At war with mother nature

Humanities Last Nurse

January 24th 2370

-25 years after the ice age started-

We mainly live underground, and (as far as we know) all of the surviving humans live down here, underneath Canada and a bit of the USA. The average lifespan is only 35 years, and now I am now humanities last nurse. The other one died earlier today. She had cancer, and it was too advanced to do anything. Her name was Amanda.

She lay on her death bed, shivering and alone, and her dying wish was to see her lover again, who had died several days prior to an unexpected heart attack. She called her lover's name over and over, her voice cracking and getting quieter with each call. "Rose! Rose! *cough* Ro-*cough cough*Rose..." There was no response.

In defeat, she looked at the doctor and I, and asked: "can I go down to the lake, one last time?" The doctor nodded his head. You simply don't deny a dying girl her last wishes.

The doctor and I carried her down to the river, where she sat on the ice and faintly remembered the summers she had spent at this lake, swimming and laughing with Rose and her family. It is now our main source of water, and started to freeze over years ago, and it is now only 5 feet deep. One day we will need to relocate when it freezes through completely, but as of not the top 1/10th of the lake is enough. We have enough to worry about as is, we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Amanda looked into the water. "Rose..." She called out again, this time with much sorrow. Then something strange happened. As looking into the water she saw her lover's face, in her eyes like a miracle from up above, in our eyes a hallucination caused by her illness. It was almost time. She reached her hand into the water, cupped her lovers 'face', and kissed it. "I'm on my way my love. May not even death part us." And she jumped into the icy waters.

There was nothing the doc and I could have done, and maybe it was better that she could go this way. The alternative was extremely painful and slow, and now she could live in peace in heaven with Rose, and be eternally happy instead of suffering on this damned earth, doomed to fail apart from the start.

It has been 15 years since the 'war' has begun, but most people call it the apocalypse.