Young Writers Society

(Credit to the artist Axel for providing the picture that inspired this story.)

The wind howled through the mountain pass. Snow danced on the winds like ballerinas in a winter play and the sun shone down brightly in the brisk morning. The three tiered structure that stood strong against the berating winds, was now dark and lifeless, save for one window. Still emitting a faint glow.

A small fire crackled in the room with two figures huddled around it for warmth. Cloaks wrapped around them tightly in an attempt to ward off the invading cold. A young man ruffled through papers and read with a calculating gaze as his other hand made marks on a separate paper to keep track. Beside him was a young woman, her hands stretched out to the small fire to bring them back to life from the numbing cold.

“Food is just about gone,” Alex said setting the clipboard of supplies to the side. “We won't last a month with what we have right now.”

“Do you think its safe for us to leave?” Jenny asked with concern. “Do you think its over?”

“I don't know,” Alex said putting his hands under his arms to warm them. “What I do know is that we can't stay here. Food is about gone, the generator gave out a week ago, and you and I are the only ones left.”

Jenny nodded in understanding. Their situation looked grim. “You think anyone is still alive?”

Alex remained silent for a long time. The howling of the wind was the only thing that kept it from being a bare silence. “I hope so,” he finally responded.

“Where will we go?”

“South. The closer we get to the equator the warmer it will be. Damn second ice age.” Alex tossed the remaining leg of the chair they had been burning into the fire, sending up a storm of sparks. Jenny looked out the small window to the outside world. She never would have thought that this was summer on the Nevada side of The Rockies.

Jenny could barely remember the announcements on TV, when they had TV, about what was coming. The scientists had found out a few years before the first snow fall that the earth was plummeting into a second ice age. They couldn't figure out why it was happening, but they knew that had to prepare. The most state of the art facilities were crafted all over the world to try and save as many people as they could. Water filtration systems. Top of the line thermal heating. Green housing plants. Everything that would be needed to survive when the world iced over.

Alex remembered the sirens and the screaming. People trying desperately to get to cover before the perpetual winter would freeze everything over and escape would be impossible. How they had to close their doors when the capacity was reached and the remaining people would be told to head to another Completely Adjustable Climate Housing Environment, or CACHE as they were calling them, essentially sending people to a frozen death. Alex found what was supposed to be their salvation to be more like tombs. Just people waiting around to die in the metal structures.

“Do you think any of it will be the same?” Jenny asked, almost in a dreamy state.

“Twenty years of ice and snow? I doubt anything is like before,” Alex responded, looking out the window with her. “Let's get everything we can pack. We should leave while the sun is up. It will be warmer.” Alex stood up and began packing the rations into a pack to travel in. Jenny did the same adding a few sentimental things. A necklace from her mother, which always made her feel better; a magnifying glass from her teacher, as encouragement to keep exploring; and a her father's heavy working gloves, to remind her that good things only come from blood, sweat, and effort. With packs on their backs and a cloak pulled over them to protect their skin from the harsh winds, Alex opened the heavy metal door to the outside.

The wind seemed to howl even louder as if in warning for them to stay and live what time they had left in the CACHE, and for a moment they hesitated, unsure if they should leave what they knew to be familiar and safe. But the pair persevered. Pulling up the masks they had made and putting on the dark glasses to protect their eyes from the bright light reflecting off the snow. They trekked out along the mountain range heading south in the hopes that they might find life.

Neither of them glanced back at the CACHE. Neither of them saw the still burning light of the fire still alight in the window of the metal structure. If they looked back, they might return to the metal tomb that would call them to remain with all those that were buried inside. They pressed ever onward into the unknown winter, seeking a paradise that might only be in their dreams.

But the fire still burns in that window. A beacon of hope and dreams that one day the world will not be a frozen wasteland. That life might return to the world once more with the two diminishing figures on the peaks of the mountains. That while winter has taken hold for many years...

…spring is just on the horizon.