Anomaly

(POV - Emily Parker)

Emily couldn’t help but think that, if she had any say in the matter, this day should have started with some pleasant news. From a purely logical standpoint, the temperature stabilizing, especially compared to the previous day, should have been more than enough reason for Emily to jump for joy, spin around in place a few times, and maybe even throw a small party. Perhaps she was exaggerating a little.

Anyway, putting aside her attempts to joke with herself just to relieve some of the stress, Emily, like pretty much any other mentally sane person, considered the news absolutely wonderful. One way or another, at least for now, no one seemed to have been found frozen to death after spending too much time outside or failing to wear clothing appropriate for the absurdly low temperatures.

That alone was already a victory. Emily had genuinely started to think she might make it through at least one single day without having to tear her own hair out while trying to figure out what was causing the abnormal drop in temperature... Not that she wasn’t doing exactly that right now.

But that was beside the point. The problem was that Emily genuinely wished she could go back in time just to give her younger self a good slap for celebrating victory too early. It was only nine in the morning.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Nine. What the hell had Past Emily been thinking when she decided to celebrate so early with her favorite chocolate? She should have known that doing anything remotely resembling a celebration before noon was practically an invitation for disaster.

Damn it. Emily should have learned a long time ago that celebrating with chocolate always ended up causing problems. But since there was obviously no way for her to go back in time and fix her own stupidity, all she could do was face the consequences head-on. It all started with Laura showing up with her daily batch of reports.

And considering the new information that had surfaced, Emily even congratulated herself mentally on a small personal victory: she simply hadn’t tried to rip every single strand of hair from her head in a fit of hysteria. That alone demonstrated impressive self-control. Emily liked to believe she was far more mentally resilient than most people.

In fact, from her perspective, that psychological strength was probably one of the only reasons she hadn’t completely lost her mind after everything she had witnessed over the years. That... And her almost insane desire to learn more and more about anomalies. Maybe that curiosity was exactly what kept her sane.

Or maybe it was simply a particularly sophisticated way of justifying her obsession. Emily preferred to believe the former. Anyway, Laura’s reports were primarily focused on the constant monitoring of the weather, especially because of the recent temperature drops. Today’s results were, to put it mildly, concerning, although Emily couldn’t think of a better word to describe them.

It was stable. Far too stable. There hadn’t been a single significant fluctuation. No sudden drop in temperature. No increase. No changes in atmospheric pressure or any other parameter that could explain the situation. Nothing. The weather was simply... Worryingly stable.

And no matter which angle they analyzed the data from, it made no sense. Such precise stabilization, without any kind of natural variation, was simply impossible to occur on its own. For the environment to have reached that level of equilibrium, some external factor had to be interfering with the process.

Unfortunately, Laura’s concern wasn’t unfounded. And Emily hated admitting that. There was something suspicious about the situation. Something that simply didn’t fit any natural patterns, and the longer she stared at the data, the harder it became to ignore.

“This is getting worse and worse...” Emily muttered, running her eyes over the report once again.

As if the situation wasn’t already strange enough, several knocks sounded at the door. Knock. Knock. Knock. Emily looked up. For a brief moment, no one said anything. Then the door opened. And when the person, or rather, people, responsible for the knocking entered the room, Emily immediately knew one thing. The situation was about to get much, much worse.

Victor and Arthur. Two people Emily genuinely did not want coming to see them right now. The only plausible reason for the two of them to have come to her was that they had something to say about the current situation, and Emily sincerely hoped it wasn’t what she was imagining. Unfortunately, she was far too intelligent to believe in her own wishful thinking.

Watching the two of them without allowing any emotion to show on her face, Emily remained silent, waiting for one of them to finally speak. And, exactly as she had predicted, it was bad news. Victor was the first to speak. Somehow, he had also noticed that something was wrong.

He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, nor did he seem particularly comfortable trying to explain it, but with some reluctance, he described practically the same thing Laura had noticed. Everything was... “Too stable” Emily remained silent for several seconds. She had never imagined the day would come when she would worry because something was stable.

But this job had an impressive ability to turn perfectly normal situations into reasons for concern. You really could see everything in this line of work. Finally, but definitely no less concerning, there was Arthur. The information he had was, without a doubt, the worst of all.

Unlike Victor and Laura, whose conclusions were still nothing more than speculation, Arthur had found enough concrete evidence to turn a frightening possibility into something much closer to a certainty.

