A deep, throaty growl interrupted his contemplation. The rank smell of its breath and the menacing curve of its teeth stilled Shukshin. He had let the beast approach him, stalk him, and, now, it gave him no choice in the matter of who would eat whom. The bear was in such close proximity that he could see patches of missing fur. Where the beast was not bald, the hair clung to its skin with wetness. In the daylight, its shape was less impressive. Its legs were ragged and thin, and its body consisted of more fur than meat.
He could see why the bear had been prowling when it should be hibernating. It had not eaten enough to stay asleep for the winter. Or, maybe something had happened to its den and it had been forced to wander between the trees and rocks and frozen creek beds to seek food where no food could be found. Until now.
He felt almost sorry for the bear and wondered if he had truly gone mad with the cold. He thought of Dusha, pretending it was her breath on his face, her paws jumping up at his chest to greet him, her tongue wrapping around his face, her jaws clamping onto his neck and skull.
“Good girl, Dusha.”
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone that helped breathe life into this book: Katarina, John, Frank, and Steve for your initial feedback and suggestions; Emily Nemchick, my editor; and James of GoOnWrite.com for my cover design. Any errors that remain are my own.
Mailing List and More
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading Shipwrecked in Siberia. I hope I’ve done my job and provided a story that transported you into the driver’s seat with Shukshin. This story was inspired by a brief glimpse into the life of Siberian truckers transporting goods through treacherous conditions on a TV documentary that I saw a couple years ago. I couldn’t get the images out of my head. From trucks stuck in snow-covered mud to leaving food offerings at the feet of pagan god statuettes, I just had to do something with those scenes and Shipwrecked in Siberia is what came about. If you’re interested in any future releases and updates, please consider joining my mailing list: http://bit.ly/ajmlist
Or, drop me a line at my website http://AnthonyJMelchiorri.com to stay in touch and see what else I have out. In any case, as an up-and-coming writer, your feedback is crucial to my craft. If you’ve enjoyed the story, consider writing a review from the distributor that you purchased this from or on a review site like http://goodreads.com. Reviews are the sustenance by which authors like me chug along and help spread the word so others might experience our stories.
About the Author
Anthony J Melchiorri is a writer and biomedical engineer living in Maryland. He spends most of his time developing cardiovascular devices for tissue engineering to treat children with congenital heart defects when he isn't writing or reading.
Read more at Anthony J Melchiorri’s site.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
SHIPWRECKED IN SIBERIA
First edition. May 20, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 Anthony J Melchiorri.
ISBN: 978-1498924115
Written by Anthony J Melchiorri.