"When She Woke at Dawn"
narie_the_waitress
prologue - "Maybe this world is another planet's hell."
- Aldous Huxley
During the second half of the year 2002 a sudden drop in world temperature startled
researchers all throughout the planet. November came, and the Ross Ice Shelf,
in Antarctica, still had not detached itself from the Transantartic ridge and
accompanying shoreline. No longer temporal ice, scientists stationed at Ross
or McMurphy station suddenly found their instruments recording all sorts of
unusual data for this time of the year. The ice refused to melt, something that
had not happened in quite a long time. Almost level with the equator, snow was
falling on the Kilimanjaro, and the perpetual snows suddenly reached below 4500
meters, another rather bizarre occurrence. Glaciers like the Perito Moreno,
or those found in the Norwegian fjords grew brusquely and swiftly, increasing
the flow of tourism to the ends of the world, as rich tourists craved the experience
of witnessing first hand these incredible sprouts of overnight growth.
When 2003 came around, the boundaries of both the Antarctic and Arctic circles had been moved approximately fifteen degrees closer to the equator. Average temperatures had dropped, and snow falling between the tropics, at height no greater than 1000 meters over sea level wasn't that strange an occurrence. The Sahara was no longer a desert; the early beginnings of what would one day be a somewhat fertile grassland were sprouting up due to large increases in annual rainfall. Floods, brutal rains, and localized varieties of the monsoon phenomenon ruined not only the economy of most underdeveloped African nations, but also those of Central and South America. Famine and mudslides both became common occurrence, leaving behind only those who could afford to flee the disasters alive as entire populations were decimated. Inuits and their Siberian counterparts moved south, fleeing sub-zero temperatures lower than anything recorded since the Pleistocene.
Needless to say, scientists all over the planet were being paid obscene quantities of money by governmental agencies who sought answers to three very important question: Why this sudden cold, how do we stop it, and how much is it going to cost us?
This did not fit in with the predicted climatic changes due to global warming;
quite the contrary. This new ice age, arriving without warning, had effectively
upset the world's economy and agriculture; killed off two billion people
at last count and carried another two to bankruptcy.
This was January 2004. China abolished its single child policy, in fear that
future generations would see their population fall below the levels necessary
to maintain the country's economy.
Asteroid Toutatis crossed Earth's orbit on September 29, 2004. It came within four lunar distances of the planet, and was quite the sight during that one night. Ever since the beginning of this new ice age, rumors began that instead of a simple asteroid, Toutatis was the home of the alien race that had unleashed the ice upon Earth, and that now they were coming back to claim what they had for the most part, already conquered. Mass suicides, as well as peaceful gatherings to welcome the extraterrestrials took place on the few habitable places that remained. Of course, nothing of importance happened on that night, and so Toutatis was demoted to the 'scouting ship' status. Alien key ring sales plummeted.
By the end of the year most of Europe was covered in ice; as was the northern half of Asia. Australia and New Zealand had suffered a similar fate. South of Paraguay there was nothing but crevasse-ridden ice fields and glaciers, and the Foz De Iguassu waterfalls would freeze during the southern winter. Up north, the same thing happened. Chicago, New York, Boston; any city above Washington DC was now encased in ice.
However, the ice seemed to ignore one archipelago country. As it continued its downward progression towards the equator, freezing anything that came into its path, Japan remained unaffected by it. Scientists, who had succeeded in answering only one of the three questions posed by the general populace (anything they did would cost billions), had no answer for this phenomenon either. But by that time hope for a quick solution, as well as hope or interest in general had been given up by the masses, and the ice's quirky behavior was not something of general knowledge, expect in teeming internet circles, where what appeared to be the latest Japanese plot to take over the world was continuously dissected into microscopic pieces.
The Japanese, meanwhile, continued along with their lives, maintaining their
usual tenacity in regards to control of immigration into the home islands. Tsukino
Usagi, along with her closest friends, had long ago graduated from high school
and through sheer willpower, long hours spent in cram school and much help from
her friend Mizuno Ami managed to obtain a place in a somewhat prestigious college
where she pursued further education in a subject that had surprised both her
parents to no end - international studies and relations.
Unmoved by Usagi's struggles with diplomatic theory, the Ice kept on growing.
