Episode 1: Ice to Meet You

General Summary

It’s the third year of “global cooling” the planet’s faced, and only the incredibly naive call it anything short of an ice age. Crop failures and half-year-long winters across most of the planet have basically spelled doom for humanity. Sure, greenhouses and the like have their uses, but the added power consumption has made the whole scenario nearly unworkable: some hydroelectric dams have been abandoned for the freezing, and there hasn’t been enough time to get enough nuclear grids online. Solar isn’t an option when it’s snowing for half the year, and wind turbines freeze solid in no time. Burning fossil fuels remains the only solution, but with the added cold comes added heat needed, and with increased darkness, there’s a greater need for outdoor lighting and the like. Plus,the country’s more obsessed with making guns and importing food from new locales, and less concerned with the population at home.
It’s a hard time to be alive, but you’re still here. Maybe you’re a survivor, or maybe you’re lucky.
Regardless, you’ve got a lead. Maybe it’s the job of a lifetime, or the story of a lifetime, or the opportunity of a lifetime. Maybe there’s wealth, or fame, or glory, or maybe even just the truth. It’s the last thing you got — it’s the only thing you got. Well, that, your car, and whatever supplies you managed to jam into it.
You’re a few hours outside of Seattle — well, a few hours in ideal driving conditions — it took you six hours to get where you are when it should’ve taken three. You’re in Concrete, Washington, a nothing town with not much more than a gas station and a diner promising cheap coffee — whatever “cheap” means when gas is twice what it was four years ago.
The GPS location you got puts your destination just near Ross lake — a fifty minute drive at least, in summer 2014 conditions. In winter, 2019? Good luck.
You pull up, fuel up, and head inside the diner as the snow seems to worsen.
Last stop.

Report Date

22 Feb 2019