I was sitting outside the small entrance to the Optymistychna Cave with my radio equipment, shivering in the cold February air, and listened carefully to the strange, barely perceptible broadcast that came and went. My close friend, Dr. Nataliya Morozov, tried to keep warm by walking in circles and stretching her limbs. We had discovered the signals with one of our walkie-talkies by accident while exploring the cave—a large and partly unexplored gypsum cave located in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine—and since then we had spent our free time trying to pinpoint the source of these signals. We hadn’t gotten any closer to an answer though. All we knew, after trying to pick up the signals from anywhere else, was that they were coming from somewhere inside the cave.

“Let’s start a fire, Oleksandr,” said Nataliya. “It’s so damn cold.”

“It’s back!” I said, ignoring her request. “Listen!”

She rushed over to me and crouched down. We had invested in a better receiver since the discovery, one that could pick up weaker signals, and it had paid off. The voice coming through the static was much clearer, although still a complete mystery to us. It didn’t speak either Ukrainian or Russian nor any other language we could recognize. The closest one was the indigenous Australian language Warlpiri, but after sending some recordings to an expert on that language we learned that although slightly similar they weren’t the same.

Our plan had been to gather a team of experts and venture into the cave’s deepest, most unexplored parts in an attempt to find whoever it was that was broadcasting these signals, but because of the Russian invasion, we had been forced to postpone our plans indefinitely. It wasn’t safe enough for just the two of us to undertake such a risky expedition. All we could do under the circumstances was to record as much as possible of the strange voice and to study it.

While completely focused on the voice now, the deafening sound of a fighter jet roared overhead, interrupting our thoughts and causing us to jump in surprise. The noise was thunderous, a deep rumbling that vibrated through the ground and rattled our bones. We looked up and saw the jet streaking across the sky, leaving a trail of white vapor in its wake. This region was still relatively safe from the war, but the sight of the jet still fill us with unease. Just seconds later, there was an explosion. Another jet had been hit—perhaps by a missile or anti-aircraft fire—right above us, sending debris raining down and causing us to scramble for cover. When we looked up again, we saw the pilot parachuting down toward the ground.

“Is it one of ours?” I asked.

“No,” Nataliya said with concern in her voice. “We need to pack up quickly and get back to the car.”

I turned off the receiver and put my stuff back into my backpack as fast as I could. My heart was racing with fear and adrenaline. As we prepared to move out, the pilot touched down between us and our car. He quickly unhooked himself from his parachute and stumbled toward us with his hand reaching for a gun in his holster. We froze in terror for a second, unsure of what to do, and then we turned around and ran back toward the cave. The army had most likely sent out teams to capture him, which he probably knew and would do anything to avoid. Any witnesses that could report his whereabouts would be dangerous to him, so trying to talk to him was out of the question. We ran as fast as we could, but he was right behind us, closing in quickly. I could hear his heavy breathing and the sound of his boots pounding against the ground as he pursued us.

When we reached the entrance to the cave, we quickly ran inside and turned on our flashlights. The pilot followed us in, his gun now drawn and pointed in our direction. We could see the fear in his eyes, and we knew that he was just as desperate as we were. Even if he managed to kill us, or take us hostage, his chances of getting out of this situation were slim at best, but even so, he refused to give up and kept coming after us.

Without thinking, we began to make our way deeper and deeper into the cave, trying to put as much distance as possible between us and the pilot. The narrow passageways were dark and treacherous, and we stumbled and fell several times as we hurried along. Behind us, we could hear the pilot shouting and cursing, his footsteps echoing through the cavern. We knew that we couldn’t outrun him unless we turned our flashlights off which we couldn’t do, but we still kept pushing ourselves out of fear for our lives.

