Insolation

by Bradlyn Wilson

  Suddenly, something grabbed her leg. She screamed as she tried to both kick and flee at the same time. Glancing up momentarily, she saw Stephen laughing hysterically. He was full of himself until Hadley splashed him in the face. He spit out some water and lunged forward. His whole body weight came down on her pushing them both underwater. Hadley pushed away from him and moments later they both came up sputtering. Both laughed so hard they could barely breathe. Combined with being underwater they both struggled to catch their breath.

  Stephen had a boyish gleam in his eyes. “Good one,” Hadley chortled.

  “I thought it was a good idea,” He retorted.

  Everyone thought we had a brilliant idea and started to throw each other through the water. Jeremiah on the other hand just stood in the water near the edge and watched. Hadley made eye contact with him once and the look he gave her sent chills through her spine. So she looked away and tried to forget it.

  She dove under the water and enjoyed the relaxing sensation of the cool water washing over her body. She came up beside Vanya who was talking to the other girls.

  “Hey,” Hadley said to announce her presence. Vanya smiled at her meekly.

  “Hadley! This is Marcia.” Vanya motioned to a girl with curly brown hair. “Caitlyn.”

  A blonde with pale features gave Hadley a smile. Her teeth were practically the same colour as her skin. She had grey eyes, and when she didn’t have any emotion, she almost looked poetically dead.

  Vanya introduced one more girl as “Syb”. The third girls had long flowing dark hair and skin the colour of dark chocolate. She was stunning, easily the most attractive of the group.

  “Hi there,” Syb said, her voice radiating coolness. Syb was intriguing and she looked as though she was full of secrets.

  “What do you do Syb?” Hadley asked as everyone continued to drunkenly squeal through the pool. Vanya swam towards Pax, who was finishing a bottle and a glaze had spread through his eyes. Vanya kept trying to get close to him, but he was resisting. Hadley chose to ignore them and turned her attention back to Syb.

  Syb looked at Hadley with dismay, “I keep forgetting you don’t remember anything Hadley.”

  “Do you remember?”

  “I was the first one they found after the last attacks,” She sighed, “I’ve been here almost 3 months. I’m also the only one left in central intelligence. I left myself a roadmap. So I remember most things.”

  She beautifully dove underwater and surfaced a few feet away. She gave Hadley a half smile and said sadly, “Let me know when you remember Hadley, or maybe by then you won’t talk to me anymore.”

  The night sky above them started to change to dawn and they decided that we should probably get out of the water. Hadley grabbed a towel out of a cabana and tied it around her chest. Behind her she felt Pax’s hand on his hips. They were sheltered from everyone but it still made Hadley uncomfortable.

  “What are you doing?”

  “After that kiss Had, I don’t want to stay away from you.”

  “Vanya’s been after you all night, have you talked to her?

  “Why would I?”

  Hadley gave him a stern look. He was being ridiculous. He had to talk to her before she could go any further with him but he was drunk and she didn’t feel like arguing with him. He kissed her hard, and she barely moved her lips. It took her off guard.

  “Come to my room after you change?” He winked and walked away. It was a rhetorical question. Hadley shook her head and went to change, with no intention of ever going to his room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  2584

  The Earth lab was in a far corner of the complex and it took Hadley and Vanya almost twenty minutes to get there. Granted, they got lost a few times and had to keep referring to the virtual maps on the wall, they eventually got there.

  With a swipe of Vanya’s wrist, they were inside and saw Kane sitting on a table studying the immense holographic screen in front of him. Numbers were flashing along with graphs and charts.

  “What is all that?” Hadley asked.

  “I’ll explain in a second Hadley, thanks for finally showing up you two,” he noted in disdain. Vanya shrunk back and tried to stutter something.

  “It’s not like this is an easy lab to find Kane.”

  “I keep forgetting you two don’t know anything,” he was annoyed. Hadley’s blood was beginning to boil.

