The Cold Truth about the Future

This is what I wrote for our formal assessment in creative writing assessment in English this term. Our subject had to be our town in the future, and it had to be over 300 words long. This subject quite appealed to me, since I have been thinking about the future a lot recently. I got Excellence for this, which I am quite happy about. I hope you enjoy it.

The Cold Truth about the Future

Snow poured from the sky without mercy. The wind howled, screaming like lost souls. Its icy grip was strangling the very air. Its glacial tendrils pulled at the sky, tearing it down. It was nothing interesting, just another snowstorm.

The dull metal walls of the school stood strong against the frozen rain, impenetrable and stoic. Somewhat like a prison. The giant flexi-glass windows revealed students within, sitting at desks, learning about the world. The windows were thick, their image slightly distorted. It was like opening your eyes under water, the world still there, just changed; softened.
My footsteps dared not make a sound as I traversed the snow covered path. Turning the heat up in my coat, I tried to distinguish the shapes hidden beneath the blanket of white. Everything was the same colour. Having just fallen from the sky, it seemed to glow, transforming everything into an ivory blur.

Last week in history, we were studying our country, New Zealand. Apparently it used to be famous for its beaches. Where there is now just frozen navy shallows frozen to the bare shore, there used to be soft, warm sand, and water pleasant enough to swim in. I know our teacher would never lie to us, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot imagine it. That era is not even real now, too much time has passed. The present is separated from those years by a chasm impossible to cross. With each sunrise and sunset, with each dark, arctic winter, the bridge that had connected us to that time was burning.

The world around me now is a different place to what it used to be. It was once an innocent child, and now it is an adult. It has suffered the trials of growing up, and as a result, become stony-faced and emotionless. For a long time, I had never questioned the earth. But as I grow up, and understanding imbues itself upon me, I am discovering that humanity is no where near perfect, and how our selfishness as a species has come close to destroying our home. So many mistakes have been made, sometimes I wonder at the fact we’re still around.

You see, it never used to be this way. Nature had been unchanging. Then, a little something called global warming started happening, and eventually, something had to be done. It was our mess, but instead of cleaning it up, we just eliminated it altogether. We always had been good at disposing of threats, instead of solving them. The white-coats of America decided to scientifically modify the climate. This was done by moving the planet slightly out of orbit, away from the sun. An ice-age in a test tube. It’s a shame they didn’t realise the consequences of such a move on country so close to the Antarctic. Soon after, the town had become a place plagued by blizzards. Whole species of plants and animals became extinct, along with nearly everything we had ever known.

I enter my history class now, and in turn, stare out at the layer of frozen water covering the school. It hides everything. Covering the past like a good alibi; covering our tracks.
Here we are, enveloped in snow, trapped within our past mistakes. History can be a disconcerting place to explore, but the answers are always there; all you have to do is look. Unlike tomorrow, which remains unknown.