"Schism..."

"Hea -teddd", were my words to describe this summer.

Summer had barely begun and I felt like I was already sweating off my face. I think to some degree even my hair ends had began to spring some liquid, boy was it hot. I guess dad sensed the temperature that’s why he didn’t want me to go out today.

“You got that right”, Mrs. Malik agreed, “Once you stay cool and stay inside you should be great, you know this much heat isn’t good for your skin dear”.

I shook my head as I watched her gingerly walking away and wondered if she ever saw a snack stand inside a house. My Uncle Jules owned quite a few snack stands around town and he needed the extra help. Besides I was being paid, and for that I was glad because it would come in handy for the new scooter I wanted to buy for the next term. There was no way of escaping this heat; I would have done anything for cool breeze at that point.

The morning trailed on lazily, just think I could have been at a summer camp somewhere, probably soaking in a lake. It seemed as if nature heard my thoughts from earlier, because just then a cool breeze began to blow. I was grateful for the clouds I saw in the north; maybe it could cover the sun and give my skin a break that would be even better.

“Yes this was the stuff”, I said out loud, as I watched the town folk scampering for shade.

By three in the afternoon, it seemed like if the town was abuzz, everyone seemed to be… busy. Everyone in town was up and down despite of the sun that seemed to have turned up a few degrees; I had started to get curious.

“Was I missing something”, I thought. Just then I saw my classmate Mason.

“Mason, what’s up”, I asked.

“Just going to get some groceries for my mom”, he shrugged.

 “Where is everyone going”, I asked. “The only time town is this busy is during the Hunchy, Munchy town extravaganza”, I laughed.

“The weather report said that there will be a thunderstorm in a few hours or something”, Mason answered.

“Ooookkkkk, so what’s so disturbing about a thunderstorm, it’s not like that has never happened before”, I shrugged.

“Yeah, but they are expecting a super storm”, he said eyebrows raised.

“A super storm” I answered distracted. “Oh, well I guess that is unusual”, I said scratching my head, “But how”.

“They said something about super storm cells and cold fronts moving from the arctic, I dunno”, he answered.

Just then my cell began to ring, it was dad.

“It’s my dad, later Mason”, I said raising my hand to him as he walked away..

“Hey dad”, I answered.

“Vanessa pack up and come home now”, he said, in a firm tone.

“Ok, I’m on it”, I said, as I started to throw stuff under the counter of the snack stand.

By nightfall it seemed as if a hurricane was in tow, I had just made it home when the rain began its angry assault to the earth; I blew a sigh of relief. I had tried calling my mom but her phone was switched off, I hoped she was ok.

As I entered the door I was hit with the newsflash on TV. My dad turned around to look at me; his face was in deep concentration, whatever it was it looked like a hurricane from the news reviews. We didn’t get hurricanes and besides why were we not warned before. Luckily it seemed like dad had gone shopping, from all the stuff that was stocked up.

“Did you get in contact with mom”, I asked, as the first peal of thunder vibrated off of the windows.

“No, her cell is still off and she isn’t at Maurice’s house”, he answered.

Ten minutes later, a truck pulled up in front of our house, I watched as my mom jumped haphazardly from her seat, she landed on her butt.

“Thanks Trevor”, she shouted out to whoever was driving as she got up and ran towards the house.

I hugged her, “I was getting worried, your cell was off”, I said.

“Yeah, it died”, she replied as she went to hug my dad.

Half an hour later, we listened as the wind kept picking up speed outside and the thunder and lightning seemed to mirror the action. The electricity soon followed and we were left feeling our way in the dark. Fortunately dad seemed to have prepared, so we found everything easily. The rain pounded mercilessly on our house, it would not be pleasant to be caught outside in this storm.

We had a quiet dinner, except for the ruckus outside and after dinner, I retired to bed, it didn’t seem like the power would return soon enough so I could be updated on the storm. Dad had an old radio though, so he was keeping track of whatever was being reported. Dad was ex-army so he had a backup everything, just in case, sometimes I thought he was paranoid at least that was how he was acting the last couple of weeks. I said good night, as I left my parents sitting on the couch, talking. I had a long day with the work and heat.