  She looked past him for a moment and saw that the top number on the screen was global carbon dioxide levels. She had never seen numbers so high, and her eyes widened.

  She looked back at Kane, composing herself slightly, but her words came out like fire, “You know Kane, it’s not as if we chose to lose our memories. So back off. Do you remember EVERYTHING?” She stressed the last word, basically spitting it at him.

  “No,” he admitted, turning back to the screen, leaving the conversation there.

  “So what are we doing?” Vanya piped in after a moment.

  Hadley raised her eyebrow, waiting for a response. Kane exhaled.

  “You two are on my team, as you always have been. We need to look at how humans and the earth are interacting geologically. As you two are the only Earth Scientists left,” Kane said in a happier voice than either girl had ever heard. “Slash neurobiologist— I don’t know how you possibly came up with that double major.” He added to Hadley with a smirk, but there was an edge in his voice. Judgment.

  “Now,” he continued, “let me give you the thirty second tour, so you can get your bearings.”

  Finally, Kane was doing something thoughtful and Hadley smiled to herself. He motioned them to follow him.

  There were computers everywhere and a large table in the middle of the room. There were doors leading to offshoots of the lab leading to specialized research areas such as air pollutants, weather forecasting and storm analysis. Hadley looked to one side and saw 3 large glass tubes extending to the ceiling. They each had to be 2 meters in diameter.

  “Those,” Kane said seeing Hadley’s intrigue, “Are simulators, you use the control computer in the corner and you can run 3 virtual earths’ at once. For example…”

  He went to the controls and starting typing on the holographic screen, turning the virtual dials 3 separate fields of corn appeared. He twiddled with a few buttons, and different weather occurred in each tube. One was a drought, one was too much rain and the other was the control.

  He turned another dial and time sped up, almost exponentially, until only the control remained.

  “See,” he said with a smile, wiping everything clear and continuing the tour, “Play around with it when you have a spare second.”

  On the other side of the room there was a metal surface that was at least 10 meters wide with lights blinking consistently. Two stairs were attached to the side. Numerous projectors pointing into thin air above it. Hadley stared at it puzzled, so puzzled in fact she forgot Kane was speaking.

  “Am I boring you Hadley?” Hadley looked up at him and blushed. Looking him in the eye made her think of her dream and she felt the colour creep up her face.

  “No sorry Kane—” She said looking at him briefly.

  “I was going to save that for last, but I think we’ve covered almost everything and since you seem so interested. That piece of equipment you were staring at is a state of the art Earth simulator. It takes real time data from satellites and GIS, then projects it into a globe. Watch—” He took a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. An earth started to slowly project in pixels above the metal surface. Hadley and Vanya watched in awe as finer and finer details started to develop. Every piece of Earth was perfectly displayed on the floating orb.

  Before she realized what she was doing she walked to the earth and looked at it absolutely dumbfounded. The oceans took up more area than she had ever seen or even imagined. Places she used to know as Los Angeles, Florida, Italy, Vancouver, Sydney were just gone. There were no white spots to indicate ice and half the land area was black.
Nuclear warfare does that that I suppose. Hadley thought.

  The earth as they had known it was gone. Completely and utterly changed. How was it that the world I knew had changed so greatly in such a short time, there is no way this could have happened in even the entirety of my lifetime, she was baffled into silence.

  Kane motioned for them all to step onto the platform after him. The three of them walked up and stood beside the globe, that looked perfectly real until a pixel gleamed in the light.

  Hadley put her hand out and touched the globe. It spun from her hand. She watched as a major hurricane approached North America from the north east. She waved her hand through the projected cloud but it didn’t change. “Why is there a cyclone in the North Atlantic?” she asked Kane puzzled.

  “Current changes and the effects of an intense El Niño for the last few years. The teleconnections are through the roof and with no ice and a relative change of ocean temperature and air temperature of previously unimaginable proportions—” He paused, “Well we are here to see if we can find a way to slow down the intense weather.”

