The Dark Somnium - I interviewed the sole survivor of the Lake Vostok expedition

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

An interview with the survivor of the Lake Vostok Expiedition--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/darksomnium/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 2012, between late January and the first half of February, there were 16 days of radio silence from a Russian expedition on Antarctica. The group of researchers had been meaning to reach and study Lake Volstock, a subterranean body of water that laid almost 4,000 meters below the surface and hadn't been in contact with the outside air for over 20,000 years. The initial crew consisted of eight people, but only one of them returned. He was found by a Norwegian station, thirty kilometers away from the supposed entrance to the lake, almost frozen to death and terrified.

Hours earlier, he had broken the radio silence, muttering simply, help. When he was sent back, I was tasked with interviewing him for the institution. To protect their privacy, his name and the names of his colleagues were changed. My office was cozy and welcoming when he entered, escorted by guards. He seemed grateful to sit by the fire and remain silent and still until we were left alone. Welcome, Mr. Ivanova. Please take your time. Would you like a hot beverage?

He nodded. I handed him a steaming cup. Nice to meet you. I'm Victor. I went ahead. He was trembling and his eyes showed fear and suspicion, but his shoulders loosened a little. My name is Chris.

Well, it's nice to meet you. How old are you, Chris? I'm 36. I'm 37. When's your birthday? After a few minutes of idle talk to have him warm up to me, he started telling me his story. The eight of us had been together at the station for three months before we were sent to uncover this lake, so we were pretty familiar with each other, at least with our own team.

We were two groups of four, taking shifts. The first group consisted of our leader, Dr. Oblonski, and three old men, one of them a professional wilderness photographer. I believe the four of them were in their mid-50s. They were polite, but we rarely saw each other or talked. The second group consisted of myself, Alexander Goncharov, Dr. Ivan Yohantov, and Miroslav. I felt blessed to be with them. Alexander was the younger of us, 29 years old, I believe, the most agreeable person

you'll ever know. Dr. Ivan was funny, and around five years older than me, Amirislav was nice and beautiful. I think it was inevitable that we got together because of the confinement, but I really liked her. Were you in love? I think in love would be an overstatement, but I think we were great together. We made plans to see each other after we came back home, since we lived two hours from each other. Did you have any problems with anyone in your group? Everyone got along okay, I believe, or at least I was cool with all the others.

Dr. Oblonsky was a fine leader, and sometimes one of the guys from his team would have a heated discussion with him, but it was all professional. Everyone just wanted to do what was best for our research. How did your coworkers feel about you and Miroslav dating? Dr. Ivan was our vice leader. He knew about us, and he didn't mind. And Alexander knew, too, since he was always there. Dr. Oblonsky was never informed of our relationship, or the others.

We didn't think it to be necessary. The week before the expedition started, Dr. Oblonski held a meeting with everyone. It was decided that his group was going one day ahead from the rest of us, because they were the most experienced ones. You know what that means. They wanted the discovery all for themselves, and we were only their backup in case they needed to be rescued. Still, Dr. Ivan graciously agreed.

The four of us weren't as important as the others, so we weren't about to make a scene about it. Considering our age, I'm sure we'll get other chances." Dr. Ivan said, poor him. We all woke up early on the first day of the expedition. We saw the others off, and they said some things on the radio every now and then. The entrance to the lake was a big cave, and from then we would have to hike the four kilometers. We can't find the entrance."

Dr. Oblonsky complained on the radio. Half an hour later, he complained about feeling watched, and then informed us that he found the entrance on the very same spot he had been standing, like it magically opened. We thought the snow was starting to confuse him. He was experienced, of course, but this was a first-time thing for everyone. After they entered the cave, we understandably lost radio contact. It wasn't a concern at first. We left the next day at the assigned time.

We too had a hard time finding the entrance. It took us so long that we almost gave up and went back to the station. How did you finally find it? It was pretty much the same as Dr. Oblansky described. It wasn't there. Then we felt observed, and suddenly it was there. Like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Inside the cave was so dark and moist.

