The Long Cold

“Do we need to restrain him or something?” asked Kate. She stood wearily outside the cold room, peering in at their newly admitted patient. He looked in bad shape. His hair was mostly gone, eyebrows and all, with most of the left side of his body rotted away. It seemed like a miracle he was still alive.

Grant stood watch, leaning against the concrete wall of the old military bunker they inhabited, assuring Kate that everything would be ok. “Look, I’m here if anything happens. Plus, we’re living on a pile of nukes, that should scare you more than one random guy.”

Kate felt chills down her spine unsure of whether she wanted to enter the room. “If you knew how to operate them, I might be worried,” she joked. “But if he found us, don’t you think THEY could find us too??”

“Listen, we found him face down in the snow, freezing, barely conscious, beyond the safe zone. No one knows about this old silo, so I doubt he was coming here. He was barely coherent and just mumbling; all he would say was Long Cold. I think he was out there freezing to death for a while.”

Kate looked puzzled. “Long Cold?? You think he was just hypothermic and spouting nonsense?”

“I’m not sure, but I do know, there’s no way he, or anyone else, knows about this place! You don’t find Cold War Era missile sites on your gas station maps. We’re safe here.” Grant reassured her.

Still not at ease, Kate stepped foot into the room to see the patient. Most of his face was rotted away and his body decaying at a rate she had not seen in a while, at least not since the discovery that our interstellar refugees were inadvertently killing us.

It had been nearly 18 years since their ‘life raft’ crashed on Earth. Their home planet many galaxies away went dark when their own star burned out. A few thousand were able to make it onto a spacecraft; unguided, hurtling themselves into space in one last ditch effort to preserve their race.

When the life raft crashed in rural Brazil, the alien survivors exited to be met by a fearful coalition of the world’s mightiest militaries. Immediately exposed to the radiation from our sun, their alien skin gave off a subdued yellow glow. Religious groups all over the world regarded this as the sign of God, calling these new visitors angels. Somewhere between the Portuguese for angel and the idea that these were Martians, social media settled on Anjmar for the name of these people.

At first it seemed, this new race of human-like extra-terrestrials were evidence for science and religion, proof of something greater than us. Our sun created incredible changes in their body chemistry. They seemed disease resistant to all known viruses and after prolonged exposure to the sun’s rays, they developed an enhanced durability, highlighted by a warm yellow glow from their skin. They were larger, faster, and stronger than even the most fit human athlete, and able to sustain their metabolism on a mixture of water and sunlight. They cared nothing for Earthly material possessions, even developing a distaste for precious metals like gold and silver.

It took some time to establish reliable communication, but some of the elder Anjmar learned English fairly quickly, with most choosing to retain their native tongue. The survivors had been relocated to camps in Nevada, USA, mostly under protest, where they could benefit from the strong sun and open space under the watchful eye of America’s military. After months debating amongst the superpowers of the United Nations, it was decided that no country alone should possess the entire race of Anjmar.

Anjmar pods or family units were assigned to take up residence in major cities across the globe, equally dividing them by nation. It was immediately apparent that the Anjmar did not thrive in colder, darker cities. They often became ill without exposure to sunlight and lost their glow quickly.

Unfortunately, most of the transplants were a success. The new race thrived in major cities, multiplying at a rate faster than humans could. Their gestation period was much shorter, with their infants reaching adulthood in a fraction of the time it took humans to raise babies. The result was an uncontrollable population boom in almost every major city across the globe, except where the climate lent itself to extreme periods of overcast. Those cities with ample sunlight saw exponentially high birth rates.

The Anjmar were quite hospitable, at first. Having recognized their physical advantages, many took to physical labor efforts or even ending violent crimes on the streets in hopes to make Earth a better place. It started so small, one day you have this glowing man stopping a mugging on the subway, and the next day it’s happening everywhere. Earth finally had its own race of superheroes, albeit without the flight and x-ray vision stuff in the comic books.

What happened next, was a shock to everyone as the two species seemed to coexist quite well. At first, the data indicated a slight uptick in cancer clusters, globally. This went mostly unnoticed, with tons of data being buried or deleted by governments to conceal the issue. But as hospitals were overcrowded, and medical resources strained, the problem could only be hidden for so long.

It appeared our angelic visitors were not only absorbing the sun’s rays like giant solar batteries, but they were emitting small amounts of invisible radiation, undetectable to our conventional instruments. Scientists would later figure out the body chemistry of the Anjmar changed aspects of the emitted radiation so much, that it was barely detectable at all, especially when absorbed or refracted from member to member. The intensity was so great, it was like working next to the core of a fusion reactor. The effect would only multiply as the individual absorbed more rays over years and were saturated in proximity of one another.

