Eternal White

“Think we’re gonna last another year?”

My partner Arisa asked me with tired, almost soulless eyes.

We’d just gone through the last of our food and water supply and finally had no choice but to go out again after nearly three months of staying hidden inside an underground bunker in an abandoned military outpost.

“We’ll manage… somehow.” I answered, not knowing what else to say.

If we didn’t make any moves to stock up for the coming days, it wasn’t hypothermia but starvation and thirst that was going to kill us. None of those were appealing options.

“I’ll head out tomorrow morning to look for some supplies.” I say as I warm my hands over the fire.

Arisa was sitting by the corner of the room hugging her legs with her face buried between her knees. She gave me a slightly acknowledging nod.

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It had been a year since everything went to hell and we got stuck in this never-ending winter night.

We all woke up one day to a sky that was almost completely devoid of light. What everyone thought was just a temporary lapse in the appearance of the sun was soon going to be the new reality we had to face.

It was the early days of summer but we were greeted with an out-of-place downpour of snow. And it wasn’t just for a day or two--it lasted that entire summer.

People weren’t too alarmed when it all began. A few days of eighteen-hour nights apparently wasn’t enough to make most people go into a full-blown panic. After a few weeks passed though, people started to become uneasy and agitated. No one could live normally when nothing about what was happening was normal.

News outlets around the world suddenly reported similar incidents of the “Summer Snow”. Even places where snowfall was thought to have never been possible weren’t spared. The days got shorter and shorter, until there was barely one or two hours of faint light left for a day’s worth. And, after only a few months, the whole world was covered in a blanket of ice and darkness.

Scientists were saying that there was nothing that could be done to control what was happening. After they had made the announcement that this was most likely how everything was going to be for the foreseeable future, people started calling the phenomenon the “Eternal White”.

In just a year, the world population dropped by eighty percent. With food and clean water becoming hard to come by, people started resorting to violence and looting; serving to only aggravate what was already a dire situation. Others, upon realizing that there was no place they could run to in a world that seemed to be on its last legs, chose the easy way out and took their own lives. Order was lost and the world became the embodiment of the concept of “survival of the fittest”.

The only ones who would end up surviving were the ones who really wanted to.

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I turned the cold steel valve of the bunker door hard, shaking off the frost that had built up along its frame over the past few days. I picked up the fuel canister I got from the storage room in the bunker and stepped out. I glanced at Arisa’s sleeping figure as I climbed the steps up to the surface. “I’ll be back soon.” I whispered under my breath.

Luckily, even though it was a bit cloudy, it wasn’t snowing heavily outside. Just a few days ago it was impossible to even make it outside the outpost without freezing to death right then and there. I had about an hour of daylight and it was going to be far more difficult to travel afterwards so I had to hurry. 

I headed for the garage where there was a military jeep left by whoever was stationed here before we arrived. I looked for the keys among the lockers and shelves around the garage and eventually found them. Taking the canister I had with me, I filled the jeep with about half a tank’s worth of fuel. I slotted the key in and started the engine. I said a small prayer as I turned the key to fire up the engine. It took a few attempts but eventually it spurred to life.

I jumped back out of the jeep to let it warm up and to check if there was anything else useful I could bring with me inside the personnel lockers. Most of them were locked so the only thing I was able to find was an extra flashlight and some old matches. I also stowed a vehicle repair kit I found under one of the benches at the back of the jeep.

After doing a final check on the gear I brought with me—a survival knife, a slightly blunted out machete, a map of the nearby area, and a radio—I headed out.

The snow on the road had grown thick making the trip much more difficult than it had to be. I could hear the jeep’s engine cry as it plowed past the snow. I was just wishing that it wouldn’t break down on me before I got back. I’d hate to walk back under these conditions.

According to the map, the nearest town was around four kilometers away from the outpost. I only hoped that there would still be something worth salvaging from there considering it had already been a year since everything began.

After about an hour of driving, I finally arrived.

It was ominously quiet. The only sound I could hear was the howling of the wind as it swept from the gaps between the buildings and the creaking of a sign from somewhere nearby. I squeezed my jacket tight as I made my way through the deserted town.

It was hard to distinguish which building was which since all the signs had either been covered by snow or had been completely torn off by the passing storms.

