Chapter 2: Chill

Dimension 666
Hell

Heather held the guinea pig on her lap, finding some peace from her thoughts and reality as she leaned against a wall painted sky blue enjoying the feeling of the soft fur under her fingers. The bright yellow light shone on her pale, black skin. The brown jumpsuit she wore was well worn, more patches than original, but it was comfortable and that was something to be treasured here.

Other people sat reading books that were stained, with covers falling off, but still usable, chatting with friends, or played with the rabbits and guinea pigs that nibbled on the soft grass. Their skin like hers was pale and sickly, their bodies had little fat on them, some had scars, more than a few on their wrists or necks, and all of them looked older than they should. At least they were clean, water was one thing they weren’t short on.

The buzzer went off, time was up, back to the real world for another week. Heather stood up slowly, staring at the UV lights that helped keep them healthy in hell. She wondered not for the first time, probably not even the hundred thousandth time why she bothered. So much easier to sink down into memories, forget to get out of bed in the morning, forget to eat, to drink, just sink permanently into the blankness that was becoming an ever present part of her life when she wasn’t working.

Her feet moved her through the airlock like door as, Mrs Andrews, a middle aged woman with a leg made crooked from a badly healed break, watched them go marking them off on a tablet, making sure they didn’t try to sneak an animal out of the relaxation/UV area. The woman smiled as they filed out, it seemed genuine, but it could have been faked, she’d had over two years of practice.

Mrs. Andrews raised a maimed hand to Heather’s shoulder, the smile dropped revealing her concern. “How are you doing?”

“Still alive,” the girl said, her voice so bereft of emotion it almost scared her.

“Do you need anything? Are your roommates treating you well?”

She shrugged. “They’re ok. I need to go, I have to go outside at 13:30, can’t be late.”

Mrs. Andrews gave her a hug. Part of her wanted to return it, wanting to enjoy the human contact, but she was numb, tired, exhausted, and well beyond caring. Finally the hug ended. The woman looked her straight in the eye, “Your a survivor, Heather. Remember that. Stay alive.”

“Stay alive,” she repeated.

She walked towards the cafeteria, ignoring the dripping water from the stone ceilings, the rusty grates that made up the floor, and the orange suited community offenders who scurried along doing the dirty work that kept everyone alive for a few more days. The damp air should have had everyone sick with the flu or colds, but no one had been sick since the first month. There weren’t enough people to keep viruses alive.

People greeted her, giving wane smiles, and saying the so common phrase, ‘stay alive’. She stepped into an elevator and hit the button, before slinking into a corner, trying to ignore the other passengers. A book would have been nice or a notepad, Heather thought, she could pretend to be busy and people would ignore her. Instead she had to nod at people, look at them as they tried to talk and asked how she was. One word, monotone answers were all she gave them in return. It wasn’t like she could talk about the weather.

The elevator reached her level, she ran out, hoping that if she walked fast enough no one would talk to her. She reached the cafeteria, and held her wrist up for the gate keeper. He scanned the red wrist band, the information appeared on a well used tablet.

“Happy birthday Heather!” the man said. “How do you feel now that your sixteen?”

“Still alive.”

He frowned at her response, but didn’t say anything. Instead he plucked a series of pills from the dispensers, putting them onto a tray, along with a small cup of murky water. “Here you go.”

She looked them over making sure they were her usual. Vitamins, supplements, extra strong prozac, and of course the protein drink to get it all down. With years of practice, she grabbed them in one hand and popped the dozen pills slowly down her throat, feeling them click together as they fell. The gritty water was next, forcing the larger pills that caught in her throat to go down.

“Stay alive,” the man said, handing her a red food tray before waving her through.

“Stay alive,” she returned.

Heather got in the slow moving line, while those ahead of her chose their meals from the scant choices available. Today’s special was meal worm and guinea pig meat loaf, bean and mushroom soup, and steamed bamboo shoots. There was also rat and mushroom mash, bean porridge, fried mushrooms, and beetle surprise. It was finally her turn, the server saw her red tray and smiled.

“Heather!” the boy exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me it was your birthday. I’m hurt.”

