uh...You always make everyone feel this comfortable... Ivan?"
Ivan still looked at the side of his head for a long time and then slowly turned back toward the windshield sucking on his over fueled thermos.
Another hour had passed and the Russian leaned forward.
"There." Pointing through a fingerless glove tapping the glass.
Ahead of them both was a small blackened wooden shed barely standing.
The thing looked a million years old and appeared to have a bit of a lean to it.
"What the Hell? How old is that?" Lyle's eyes again widening.
"It's like snow. Always frozen here. Always trapped in time you know?" Ivan opened the door again leaving the Cat running. Lyle climbed out with him.
By this time Ivan was just carrying the vodka bottle with him as the coffee had all gone and he walked sort of ahead signing something in Russian pissing as he started to stumble.
It was so cold Lyle could barely think but Ivan acted like it was a walk in the park.
The sun was almost starting to set now or at least disappear for a few hours as it horizontally dipped to the edge of the distant pines.
Ivan grabbed the door to the shed kicking the snow away from it.
"Come on!" He yelled waving his arm towards the shed. "We only have little time to go in here."
Lyle marched quickly to the shed getting goose bumps on the way. He barely volunteered for the job but wanted to get in good with his boss so he could maybe get some better leads given to him from time to time.
No one wanted this one but he knew he could face the music and that was just what he was forcing himself to do.
Ivan looked at him grinning and handed him the mostly empty bottle of vodka.
Lyle grabbed for it and took three hard swigs coughing and leaning over as if to throw up but kept it down.
"Iz good. No?"
Ivan pulled the door open and looked into the pitch black as Lyle managed to regain his composure and stumbled through the small door.
Ivan scowled as Lyle walked past still somewhat green.
"Ha! Iz like girl."
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3. The door slammed behind them and Lyle jumped not being able to see anything in the odd darkness and breathed in.
Nothing. No smells... No noise...blackness.
He looked down toward his feet. Nothing. Just black. Why was it so dark in such an old run down shack? He asked himself.
"Wait..."Ivan spoke. "I will get lantern."
Lyle heard movement as a match broke the silence and then the dark as he saw Ivan pull the glass flute off the top of an old lantern.
The place lit up slowly and all Lyle could do was feel his knees buckle and his eyes tear up as he stood in amazement at the backside of a naked frozen woman cuffed by her ankles hanging listlessly upside down.
It was then that he realized the icy floor he was standing on was completely covered in blood.
"You're fucking kidding me right?" Lyle's eyes beamed in fear and amazement as he took a step towards the body fumbling for his camera dropping the empty vodka bottle on the ground.
The woman's long dark hair hung past her arms and slowly brushed across the frozen bloody earth.
He adjusted his lens and took a picture.
She was built more perfect than any woman he had ever seen in his life and he almost shuddered at the fact that he was attracted to a corpse.
Another step closer.
Click... The camera lens started to frost.
Quickly he put it inside his jacket.
He reached out his shaking hand and ran it down the beautiful hourglass side of her mid section hypnotically. Not even aware of what he was doing.
"You see comrade? You are attracted to her yes? Even frozen she still draws a man in. You are touching her and you don't even know it."
Ivan stood to the other side of the shed and leaned against an old crate.
"Come look over on this side of her Mr. Parker and maybe you wont want to touch her so bad anymore."
Ivan started digging through an old straw filled box finding yet another clear filled bottle.
He dug the cork out with his teeth and spit it to the ground as it bounced off into a dark recess.
Lyle started to walk around the poor frozen woman still running his fingers around the middle of her back as she slowly started to swing just a little.
The chain creaked back and forth and bits of dust fell into the air making him cough.
That was when he saw....and that was when he fell.
His head cracked hard on the red ground as his eyes slightly crossed and refocused at a face that was perfectly preserved and shaped to perfection.
Some time ago the blood had been entirely cleaned off her body. Her neck at some time had been cut to bleed and then sewn back up.
