From Canada With Love: A Tale of the Second Ice Age Read online

  From Canada With Love

  A Post-Apocalyptic Story of the Second Ice Age

  First edition

  Copyright in June 2020.

  Ira J. Tabankin

  Knoxville, TN 39720

  Dedication:

  This book is dedicated to my wife and true love, Patricia.

  Thanks:

  I’d like to thank my beta readers, who helped me with their knowledge, comments, and encouragement. I’d like to thank D. Thompson and Darryl Lapidus, who edited and made this edition possible.

  Note:

  Please note this isn’t a politically correct novel. Please recognize artistic license is used throughout this story. Any tense disparities are the author's view of the story as it's written.

  Work of Fiction:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A Note on Punctuation:

  Much of this story is a conversation between people. When we speak, we don’t do so in the same manner as the written word. Pauses in the written word aren’t usually there when we talk to each other. As such, the punctuation used in conversations is written as people speak, not as it would be in a written paragraph.

  Copyright June 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Ira Tabankin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Ira Tabankin has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks, and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  Chapter 1

  Jonathan (Jon) Coats, 48, sat in the corner of his house located in Moncton, New Brunswick. Canada. He silently watched his wife, Erin, and their two daughters, Trinity, 16, and Ariden, 9. All were sleeping; they were wearing two sweaters over their tops and lined jeans. Over the sweaters, they were covered in their thickest winter coats, gloves, hats, and even boots, which were worn over two pairs of socks. Every blanket they owned was covering them. Jon had been woken by the gust of wind which rattled the window above his head.

  Jon glanced at his watch. He noted to himself that electricity wasn’t due to be turned back on for another four hours and only then for five hours, if they were lucky. In the previous three weeks, they hadn’t been lucky, and the electricity provided by the city was on for only three hours. They’d been warned the city was going to permanently turn the electricity off this week.

  They had already burned up all of their stored wood. Jon thought that when the wind lessened, if it did, he would cut down his fence to use it as firewood or he might check his neighbor’s houses. He hated the thought of breaking into them. What would happen if they returned? Jon laughed to himself. Why would they or anyone want to return here? We’ve been told to get away from here and move south. Most left when the first warning had been issued. Many, like Jon, thought things would improve. Surely the sun would burn through and surely the winds would clear the skies. Jon had learned that his hope of this or that working didn’t. The skies weren’t clearing, and, if anything, it was getting colder, not warmer. Hell, it was mid-July, and it was already colder than any deep winter he’d remembered. The sky was still a deep gray with the strange clouds still filled with debris.

  He’d already had his family empty their dressers and end tables. He’d used the wood they were made of to feed the fire, which was the little warmth their house had. The fireplace in their living room was usually the only source of heat they had. It had to be kept going around the clock because Jon couldn’t count on the electricity coming back on or when it did, how long it would last.

  The other problem with the electricity was sometimes it came on in a massive spike which burned out appliances or sometimes it came on with not enough watts to run any appliance. They had used up their all of their extra propane tanks a week ago. Since none of the stores were open, there weren’t any more to be had.

  Jon silently sat up, remembering what led them to this. He remembered how it used to be. He remembered the warm sun and how it felt on his skin, how if he wasn’t careful, it would burn his youngest daughter’s light skin. His mind drifted to his first date with Erin, who he fell in love with during that date. He relived that date many times. Next, he remembered the birth of both of his daughters, and he had thought he wanted a son. A son to teach about cars and to go on drives together. He remembered the times he’d spent with his own father, and then he looked at their two angels laying next to his wife, and he smiled and knew nothing could give him the same or more joy then he received from their daughters.

  Jon smiled, looking at his two daughters, it’s true, daughters do wrap their fathers around their little fingers. I love them and Erin more than life itself. I pity the boy who knocks on the door to date one or the boy who mistreats my angels. They’ll never find the remains. Jon laughed to himself. With this weather, I won’t have to even dig a hole. Just leave them outside and the blizzard will bury them for me. A noise above Jon’s head made him look up. I better check on the roof again, I need to make sure the snow does not crush the ceiling, or we’ll lose the house. Damn stuff is a lot heavier than most people think. Why are we still here? The Prime Minister told us it was a lost cause. We should all leave and leave as quickly as possible.

  Should we leave? I think we should have left months ago when the government issued their initial warning. Go south, they said, get away from the coming ice age and glaciers they said. I remember laughing. An ice age when everyone was talking about global warming? Plainly the warming would contradict the snow, and we’d be fine. Boy, was I wrong. I remember when the weather changed. Boy, was I was shocked. The howling wind blew ice and snow against my exposed skin like knives slicing me. Listen to that. The wind sounds like it’s screaming, it’s shaking the house.