We kept going for what felt like an eternity, with the sound of the pilot’s footsteps getting closer and closer. Just when we thought we couldn’t go any further, we saw a small crack in the cave wall that we could squeeze through. We quickly made our way through the narrow gap—albeit not without pressing our bodies to their limits—and as we emerged on the other side, we found ourselves in a large chamber. The chamber was dimly lit and there was a small hole in the ceiling that let in a beam of light from the outside. We looked up and saw a glimpse of blue sky, and it filled us with hope. We knew that we were still in danger, but the sight of daylight was a reminder that there was still a world outside the cave, and that we could still escape.

“Can we get up there?” Nataliya said while taking her backpack off. “Help me up! He’s going to be here any moment now.”

I nodded and offered my hands as a step for her to climb onto. She put her foot into my hands and pushed herself up, grabbing onto the edge of the hole. I pushed her up as she struggled to pull herself through the hole. Meanwhile, the pilot was yelling for us to give up, promising not to hurt us while at the same time cursing his predicament. He was close now. Once Nataliya was up, she extended her hands to help me climb up, and I grabbed onto her wrists as she pulled me up.

A gunshot echoed through the chamber, and we heard the bullet whizz past our heads. The pilot had entered the chamber and pulled the trigger. Nataliya and I pressed ourselves out of the hole and onto the rocky terrain outside. It was colder than before, and strong winds whipped our faces as we stumbled down the hillside.

“We need to keep moving,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “That maniac is still after us!”

The snow was blowing so hard in the wind that we could barely see more than a few feet in front of us. We had lost our bearings and couldn’t orient ourselves in the midst of the blizzard. We discussed finding our way back to our car, but we didn’t know which direction to head in. I looked back, seeing the pilot—no more than a shadow behind all the snow—squeezing himself through the hole. Stumbling through the snow, we saw a strange structure looming in the distance. It was a huge metallic tower, unlike anything we had ever seen before—especially not in this area, which we knew better than most. We could barely make out its shape in the blinding snow, but it looked like it was at least a few stories tall.

“What is that?” Nataliya said.

We ran toward it—it being our only hope of finding help—slipping and sliding on the icy ground. As we approached, we saw a small building at the foot of the tower. Its architecture was distinct with intricate details and ornate patterns I couldn’t recognize.

“What is this place?” I asked when we got closer. “This isn’t supposed to—”

Nataliya looked at the top of the tower, seemingly so amazed by it that she had forgotten about our pursuer. “This is it.” Her voice was filled with wonder.

“What?” I said. “We need to get inside and call for help.”

“Don’t you understand, Oleksandr? It’s… It’s the source.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. The source, of course. I couldn’t wrap my head around what kind of place this was or how it could be that we had never seen it before, but it did look like some kind of radio tower. The pilot appeared as a silhouette inside the snowstorm, closing in on us.

“Let’s get inside quickly,” I urged Nataliya, pulling her towards the building. “He’s right behind us.”

We reached the door of the building and tried to open it, but it was locked from the inside. Panic started to set in as the pilot approached us, gun still in hand. Then the ground beneath us began to shake, and we heard a deafening roar. At first, I thought the gunshot from earlier might have set off an avalanche from the top of the hill, but just as that thought crossed my mind something astonishing appeared in the icy mist. Nataliya grabbed my shoulder and pulled me toward her.

“My God,” she said. “Those are mammoths!”

We pressed ourselves against the wall to avoid being crushed, and then—amazed—we watched the herd stampeding toward us, their massive bodies causing the ground to tremble with each step. The pilot was caught off guard and stumbled backward, dropping his gun. He tried to crawl away from the approaching herd but to no avail. We lost track of him amongst the mammoths as they rampaged past us, their enormous tusks and trunks throwing up clouds of snow and ice.

Once everything had cleared, Nataliya and I cautiously ran up to where the pilot had been. We found him lying on the ground, alive but hurt. His arm was badly twisted, and blood seeped through his sleeve. We quickly realized that he was in no condition to pursue us.

“We need to help him,” I said. “Let’s drag him to the tower.”

