The Ice Age of the Year 3521

Most humans didn't listen to the warning signs of climate change. I mean, I guess it's not real till it's in front of you. And, well, it was pretty real, in the year 3521.

It wasn't like we woke up one day, and suddenly the world was full of ice and snow. It happened gradually.

I mean, from what we've read in the history books, some places on Earth had 4 seasons throughout the year. But over time, these seasons turned to one: Winter.

But Winter wasn't the same in every country. It was colder in some parts of the world, and more snow in others.

By the time I was born, humans gave up the fight against climate change. I mean, it was clearly too late. At that point, people were more concerned about the famine that was happening. Food was running out fast, and all we had were storage places that had frozen cans of food.

Fruits and vegetables were still grown when I was a kid. But as I grew older, the climate became colder, and fruits and vegetables were no longer affordable.

And as for animals, well the only ones that survived, were the ones who could survive in the cold before...

One morning, I got up and noticed the pond near our house was frozen. I was so excited to finally ice skate. But soon after the excitement wore out, I realized...the temperature was rapidly dropping.

It wasn't long after that, that snow started to come in, all year round. I mean, it wasn't just a little snow...it was ALOT.

Over the next few months, the world was going into a panic. The snow was starting to cover up most people's homes, and keeping warm became increasingly difficult. Especially as the power kept going out in most places.

Eventually, the power went out completely. And nobody knew what was going on past their town or community. And the clothing we had wasn't keeping us warm anymore. So these space-looking outfits were created, and people even wore them inside the house. I mean, our heating systems shut down, so we didn't have a choice.

Oh, and that's the other thing. The standard design of houses wasn't working in the snow anymore. So igloos and caves started to become popular living arrangements.

And so, the ice age of the Year 3521 began.

It was hard to know how many humans survived. And we could only rely on word of mouth, or the occasional paper announcements sent over to town by military units. They somehow still got around with their tanks. And to cross waters, they used their submarines. And unless you worked for the government, you weren't able to travel far.

I was the only one in my family to survive in the year 3521. Mostly because I was an only child, and my parents died of old age. Well...dying of old age in an ice age, really just meant there wasn't proper hospitals or food supply to keep the elderly healthy and alive.

I did meet this one girl from our town though...her name was Jennifer. Jennifer lived alone in one of the igloos close to mine, and we met whilst in line to pick up our spacesuits.

I couldn't ignore her, she was absolutely beautiful. And after a few minutes of staring at her, I decided to introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm Josh", I said.

She smiled and didn't say anything.

I think she was just shy. I mean, a lot of us lived alone and didn't have much interaction with others. Mostly because it was too cold to go outside, and the weather made us antisocial.

But I didn't mind her shyness. I thought it was cute, actually.

Eventually, Jennifer warmed up to me. And I mean literally, we would spend whole days cuddled up to keep warm.

It wasn't my idea of romance, but we were in an ice age, and there wasn't much we could do.

One day, Jennifer and I got bored of staying in the igloo, and we decided to go exploring. So we put our spacesuits on, packed our bags, and went for a hike. We didn't know where we were going, and not because we didn't have a plan, but because everything outside looked the same. It was all ice and snow.

We tried not to go too far and left red flags on the trail behind us so we knew how to get back home. I saw this huge rock from far away, so we headed towards there. We finally got to the big rock, but it wasn't clear whether this was a house or food storage, so we decided to say "hello??" loudly into the entry.

To our surprise, nobody came out or answered. So we decided to walk in...

It was completely empty!! This was very rare. I mean, most people died because they didn't have a climate-appropriate home, and this place was just sitting around empty. And it was huge! A place like this was considered a mansion in 3521.

That day, Jennifer and I decided to move out of our igloo, and into the mansion.

We went back through our trail of red flags, kept them there so we knew our way back to the mansion, and gathered all of our things (which wasn't much), and moved into our new home.

We became so comfortable with the place being our home, we never thought we would have any intruders...

Until we did.

One night, I heard footsteps whilst Jennifer and I slept. It was a little boy and his mother, looking for shelter and food.

I told them we didn't have much ourselves, and there was food storage not far from here. But they were starving, and I couldn't say no.

She told me they had been walking all day, looking for food, and a place to stay. I told them they could stay for a while until they got back on their feet. Eventually, they left us, and we never heard from them again.

Then one day, we heard something that sounded like thunder rolling down a mountain. We quickly went outside and saw an avalanche coming towards us.

We didn't have time to think, nor take anything with us. This avalanche was coming in fast and was going to cover us, and our home. We thought the safest place was on top of our home, so we quickly started to climb it.

We were lucky enough to survive, but the snow had covered most of the house...including the entrance.

And without supplies or a home, Jennifer and I, had no choice but to go on another hike, hoping to find shelter.

It soon became dark, and we were desperate for some food, and somewhere to sleep. And then suddenly, we realized we were walking over a frozen pond. It became extremely slippery, and hard to walk on, but we couldn't go back now, we had to keep going...

Then, all of a sudden, we heard a cracking noise. And within seconds, we were in the water. Our space suits kept us afloat, but all of a sudden, something pulled me by my legs. I was terrified, and tried to kick it off. Meanwhile, Jennifer managed to get out of the water and onto the frozen pond again.

I yelled out to her, asking for help. So she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the water.

As I got up and looked back, that's when I saw her...

She was a mermaid.

I've heard of mermaids before, but I never thought they could be real. Maybe I was hallucinating, maybe the cold water got to my head, I thought.

As we continued to walk, we finally reached the end of the pond. We were so tired at this point, that we decided to sleep outside for the night. I mean, it was freezing, but our spacesuits kept us alive...well barely.

The next morning, we continued our walk. Then, all of a sudden Jennifer pointed to a lake...and it wasn't frozen.

We were amazed and confused at the same time. We ran towards it, took off our suits, and put our feet in. To our surprise, the water was warm. I told Jennifer that we should jump in, and go for a swim.

She told me to go first, and that she'd wait above in case anything went wrong.

I jumped in, swam around, and realized...I was underwater for quite some time without needing to go above water to breathe. So I kept swimming until I reached a cave.

And there she was, the mermaid I saw before...

I never swam up back to Jennifer. And to this day, the Mermaid, and I, well, we're living together underwater...