She managed a small smile, “Sorry Trevor, it didn’t seem very important.”

Trevor pretended to be shocked. “It’s your birthday, how many pretty sixteen year olds do we have here? Of course its important. And since we knew it was someones birthday, the chefs prepared a special treat.”

He turned to one of the warming pans, and pulled out a small plastic plate. There was a small hamburger patty on it, topped with lettuce, and a thin slice of tomato. “Here you are, one hundred percent prime beef, perfectly spiced and prepared. We had to fight off a horde of hungry beggars to save it for you, it was a mighty battle that is destined for the history books!”

Heather couldn’t hold back the giggle, even as she wished she still had long hair to hide behind. For the first time in over a year she was self conscious of the buzz cut she and everyone else had. Somehow Trevor could always smile and act funny, most people thought the gangly boy with the lopsided grin was given an extra strong dose of happy pills every meal. “Thank you, my valiant warrior.”

“Anything for a fair maiden,” he said bowing. “Alas, I must return to work. But mayhap you will meet me for a movie in the theatre tonight?” He started filling the rest of her tray with specially measured plates and bowls of food. It was enough to keep her alive, but not much else.

“I have to go up top for a supply run. I don’t know when I’ll get back. But tomorrow night I’m free,” she said.

The smile on his face somehow grew. “I’ll see you then. Stay alive.”

“I will,” she said.

Finding a free seat, she sat down and cut her hamburger patty into tiny pieces. It was the size of a kids burger from an old fast food restaurant, but a luxury now. She savoured each small bite, trying to draw out every ounce of flavour, making it last. There was no telling when she’d see another.

Her eyes went to the empty seat in front of her. For a second she thought she saw an older man sitting there, his square, plastic glasses slipping down his nose, a smile surrounded by a week old scruffy beard that he had forgotten to shave off, made his face light up. A woman and a little boy sat beside him, she wore a pretty blue dress, her face framed by tight braids that helped thin her chubby, chipmunk cheeks. The little boy was playing with a toy dog, he was laughing at her.

Tears threatened to fall, she held them back through sheer force of will. If she cried now, she wasn’t sure she could stop. Then they’d keep her from going up top, keeping her inside in the tunnels, surrounded by people. She had to see the sky again, even though it brought nightmares. Anyways, she told herself bitterly, the phantoms were gone now, just ghostly memories of her family. She couldn’t dwell on them. They were lost during the chaos and then in the wasteland above. She was all that was left now. She had to stay alive for them. Her father had made her promise to stay alive.

That was all life was now, stay alive.

Finishing her meal, she handed the tray to another person who looked it over carefully to make sure she’d eaten everything. Then she headed up to the top level. They were expecting her, and she needed to see the stars.

**

“Can you do your job today, Heather?” Sargent Myers asked, helping Heather into the suit.

“Yes ma’am,” Heather said. She really could, she was in a funk, but there was no way she was going to let herself die up top.

“Repeat the rules.”

She sighed, her father had helped make the rules in the first month. He’d drilled them into her head a thousand times. “Maintain radio contact at all times. Stay within sight of at least two other team members. Ensure you have five lights activated at all times. Do not move more than five meters from your vehicle at anytime. Keep your safety rope attached to yourself and the vehicle at all times. If in doubt back off and call for help. If the suit gets a hole, patch it immediately and call for help. If the oxygen tank gets to half full notify the leader and be ready to return to base or the supply truck. Do not be a hero.”

“Good,” Myers said, zipping up the front of the suit and sealing the flaps over the zipper that would make it airtight. “I know it’s your birthday, and I really tried to get someone else to be the medic, but there was no one available. I’ll make it up to you on the next run.”

“It’s ok, ma’am,” Heather said, moving her arms in the bulky suit to make sure she could move properly. “It’s just another day.”

“It’s another sign that we’re still alive,” the sergeant corrected her. “It should be a special day. So make sure you come back, I have a piece of chocolate waiting for you.”

“You’re joking!”

The stern faced soldier allowed herself a smile. “Nope. I made sure to bring a couple blocks of chocolate with me, and everyone under my command gets a piece on their birthday.”