I thought I was going to collapse. It smelled strongly like rotten fish, and our flashlights revealed a deep red interior full of bright white icicles. The ceiling was a perfect arc, no less than thirty meters tall, and the ground had a strange, grainy and wet texture. It was strangely warmer than you'd imagine. I mean, it was still considerably cold. We measured it, and it was like two degrees Celsius, but way less cold than the hour

Outside. Warm caves weren't unheard of, but it wasn't what we expected. What are the walls made of? Alexander had asked, with curiosity. When he touched it, it throbbed lightly. The first sign of our companions was a thick rope tied strongly to one of the many ice stalagmites. It indicated that the path went down, and we followed closely.

After walking for around an hour, slightly descending, the floor changed. from the grainy texture to something similar to the ceiling and walls. It seemed to be sculpted to look like millions of red bones. As soon as we stepped on the new ground, there was a noise that made everything tremble, like the roar of a beast or the loudest of yaws. Our feet started sinking in a light violet, sticky substance that was flowing from the nether parts of the cave. It was flowing in reverse, upstream.

I jumped back to the grainy part, still safe from the strange liquid, and Alexander followed. Miroslav and Dr. Ivan had decided to go ahead, but the light violet quickly turned into a thick, dark purple ooze that soon surrounded their feet. At first it only covered their heels, but quickly engulfed the rest of their bodies, and soon they sank and were completely taken by the horrible liquid. From where we stood, Alexander and I watched in horror as our two companions. were dissolved alive. At least it looked painless, though.

It was so quick they probably barely realized their bodies were disappearing. I was paralyzed, mesmerized. We need to go back! Alexander urged me, and we started running towards the entrance of the cave. He was leading the way, always looking above his shoulder to see if I was following. He didn't even see when the stalactites and stalagmites closed in around him like an iron maiden. My colleague and friend was gone in a second, impaled by sharp teeth, his blood staining the pearly white icicles. There was no doubt to me now.

I was inside something alive. And even worse, I was caught between the teeth of the beast and its gastric juices all alone. The icicles remained closed around Alexander's body, blocking my exit and leaving me trapped. The only thing I had left was the tightly tied rope, straight. straightened over the pool of deadly acid. Most likely this purple river wasn't there when the first group crossed. Taking a deep breath and leaving most of my equipment behind, I walked over the cable, knowing the falling meant certain death.

After a while, the ground, or the beast's throat, became lower and lower, far enough from the court that I could just hold it above my head. After reaching the end of the cable, I walked for God knows how long. My knowledge of anatomy allowed me to find my way around the acid and be able to circumvent the large pools of it. I started noticing some green lumps that floated above the gastric juice, unscathed. Some were small, some were bigger than me, clearly some undigested matter. Is it too far fetch to tell you that I jumped in one of them and used it as a boat of sorts?

Well, everything else I've been through is unbelievable. That's how I made it through the digestive system. When I felt hungry, I tried eating pieces of my boat, having nothing else around. And it didn't kill me, so I continued eating small chunks of the thing to survive. I didn't have the faintest idea of what it was, but it kept me alive. I slept and pissed there in my little boat, and soon the smell of my own waste overwhelmed the smell of the dead fishes. I slept three times before I found the rest of my crew, which means they survived longer

than my original group did. According to my clumsy and imprecise calculations, considering how big the mouth of the monster was, I was near the end of the beast's stomach, heading for the small intestine when I found Dr. Oblonski and the others. He and a second fellow researcher were preserved inside some sort of amber. with terrified expressions on their faces. They had been alive for a long time inside that thing before dying. Hell, they could have still been alive when I passed them.