He layed there for a moment longer gazing at her long nails as her hands dangled toward the earth.
As he stood he looked straight into her completely dead white eyes and started to feel sick.
"Ivan....I think I need my own bottle."
He heard Ivan again in the box digging as another cork was spit onto the ground just past Lyle's feet.
Lyle reached his had back towards the giant still fixating himself on the face of the dead vixen.
The cold glass felt good in his hand as he quickly pulled his head back drinking four more longs pulls.
He was feeling better than he had in a long time and straightened up stepping back taking the whole woman into his mind.
He looked at her perfectly shaped breasts and her....
"What the Hell is that?" He squinted again reaching for his camera.
Click.
"That's a wooden stake isn't it?" He looked at Ivan and long armed a shaking finger towards her chest.
Ivan smiled pulling out an ivory pipe still leaning against the crate.
"This is bullshit man! How do I know she's what you say she is? This is probably just some hacked up dead chick you wanna treat like a circus freak to pull in a little extra coin from time to time isn't it?"
Ivan shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head as he lit a match and heated the inside of his pipe giving his face an evil glow in the half lit room.
Lyle suddenly got quieter.
Ivan leaned forward and looked Lyle dead in the eyes.
"You don't believe?" Ivan got even closer blowing smoke into Lyle's face.
"Then pull out the fucking stake..."
Ivan flicked the dead match at the woman's pale frozen flesh.
Lyle started to pant and act erratic sliding and stumbling backwards bumping the corpse again causing it to swing even harder.
"Oh no no no man. No Way. I'm not fallin for that shit."
The Russians face turned past the color of drunken red.
"Bah! I took it out before!" He yelled. "You just have to put it back. Quickly! That is your proof. I have done it twice already. Once I showed myself and then once for Cati's father...Now you pull."
Ivan stuck his huge arm out and stopped the body from swinging.
Lyle threw the almost full vodka bottle to the floor and grabbed the thick wooden steak twisting it and pulling it towards him.
It slid out like it was in hot melted butter.
The woman's eyes almost instantly turned to a deep black and she breathed hard with a death rattling wheeze.
Lyle's face turned to fear and disgust as he could feel his mind almost start to bend as he quickly shoved the stake back into her lifting chest.
"Iz like shutting off a machine no? Huh Yankee?"
Ivan bellowed horrifically and stuffed more tobacco into his pipe relighting it.
"Fucking stupid girl." He spit between his lips grinding the stem of the pipe between his teeth relighting it.
Reaching his hand up he held the burning match level with his face again flicking it at the flat of her stomach.
"No!" Lyle screamed as the match bounced off the woman igniting the vodka and blood soaked floor.
"Burn you fucking bitch!" Ivan screamed in drunken fury ripping the stake again from her chest and started to beat her with it as she started to awaken and breath screaming on fire as the flames quickly crawled up the sides of the shack.
"Ivan your burning!" Lyle screamed in terror as Ivan's legs and arms started to ignite and the entire room became engulfed.
Screaming Screaming
Lyle shoved the door open to see the Cat still grumbling outside as he coughed and choked crawling his way out the door onto the frozen ground.
He crawled backward pulling out his camera for one last shot of the smoke filled shed knowing out of the few photos he had taken nothing would ever be believed.
He turned again getting up running toward the ever patient and grumbling Snow Cat.
More screaming as the shed fell in on itself.
Lyle quickly jumped inside trembling as he grabbed the CB radio and started screaming into it.
"Help! Anyone help! There is a fire out here! You can see the smoke! People are dead and everything is burning!"
Nothing but static an a few faint voices in Russian.
"You gotta help please...there..." Lyle looked in horror as the smoke started to swirl and part.
She came out of the fire burning and sucking on the charred neck of the Giant Russians body dragging him with her like a rag doll.
She stopped and screamed through the glass of the big red Cat throwing the charred corpse to the ground as she walked.
"Fuck."
