The small Canadian town is dark, windy and desolate,
not a
soul
in
sight. It's only 4pm but night comes early this
far north, and all the inhabitants
are
wisely
staying indoors. No stores are open and I am hungry, and my five-minute
search for an open restaurant is
fruitless,
so I trudge
through the snowy streets to
a small hotel. 'Got any eats?'
I ask the glum-looking
woman
sitting behind reception.
'You're in luck. There's some stew on the stove, fifty dollars a plate.'
'Fifty bucks?
You're kidding, right?'
'It's fifty, take it or leave it..' I throw some bills over the
counter.
The stew tastes good, probably moose. I sit down in the hotel lounge and switch on the television. The only station still broadcasting is the one set up by the US government. It gives hourly reports about the ongoing situation and pictures from many places around the world. When it started to get really cold, those who had enough money, headed south for some warmth before the heat goes for good. Scientists now estimate that in two more weeks the maximum global temperature will be zero degrees. Up here in northern Canada, it is now minus forty-five and still dropping, but I have arctic clothes and a plan.
The newscaster barks out some more facts: 'NASA have announced that the surface temperature of the sun has dropped by exactly one thousand degrees since the emergency began, and estimate that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will be totally frozen over by Saturday. I'm sorry folks, but this is it. The sun has become too cool to support life on earth. This is our final broadcast. God bless us all.' The screen goes blank.
I pick up my things and leave the hotel. The woman is still
sitting behind reception, but has her head in her hands and is crying.
she is still clutching
the fifty dollars I gave her. I throw her
another hundred, 'Keep it... buy yourself something nice to wear.'
The streets are totally silent, no cars can move in this cold. My
breath
turns to ice, and with my lungs
hurting, I walk along the east road out of
town.
After two hours I find a narrow side road through the forest. I take
it and smile when I see there are car tyre tracks in the snow -
a
good sign, and many sets of fresh footprints. I
know that the others have made it
here.
The sign reads 'KEEP OUT'. I ignore it and climb over the three-metre-high metal gates. As I approach the mountainside, I can see the familiar doors that lead into many kilometres of secret underground tunnels and rooms, All powered by geothermal electricity from deep within the earth. This was my former workplace - a secret research facility containing enough food to last thirty years. It is now my only hope. When the earth freezes over, this is the best place to spend the many years of continuous winter. I reach the door and find it is already unlocked and swings open easily. I walk inside. There is a man with a gun pointed at my head. 'Hello Pam,' he says. He drops the gun and I run into his arms. We are safe.
Within the facility are many other scientists. Of course, we feel guilty because we couldn't tell many people, but there are over one hundred of us, men and women, and we hope that together we can survive into the future, and that maybe one day, the sun will become hotter and brighter again and we will be able to go out into the world and restart life.