During mid 2005 it reached down to the upper shores of the Caribbean Sea. It
moved faster and faster, traveling kilometers in one day, freezing everything
it its wake. People could no longer escape, as tropical regions had grown overpopulated
and successfully managed to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Maybe
if we ignore it, it will go away, they seemed to think. Venezuela, Panama, Kenya,
Tanzania; all those countries that had been good for nothing other than luxurious
vacations in paradisiacal beaches suddenly became the best pieces of real estate
ever to have been found on the planet. Immigration soared. Planes and ships
heading anywhere near them were often under the protection of private security
companies, having been hired in fear of the many disputes that would break out
over a single ticket to 'the warm countries,' as they were termed
– places where it was still possible to walk in the street with a pair
of jeans and a short-sleeved shirt.
Those that didn't make it to the ships or the planes were instead frozen by the ice, effectively trapped inside it. They were mourned for, but swiftly forgotten, as people were too busy looking out for themselves.
On that same year an international party, armed with the best the world could provide where technology, survival gear and transportation were concerned, marched north on what was known as the Eurasian glacier fields, and stopped at what used to be Paris, lost to the ice now for almost two full years. Blocks of ice were cut, and taken back to laboratories in warmer climates to be analyzed. Very much accidentally, two of these blocks contained complex cellular organisms in them; one a bird, the other one a dog. Interested in the effects of the Ice on cellular tissue, these too were carefully labeled and flown back to a mapping consortium, amongst other recipients.
In a quite lucky (and undeniably, accidental) break for the research party, the technician in charge of preparing DNA dilutions on the particular day on which the two animals arrived did not feel like cutting through ice in order to obtain tissue samples, but instead allowed the two samples to thaw overnight – it was easier on the bone saws.
That same technician was vastly surprised when, the morning after he found himself confronting two groggy-but-quite-alive animals, which proceeded to cause uproar in the whole scientific community. After much probing and examining of (live) tissue samples under the microscope it was found that they had both been criogenized to an extent medicine had only dreamt of. Not only that, but they were found to be the healthiest creatures to walk the planet at that moment. Not a single parasite, not a single flea; not even on the street dog.
So the scientists widely publicized these findings of theirs, and that didn't make anyone happier, as they were hoping it would. Instead terrified them even more, because, what was this thing growing over the planet? What was this thing, that looked like ice, even under a microscope, but was something much more powerful, and therefore, frightening. Tabloids, seeing in this the proof of ultimate evil began heralding the coming of a new dark age, ushered by nothing less than Ice-9, or perhaps some evil, sentient version of H20.
But even then, by and large life in Japan carried out as normal, as much as the circumstances would allow. Usagi struggled with college, Mamoru struggled with patients, diseases and medicine in general. And so, until March 24th, 2006, Tokyo remained free of the Ice, although it had slowly, stealthily crept towards the metropolis in the past few months, having swallowed Hokkaido late in the previous year.
But that day, something must have happened, because the Ice was quick to devour
the last remaining haven of humanity. January 2006 had seen Roraima lost to
the Ice, a glacier descending the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the formation
of a solid bridge of ice in Asia from where one could walk from the North pole
straight down to the South pole without ever once encountering aught but ice.
Some unhappy souls had been spared the being criogenized, and instead found
themselves wandering aimlessly over the ice. Tribal communities sprung up near
the equator, where the cold was more benign, but solitary ice wanderers did
live all over the frozen globe, most of them nothing but pale and wild ghosts,
fallen angels lacking their former glory.
None of them survived the Ice. Violent conflicts, hidden crevasses, bitter cold, famine, sickness; all of these took their toll on the few human shelters that had managed to organize themselves despite the harshness of their situation. Indeed, nothing survived the Ice. For a thousand years Earth was nothing but a frozen wasteland.
Building an utopia takes time, after all. Time, toil and tears.
- end prologue.
beta notes -
version 2.02 – march.05.2003
Since I got frustrated by my little DNA gel today I felt the need to play some
sort of mock tribute to it.
Other than that, some somewhat substantial reworkings of certain paragraphs to make the writing more amenable to my tastes and also to reflect my new consideration for the collective human intellect. Hey, I am a scientist in training, after all...
The end of the chapter suffered the most substantial changes because I want to emphasize that Mamoru et al (and if anyone wonders about the diction, indeed, he is the main character) had absolutely no control – and no clue – about what was going on, as far as the Ice was concerned. Sure, they were kept well informed (and how could they not, knowing Ami?) but other than that they were at much of a loss as the rest of the world.
Did I succeed?
I no longer feel that the last line offends my sensibilities, but I am still open to suggestions on how to rework it, so nag away. Just make sure it is either a horrific pun on the concept of time, or some popular saying that has to do with bidding your time and something along those lines.
Chapter one is coming along nicely, thanks for asking. ;)
- end beta notes - comment at will.
narie
(bakanarie @ hotmail.com
http: // paginas.terra.com.br / arte / bakanarie /
(close spaces))