Lyle scrambled locking the doors to the Cat screaming in terror.
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4. Again she screamed at him running as fast as she could with charred flesh dripping off of herself jumping into the air and bashing her burned face against the glass.
The thing kept burning. Turning from a woman into a monstrous hungry beast.
At first it appeared startled and fell back into the snow landing on the flat of its back.
Lyle sat low on the floor covering his face with his jacket clutching the cross with his hand till he bled.
The cross!
How stupid!
Quickly he stood up ripping off the necklace shoving the holy symbol between the glass and the flat of his palm.
She's gonna see it. That things gonna see it and leave me alone....It has to.
Lyle looked down in the snow as the vampire stood up leaning back with its clawed hands turning into fists.
Once again it jumped to the glass digging its clawed feet into the grille of the enormous truck.
The thing pulled its fist back staring straight at the object in Lyle's palm screaming as its teeth blackened and grew even longer than they already were.
Furiously it started punching the glass over and over but not even coming close to puting a chip in it.
"Ha! You bitch!" Lyle screamed....you cant get me! "You're weak now....As long as I have this!
The truck echoed as she punched faster and faster.
Then he noticed.
The glass was over two inches thick.
The whole Cat was reinforced.
It was entirely bullet proof.
"Shit! I'm in a damn coffin."
The shed groaned and fell over into the snow as the beast pounded away.
He scrambled away from the windshield realising the cross wasn't there to protect him from the vampire. It was there to protect his soul.
He dug into his bag shaking, trembling and grabbing his camera.
The windshield started to crack as he raised it to the vampires horrible body holding the button as long as he could streaming frame after frame looking away toward the back of the Cat.
There towards the back near the rear door sat an orange box with writing in Russian that he couldnt read but below he knew...EMERGENCY.
He jumped to the back grabbing at the chest digging through bandages and more bottles of vodka.
Further down was a radio, some munitions and...a flare gun.
He didnt even have time to think or even check as he heard the glass shatter behind him.
He spun around quickly with both hands pulling the trigger as the thing was almost on top of him howling with delight.
"Please God." He cried as he pulled the trigger jamming the barrel right into the soft buttery wound in the monsters chest.
The entire inside of the Cat lit up like the sun shooting flames out of the beasts mouth as Lyle turned and swung the rear doors open into the just dawning sky.
The entire insides of the Cat were now burning as he ran away coughing and choking falling to the ground he rolled over to look as it exploded on the inside blowing flames out at every angle.
Again he heard it...Screaming and blasting its way through the flames in midair as he noticed the thing flying towards him now with giant reptilian like wings as if it were gaining strength the longer it was alive.
"No!" he screamed covering one arm over his eyes waving the cross towards the air.
A huge explosion sounded behind him causing his ears to ring as he looked just in time to watch the enormous pile of winged flesh explode in front of him.
Then it became quiet.
Lyle rested on his back and looked up to where the explosion came from and there...about forty feet away...sat a giant Russian tank.
He quickly rolled over and stood coughing putting his hands on his knees.
Looking up at yet another noisily idling monster.
The top hatch creaked open as a young girl with a leather helmeted head crawled halfway out.
"This is tank." The girl beamed pointing towards the turret."Didn't I say to you Mr. Parker that my father fix tanks?"
Lyle started walking toward the cute girl he thought he would never see again.
"Damnit Catia, I am gonna marry you." As he laughed and kept walking.
"Shhhh." She winked and smiled pressing a gloved finger to her lips. "My father is driving." He might hear you."
The sky was turning a brilliant red orange as he climbed his way up the tank hugging the girl holding her tight in his arms.
She looked at him and smiled excitedly.
"Come on Mr. Parker. Climb in. It will be light soon."
Catia slid down inside the tank as Lyle swung his legs around and slowly dropped down inside.
The hatch creaked closed and latched back down.
Lyle waited for his eyes to adjust....but nothing.
It was dark....
Why was it so dark...
