I was shivering uncontrollably, hugging myself for warmth, but that didn't help much. I could barely see anything through the snow. What the hell was with Russia's weather? It's insane! Forget it, I'm wasting time.

'So...cold...don't know where I am...need to find shelter soon...' I thought as I trudged my way through the deep snow.

It nearly went up to my knees, and I felt as if I was marching as a soldier, lifting my knee up to my chest between each step, nearly stumbling every time, hearing the same stupid crunch, crunch of the snow under my boots. All I saw was white, and I was really beginning to hate the color.

My head went numb a long time ago...but I can still hear the wind rushing past. Or is that some kind of animal in the distance?

Yes, it sounded like some kind if dog or wolf. I smiled a bit, or at least I think I did. My mouth was too numb to know. The animal's noise reminded me of the dog I used to have. He was such a cute, quiet dog.

I shook off the thoughts, and suddenly, my spirits rose high as I saw what seemed to be an underground vault ahead of me. Hurrying over, I grabbed onto the handle of the vault and twisted as hard as I could. But there was one problem. It was frozen solid. It didn't surprise me much, but I was still extremely frustrated.

Getting desperate to find any source of warmth or shelter, I furiously looked around the frozen wasteland. Then, I found it. A nice sized rock. Finally. Finally!

Even though I was strongly weakened by the cold, I was somehow able to lift the rock and heave it over to the vault lid. I smashed it down into the frozen metal, causing the layer of ice to shatter. I spun the handle once again. This time, it moved with my hands, and I was soon able to open the lid, revealing a ladder down a long, long hole. I turned around, swinging a leg over.

Once it made contact with the metal of the latter, I swung the second leg over, using my hands to balance myself as I began climbing down in a smooth pattern. Soon enough, it was pitch black. All I heard was the clinging and clanging of my boots and hands making contact and losing contact with the latter metal. Suddenly, I have a gasp as I felt my foot make contact with nothing but air. In the surprise, my muscles and nerves in my body had a mini spasm, forcing me to let go of the latter.

A falling sensation filled my body, as if butterflies were trying to keep me in the air, but were stuck in my stomach. It felt like hours before I finally felt the hard ground meet my face. When I awoke, I heard a voice. I didn't know if I was imagining it, but it sounded as if someone was mumbling words. It was a language I had learned in school.

Russian? I assume that's what it was. The voice was slurred, so it was hard to make out what it was saying. I finally decided to look up, able to at least see. I felt like I had just gotten a beating to the skull.

As I pushed myself off the metal ground (which really didn't help in breaking my fall), I took out my flashlight, scanning the area.

'Holy Martin Luther, my head...I can't believe I fell that far and survived. Although, looking around, maybe I didn't...what is this place?'

I began walking down what seemed to be a tunnel. It almost looked like...a mine? Holy Martin Luther, I found the mine! Ha-ha! But, this was no time to celebrate.

I came to a wooden door. I pushed it open, revealing a room. The floor was made out of wood, and there were shelves lining the walls with an assortment of mining equipment on them. I grabbed what seemed the most useful. Dynamite.

I also found a hammer. After I secured the dynamite and hammer to my belt, I looked around some more. There had to be a way to get deeper into the mine. Then, suddenly, behind one if the shelves, a small rat poked its head out and scurried away from where I had come from. That means there must be a hole or something behind the shelf.

So, I grabbed it, shoving it over. It fell, making a chorus of noise. I flinched, but, really, who would be here to hear it? Once the dust settled, I saw another narrow tunnel that was blocked off by wooden planks. Planks, meet hammer.

I hit it once, twice, three times before the planks finally gave in and crumbled to the ground. The tunnel behind it was unnaturally round and smoothed out. I felt a little nervous about going inside, so I looked around, maybe for a weapon. A hammer wouldn't do much. After a bit of searching, I found a steel rod.

Taking a deep breath, I crouched down and began crawling through the tunnel. I froze as I heard a low, rumbling sound. I waited, bracing myself for a creature to just jump out at me, squinting my eyes shut, digging my nails into the rock, body tense, heart pounding through my chest. Nothing happened. I finally let myself relax, trying to stay out of panic as I continued to crawl.

I slicked back some brown hair out of my eyes. I really need a haircut. I reached an area in the tunnel where I could go two ways; Left, or right. I decided to go left. After another few minutes of crawling, my hands and knees aching terribly, I found another room that looked like the first.

I stood up. Great, now my back was hurting. There was what looked like a lever without the actual lever, and a trap door. I thought about going back, taking the right way instead, but something-that voice again-told me to go through the trap door. I don't know whose voice it was, or how I was able to make out what it said through the extremely heavy Russian accent.

But, for some reason, I followed the voice's order. But how was I supposed to open it? The lever didn't have the lever! Oh, wait. I have a steel rod.

Maybe it'll fit. Holding the steel rod in my hands, I pushed it into the space where the lever would go. It fit, and the trap door shifted a bit. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise, almost sounding like an animal. I knew of no animal that made that noise.

Sounded more like something from a horror movie. My eyes widening in fear as the noise got closer, I cursed the voice in my head, desperately trying to find something, anything, to save myself from the creature that was coming closer. I grabbed the steel rod again, trying to pull it out, but it was stuck. The voice again gave me guidance.

"Push the rod, da?" I wanted to ignore it, tell it to shut the heck up, but at this point, I was desperate.

I pushed the rod as hard as I could, and the rumbling and noise stopped almost instantly. Okay, maybe this voice wasn't so bad after all. I was seriously going to kill Feliks for getting me into this when I found him. If he was already dead? I'm going to pee on his corpse!

Okay, maybe not. That's just plain mean. I turned around to look back at the trap door after I finally calmed myself down. It had opened, showing a winding staircase leading down. Might as well go in.

Whatever I was descending into, it was a hundred feet below ground, protected by two solid, metal hatches, located in a remote, arctic wilderness, and buried beneath the snow. I didn't know what to expect, but it made me feel something I hadn't felt since I was a child.

I'd never given it much thought before, but I realized our entire society is a network of safety nets: emergency services at the end of a phone line; health and safety in the work place; friends; family; lovers. All there, if something goes wrong, part of a carefully designed structure to prevent all but the most mundane of emotions.

Once again, I felt like I did when I was in high-school, surrounded by the smell of vodka and seeing nothing but a pair of violet eyes, knowing anyone that might help me - friends, parents, teachers - were too scared, or too far away.