“Those were freaking mammoths!” Nataliya exclaimed, still in shock. “How is that even possible?”

“I have no idea,” I replied, trying to focus on the task at hand. “Right now, we need to get this guy some help.”

Dragging him toward the building, a growl cut through the air, causing us to freeze. The pilot tried to sit up and saw something that made him scream. Two large beasts slowly approached us, stepping out of the stormy winds like phantoms, their eyes fixed on the injured pilot.

“T-those are cave lions,” Nataliya stuttered. “That’s what the mammoths were running away from.” She turned to the pilot and grabbed him by his collar. “Your gun!” she yelled to his face. “Do you still have your gun?”

The pilot, still in a state of panic, shook his head. “N-no,” he said.

One of the lions charged toward us, its jaws opening wide as it prepared to attack. I braced myself for the worst, but just before it reached us, the door to the building was flung open, and a tall man dressed in the most peculiar way—in a white uniform and a green turban—stepped out and fired two shots into the air. The lions paused for a moment as if to consider their options, before turning and fleeing back into the storm.

The man proceeded to point his rifle at us. His facial features made me flinch. It was like no other face I had ever seen before. His features were strong and angular, his forehead sloping back from his prominent brow ridge. His nose was broad and flat, and his eyes were deep-set and hooded. He had a prominent chin, and his teeth were large and white. I couldn’t place his ethnicity or origin, and there was something about him that made my heart skip a beat.

He spoke the same language we had heard over the receiver outside the cave, confirming this was indeed the source of the signals. We raised our hands over our heads. The pilot had to struggle to get up, and couldn’t keep his broken arm up, but he yielded just like us. The man in the turban seemed just as unsettled by seeing us as we were seeing him. He yelled into the building. A woman wearing the same outfit joined him in the doorframe, took a look at us, and then ran inside again.

“What in heaven’s name is going on?” I whispered. “Who are these people?”

“It’s impossible,” Nataliya said. “The animals…” She lowered her voice. “This man doesn’t belong to the same species as—”

The man yelled at us, maybe to shut us up, and was joined by two others also pointing their rifles pointed at us. I was so cold by now that my teeth were chattering out of control and my fingers were going numb. The pilot began speaking Russian, asking not to be shot, unaware that these people didn’t understand his or—as it seemed—any other language we knew of. Nataliya hushed him.

“What’s going on?” he whispered in reply. “Who are they?”

“Denisovans”, Nataliya whispered back. “Now shut up.”

I looked at her, shocked. “Denisovans? But they went extinct thousands of years ago!”

“I know, I know,” she replied, “but that’s the only explanation for what we just saw. They’re not human, at least not the same as us. We need to be careful.”

The man in the turban approached us, his rifle still in our faces. He searched us, took our belongings, and then he spoke again and gestured for us to follow him. Reluctantly, we complied. The men led us into the building, which turned out to be a massive underground complex. The walls were adorned with intricate carvings and mosaics, depicting scenes of war and conquest. There were tools and documents scattered around, as well as what looked like large computers from fifty years ago.

We were brought to a room where the woman who had briefly looked at us was waiting. She gestured for us to sit, and then left the room, closing the door behind her. The pilot rushed to the door and banged on it, yelling to be released.

“Calm down!” Nataliya yelled. “You really think that’s going to work?”

I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall. “Nataliya,” I said. “I’m trying to wrap my head around what’s going on, but it’s just so surreal. How did we end up here?”

Nataliya inspected the strange equipment. “I don’t understand it either, but from what we’ve seen I think it’s fair to say we’ve entered a realm where history took another turn somewhere. In our world, humanity outcompeted our closest hominid relatives—the Neanderthals and the Denisovans—and we partly hunted the megafauna to extinction. Right? Now here… It’s as if the footprint of man was never made.” She pulled out a large sheet of paper that was rolled up among a bunch of other documents. “Ah, look at this!” It was a black-and-white map. I got up on my feet and joined her. “This map has a different orientation than our own,” Nataliya continued. “See? It has the same continents, but Asia is much closer to the center. Goes to show how subjective our worldview is, doesn’t it?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any borders,” I added.