  He started to pace in front of them, circling the globe. His voice was strained as he kept talking, “You see we have seen an increase of tropical storms, blizzards, rainfall, droughts— every extreme you can think of— we need to look at every climatological possibility”

  “So where does that leave us?” Vanya asked. She didn’t look up from the globe. She just wrung her hands together.

  “The amount of destruction that the nuclear war had in combination with already increased temperatures due to global climate change will soon lead to so much carbon dioxide in the air that we will be plunged into another ice age— One like the planet has never seen before.”

  “Let me show you something,” he continued. He reached out and placed his hand over the hurricane. It grew bigger around them, staying in the confines of the simulator, just a step out.

  Before Hadley knew what was happening they were in the eye of the hurricane, standing in the middle of the ocean as an eerie calm settled around them. She looked forward and saw the spiralling winds coming closer and closer. The salt water below it violently thrown into the air.

  “This spot used to be covered with hundreds of meters of ice. But I guess we were all born too late to do anything about that. The leaders of the world didn’t believe this would happen, everything really started to go downhill in 2017. They figured they’d be dead far before it happened. For the most part, that’s true,” Kane mumbled sadly, “Hemmer’s colleagues did this to the planet. The Industrial Revolution that allows us this technology and everything we know, did this. The most we can do is try to survive. We’ve got more than they ever had to work with, and there’s still little we can do. If only the climate summit in 1988 had opened the eyes of the world, we wouldn’t have lost the majority of the species and humans on earth. If only the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had been believed. If only protestors had just worked together and believed that Climate Change was real. But never mind that.”

  Kane pressed a button and they were sent spinning back into the lab. The hurricane no longer approaching them. Hadley just stared at him, dumb founded.

  “How long?” she asked, picking up his underlying meaning.

  “A month, maybe two—” He looked grim and she knew exactly how he felt. Stopping anything would be almost impossible. There was next to nothing they could do, except let the earth rejuvenate itself but they were still willing to try. They had every possible technology on earth at their disposal, and with that in mind they might find a way.

  They started to work, analyzing the numbers, graphing the changes.

  But was there really any way to stop an ice age?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Hadley got up early the next day, sleep had evaded her and her eyelids were drooping. She stood in the empty kitchen of the complex, mindlessly watching her oatmeal bubble in the pot. She grabbed strawberries and walnuts and started to chop them into small pieces.

  The picture window was mimicking her mood and the clouds were drizzling a sad grey rain. “Oh come on,” she said into the air as she turned off the heat to the stove and moved her pot to the side. She grabbed a ladle and spooned the oats into a clear bowl, sprinkling the walnuts and strawberries on top.

  She grabbed a mug and poured herself a cup of tea. She put all the dishes she’d used to cook into the automated environmentally friendly washer and composter and walked out of the kitchen. Someone had walked in as she left, but she hurried out only hearing the faint tap of their footsteps.

  The bedrooms were cold and harsh, Hadley couldn’t imagine eating her happy breakfast there and so she headed to the pool. She walked onto the deck and all she could hear was the soft ripple of water hitting against the sides. She smiled as she watched the small waves in the water.

  Her food was still hot and she let it sit for a moment to cool as she sipped her lemon tea. She opened her coinet and started to browse.

  She started to peruse the climate change websites. Looking for anything to solve the dilemma. She browsed through the ancient NOAA website and the CMS as she read the first article that came up. Canada- the First CO2 free nation. Decades after the Canadian government shut down the oil sands they have become the first nation to run completely on renewable and clean energy. As of June 13th, 2087 all power throughout the 62-million-person country will emit less than 1%.

  Suddenly she saw a new message notification, highlighted in yellow in the corner of the screen.

  New Folder Added: Video Messages

  Her heart skipped a beat. She was going to finally hear from herself. Hear her own thoughts on everything that had happened, and maybe get some clarity. Hadley opened the folder and found only two files. She clicked the first file and watched the video load on the screen. The minute she saw the room it was filmed in, memories started to come back hazily. She tried to figure out what was happening.