I fell into bed like a sack of potatoes and put my earphones on music always helped me to sleep comfortably.

My next conscious thought was somebody shaking me awake, like what’s with that.  But before I could respond, I was hit with a brisk temperature. Was it … cold? I mean thunderstorms sometimes dropped the temperature, but this wasn’t that.

“Vanessa, you need to get up”, my dad said as he handed me a thick coat. It was hands down-gut wrenching-ears ringing-toe curlingly cold.

“Dad wha-wha-whats happening”, I managed to stutter. He was handing me the entire winter get up.

“I can’t say for sure honey, but it seems like we should expect some snow”, he muttered.

“How… how is that possible, its sum-summer”, I stuttered, trying to get my teeth to cooperate. I mean I wasn’t a climatologist but even I knew that it’s impossible for snow to fall in the summer unless you lived at some high elevation or something. Dad sighed, I watched as mom walked into the room.

“Early last year there were whispers”, my dad began.

“Whispers of what”, I asked puzzled.

“Remember the Kryalisis War a few years ago”, he asked.

“Yes everyone does, when the people from Kryalia had the civil war and activated their nuclear sites”, I said.

Kryalia was a nation of more that 130 million in Atlantic Ocean, which was closer to Europe. They were leaders in advanced technology and were considered one of the most distinguished nations on planet earth. It was said influences from outside nations created divide among the leaders and people of Kryalia and well you get the picture. A civil war later ensued and someone who had access to the nuclear sites detonated them all. Millions were killed and the surrounding nations were affected, it was basically a waste land today. It happened a little over five years ago, every child knew the story.

“Remember they had created a task force to deal with the nuclear exposure from becoming a global catastrophe, they limited the radiation, the soot and nuclear fallout”, he asked indicating on his fingers

“Yes”, I answered nodding; the information had begun to warm me up.

“What the general population was not aware of, was that another task force had been instituted to trap the radiation and to turn it into renewable energy, because their aim was to create another energy source”, he answered.

“That would explain why there wasn’t a great deal of radiation sickness in areas that were being expected”, mom added, “they enclosed it”.

“They created some sort of shield”, dad added scratching his head.

“That makes no sense, there’s no way they could have known this would happen and to build something in time to trap it would have been impossible”, I said.

But the look my father gave me brought me to realization, “Unless they knew that someone was going to activate the nukes instead”.

“Bingo”, my dad answered, “Based on what I heard, activation those type of nukes created an endless power supply, that way it could be easily harnessed in that form”.

“But these all sound like conspiracy theories, hoaxes made up for fun, dad this can’t be real”, I said, laughing nervously as I looked at my mother, “I mean you can’t get away with something like that, there’s no way somebody can cover that up”.

“When money, power and agendas are in agreement, there’s nothing that cannot be done”, he answered.

“But all those people, all those lives”, I said in horror, analyzing what I had just heard. Tears sprung to my eyes, this was terrible

“So there were whispers a few weeks ago”, he said again, “that due to global warming and the changing climate and the force from the radiation being exerted on the shields, the machine they built had began to destabilize”.

“So what does that mean”, I asked, but did I really want to know the answer.

“The simplest way I can put it, is a hyperactive nuclear winter” he said. How was it, that no one saw this coming, no reports, no new cast, no nothing about it, I thought.

By seven that morning, the snow had began to fall. There was no hint of sunlight; it was as dark as the night before. Dad said it was because of the soot from the explosions, it had begun to move in the air currents, and only heaven knew how far it would spread. Worst of all we didn’t know how bad it could get and with events like these there was always some degree of unrest.

It wasn’t as if anyone was expecting it to snow. What was going to happen now? Just to think, yesterday I was complaining about the heat and the sun and just look at the difference twenty four hours made. I was bundled up looking through the window as I heard dad nailing down boards, he was boarding up the house. I guess it was a good thing he was a little paranoid.

But most of all how ironic it was that snow would fall in summer…