“Except this giant one separating Europe from Asia,” added Nataliya.

“And what’s the meaning of these?” I asked, pointing at pictograms of skulls that dotted the map. “Some kind of dead zones?”

“Or something completely different.” Nataliya pulled away some of her hair from her face and pointed at central Europe. “Look, the skulls are different here. My God… I think those are the skulls of Neanderthals. And…” She dragged her finger across the continents. “I can’t see any skulls resembling our own.” She looked up at me. “Oleksandr, I don’t think our species even exist in this world. It’s just as if we never evolved here or went extinct before we could get our footing right.”

“Enough of this!” yelled the pilot who had grown frustrated with our conversation. “This is some kind of trick, some kind of psychological warfare that you learned from the Americans.”

“What’s your name?” I asked, speaking Russian.

“Boris,” he said. “What is it to you, huh?”

“Boris,” Nataliya pleaded. “This isn’t a trick. You saw those mammoths, the cave lions. How in the hell would anyone be able to fake that? Oleksandr and I were investigating strange radio signals coming from the cave. We already knew something strange was going on here, although we couldn’t have guessed that this—a parallel universe—was the answer.”

Boris bit his nails. “I’m not supposed to be here. I was on my last mission before I was supposed to retire. My family is waiting for me back home.”

“Many people don’t have families to go home to any more thanks to you and your friends,” I said. “You tried to murder us, two civilians!”

“Let’s not argue about that,” said Nataliya. “We need to work together if we want to get out of here safely.”

“I wasn’t going to kill you,” Boris said. “I’m not a killer. I was merely trying to stop you.”

“Oh, come on,” I said. “You were literarily flying a death machine!”

“I’m a soldier!” Boris yelled. “I was just following orders. Politics doesn’t interest me. But there are always two sides to every conflict.”

“Yes,” I said, “and sometimes one of the sides is a fascist war criminal who commits atrocities against innocent civilians!”

Boris looked down, his face showing a mix of shame and anger. “I know. I’ve seen it happen. But what choice did I have? Refusing to follow orders would have meant risking my life and my family’s. And what good would that have done? There’s no justice in war.”

“Maybe not,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean we should give up on trying to do what’s right. We can’t let those in power get away with their crimes. Do you really think Putin cares about your people? He’s the epitome of an evil dictator! Your country could’ve been great, Boris, but instead, you live—”

“I said I don’t care about politics!” Boris interrupted. “I care about my family, about providing for my wife and daughter.”

“We need to put all of that behind us now,” said Nataliya. “We’ve stumbled upon the greatest discovery ever made, something that changes our understanding of reality completely. This is bigger than any of our grievances… bigger than ourselves. Don’t you see?”

“You’re right,” I said. “Any idea why they’re keeping us here?”

“This isn’t a jail cell,” Nataliya said. “It’s just an office. My guess is that they’re as surprised by us as we’re by them. We look more similar to Neanderthals than we look to them, especially you Oleksandr… No offense.”

“None taken,” I said a bit grumpily. “By all means, continue.”

“Still,” she said, “our faces are distinct, and combined with our clothes I don’t think they’ll confuse us with Neanderthals. They know we don’t belong here, and they’re probably trying to figure out what to do with us.”

Just then, the door opened again, and the woman walked in, accompanied by two guards. She spoke to us in her language and gestured for us to follow them. We were brought outside where a large, armored vehicle awaited us. It was unlike anything we had seen before, painted white and adorned with beautiful patterns.

Two armed men opened the back doors to the vehicle. The woman gestured for us to enter, and we complied, not wanting to anger our captors. The interior smelled of gasoline and metal, and we were jolted as the vehicle started moving. I stood up and looked out of the tiny windows at the back, but only saw the everlasting snow.