  The ice is rattling the windows. I stopped attempting to keep the driveway clean days ago. It was a battle of diminishing returns. For every foot I shoveled, two fell. Where would we go? Every store has been closed for a long time. There’s no place to go unless we finally agree to leave and go south.

  I don’t think we have a choice, either we leave now, or we might not ever be able to. I don’t want my angels to die from starvation and the cold. We’re going to have to leave, head south. What’s the most supplies we can fit into the Denali with us? We’ll need food, lots of carbs and protein to keep our bodies going. Water we can get by filling water bottles with the snow. Fuel will be another issue as I don’t know if any of the sta
tions still have gas. Damn it, we should have left months ago. We’ll also need defensive weapons. Damn Canada and their assault rifle ban. I have a shotgun and two 10/22s. Of course, I still have my father’s old 1911 and some ammo in the basement. It’s not much, but anything is better than nothing. I’ll talk with Erin when she wakes. I think, no, I know it’s time to leave. While the girls are packing the food, I’ll check the Denali’s engine and fluids. I’m torn about whether we should take the trailer or not. I wish I knew more about the road conditions before we started the journey.

  I’m glad I put the chains on a few months ago. I’m worried about the cold’s effect on the battery. Yeah, I really hate to leave our house. The girls were born here and it’s the only home they’ve ever known, but it’s time, no, it’s past time. Now the journey will be risky. Had we left months ago, we could have left in a convoy in case something happened along the way, we’d have been with others.

  I’m not convinced which route we should take. Due east on Route 2 into Maine through Fredericton or southwest on Route 1 along the water through Saint John and into Maine. 2 is a better highway and it turns into US Interstate 95, which leads us all the way to Florida. Route 1 may be less snowy along the water. The water may be warmer than the land, but then we’ll have to drive across rural Maine before we reach their Interstate.

  I wish I knew someone in both cities so I could get some details on the routes. Thank God the American President, Robert Lanoha, said Canadians didn’t require any papers to enter America. He even said he’d treat us the same as his own citizens. Our Prime Minister even moved our government in exile to the United States. I guess that was the indication we should have left. I guess Canada is finished as a country.

  Yeah, it’s time to leave. I was born and raised under the Maple Flag, but soon there won’t be anything left of Canada except for the polar bears. At least the climate change people will be happy, and they won’t have to worry about global warming and the loss of the polar bear’s hunting grounds. According to the news last night, packs of bears have been attacking people. I hope they haven’t developed a taste for us.

  I tried and I prayed the warm weather would fight the cold. I prayed the sun would burn through the crap in the atmosphere. I prayed the Gulf Stream would keep us warm. I was wrong on all counts. I’ve seen the maps. The ice and snow are advancing like an invading army and we have no defense. No army we have can stop or even slow the advance. The ice sheets are thickening and are over one hundred feet in places. A wall of moving white is descending like a curtain covering the country.

  The white is also covering Europe and Russia. Everything in the Northern Hemisphere may be buried under the sheet of ice for thousands of years. Thousands of years! This really is the end of the world as we knew it. Ah, Erin is moving, she’s waking up. Good, I’ll have some time to chat with her before the girls are up. Wait till I tell them the toilet pipes broke, and we can’t use them. Happy I still have the camping toilet.

  @@@@@

  There is a vast space between the orbits of the fourth planet, Mars, and the fifth, the gas giant, and largest in our solar system, Jupiter. Some believe this area once held a planet that broke apart due to the massive gravitational pull of Jupiter. This area is filled with rocks called asteroids; the area is referred to as the asteroid belt. Asteroid means minor planets. Of the hundreds of thousands of asteroids, four huge ones stand out. These are called: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea.

  Contrary to popular belief, the asteroid belt is mostly empty. The asteroids are spread over such a large area that it would be almost impossible to hit one without very carefully aiming at one. Nonetheless, there are between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of .62 miles (1 km) in the belt. The total number of asteroids is thought to be in the millions. There are at least 200 asteroids known to be larger than 62 miles (100 km) If one of these ever struck the Earth it would be a city killer. It might even be an end-times situation.

  While the asteroids are spread out, sometimes one does strike another, and like the cue ball in pool, the reaction (every action has an opposite and equal reaction) of being hit sends one or both on a new course, sometimes out of the belt itself.

