Underground Horror

This story was told to me by a friend, who, in turn, heard it from a friend—a former member of a group of diggers and speleologists.

One day, the whole group gathered for a trip to newly discovered caves in the far south of Russia. They arrived at the site and assessed the situation. They had to descend using climbing equipment; the altitude was about 15 meters. Eight people descended, four remained above. Each person descending was connected to the others with a rope to make the descent and subsequent exit easier.

Everyone descended safely. It was pitch dark, everyone had flashlights, and two of them also had night vision goggles (NVGs). They found themselves in a fairly large cave. They searched around with their flashlights and discovered a passage leading deeper into the cave system. Three people immediately headed there, one of whom had NVGs. The rest remained at the descent point, standing and discussing the situation. And then it began...

First, everyone heard a scream. One of the group members screamed. Before anyone could react, the same group members who had escaped ran out of the passage. One screamed, "Fuck! Get the hell out of here, now!" and the other two showed every sign of panic. A low, deafening roar rang out. Everyone instantly realized they had to get out of the caves. They began tugging on the rope to be pulled up. At that moment, heavy breathing and thumping sounds were heard coming from the passage. Panic set in, and then, finally, they began to be pulled up. Those at the top, pulling on the rope, felt something below tugging hard at it. Screams rang out, turning into choking wheezes, and finally, the tension on the other side stopped. Only four of the eight people made it out. The rope had been bitten through.

 The man with the night vision goggles described what happened. When the first scream was heard, he immediately put on the goggles and saw three members of the group running out of the passage. A short time later, two creatures emerged from the passage. He described them as approximately two and a half meters tall, covered in fur, with very strange faces, horns, and hooves. He saw one of these creatures leap at the fleeing man, grab him, and simply tear him apart like a stuffed animal. Then they tried to lift them, but the creatures grabbed the rope attached to the caver's remains. They killed the three men, then bit through the rope.

The group eventually disbanded. One of the survivors committed suicide, the other spent the rest of his life telling everyone about the demons he had seen. Another went on a drinking binge and gave up caving and digging. My friend's friend, however, still goes on various expeditions.