While walking around, I couldn’t help but uneasily shift my eyes from one side of the street to the other. Each time I passed by an alley, I would instinctively point my flashlight down towards its direction and an uneasy chill would run down my spine. I was half-expecting that something would suddenly jump out at me from the shadows.

A few minutes of walking aimlessly led me to something which looked to be a supermarket. I wasn’t very optimistic about my chances of finding anything consumable still being there but if there was going to be anything worth taking back with me, it would most likely be in there.

The double doors that were supposed to make up the entrance were nowhere to be found so I had no trouble making my way inside. All the glass display windows were busted in leaving a thick layer of snow inside. I swept past the aisles and found everything to be cleared out of anything useful. Nothing surprising there though.

I tried the storage room door but it was sealed shut by the frost. I moved back and got a little bit of space between me and the door to have some room for winding up a kick. In one solid blow, the whole door came clean off of its frame.

Before I got the chance to get a good look inside, a loud bang came from inside the room and I felt something sweep past near my left ear. I fell back in a daze for a second and, quickly realizing the situation I was in, ran back to hide behind one of the fallen aisle shelves.

“Don’t shoot!” I yelled out. “I’m unarmed!” was what I said but then the thought of my machete and knife crossed my mind. It was too late to take it back though.

Two more shots came from inside the storage room. The bullets hit and ricocheted off of the ceiling just outside the broken down storage room door. It was as if whoever was inside was telling me they weren’t in the mood to talk.

“Okay! I understand! I’ll leave so please stop shooting!” I shouted desperately trying to cover myself, afraid that one of the bullets would bounce off and hit me.

There was no response. But at the same time, the shooting stopped as well.

I slowly crawled away, making my way to the entrance of the store. It didn’t sound like whoever was inside followed me. Once I got to the door, I got up sprinted out as fast as I could.

After I had gotten a good distance away from the supermarket, I stopped to catch my breath. It was supposed to be freezing outside but my body felt like it was burning up all throughout. I sat and leaned myself against the wall of a decrepit, something-storey building and started to process what just happened.

That was the last place I was expecting someone to be holed up in. In the first place, why didn’t that person just take the things they needed from there and go hide on one of the apartment buildings nearby? The risk of staying in places people would first check out when looking for supplies isn’t really something a smart person would do. But considering how they’ve survived for this long, I don’t think just being lucky would have cut it.

The adrenaline suddenly leaving my body all at once left me feeling drowsy and I unknowingly drifted to sleep.

After what seemed like just a few minutes, I came to. And the first thing I heard was a click from beside me and at the same time something solid was poking my head.

“Move and I will shoot.” A muffled voice came from beside me. From the sound of it, a female voice.

“Wait, wait, I’m not hostile.” I tried to say as calmly as possible while attempting to raise my hands.

“So am I unless you try anything funny.”

There was a moment of silence between us. I had no idea what was going on in this woman’s mind and that was what really scared me.

“Are you going to rob me?” I asked her, since she wasn’t giving any clear orders.

“Do you have anything I can use?” She asked.

“I-I don’t know, a rusted machete’s about the only useful thing I’ve got with me.” I replied. It was a very unusual question to answer on my part.

“You said you were unarmed didn’t you?” She said slightly thrusting the barrel of her gun to my head, confirming that she was the same person shooting inside the supermarket.

“It slipped my mind.” I quickly answered back. “I wasn’t planning on using it on people in the first place.”

“Why are you here?” She was asking things that seemed like textbook questions in that situation but I could feel a sense of distress in her voice as she asked.

“I ran out of food and water and was just hoping to find some here.” I answered honestly.

She was silent again, seemingly in thought.

“Throw the machete away from you.” She finally ordered.

I slowly grabbed it with my right hand and she immediately shouted, “Stop!”

I was starting to feel that she was just as nervous as I was. If not more. At that point I was just scared she’d accidentally pull the trigger and that would be it for me.

“Do you want me to kick it away instead?” I suggested. Seeing that she was uneasy with me having my hands on a weapon.

She agreed and I tilted my body to a position where I could easily kick the blade away and sent it flying a good few meters away.

“Now can we talk without the gun please?” I asked.

She was quiet again. And after a few seconds of thinking, she lowered the gun.

