Frozen Silence

November 5th, 2057. The early morning air was as sharp and cold as usual, breathing air felt like inhaling needles. Amelia awoke from her slumber, taking a deep breath, wanting it not to hurt. But deep inside she knew that it would.  She got up to see if her parents had left her something to eat, and walked into the living room where a warm breeze caressed her cheek. The feeling reminded her of the caresses from her mother when she was little. Her Dad had finally lit up the fireplace today, she thought to herself. 

 “Good morning,” her Dad greeted warmly. 

  Amelia just smiled but didn't say anything, and walked to the kitchen for a coffee that was bound to be cold, and a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup.

Having to put on so many layers of clothes just to go outside for 5 minutes made her  realize how much she actually hated the environment she had to live in, reminding  her of a withered garden. Today was different. It felt like she was all alone in the world, like all life was gone. But most likely it was just a feeling, which, however, stayed in her mind.

At school, she couldn't stop thinking about it so much that she didn't even notice that her geography teacher, Mr. Bernards, was asking her what she thought about global warming.

“Amelia, are you paying attention?”  asked Mr. Bernards with a raised voice.

“Yeah." Amelia murmured without even knowing what the class was about.

“You were looking out the window, not paying attention AGAIN. I asked you what 

you think about global warming.”

Amelia furrows her eyebrows irritably at the question. 

“Why are we even talking about global warming when we should be discussing the situation that we are living in? Why is the whole of Europe living like it’s in the Ice Age, while other continents have normal warm summers? The only thing that we’re missing are mammoths, and it would be just like 20 000 years ago.”

“Amelia, can you please not raise your voice.’’

Amelia just sighed and went back to looking out the window.

After school, she still couldn’t get that one question out of her head. " Why?”. She needed to know why Europe had to suffer, whilst in other continents people lived happy lives, only having to care about what fast food they were going to have for lunch and what dress looks the best on them . The feeling of not knowing the answer to the question and what else could happen in the future was eating away at her from the inside out.

As soon as she came home, she took out her computer, needing answers that no one wanted to give her. She opened dozens of tabs: climate reports, old newspaper articles, archived files that hadn’t been touched in years. Until one article caught her eye named Post-AMOC Impact Zone – Europe. She clicked on it, reading it as fast as she could, and at the end the only thing that was in her head was “WOAH”.

Her dad was in the kitchen cooking tomato soup for lunch. Amelia ran down the stairs, stomping so loudly that the whole neighborhood could hear her. 

 “Dad, what was the world like in 2025?”Amelia asked. 

“Well when we were going out we didn't look like we live in Antarctica that's for sure.” 

“And what was the environment like? Was it covered in plants and flowers and was every season different and-”

“Hey calm down! Why do you even care?”

Because what if we could do something to fix the AMOC collapse!”

“Amelia, I know that it is hard to live in a world like this, but you should care about normal things.”

“But nothing's normal. Waking up every morning hoping your eyelashes don’t freeze off isn’t normal. Eating cold oatmeal and drinking cold coffee isn’t normal. Europe being a frozen wasteland isn’t normal!”

“We just have to accept reality, sweetheart. We adapt, like people always do.”

“ What if I just don't want to adapt?”Amelia whispered to herself and walked away.

November 6th. The cold air stung her cheeks as she walked to school, the wind pushing against her like a living thing. She tried to ignore it, tried to ignore the knot of unease in her stomach, but nothing felt right. Not the sky. Not the silence. Not the way the world seemed frozen in more than just temperature. Amelia walked into the classroom and sat at her usual seat. The first lesson was geography.” Maybe Mr. Bernards will help me, if not my Dad.”  she thought.

After class, she had to go to him. She couldn’t keep living in lies, and if anyone knew the truth, it had to be him. Amelia waited until the last student slipped out of the classroom. Mr. Bernards was packing up his papers, humming softly to himself, completely unaware of the storm brewing behind her eyes.

“Mr. Bernards?” Her voice cracked, just a bit.

He looked up. “Yes, Amelia?”

“Could you tell me something about the AMOC collapse?”

“Who told you about that?”

“No one. I found an article. It wasn’t even hidden, just  forgotten.” She stepped closer. “Is it true?”

“Amelia,” he began, lowering his voice, “what you read…most of it is classified now. After the collapse in the thirties, governments decided that fear would cause more damage than the cold ever could.”

“But we can fix it, right? There has to be something.”

“There were attempts. Some worked for a while but most didn't. There was one project that held promise. Project Aurora. It was shut down before you were born.”

“Why shut it down if it worked?”

“That is enough questions. I have another class to teach” he mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact.

“But-”

“ Amelia, I really need to go. And you should too.”And with that, Mr. Bernards strode out of the classroom without even looking back.

Amelia stood frozen for a moment, staring at the empty doorway. Her heart raced. Project Aurora. It sounded like something out of a dream…or maybe a warning. She grabbed her backpack and hurried home, her thoughts spinning faster than the biting wind around her. Once inside, she shut the door behind her and leaned against it, trying to calm her racing pulse. Her father was in the kitchen again, stirring something in a pot, but she barely noticed.

She pulled out her laptop and began digging through old government archives, bypassing the usual firewalls with tools she’d taught herself to use. Hours passed, the room growing colder as the fire in the fireplace flickered low.  With every minute she sat at the computer trying to find some hope, she slowly began to accept that she would have to wake up every morning into the cold world with no happiness left in it. Until she tried the last thing that could give her the answers she wanted. Then she remembered the boxes in the attic that her father had hidden away after her mother's funeral. Her mom loved writing books and stories  about the future based on some articles so maybe they could be helpful.