Water filled her mouth at the thought of actually tasting chocolate again. The last of Sanctuary’s chocolate rations had been used up after only six months. “Thank you, ma’am. I won’t disappoint you.”

“I know you won’t, you never have.” Myers placed an astronaut like helmet on her suit, twisting it on. “Ok, wait a minute while we do a seal test.”

Heather waiting patiently as her sergeant and a technician made sure everything was air tight. A bad seal could get her killed, and even in her present mood she didn’t want to die on the cold surface. Her leg was itchy, she ignored it, it wasn’t like she could scratch it. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself for the mission, panicking would get her and others killed. Breath in, breath out, she’d done this over a hundred times, she had more experience on the surface than half the people living in the tunnels.

“Radio check, Heather. Can you hear me?” Myers asked, her voice crackling.

She tilted her head slightly to speak, “Radio check is confirmed. I hear you loud and clear.”

“Connection is clear. I’m handing you over to Captain Rodgers. Stay alive.”

“Get on your snow mobile Heather, and prepare to roll out,” Captain Rodgers’ voice boomed in her helmet. She wondered not for the first time why he seemed to think she was deaf. Sighing, she walked to the specially designed snow mobile. There were no openings in it, everything was sealed and made to keep it from freezing or overheating. The back was loaded down with oxygen tanks and an emergency medical and patching kit. If everything went well she was going to have a boring time, but she was ready if things went badly.

Sitting down, a technician attached the tubes to the oxygen tank, and she was breathing canned air, a secondary tube attached to an emergency airtank on her back, hopefully it wouldn’t be needed. The large vehicle bay was full of noise now as the technicians and unsuited people headed for the doors. The vehicles started. Trucks that dwarfed city buses with wheels over ten feet in diameter moved towards the exit on quiet electric engines, while smaller snowmobiles travelled beside them. The massive metal hatch began to open.

The two dozen vehicles went through three hatches, each hatch was over two feet thick and solid metal. As they went through the first one, the air was sucked out, leaving them in a near vacuum. This was repeated each time, to ensure there weren’t any leaks and no precious gases escaped. Heather could feel the deepening cold through her suit, she started to shake. Finally the last door cracked open. It was specially heated to prevent ice from locking it shut. The world outside was pitch black and motionless except for the tiny lights of the vehicles and their passengers, struggling to survive another day on a dead planet.

As always, she looked up trying to see the sun in the dark sky.

Stars provided a bit of light. There were more stars than she could imagine in the sky, little lights in the darkness of space. Before, she had always thought they were cold and distant, but now she knew what cold really was. The stars were a promise of life. Above her head the space station First Step floated past, its light a sign that there were other people alive, that there was hope for the future.

And then she saw the sun, what was left of it.

It was a blank spot in the midst of the stars. Covered up by some hyper technology that might as well have been magic. People had thought it was magic, when the sky lit up four years ago. The flash seen around the world. Telescopes saw ships as large as the moon surrounding the sun, and then the sun had begun to dim. The human race had sent out desperate pleas for mercy, to whatever was out there. They’d been ignored, the invaders just kept surrounding the sun in a barrier that was as incomprehensible to most people, as nuclear physics was to a gorilla.

Within two years the sun was wrapped up in an unbreakable orb and the Earth froze. Only a few dozen outposts had survived, in space and underground, living on scrabbled together technology, mining the earth for minerals and the ice for air and water. Huddled near geothermal vents, oil wells, coal and uranium mines and anywhere else they could get power and heat to hold back the bitter cold and keep the machines powered. Trying to buy time to develop the technology to survive and find a warmer home.

Heather followed the trucks, driving over the ice covered landscape that had once been Yellowstone Park. The ice was layered by gases, the brilliant blue of frozen oxygen was almost nonexistent, having been mined during the first few months. The pure white carbon dioxide was much more common. They drove along a canyon created by humans with ice towering all around them. There were crews of workers out every week mining the ice, getting the oxygen, water and other gases they needed to stay alive. Creating a spider web of roads through the ice.

