The Fire Tower Mystery | A Scary Tale from the Taiga

A scary Siberian forest story about a young ranger sent to the Lake Baikal wilderness in the summer of 1979. Seven rangers went into the same corner of the taiga before him, and none of them came back. Alexei is twenty-four. He has just lost his wife, and he takes a job as a forest fire lookout in the most remote sector of the Soviet wilderness. With him go Semyon, an old man whose son vanished there two summers ago, and Farad, a loyal shepherd dog from the border service. Their destination is a lonely fire tower deep in the forest. The locals won't talk about that place. The seventh ranger's camp was found full of spent cartridges, and there were no bodies. On the way they lose a horse at a hidden ravine and come under fire from a gang of wild poachers. A rogue bear, a shatun, attacks them. Buryat hunters tell them about a clearing where nothing has grown for centuries. Five giant stone idols stand there on perfectly round stone spheres, their faces turned to the sky, and at night a living blue light crawls over the stone. Someone has cut seven notches into the tallest idol. This is a long-form horror story and survival mystery about grief, friendship and a man's bond with his dog. It has ancient idols, a Siberian taiga legend, poachers and a massive forest fire. And there is one question: who has been counting the rangers who never came home? A narrated scary story for a long night. Put on your headphones, turn off the lights and listen to the end to learn what happened in the northern sector, and why the eighth notch was never finished.