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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Hobosam21-C on 2024-07-02 04:40:02+00:00.
I hadn’t thought about that trip in years, 16 years to be exact.
Maybe it would have disappeared into the folds of time if I hadn’t read that damn post.
Karetnikov Pass is real. I know that now for sure. What follows is the story of me and my best friends trip there in the spring of 2008.
I want everyone to remember we were kids, we might have legally been adults but we were just a pair of dumb kids looking for a fun way to kick off summer break.
We had graduated a couple weeks earlier and knew this would be our last summer before real life kicked in. Before college loans made summer jobs a necessity. Before we ended up with responsibilities.
If you were an adult back than, or even an observant kid you probably remember the economy was in the hole. So we didn’t have much money between the two of us and our parents were pretty strapped for cash as well.
The only thing that was affordable at the time was gas, not that it stayed that way but at the time of our planning we could fill up Jimmy’s Jeep for $20 and drive for hours.
So we settled on a road trip, we had a destination in mind but would pick the route as we went. It was going to be glorious, a full three weeks of independence.
We printed out some MapQuest routes to landmarks we wanted to see and hit the road. I’ll spare you the boring details of our trip. It went like you would imagine it would, lots of stolen alcohol, reckless driving and failed attempts to woo local girls.
The day things changed forever started like all the rest. Jimmy groaned in pain as our bodies punished us for the abuse we put them through the night before. We had slept on the side of some back road. At least I had, Jimmy fell asleep before he even got out of the driver’s seat. It’s a miracle he managed to set the parking brake.
I shielded my eyes from the glaring sun, “bro where are we?” Jimmy retched over the side of his Jeep. Thankfully the top was off.
Unfortunately I didn’t remember ever taking the top off or when it had come off.
Jimmy grimaced, he looked longingly at the empty water bottle in the cup holder. “I don’t know man, but I’m dryer than the Sahara”.
“That’s what she said”. Jimmy chuckled. I climbed into the Jeep and Jimmy turned the key. Nothing happened, not even a click.
I pointed at the headlight switch, “you left the lights on dumbass!” Jimmy dropped his head to the steering wheel. “Ok, who’s turn is it?” I tried to remember but couldn’t, since neither of us knew we did rock, paper, scissors. Which I lost.
Grumbling about the unfairness of it I got back out of the Jeep. Jimmy popped the parking brake and I started pushing. Once we had it running we tore off kicking up an absurd amount of dust.
A couple miles along Jimmy slowed, there was a sign at a cross road. It read “KARETNIKOV PASS 3 MILES” and had an arrow. Jimmy glanced at me and I nodded excited at the prospect of finding another place to party.
Soon we crested the last hill before reaching the town, below us was a small gathering of houses and assorted buildings. Beyond the town glistening in the mid day heat sat a lake surrounded by rocky hills and scattered trees.
Disappointment rose up in me as we drove through town. It looked old, not like it had been sitting for 100 years kind of old but like people had spent a lot of time maintaining the original buildings kind of old. And unfortunately it was totally empty.
The shrubs growing out of the cracks in the road along with the weathered wood of the buildings made it clear no one had lived here for awhile.
There was a welcome sign of sorts, time hadn’t been gentle with it and most of it was gone. What remained was a population number of 5, clearly it had said more in the past but the five was all that was left.
Jimmy wanted to jump in the lake so we drove recklessly through the empty streets whooping as we narrowly missed signs and mail boxes.
We got the lakes edge, it was so pristine and blue it made me want to leap right in. But I knew we were pretty high in elevation and it likely looked so clear because it was fed by melting snow.
I cautiously dipped my fingers in, I recoiled at the feeling. It almost felt like the water was vibrating. Or tingling, as if charged with electricity. “Hey Jimmy maybe we shouldn’t…”
Jimmy’s naked ass flew past me as he canon balled right into the water. He screamed in surprise, and not like an ice water on the balls scream but a scream of distress.
In a panic I ran into the water after him, he was flailing about wildly. The water was only waist deep so I grabbed him and pulled him back to the beach. He shuddered and crawled a little farther from the water, “thanks dude, somethings wrong with that water”.