I just had no way of saving anyone. The others were pressed against the side of the beast's stomach, like when you crush a particularly fat mosquito on the wall. The light violet liquid dripped from the ceiling, slowly digesting them. The nature of their deaths made me realize that I'd been dealing. dealing with something new. Whatever secreted that amber thing on Dr. Blonski was probably a huge structure that crushed the other two. Shortly after this occurred to me, huge, strange tentacle-like membranes fell from the little crevices on the ceiling. They seemed to detect

living things from the smell, so I did the worst thing I had to do until now. I lied on my belly on the boat and covered myself in feces. That's how I avoided being preserved I was reserved in an eternal scream somewhere where no one could reach or save me. As the boat headed to the intestines, the sea of acid became a beautiful, ethereal blue. The liquid was calm and crystalline, and I believed it was the infamous Lake Vostok. Even the noise, a constant strange whirring, and the horrible smell subsided, giving place to a strange, all-consuming peace. I saw multiple creatures petrified inside the evening.

amber on the side of the lake. Things that looked like algae and jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, sponges and shrimps and sturgeons, sharks and seals, all ancient and eerie. After that, a row of rabbits and frogs, strange penguins, giant butterflies, a primitive man, a primitive bear, three mammoths and a humanoid taller than four meters in fetal position. Still on the lake, I try to traveled through strange chambers where the clear liquid underneath was filled with strange fossils. Some had twenty eyes, some had three legs and eight heads, some were made mostly of tongues, some were brains with long limbs, some were just indescribable. They blinked and twitched or moved their heads in my direction to face me like they were

alive but dormant. The mouth, esophagus, and stomach of the creature had been so dark. But the duodenum was filled with a mystical polar blue radiance. The ceiling was full of beautiful crystals of salt that reflected the light like a heavenly kaleidoscope. It was like I was in the very uterus of creation, the starting point of the planet, the birth of things that have been and will be. I was at the same time taken aback by its horrifying beauty, terrified and intrigued. I wished I had something to take pictures with, but I had left it all back with my gear.

The only things I kept were my clothes, flashlights, and small radio in case I ever got out. Our cameras were too heavy. After seeing all sorts of inexpressible creatures, my boat entered what I believed to be the giant's jugo. That was dark and awful again. Instead of a vast lake, I was now sailing on just a narrow stream. this point, I feel like I blacked out for a long time. Thinking back, it's almost like the monster wanted me to exit its body.

Maybe it thought, now that it's gotten this far, I'll let it go. Maybe it wanted the world to know about it. This part is all hazy, but I know that it was horribly disgusting to travel through its ilium. Being shot by the monster was an indescribable trauma. I'll just say that I lost my boat and thought I was going to die of suffocation, but instead I saw the light outside. I was covered by a jet black mud, but it melted in contact with the snow.

I asked for help on the radio and passed out in the middle of a snowstorm. Then when I woke up again, I laughed at the idea of hypothermia killing me after everything I went through. So I just stumbled through the snow until I saw a building in the distance. The rest you know, the Norwegians found me and saved my life." My report, I made sure to emphasize that Chris Ivanova sounded lucid and intelligent. If his story was fake, he certainly wasn't making it up for attention, but truly believed that it happened.

Physically, he looked pitiful, but it was understandable after being lost for 16 days. My superiors, however, thought it was utter nonsense, just the delusions of a traumatized survivor. Unfortunately, I never saw Chris again, but I had heard that he died a year after our interview. After that, I moved on with my life. As a psychiatrist for a governmental agency, I interviewed other people that were lost and told strange stories. Some almost as strange as his, and I almost forgot him, until recently. Lately, I've been feeling rather ill. My My skin has been turning slightly purple, and it's like these strange lumps pop up right under my skin every now and again.

They're painless, but solid, and no doctor was able to give me a conclusive diagnosis. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but they look like small eyes. It reminded me of his story. On a whim, I decided to look up the people who had been in contact with Chris back then, the Norwegians, the guards, even my former boss. As of today, all of the people who had been in contact with him are either sick or dying. Terrified from my health, I decided to sneak in and check his file. I intended to review what we talked about, looking for clues for whatever disease I have.

His file was last updated a year after our conversation with a picture of his corpse. As per the time of his death, Chris had 20 eyes and his limbs had turned into tongues. I don't know.