No one can say if the Anjmar knew the harm they were causing. Scientists scrambled to counter the effect, but no amount of shielding would sufficiently protect them indefinitely. It was clear that time was running short to find a solution.

It didn’t take long for them to figure out that their presence was unwanted. People began to avoid them completely in public, with businesses even refusing their entry, citing safety concerns. Sales of lead blankets and iodine pills skyrocketed, but no one really knew if any of it worked.

We were now forced to treat our alien residents with disdain and fear. As they now numbered over a million, globally, it was impossible to simply relocate them. Many refused to even entertain the idea of being placed back into camps.

Nations’ militaries were ill equipped to wage wars in their own cities, and everyone knew this. You cannot fight an enemy that won’t raise a hand against you. Governments crumbled at the local level, with politicians fearing their health and safety of their own families, and so they fled. Just by nature of having so many Anjmar in the city, created a sort of Chernobyl effect. A mass exodus of Earthlings took place as they spread to the less populated places in their respective countries, and in some cases, underground. Even the humans that committed to supporting the extraterrestrial refugees often died within 6 months of remaining behind in the cities, and usually in a ghastly fashion.

It became apparent to the Anjmar that they were unwelcomed guests, but the Earth lacked the resources to rebuild their spacecraft technology. And if they could venture off the planet, there is little hope that they would find a little blue/green marble capable of sustaining them. Anyone who had hopes we could co-exist would quickly lose faith in that idea.

The Anjmar were set on staying and rebuilding the utopia they had left. They didn’t go looking for a conflict, but they certainly would not be made to move now. So, the humans moved, setting up small towns and settlements. Fortunately, power and food centers were in the more sprawling farmland locations. Cities were devoid of humans, now solely home to our glowing guests. Communication ceased for long periods as humans were unable to venture into the heavily populated areas without being irradiated. The Anjmar, far less emotional of a species, did not rush to reestablish contact.

A final attempt was made to ask the Anjmar to at least reduce their birthrates, hoping to control the population some. The request was met with consideration, but nothing ever came to pass. As population densities increased, the radiation from the cities spread. The areas that humans could inhabit kept getting smaller, until resources began to deplete faster than they could be made.

The result was famine wiping out the majority of the human population. Small pockets of people gathered in colder climates or sought shelter underground. Pockets of survivors overtook fallout bunkers and military installations, that at least had thick concrete walls to provide some protection.

Kate had treated many patients, radiated to a point where their skin would fall off. This was the most common condition and one with no cure. Seeing their patient Long Cold clinging to life, just reminded her the fate that was in store for what remained of humanity.

It was at just after 11pm when Long Cold passed. Kate marked the time of death and covered up the husk that remained, notifying others in the bunker that he would need burying tomorrow. She inquired with Grant if there were any personal affects that the stranger could be buried with.

Grant retrieved a heart shaped, gold locket. “This is all he had on him when we found him.”

Kate requested to see the locket, carefully holding it in her delicate fingers. Her first thought was that it might be from a loved one, perhaps his wife. She paused to think about who her patient, Long Cold, might have left behind.

Surely there must be a photograph inside, and perhaps Kate just wanted to give a little humanity back to the now decaying stranger. She fiddled with the locket until it opened. To her surprise, there was no tiny photograph of a woman, but instead, the womb of the locket contained a microSD card.

She gently pried the card from the locket and rushed to the only computer they had, still powered by a generator. Wondering if this was Long Cold’s mission, she hurriedly inserted the card. The soft glow of the computer screen bathed her face as her eyes scanned for something useful.

She cried out for Grant, who rushed quickly to her side. Unsure of what she was seeing, she asked, “What is this? He knew the name of our hiding place! There’s a freakin map to it! Grant, what is this!?”

Grant, grabbing control of the computer, paused in disbelief. “He’s not alone! Look at this, there’s people in Russia, UK, Pakistan… helping him.”

Kate’s voiced reached new heights of distress, “HELPING HIM?? HELPING HIM DO WHAT??? HOW DO THEY KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE!?”

“He was trying to… coordinate the firing of multiple missiles. But… not at cities… mostly uninhabited areas,” Grant explained.

“WHY!? Why not blow those aliens off the planet!” shrieked Kate.

“He’s not trying to nuke them; he’s trying to create a nuclear winter. Freeze them out. Exterminate their entire race with a dust cloud so big, it blocks out the sun on a planetary level. It’s an extinction event. A last-ditch effort.”

In a sudden moment of realization, Kate blurted out, “LONG COLD! Nuclear winter, that’s what he was trying to say! Long Cold! And he failed! We’re all going to die.” Kate shuttered and began to weep.

Grant rushed to comfort her. “No, he didn’t fail.” He pulled Kate back toward the screen and pointed to the sequences displayed. “He wasn’t saying Long Cold… He was saying Launch Codes.”