The Endless Winter
There isn't a scientific explanation for what happened.
You could have been enjoying a nice vacation on the beach. Then the next day, huddled inside and away from the blizzards that got worse and worse with each passing moment.
This was everywhere.
Every day, the news had a breaking story about some country that had been swallowed by the ice.
Apparently, it started in the North Pole as an obscenely massive glacier that appeared, quite literally, overnight.
The pictures that came in depicted a 4-5 mile-high wall of ice that towered into the sky.
It had the scientific community in a tizzy, with no one being able to explain how the hell this thing popped up out of nowhere.
Worse yet, it seemed to be growing.
It progressed south at an alarming rate, averaging about 50 miles a day.
It didn't just move 50 miles, no, it expanded 50 miles in a single day.
In around a month, Russia, Greenland, Canada, and the northern countries were completely swallowed up under a layer of ice that froze entire cities in time.
Here in Japan, we had about 2 months before the glaciers hit us.
I just sat back during the initial period, thinking that the whole freaky nature stuff would blow over with time, ignoring the small part of me that knew this wasn't right, wasn't natural.
And if course, that little voice was right.
Every week, the temperature outside dropped by 5 degrees; even in the midst of summer.
You should have seen it, temperatures in the high 80's, yet these mysterious, unexplainable blizzards quite literally appeared out of thin air.
Abnormal things you only hear about, that was our reality.
That was June, the average in Tokyo being a hot 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now it's August, 30 below 0.
We are living on the glacier itself.
###
As I put on my jacket, I prepped myself for the journey outside.
Every single piece of skin had to be covered, lest you wanted frostbite.
From head to toe I was clad in thick woolly jackets, scarves, gloves, mittens, ear muffs, leggings, masks, hats, hoods, a thick pair of boots, and goggles to round it all out.
I saw my reflection in the small, basic mirror that my room had been supplied with- so I noticed that I couldn't exactly put my arms completely down by my sides, instead resigning myself to just having them hover just a few inches over my hips.
I breathed out, trying to calm my fiery nerves in preparation for the outside journey. This was tantamount to suicide, yet I was still going to go through with it.
I gingerly made my way into the main hall, trying to ignore the eerie silence and the crimson-splattered walls.
I made my way forward, keeping my eyes down and glazed over so that I couldn't make out exactly what I was stepping over.
Before I knew it, I came to a dead end.
Looking up, I realized that this is what I had been looking for.
The hatch to the outside world.
Our hell.
I unscrewed the door and stepped into the hatch, sealing the door behind me once I was through.
5 steps forward, and I opened the last hatch.
The cold bitter air hit me full force, mostly muffled by my many layers of clothing and supplies.
As I stepped outside the relative safety of the bunker, I glanced down to do a quick once-over.
Nothing was missing. I had all my gear.
I was ready.
I stepped through, shutting the hatch behind me with a creak and a bang as it sealed itself away from the raging winter.
I scowled as my nemesis was there to greet me in every direction.
The great tundra of Japan.
###
Back when the glaciers were just starting to enter Japanese waters, the military started to evacuate citizens onto the glacier itself, as there was nowhere else to go.
I was taken on one of the choppers that had to climb 5 miles into the sky.
These choppers were called "Deliveries to God".
A fitting name, I'd say. Especially since most of us knew we were going to die in some fashion up there.
Be it the bitter cold, or the lack of air in some places.
When we reached the top, I saw my new home.
It was a hatch that was in the side of an icy hill, indicated by a pathetic-looking red flag that just screamed 'We're fucked, but at least we have a place to be fucked together".
Its iron door seemed so safe in a fake way when I stepped through it for the first time with the other scared refugees.
My parents were nowhere to be found, as they demanded that they stay with their home and personal treasures.
I had to sneak away in the dead of night, as they were intent on locking me in my room so I could die with them, I guess.
I thought they were selfish pricks for doing that, but honestly...
Now I wish I stayed.
###
As I walked through the cold tundra, I had one mission in mind.
Find and kill those sick bastards who raided our little hole in the ground.
They struck in the dead of night, when the temperatures were obscenely low.
It was -80 degrees Celsius.
###
I was asleep, when I heard screams from the upper levels.
I slept at the bottom level, where lone refugees without families slept.
We were considered less important than the kids, so we were going to be the first to die if the ice decided to cave in on us.
The sudden noise made my eyes snap open, my body on alert.
I jerked up out of bed when I heard that familiar crack of gunshots.
The commotion got closer and closer to my level, with the sickening crunch of bone and tearing of flesh just one floor above me now.
Whatever was going down, it was time for me to move.
I quickly got under my bed, in some vain attempt to save myself from whatever it was that was above me.
The screams and sickening sounds of gore continued for about a minute, with gunfire dispersed in between.
Then it stopped.
It had to be the most horrible noise I'd ever heard.
The noise of silence, the horrible, ghastly silence.
Even the emptiness of the ice had a howl to go along with it.
All I could hear now was the hum of my digital clock next to my bed.
Suddenly, footsteps, slow and deliberate, sounded right outside my door.