It took twelve minutes of slow driving to reach the slaughter house.

As she watched, men and women poured out of the massive trucks, armed with torches and chainsaws that could work in the airless atmosphere, as well as ice shovels and axes. They cut into the ice, dismembering the cows, pigs, chickens and other farm animals that had been slaughtered in the millions as soon as the Earth started to freeze, stockpiling a source of food for the survivors. It was amazing it could work, as riots, fighting and mass suicide heralded the end of the world.

Heather watched, trembling not just from cold but fear. She loved to see the stars, the last source of natural light in a world gone dark, being free of the tunnels was the one joy she had left in the world. But her father had been lost up here. Her mother and brother were frozen miles away, caught in a riot as they tried to get to Sanctuary, while what was left of the military fought to keep Sanctuary from being overwhelmed and destroyed by desperate refugees.

“I’m not going to die in the cold,” she told herself. In the warm tunnels below, she could die, surrounded by people who knew her. But up here with just the stars to look upon, frozen, lost and alone for all eternity, it was her nightmare even as she stared desperately at the sky.

“I’m not going to die in the cold,” she repeated. It was her mantra, she didn’t pray anymore she had no belief in a merciful deity. Like everyone else there was only reality. And reality came down to three simple phrases, ‘still alive’, ‘stay alive’, and ‘I’m not going to die’.

The ground shook. Scared voices asked what was happening over the radio as the captain and officers told everyone to remain calm.

Heather clutched the handles of her snowmobile, staring at the massive glaciers that towered above her. The ground shook again. For a second she thought she could see blue sky. The sun appeared, surrounded by a mad tapestry of colours. The ice cracked and fell. She couldn’t tell where she was, if she was standing or falling. Gravity went crazy. She screamed as a house size chunk of ice fell towards her.

Mercifully the madness ended as she fell unconscious.

**

Dimension 1

Something was beeping. Heather struggled to wake up, the beeping sounded urgent. Her body was cold, and everything was dark. Her eyes hurt, slowly they opened up. She saw the beeping light, and barely suppressed a scream. The oxygen meter of her emergency air tank was almost empty. Staggering to her feet, she saw her snowmobile crushed beneath a huge slab of ice. The oxygen tanks on it were destroyed.

“This is Heather! I’m low on oxygen, I have fifteen minutes of oxygen left. My snowmobile is destroyed,” she said, trying to remain calm.

She looked around, trying to see where everyone was. The ice had collapsed all around her, she was cut off. “Does anyone read me. Please come in!”

There was still no answer.

“I’m not going to die in the cold,” she said. Even if the ice had blocked her off, there had to be a rescue party coming. She just had to find it. “I’m still alive,” she whispered. “I’M STILL ALIVE!”

Scrambling over the fallen ice, the cleats of her boots dug into the surface, letting her move over the slick surface. Her eyes kept moving to the falling oxygen meter. Every minute she called for help. A piece of ice twisted under her feet, her skull cracked against the inside of her helmet, making her see stars. Screaming she started to slide back down as she tried to find something to grab onto. She hit a ledge, her teeth cracked together and her knees ached from the landing.

Taking a second to catch her breath, she looked at the wide ledge in confusion. It hadn’t been there when she climbed up. There was no way she could have missed the five foot wide ledge, Where had it come from, she wondered. The beeping of her oxygen monitor snapped her mind back into focus, she started climbing again.

Heather came to another stop moments later, and wanted to scream. There was no way to continue. The ice canyon was blocked by sheer boulders of ice that were the size of houses. She would have to go back down and find a new path, which was impossible with her oxygen almost gone.

“I’m not going to die,” she said, glaring at the wall of ice.

She found the roughest part of the ice, and slammed her hand onto it, desperate to find a way up. The steel hard brilliant blue ice shattered, forming a perfect handhold. Not giving herself time to wonder, Heather drove her foot into the cliff, the ice might as well have been water for all the resistance it gave her. She climbed upwards, not bothering to look for handholds anymore, just bending the ice to her will as desperation built up inside of her.