***

They brought us to a massive complex, hidden away in the middle of nowhere. The building was enormous, made of concrete and steel, and surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. All were painted white, which made it almost impossible to see against the snow. The guards led us inside, down long corridors and through heavy metal doors.

Finally, we arrived at an empty room with a couple of beds in it and a large observation window on the wall. A man could be seen behind it, wearing a green turban just like the others and a decorated uniform of some kind. The guards left us and closed the door behind them, locking it with a loud clank.

Boris quickly ran up to the observation window and began yelling, again seemingly without realizing that they couldn’t understand him. More people arrived behind the window to look at him, almost as if they found him entertaining.

“Sit down!” Nataliya said. “I can’t hear my own thoughts.”

Boris quieted down, fell down with his back against the wall, and began to cry while mumbling something about his wife.

“This doesn’t look good, Nataliya,” I said. “What do they want with us?”

“It all depends on what they know about our species,” she said. “If my suspicion is correct and Homo sapiens went extinct here, they would be very interested in studying us. They also got my phone earlier, and it will probably make us look more alien to them than our faces.”

“Their technology seems to be a bit behind ours,” I said. “But their culture is remarkable, their art… Just look at their architecture! These people are no less than us, that’s for sure. I wonder what the Neanderthals are like.”

“Will they ever let us out of here?” Boris cried. “I need to go home… I need to see my wife and daughter!”

I felt a pinch of empathy for him, but not much more.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll let us go,” I said. “Would your government have released a captured member of another species from a parallel universe?” I laughed bitterly at the thought of it. “No, they’ll keep us here and study us like—”

“There’s still hope,” Nataliya said. “What they’ll want to know most of all is where we come from. This gives us the upper hand to a degree. We can try to communicate that we’ll show them the cave, and once they take us there, I don’t know, maybe we can make a run for it or something.”

“They wouldn’t bring all of us there,” I said. “That would be foolish. I say we keep the cave a secret. We don’t want them to know about our world, do we?”

A woman behind the observation window spoke from a speaker, and then two guards entered the room and took Boris with them. He struggled but to no avail. I thought they would interrogate him and bring him back, but after several hours had passed, I realized that they had probably just taken him somewhere else, perhaps because he was injured, or maybe because he was dressed like a soldier, unlike me and Nataliya.

After what felt like forever, they finally brought me and Nataliya to another room. There were two women there, dressed in what looked like green hijabs and white surgical masks. The guards never left, holding their fingers close to their triggers. The women placed us in front of what looked like an old camera on a tripod and began taking pictures of us. We were then instructed to undress, which made us both feel uncomfortable and violated. We hesitated, but the guards made it clear that it wasn’t a request.

Once we were in our undergarments, the women began examining us closely, taking notes and measurements. I felt like a lab rat and cringed at the thought of being just that for the rest of my life. Two large syringes were brought forth on a metallic tray, which they used to draw our blood. After about an hour, they handed us some clothes, simple robes made of rough fabric that scratched our skin, and then they brought us to yet another room where they forced us to sit down in front of another man in a green turban. He said a few words to us but seemed aware of the fact that we couldn’t understand him.

“Nataliya”, I said and pointed at her and then I pointed at myself and said my own name.

He smiled and then pointed at himself and said something that sounded like “Yidu”. Next, he put a small map of the region on the table—something I only understood because I recognized the Zbruch River—and nodded toward it, seemingly asking us to show him where we came from.