I was annoyed that his actions had led to me getting my shoes and pants all wet but I was also relieved that he was ok.
“Yeah let’s leave the water be. I saw a gas station when we pulled into town. Maybe it’ll have some bottled water we can grab”.
Jimmy agreed, we knew the station was closed but figured maybe there was something still there. The afternoon sun was getting hot and my clothes were drying off pretty fast. By the time we got back to the station only my shoes were still wet.
Jimmy tried the door, it opened up with no resistance. “Sweet! Let’s go inside” he said. I was about to follow when a sign on the door caught my eye. It was a weird set of town rules,
- Curfew is from 9 PM until 8 AM, everything excluding emergency services are to be closed. No exceptions.
- Emergency services are advised to lock their doors and cooperate with local law enforcement in case of emergencies.
- If any citizen is found in the streets after curfew, they will be placed under arrest for the remainder of the night.
- If you encounter anyone other than local law-enforcement during curfew, do not physically engage.
- Keep all your doors and windows locked during curfew. No exceptions.
- Do not answer your door during curfew. Do not pay attention to anyone claiming to be in need of help or even a family member who claims to have lost their key.
- If any of your relatives or loved ones are not home by curfew, inform local law enforcement via telephone.
- If you can not make it to your home in time for curfew, remain inside your vehicle or call local law enforcement.
- If you can not do the above, remain where you are. You will be found and taken into custody by local law enforcement.
- Do not swim in the lake near the mountain.
- Do not go into the mountain during curfew.
- Do not leave town during curfew.
Well that would have been nice to know, clearly the lake has something wrong with it. But the rest of the rules sounded really dumb, this place is empty, what kind of law enforcement could there be?
And a curfew? I guess that made sense, lots of camp grounds had curfews. And judging by the lack of graffiti it seemed to be working.
Jimmy came back out of the gas station, “it’s a bust bro. Everything in there is either gross or spoiled”. I nodded, “so now what?”
Jimmy looked around the town, “now my good sir, we explore this Jamestown until we procure proper sleeping quarters”. I was a little skeptical, “you really think we should poke around?”
Jimmy grabbed a bottle of something from under the Jeeps seat, “hell yeah man. If everything goes to plan we be bottles up in the Mayors house living like kings!”
He made a very appealing argument. We got back in the Jeep and headed through town, it didn’t take long to find the most opulent house. We got settled in, we ended up pitching our tent in the living room as all the furniture was covered with a couple years worth of dust.
We passed the bottle back and forth as the sun went down. Feeling courageous Jimmy decided to go upstairs and check the place out. I followed after and found him rummaging through the master bedrooms dresser.
He held up a pair of lacy lingerie, “dude who leaves something like this behind? All the drawers are full. It’s like they just walked away one day”. I was feeling uneasy, which was no small task considering all the liquor I had sloshing around in my stomach.
“Put it back man, let’s leave their stuff alone”. It felt wrong, like we were defiling a grave. Seeing people’s belongings made the feel less like a cool empty building to explore and more like someone’s home.
Jimmy didn’t argue with me, but neither did he go back downstairs. He pulled out his pocket flashlight as the sun had slid low in the sky.
I followed him as he went room to room checking them out. I felt better now that he wasn’t touching things but I still didn’t like being there.
A knock on the front door caused Jimmy to let out a yipe, I jumped as well I was just much quieter about it.
Jimmy turned off his light, “shit man you don’t think there’s cops here do you?” I thought back to the set of rules at the gas station, it had mentioned law enforcement. I told Jimmy about it and he swore again.
“This isn’t good man, I’ve got a scholarship!” I looked out the window to the empty street below, no park ranger or cop car was visible.
The knocking came again, this time more rapid and harder. We crouched down, I’m not sure why as we were on the second floor.
There was a break in the pounding, the silence dragged on until my legs began to burn from sitting in a squatted position. It must have been ten minutes since the knocking had stopped.
“Hey, Jimmy. I…
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