The Ice Warrior

“I remember, long ago, when I was just a child,” Rose, her grandmother, and her captain started the same story for the thousandth time, “in the year 2020, Earth was breathtaking. Green grass and flowers were everywhere. Oh, how I miss the flowers! The great expanses of magnificent blue oceans covered a huge part of the Earth’s surface and look at us now!” Rose said as the snowstorm blew a huge amount of snow into her face.

It gathered on her eyelashes, and she couldn’t help but remember that once upon a time, she loved the snow, when it wasn’t all there was.

“Anyway, my dear, be careful. Snow is a treacherous thing. You never know what hides beneath, so stay close to your partner and watch your steps. The Government’s focus is on the mission, but what I need is for you to stay safe,” Rose said as she kissed Silv goodbye.

She wished she could go with the girl, but she would only slow them down. The girl was smart. She would be unharmed. At least, that was what Rose hoped.

While Silv and her partner, Denis, went on through the deep snow, Silv felt the cold going through her warm clothes and chilling her skin. Nothing ever seemed warm enough for the Ice Age they were experiencing.

She wished she had seen all those things Rose talked about. She especially wondered about the warmth. It was a hard concept to imagine. Long ago, it was warm outside! People could go out and enjoy nature without a hundred layers of clothing.

In her lifetime, Silv saw nothing but snow. Snow-capped mountains and valleys. All she experienced was snow and the cold. No one could determine for sure what happened. How did it all change so drastically?

There were many stories, but none of them explained everything. Many things were unknown, and the goal of this mission was to gather information.

They were told that they would discover the remains of a government base and hopefully, some answers. Thus far, all they beheld was the blinding light of snow. If she wasn’t so tired of it, Silv would have thought it magical, but as it was, she was utterly exhausted.

Suddenly, the ground under her feet gave way, and she fell through. It was a shortfall, but she was still bruised and disoriented.

“Are you okay?” Denis shouted after her.

“I am great! Found the base! Someone could have mentioned it was an underground base,” she said, thoroughly annoyed as Denis climbed down to join her.

“They probably didn’t know. You know how it is. Those old maps are usually very unreliable. We are lucky it even got us this far,” he started defending the precious Government.

Barely able to control her contempt, Silv mumbled under her breath.

“Yeah, that’s how I feel, lucky,” Silv whispered.

“Let’s get this over with. Let’s split up and look for the documents,” she said out loud.

Denis seemed reluctant, but after a few moments, he agreed.

Ending up in some kind of laboratory, Silv couldn’t curb her curiosity and went to investigate all the strange tools and devices. They were old-fashioned, making Silv question their potential purpose.

Captain Rose would know. She always seemed to live in the past, the happier times she called them.

There was something sinister about the pointed objects Silv examined. It is possible those joyous times weren’t as happy as Rose thought.

Ultimately, she saw a machine whose purpose she understood, an old computer. Back in the Government Community, they had something similar, only more advanced. Although the environment came to be one of the perpetual winters, technological discoveries were off the charts. They were the sole reason they remained alive in those harsh conditions.

At that moment, Silv felt fortunate that her grandma’s stories were often so detailed, filled with what Silv considered unnecessary details. They became crucial to her now. Recalling those details helped her use the antique device with an ease that few others of her age would have had.

The odd thing was that it was still working. After all the years, it was still functional. It was slow, but it was a miracle that it could function at all. The government of long ago must have used the most reliable technology they possessed for the base. Silv couldn’t help but ponder what they were doing inside an underground base in the middle of nowhere. Area 51, they called it.

She opened video files first, and she regretted her decision. She saw a strange humanoid form lying on the table, and some scientists cutting through its flesh. What made her sick to her stomach was that the green creature was alive. It let out a deafening cry, a scream of sheer agony.

The scientists didn’t care. They just kept on butchering it and recording the whole torturous procedure. For them, slaughtering a living being was on the same level as dissecting a frog.

Silv couldn’t keep watching. Her hands shook, and her heart was beating so quickly that it felt as if it was trying to escape her chest.

Although she was familiar with human violent history, she never saw something as cruel as that. There were stories about Area 51 being used to experiment on aliens, but most people thought those were just rumors. Now she had proof that it was all true.

When the poor alien died, they brought another one. It was bigger and sturdier than the previous one. They struggled to control the white bear-sized alien. Suddenly, the creature seemed to gather all of its strength and it burst out into a wave of something white, unfamiliar.

While doing that, the alien started speaking in English.

“I am an ice warrior and I die in ice. For what you did to me, so will your planet!” the alien exclaimed.

The date of the video was the same as the one the ice age began on.

Shocked as she was, Silv didn’t hear the footsteps behind her.

“You shouldn’t have seen that,” Denis said, with his weapon leveled at her head.