“Should we tell him?” asked Nataliya. “Maybe it’s—”

The entire building shook, and the vague sound of an explosion could be heard from above. Yidu looked up, concerned, and then shouted something at the guards. Another explosion could be heard, and then a strangely melodic alarm began blaring throughout the building. The guards forced us up on our feet and ushered us out of the room. Nataliya, who was the last person to leave the room, quickly grabbed the map on the table without anyone noticing in the confusion and hid it behind her back. We were led toward the cell they had kept us in. People were running in every direction, shouting and screaming while the deafening, strange tune sounded over our heads on repeat—filling the air with its haunting melody. For every explosion above ground, the lights flickered, and dust fell from the ceiling. Then, a gunshot echoed through the chaos, and one of the guards fell to the ground. The other guard fired his rifle but was shot in the leg before he could reload. Boris, holding one of their rifles, stood in front of us. They had shaved his head, and there was a large wound on his cheek.

“Boris!” Nataliya said. “What’s happening?”

“They’re under attack,” he said. “I managed to overpower my guard in the commotion and took his gun.”

“This is our chance!” I said. “We need to find a way out of here!”

Boris nodded, and we quickly followed him as he led us through the maze of corridors and rooms. The sound of gunfire and explosions echoed through the halls as we stumbled our way forward. We passed by rooms filled with equipment and supplies, but we didn’t stop to investigate. Our only focus was finding a way out of this hellish place.

As we turned a corner, we were faced with a group of armed guards. They immediately opened fire—almost as if they thought we belonged to whatever enemy was attacking them—and we were forced to take cover behind a nearby metal cabinet. Boris returned fire, taking out one of the guards, but we were outnumbered and outgunned.

“We need to find another way!” Nataliya shouted over the noise.

Boris looked around and spotted a ventilation shaft above us. “That way!” he yelled, pointing upward.

We quickly climbed onto the cabinet and reached for the opening, pulling ourselves up into the shaft. It was cramped and dusty, but it offered a way out. We crawled as quickly as we could, the sounds of the chaos below us growing quieter as we moved farther away.

Finally, after what felt like forever, we saw a dim light up ahead. We hurried toward it and found ourselves at the exit of the ventilation system. Boris pushed open the grate and we climbed out into a deserted hallway. It was eerily quiet, even though we could still hear the distant sounds of the alarm and gunfire.

“There must be an exit here somewhere,” I said, and we started to move toward some stairs that seem to lead to the ground level. As we climbed, we could see signs of the attack all around us—cracks in the walls, shattered glass, and the occasional dead body.

Finally, we burst through the door to the outside and were met with cold winds whipping our faces. It was the middle of the night now. The alarm echoed through the darkness. Above us, three black airships hovered with spotlights pointed at the ground, and a convoy of black, cumbersome tanks rolled past us. We crouched behind a nearby wall, trying to avoid detection. The tanks were unlike anything we had seen here so far, and the commanders wore dark uniforms and black metal helmets, unlike the Denisovan we had encountered before.

“My God,” Nataliya said. “Neanderthals!”

A bright light shone on us, and we froze. A group of Neanderthal soldiers had spotted us, and they were pointing their rifles at us. We slowly raised our hands, unsure of what to do next. But then, one of the soldiers was hit by a bullet, and he fell to the ground. We turned to see a group of Denisovans, taking cover behind a burnt-out vehicle while firing at the Neanderthals, and we managed to get away through the turmoil that followed.

“How are we supposed to find our way back to the cave?” I asked while we plodded through the snow to get as far away from the compound as possible.

“I got the map,” she said. “I can use celestial navigation and—”

“That’s not what I meant!” I said. “We won’t get far in these old rags they forced us into until we freeze to death!”

Nataliya stopped. “What are you suggesting?”

“We need to sneak our way back and steal one of their trucks,” I said. “I mean, it’s the only way we’ll make it out of here alive.”

Nataliya hesitated, but then nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s do it. But we need to be careful and stay out of sight.”

Boris looked unhappy about it, but even he realized that walking through the blizzard was a death sentence.

We made our way back to the compound, keeping low and avoiding any of the soldiers. We searched for a vehicle that was still in good condition and could get us out of there fast. After several failed attempts—mostly because most of them were locked—we finally found a large vehicle with tracks and a snowplow that seemed to be in decent shape and that wasn’t locked.