Dragging herself over the top, her chest hurt, black dots rose in her eyes, she struggled to stay upright as the world spun around her. A sob rose in her throat, she was standing on a ledge that was all of three feet wide with a straight twenty foot drop below her.

“No,” she whispered. “Not like this. I don’t want to die.”

She looked away from the certain death below. She might be able to see Sanctuary, or a search party. There was a still a chance, she was still alive. Looking ahead, what she saw made her breath catch in her throat.

There was a forest in front of her. A real forest. Trees blew in the wind. A lake full of liquid water was less than a mile away. She looked up into the sky, the moon was there, it’s silvery surface was beautiful. Tears fell from her eyes, with the loss of the sun, the moon had become nothing more than a black spot in the sky, but there it was, shining brightly.

Carelessly she stepped forward, drawn to the beauty like a moth to a flame. The ice rumbled rising up to catch her before she could fall. Heather didn’t notice any of it, her eyes couldn’t move from the impossible sight.

She heard a helicopter. Helicopters couldn’t fly anymore, she thought dumbly, there wasn’t any air to support them. But there it was. A spot light broke through the darkness, lighting up the ice.

This couldn’t be real.

Using her tongue, she switched the radio frequency every twenty seconds, calling for help each time, on the fifth try, she heard voices. She fell to her knees, she didn’t know who they were. She knew who everyone was, but these were strangers. Trembling, she said, “Hello, is anyone there?”

“This is Yellowstone search and rescue chopper 213, who is speaking? Over,” the voice said.

“I-I’m Heather Freedman, medic for supply team 3. I am attempting to return to Sanctuary and am on the fallen ice. I’m running low on oxygen, and need assistance.” she said, acting totally by rote.

“Please repeat, did you say you are low on oxygen?” the voice sounded confused.

“There was an accident. My snowmobile is destroyed. I am cut off and low on oxygen,” she repeated, staring at the hallucination in front of her. The spotlight found her, she waved at the helicopter despite the blinding light.

“Heather, are you in the light?”

She was in shock, she was out of oxygen and this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. It had to be a hallucination. God please let it be real, she thought. “Yes. It’s me.”

“Take off your helmet. It’s cold here, but you can breath. We’re coming to get you, just stay still,” the voice said.

The oxygen meter was beeping madly, declaring itself empty. If she took it off she would die. The earth was dead. But there were trees and water just in front of her. There was a helicopter above her. She was surrounded by ice, but the moon was in the sky. Her body trembled in fear and shock. This couldn’t be real, this was impossible. There weren’t any trees left, there was nothing except ice and darkness.

But…

There were trees, there was the moon, there was a helicopter that shouldn’t exist. And she was out of oxygen, she was going to die anyways. Taking off the clumsy, thick gloves, revealing much thinner but still insulated gloves, she worked on the seals of her helmet. The hiss of escaping air made her scream in fear. She knew she was going to die. She’d be just another frozen corpse littering the dead world. They’d never found her fathers body, or her brother and mother. They probably wouldn’t find her either. There weren’t enough resources to worry about someone who was dead already.

She smelled something that she had thought was gone forever.

Trees.

Heather took off her helmet. The air was bitterly cold, but for the first time in over two years she felt a fresh breeze on her skin, she smelled something clean and natural, and looked at the stars without a layer of plastic between her and them.

Taking a deep breath of clean air, she couldn’t take her eyes off the beautiful trees even as tears she’d been holding back for so long came so hard and fast it was like a dam breaking. Maybe she could even see the sun again. A man lowered himself from the helicopter. He was saying something to her, she couldn’t understand him, her mind had gone blank from shock and amazement.

The man looked at her, his face was healthy and tanned. Hesitantly her fingers reached out, slowly, shaking, afraid he would break and end the wondrous sight before her. He kept talking, it might as well have been gibberish. He touched her hand, she could barely feel the warmth coming from his skin. But it was enough.

Finally, she admitted to herself that this was real.

She didn’t know how or why, but it was real.

Throwing herself into the mans arms, Heather howled, releasing all the sorrow and pain she’d been holding in for so long. The ice around them shattered, leaving the two on a single icy pillar barely wide enough to hold them.