“Thank you.” I sighed in relief.

She backed away as I stood up to shake off the snow that had built up on my body while I was out. I turned towards her I finally had a good first look at my captor.

She was wearing a battered-looking brown fur coat over layers of clothes and had a thick scarf covering her face save for her eyes. But the most eye catching detail about her wasn’t in any of the things she was wearing. It was her height.

She had on a large hiking bag that was almost as big as her. Actually, everything she was wearing seemed like they were too big for her.

“Uh… If you don’t mind me asking… How old are you?” I awkwardly asked this girl who was barely two thirds of my height.

“I’m eleven, so what?” She said in a snarky tone. “You think I’m scared of you just because you’re bigger than me?”

“Not at all.” I answered back while trying to not sound sarcastic.

It all started to make sense after seeing this little girl. So her randomly shooting back at the supermarket wasn’t because she was trying to kill me or anything, she was probably just scared. I guess anyone would be if the door was suddenly bashed in on them.

“Are you alone? Aren’t your parents with you?” I asked her. I realized that maybe a year ago this was the normal thing to ask a child that looked like she was lost but this was an entirely different case. I mean, the girl was holding a gun for god’s sake.

She gave me a nod. Her eyes gave away the feeling that she didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t press on the matter any further.

I stopped to think for a while what sort of compromise we could have between us. She seemed to be capable of holding on by herself, but even so… A girl her age shouldn’t be shouldering the entire weight of this world on her own.

“Do you want to work together?” I finally suggested thinking that directly asking her ‘Would you like to come with me?’ might come off as too shady.

“Work… together?” She asked. Still maintaining a safe distance from me.

“Yeah, I’m staying somewhere nearby with my partner. She’s waiting for me to come back with food and water.” I explained, “If you’ve got nowhere to go you can come with us, if you’re alright with that.”

She thought about it. I could tell that her guard was still up. I imagined I’d be the same way if some stranger I’d just met suddenly offered to take me to his camp.

“Can I trust you mister?” She asked. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but even though she was as young as she was, the way she spoke was that of a more matured person. I’d even go as far as saying she was experienced with talking to adults.

“Of course.” I answered confidently, “We’re really in a tight situation right now, so I don’t think there’s any harm from having more people to count on right?”

She stopped to think again, and finally holstered her gun.

“So what’s your name?” I asked her.

“I’m Anna. How about you mister?” She said stretching out her hand.

“Hanks.” I said as I shook her hand. I couldn’t believe that was the same girl that was threatening to kill me just a few minutes earlier.

“Have you cleaned up all the stores here?” I asked her seeing that her bag was almost filled to bursting.

She shook her head, “Just the supermarket.”

“Which reminds me, how did you end up in the storage room anyways?” I asked out of curiosity. “The door was frozen solid.”

“There was a… back entrance?” She answered. She seemed genuinely confused at my question.

“Oh… of course.” I said as I let out an awkward laugh. “Let’s go check out the other places here before we go then shall we?”

We went in a pharmacy, a hardware store, a gas station, and a few restaurants before deciding we had enough supplies to last us a month. We headed back for the jeep afterwards to load all our things and prepare to head back.

The wind was starting to pick up, hinting of a snowstorm brewing.

We hurriedly got on the jeep and headed off.

Anna fell asleep along the way. I felt slight smile escape my face as I realized that she had trusted me enough that she felt comfortable letting her guard down to sleep.

When I took a good look at her, a thought crossed my mind. She would have been just like any ordinary girl if only the world hadn’t become what it was. Thinking about it now, I think no one really survived the Eternal White. Not if you take the meaning of life as how we used to define it. Everyone’s lives were taken from them the first day everything went down. No one was going to live the same way they were before all of this because this was the new reality we were faced with. A whole world’s future robbed in an instant, by the same world that gave them their future no less.

We got back just in the nick of time. A few more minutes and we could’ve been stranded in the middle of a deadly storm.

We quickly unloaded all of the gear we found inside the garage and stowed them inside the open lockers. All the food and frozen water we took with us as we ran to the bunker.

I opened the bunker door.

“We’re back Arisa!” I shouted as I entered.

Anna had taken her scarf off and was looking around the room. She had a very confused expression painted on her face.

“Mister…” She said. “There’s no one here…”