Boris quickly got in the driver’s seat and started to fiddle with the controls, but the vehicle wouldn’t budge.

“Do you think you can drive this thing?” Nataliya asked as we sat down next to him.

“I can drive anything,” he grumbled, but his attempts to get the engine going were futile.

“We need to get out of here now!” I urged as the sound of approaching soldiers grew louder.

Finally, after several nerve-wracking minutes, the engine roared to life, and Boris grinned triumphantly. However, as he started to drive away, a shot rang out, and he slumped over in his seat, a bullet lodged in his belly. I screamed in terror, but Boris somehow managed to keep the vehicle moving.

Another vehicle pursued us, its headlights shining on us like a spotlight. We swerved and skidded over the icy terrain as we careened around corners and dodged obstacles in our path. The Denisovans in the pursuing vehicle fired at us, and we could hear the bullets whizzing past us.

Nataliya took Boris’s rifle and did her best to return fire leaning out of the window, but her aim was shaky, and we didn’t have much ammunition left. Boris was fading fast, but he gritted his teeth and kept driving, his blood staining the seat beneath him. Nataliya gave me the rifle and tried to help Boris by applying pressure to his wound, all while she also tried to keep her eye on the map in her lap.

“Stay with us,” she said, her voice shaking.

Boris groaned in response, but he didn’t give up. His driving was erratic, and the vehicle was getting more difficult to control as we sped through the blizzard. I could see the panic in his eyes as he struggled to keep us on course.

I turned around and smashed the back window of the vehicle and pointed the rifle behind us, hoping to deter our pursuers. The Denisovans continued to fire at us, and I fired back, the recoil making my arms ache. I was a terrible shot, I always had been, and it felt as if I wasn’t aiming at all, but after a few shots, I saw the driver in the pursuing vehicle slump over, and the vehicle swerved off course and crashed into a snowdrift.

“I did it!” I shouted, turning back to Boris and Nataliya. But my triumph was short-lived as I saw Boris’s eyes slowly close, and his breathing becoming shallower.

“Boris, no!” Nataliya yelled. “Stay awake, don’t let go!”

Panic rose within me as I realized we might not be able to make it without him, seeing how difficult the vehicle was to operate. Then, I saw a faint glimmer in the distance. It was a lantern attached to the top of the radio tower. We were close.

“We’re almost there!” I said, pointing toward the light. “Just hold on a little longer, Boris.”

When we reached the hillside, Boris fell into Nataliya’s lap with his pallid face turned up toward us. He was crying now, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to speak.

“My family,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. “Tell them I love them. Tell my wife and daughter... Helena, tell her I wished— Helena, Helena…”

His words trailed off as he gasped for breath, and then he was gone. We dragged him out of the vehicle, and even though the night was freezing and the storm raged on around us, we decided to bury him under some snow and rocks. It was ironic, I thought, that a man who had once terrorized Ukrainian civilians were now being buried by two of them. But in his final moments, Boris had shown bravery and sacrifice that he deserved recognition for, even though it didn’t undo the harm he had caused in the past.

As we made our way back to the cave, which was a struggle against the elements which took hours, I couldn’t help but reflect on the complexities of war and the toll it takes on everyone involved. Boris had been a soldier, following orders and fighting for his country, but in the end, he had died a hero for two strangers from the very country he had fought against. And I thought about this other world, about the Denisovans and Neanderthals, and how they seemed to be caught up in the same cycles of senseless violence as Homo sapiens. Sadness gripped me thinking how universal it was, the propensity for violence and conflict… for war.

Back on our side, we covered up the hole that led to the other world with large rocks to stop anyone from that alternate Earth to venture onto ours. We then sent an anonymous letter to Boris’s family, to let them know he didn’t die a war criminal and that he loved them.

I’ve returned to the cave with my receiver occasionally, just to confirm that what we went through really happened… that deep inside that hill, there’s a cave to another world.

ME