  Many years ago, a small comet entered the belt 300 million miles from Earth and collided with an asteroid of 1.5 km in length. It struck another, which hit a third, fourth and fifth. The Sixth was a monster of 2 miles long (3.2 km), pot marked dark gray, almost invisible dense rock whose orbit was changed when it got hit. It was knocked towards the Earth. Had anyone in NASA or any other organization spotted it and plotted its course, they would have turned white and panicked. The two orbits were going to intersect with each other, and the result wasn’t going to be good for either.

  66-million years ago, an asteroid between six and nine miles in diameter hit the Gulf of Mexico just off the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The resulting explosion threw so much material into the atmosphere that plants died and the change to the environment led to the death of the dinosaurs. In 1908, a much smaller asteroid exploded over Tunguska, Russia. That explosion occurred 3 to 5 miles (5 to 10 km) above the ground. It was equivalent to about 1,000 Hiroshima bombs exploding at the same time. Scientists estimate the asteroid had been about 200 feet (60 m) in diameter. Had the asteroid exploded over a major city, it would have destroyed the city and killed thousands of people.

  NASA projected there was only a one in 10,000 chance of a giant asteroid of around 1.25 miles (2 km) hitting the Earth during the next century. Such a strike could cause a large enough firestorm to cause significant damage to the environment for many years. The rock heading towards Earth was larger by three-quarters of a mile than NASA’s worst-case projection. The rock was also speeding through space in excess of 50,000 miles per hour.

  When it struck the Earth, 295 days after being shot out of its orbit, it was going to cause massive damage. Many scientists referred to an asteroid of this size striking the Earth as an extinction-level event, one that could end all life on the blue planet called Earth. One of Earth’s problems was this rock wasn’t on NASA’s watch list and hence was flying towards Earth without tipping NASA’s alarms.

  @@@@@

  Nine months earlier.

  Robert Imus, a California Institute of Technology, Caltech, graduate student, was working on his Ph.D. paper. He was spending another long cold night at the Lick Observatory situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California. He’d gotten permission to use the Lick’s largest telescope, the C. Donald Shane telescope 120-inch reflector, which took months to book.

  His paper was on asteroid mining. He wrote that the future of Earth’s mining was in space, where all of the minerals the people of Earth would ever need could be located, only 300 million miles away, a distance that sounded like it was impossible. However, Imus had discussed his ideas of a designed robotic mining craft with both JPL and NASA. He wrote such a craft could be cheaply sent into the asteroid belt to mine and return valuable minerals to Earth. Without any humans on board, there wouldn’t be any life support or environment, so the mining craft could be smaller and lighter. He suggested that since computers and AI could pilot drones, they should be able to pilot the mining craft.

  Imus was studying his night's images when something caught his eye. That’s funny. Something is covering up a star in this image. I think that means something is out there blocking the light. What could it be? I need some more images to be sure. Did I just discover a new object? I wonder how I can steal another hour of time. Shit, I’ll be late for my class if I stay, yet I want to see what’s covering up the star. Whatever that is, I could name it, and it could carry my name. I’d be famous. It will help me in my Ph.D. when the review panel takes note that I discovered a new body in the solar system. I’ll start recording, and when the next team arrives, I’ll tell them my iWatch battery died; everyone knows that if not charged every day, they die. How angry can they get over a few minutes here and there?

>   Ten minutes later, two older men, still arguing over something that, sounded like to Imus, started years before entered the control room of the telescope. They paused. They were arguing back and forth when they saw Imus. The one on the right whom Imus had nicknamed Yang, the other of course he nicknamed Ying, looked at Imus and asked, “What are you still doing here? You’re on our time, we will report you, yes. We are going to report you. Now get out and clean up after yourself!”

  “I only need a few more minutes. I’ll clean up, and by the time I’m done, my images will be captured.” Ying moved towards the telescope controls, “Don’t touch those!” Yelled Imus, surprising himself and both men who stopped to stare at him. Yang shook his head. “We’re going to call the Dean, you’re finished! You’ll never graduate and earn your PhD. You’re not PhD material anyway. Now get out!”

  Imus managed to download his images on a memory stick and left thinking to himself, if I captured what I think I did the university will beg me to take my PhD from them. I’ll be famous while you two old farts who have been working on something for thirty years will still be here fighting over some stupid formula.

  @@@@@

  The 2-mile-long rock knew nothing of the excitement in Imus or anything else. It was a mineral rich, extremely heavy rock flying through space. It had no choice on where to go. It was all geometry, like pool. It had been hit and was knocked out of its orbit. It had begun a journey that was going to change the life of billions. The rock had enough gravity to attack some much smaller rocks and space dust which bombarded the rock’s surface.