Emily’s eye twitched involuntarily as he explained his findings, and that definitely wasn’t helping with the pressure already building inside her head. When Arthur finally finished, Emily remained silent for several seconds. She simply stared at him, trying to process all the new information.

Then, finally, her words came out in a subtly incredulous tone: “Before we go running around alerting everyone about your findings... correct me if I’m wrong, but...” Emily cut herself off. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a long sigh, forcing herself to regain her composure. Having a nervous breakdown right now would be the worst possible thing she could do.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked directly at Arthur: “There’s an anomaly somewhere out there... most likely in the city, considering the overall range of these temperature drops. And that anomaly is causing all of this...” She paused for a moment, as if she were still struggling to believe what she was about to say: “...and it was also very possibly responsible for bringing the Ice Age to planet Earth?”

Arthur nodded, his expression completely serious. That was exactly what Emily had not wanted to see. That expression only confirmed that he wasn’t lying. Deep down, she had genuinely hoped he was. She would have much rather discovered that Arthur had exaggerated or simply misinterpreted something than have to accept the alternative.

Unfortunately, she knew the man well enough to recognize when he was being serious. And the situation was catastrophic. Emily let out another sigh, this one much longer, allowing her shoulders to slump for a few moments.

She needed some way to release the tension. Punching the table would certainly help relieve some of it, but it would probably only make her even more irritated when she had to deal with the pain in her hand afterward.

So she dismissed the idea. She needed to act on the information they had, incomplete as it was. First, they needed to locate the anomaly responsible for the continuous drop in temperature before this stopped being nothing more than a localized weather anomaly and started affecting the entire state.

And if no one managed to contain it in time... Emily didn’t even want to think about what came next. A temperature drop of this magnitude, sustained for long enough, could turn the region into a new ice age. And if the anomaly’s influence continued expanding unchecked, perhaps even the rest of the world wouldn’t be safe.

“Well... this is fucked. We’re completely screwed” That was all Emily managed to say after several long seconds spent simply processing the situation. She ran a hand over her face and let out a heavy sigh. For a few moments, she genuinely wished she had a crystal ball capable of showing her what would happen next, anything that could give her some idea of what they were supposed to do.

Unfortunately, she had nothing like that. Well... there was an anomaly that could do something vaguely similar, but Emily seriously doubted that the anomaly in question could actually help her. At best, it would probably only serve to demonstrate, in an even more terrifying way, just how screwed they were.

Maybe it was better not to think about that. Emily turned her attention back to the others, quickly studying each of them before continuing: “I don’t think there’s much point in asking whether any of you have additional information, considering that, so far, we don’t even know where the hell that slippery anomaly is hiding”

She paused, crossing her arms: “And honestly? This is starting to piss me off” Her casual tone did little to hide the obvious irritation in her voice. Not having any information was bad enough. Not even knowing where to look was an entirely different story: “So unless someone here has been saving some kind of miracle information for exactly this moment... we’re pretty much flying blind”

That was when Arthur joined the conversation: “Well, that’s true. But even if we can’t find it immediately, we don’t need to worry too much about its location”

Emily, Laura, and Victor turned their attention toward him almost simultaneously. Arthur continued, leaning back in his chair as he organized his thoughts: “This particular anomaly likes to show off. It doesn’t seem particularly interested in staying hidden for very long. Sooner or later, it’s going to create something big enough, somewhere, that practically everyone will be able to see it”

He paused briefly, his expression becoming slightly more serious: “The only problem is that, by the time that happens, it’ll probably be so cold around it that I doubt any human... or even any ordinary living creature nearby will be able to get close enough to actually contain it”

Emily narrowed her eyes as she absorbed the information. For several seconds, no one said anything. Then she began tapping a finger against the table. Once. Twice. The slow rhythm followed the course of her thoughts as she considered the possibilities. It didn’t take long, however, for a conclusion to emerge. Judging by the way Victor and Laura exchanged a glance, they had apparently reached the same answer.

Arthur, on the other hand, seemed to have known exactly where this line of reasoning would lead from the very beginning. Emily finally stopped tapping her fingers: “Well...” She raised her eyes toward the others: “We don’t necessarily need a human to do it” The solution was, in a way, surprisingly simple. They had been looking for someone capable of making their way through that freezing cold when, in reality, they had never said that whoever did it had to be human.