I could hear the cold wind shrieking across my face, driving me near mad with the shrill noise. I pulled up my facemask, staggering onwards through the chilling air. Each step felt like a fifty-yard sprint, every painstaking breath left my heart colder and colder. I coughed, my bloody phlegm frozen before it hit the ground. I wiped my mouth cautiously, wary of my lips cracking in the cold. I dug my crampons into the icy surface, praying I didn't slip. I doubt I’d have the energy to get up again. I put my hands on my knees, taking a quick break. A loud, horrid croak echoed through the wind. I stood bolt upright, paralyzed with fear as I stared into the bleakness of the blizzard. A vague shape was crossing the mountain in front of me. I didn't dare to move. I was at 23,000 feet. Nothing should be up here. It looked almost like a goat, but something was so wrong, so very wrong. It was about five feet off the path to the left, around ten feet in front of me. Static filled my ear.

“Alcoyv, hey Alcoyv! How you holding up?” Came my teammate’s voice through the com, 20 feet behind me. The being stopped but didn't turn to face me. I slowly lifted my hand and held the transmit button on the radio. He would get that. He wouldn’t know what I was doing, but he would hear that I wasn’t frozen in place. I began to whisper slowly.

“There’s something up ahead, it’s waiting about five feet off the left of the trail. I’m not moving anywhere until it’s gone,” I finished, releasing the transmit button on my radio.

“What are you talking about? There’s…” He started but trailed off as the creature turned its head, two glowing yellow eyes staring directly at him and right past me. “What, the fuuhh…” He whispered, the volume of his voice dropping considerably. 

The creature began to walk towards him, directly past me. Its body seemed to float through the air, cruel, almost starved looking limbs seemingly anchoring it to the ground. I turned my head to follow it in the low visibility, heart stopping when it snapped it's head around to face me. It came slowly towards me, rearing up on hind legs and curving its neck down towards me, staring right into my eyes. Slowly, its face grew closer and closer, until it was mere inches away from my own. I held my breath and closed my eyes, hoping and praying for it to go away. A cold, hard, clawlike hand caressed my face before I heard its front legs crunch down into the now inches thick snow. I began to breathe again, falling to my knees and looking left and right. There was nothing. Then I remembered my partner.

"Doug! Doug! Are you there, Doug? Answer me!" I whispered hurriedly into my com. Static crackled through for a second and I looked back to where Doug should have been. Instead, his tracks went straight on past me, turning right up ahead. I followed them for a bit before they went directly off a cliff. A tear made it out of each eye before freezing them shut. I hurriedly wiped the ice away and took off my bag to grab some oxygen. Reluctantly, I grabbed an oxygen canister from my bag. I needed to clear my head and oxygen should help. 

Without any warning as I took a few breaths of precious oxygen, something slammed into my back, spinning me around as I went flying over the cliff. Two yellow eyes stared at me for a few seconds before they rose up out of visibility. I was falling. Doug had already come off this cliff, and now I was following him.