  It had been a clear sunny day, and Hadley was absolutely furious. She was ready to slap Hemmer and Kane. She still couldn’t understand what she was doing there; she had agreed to meet them to talk about a compromise.

  “Sit her there,” Kane said to his minion who was grasping Hadley’s fore arm roughly.

  “I thought you wanted to talk Kane. What the hell is this?” Hadley sighed.

  Hemmer walked in jollily sipping a cup of steaming coffee.

  “Morning Miss Evans,” he said gently.

  Hadley just stared at him.

  Kane turned on a tiny 4K Camera. “Hadley we need you to film your video diary, that’s why I got you to come here. The world, well it… it doesn’t look good Had.”

  “I told you not to call me that,” Hadley whispered, the nickname hitting her like a cold bucket of water.

  Hemmer pursed his lips, “Say what you need to Miss Evans.” The minion with Kane loaded a paralytic into his gun; Hadley heard it click into the chamber.

  Hadley rolled her eyes, but it was easier not to fight with them.

  She looked directly at the camera and started to talk.

  “Hey Hadley. If you are watching this, it means the worst has happened. It means that war has erupted and you have lost sight of what has happened. We saw this day coming. We knew it would happen eventually.

  I need you to remain calm. Stay collected. Remember that the SPaDI project is the only way. The RFEs are against you. Hemmer and Kane know what’s best. Listen to them and Jeremiah and Vanya. Also remember to love Pax. You always have and he loves you too, he’s your best friend even if he makes mistakes sometimes.

  I promise to give you more information in the next year or so to make this transition easier. Keep your head up and spirits high.

  I also know you probably look like me right about now. This fat lip was from self-defence and army training which you are probably restarting now. See you tomorrow?” She looked away from the screen to Kane and Hemmer and for a moment the smile fell off her face.

  “Is th
at the right ending?” She said. They nodded happily. She looked back at the screen blankly and pressed a button so the screen went black.

  Then the minion shot her with the paralytic, even though she had said exactly what she knew Hemmer wanted her to say.

  It had hurt. Hadley remembered that, she had been emotionally and physically hurt by them more times than she could count. That day had been different though because besides everything, Hemmer and Kane had been protecting her. If only she remembered what from.

  With a sigh of relief Hadley kept eating her oatmeal. The SPaDI project was good. Reassurance from herself was helpful. Though the video might have been the most awkward thing she’d ever watched, she knew no one liked watching themselves on camera.

  She should love Pax. That was a strange thing to grasp, who she should and shouldn’t love. Though Hadley knew it was herself that had said that, she didn’t even know the woman on the screen anymore. She barely knew anything and at that moment she barely knew Pax. She couldn’t help but think that maybe once upon a time she had loved him, and deep down she maybe knew she still did. However, at that moment she couldn’t focus on that.

  Love was something she couldn’t deal with. Not on top of everything else.

  In the distance an alarm bell rang, signalling it was time for work. With a groan she got up and unconsciously started to fiddle with the sleeves of her jacket which were slightly too short. The clothes at the complex were organic, biodegradable and itchy. Though good for the environment and the world, Hadley couldn’t help but think they made them ill-fitting and itchy on purpose or someone in laundry had a sick sense of humor. Hadley laughed at the ridiculous notion and she dumped her dishes into the washer as she walked through the kitchen. Her clothing was far from something she should be thinking about, because really, the ice age was coming.

  She pulled at her sleeves as she walked down the long hallway to the Earth lab. She scanned her program with a wave of her wrist and heard the faint ding as it unlocked. She pulled the heavy glass door open and it was almost silent. The door softly closed behind her with a ping and a click as it relocked itself. She made her way into the lab, dropping her coinet and earbuds on a work station. She looked around for Kane or Vanya but they weren’t there.