BANG
BANG
BANG
WOOOSCHING
My door flew open.
As I looked from underneath the mattress, I saw feet.
Barefoot feet, with the edges of what I looked to be kimonos filling my vision.
About 3 people entered the room, judging from the pairs of feet I saw, and quickly left.
I heard them run upstairs to the hatch's entrance.
I heard the hatch open.
The roar of wind.
I heard the hatch close.
The roar of silence.
###
They killed everyone.
Men, women, children, no one was spared.
There were 30 of us, if I remember right.
I was the only one that survived.
That fact was driven home as I silently crept through the gore-streaked walls.
Bodies lined the corridors, with massive ice shards sticking out of their mangled chests and limbs.
Faces were slashed open with what looked to be massive claws, blood pooling by the wrecks of their bodies.
I was feeling green, and quickly ran to the airlock to go make sure that the hatch was sealed shut from whatever the hell they were.
That little voice in my head told me they could get in, no matter if the door was sealed shut or not.
It was sealed shut.
With tears beginning to tumble down my face, I turned around to face the horrific scene that I would have to live in.
I could survive here...for only a while longer. If I didn't starve to death first, the sickness would eventually get me.
And whose to say they wouldn't come back to ransack the bunker even further?
No, I was the only one left, and I sure as hell wasn't staying here, where all of these bodies decorated the complex like fucking christmas lights that leaked blood and pieces of intestine.
As it was, I would rather face the monster that was the outside world than stay here.
And that brought me to the middle of the icy tundra.
###
I must've walked for about 3 hours, having already lost all feeling in my fingers and face, despite all the gear I had on.
The cold seemed to seep into your very soul.
The sun was rising, but you couldn't see it from the amount of snow being blown into the air from the hail-blizzards.
As it was, hope was leaving me as the faint golden glow placed itself on the horizon, just bright enough for one to barely make out..
I knew there was nothing, but I left anyways?
All I did was trade a death for another death.
In my mind, it felt more satisfactory to go out in blaze of glory than sit and rot.
My body felt tired. I would've done anything for a nap.
I stumbled in the snow and fell into the soft, fluffy powder.
"Urgh..." I managed to grunt out.
I tried to stand back up, but my arms couldn't push me off the ground.
My muscles seemed to be nonexistent.
This was bad.
I tried again, but I failed.
This was too much, too much…
...so cold.
###
I awoke with a start, instantly taking in my surroundings.
I was in the middle of a massive icy cavern.
I was chained by my hands and feet to a massive slab of ice that jutted out in the middle of the room, which seemed to be sunken into the ground.
I was very worried. Who the hell grabbed me out there?
It was then that I heard it, a soft female giggle.
Almost muscial, but haunting in its child-like way.
A pale woman in a stark white kimono stepped out from behind a nearby pillar, her entire vibe that of a classical Japanese woman.
As I watched her come towards me, I noticed her eyes.
They were a pale blue, with no pupil.
They radiated a fragile beauty, yet blazed with the storm of a blizzard.
It was then that I pieced it together.
"Wait, you, YOU! You're one of those...those...things that attacked our bunker!"
She gave slight smile, "Yes, I was part of that group. Yet…I'm surprised that we missed you."
"You killed everyone! WHY!?"
She kept her smile, "You humans have been selfish for too long... You have taken everything from us youkai. That is why our Priestess used Jack Frost to freeze this world over, so that the humans would be eradicated, and that we snow women and other youkai could start anew and rule this world."
"Youkai?" Monsters? How? What priestess? What's 'Jack Frost'?
I half-asked half-shouted, "Youkai exist!?"
She chuckled this time, showing her perfect, beautiful white teeth. "Yes, they have ever since humans have. In fact, humans and Youkai came from a common ancestor. Ooo, but they don't teach that in your schools, do they?" She giggled, closing her eyes partway.
The woman calmed down a bit, and settled into a regal stance with her chin held up. Without warning, she raised her hand and instantly solidified it into what looked to be a claw made of pure ice.
I yelped in surprise, eyes locked on what surely had to be one of the weapons that killed the families in the compound.
She began to saunter towards me. "Now, I'm running on a tight schedule in terms of raids and such, so you're going to have to be dealt with..."
She flexed her claw and placed one of the tips against my chest, drawing a droplet of blood.
I really started to panic. I blurted out, "W-Wait! Don't kill me! I still want to live! I'll do anything, please!"
She looked up at him grimly, with what looked to be a hint of humor in her eyes. "Oh don't worry, you won't die. You'll just be displayed as a trophy in our grand palace, where the priestess lives."
I felt a cold like no other begin to seep into my body.
"Also," She added, "We'll use you from time to time for...well, you'll see."
She winked with the promise of something I couldn't even imagine, and then a flood of ice shot from her claw into my body.
Then everything went black.
###
This is where I stand.
I stand at the limbo of death and life, unable to go in either direction.
This is my purpose. To be a trophy, a plaything, a tool.
This is a fate that no one should suffer.
But I'm afraid it's mine.
I must suffer the fate of an endless winter.
