Absolute Zero

Prologue -- And So God Laughed and Ate Popcorn at Their Demise

For their grandparents, it probably started when they were 16, 17. Greta Thunberg was going to strikes around the globe, making speeches, trying to stop people praying and start them doing something. God was laughing from afar and eating popcorn as half the population ran around like headless chickens and the other half pretended to turn a blind eye.

For them, though, it started at birth. Not strikes, they had long since been deemed useless as Leaders of the Free World (we're looking at you America) didn't do anything but lie. People continued to use coal and oil, they stopped planting trees and cut them down more, it... it was a mess, quite frankly. It got to the point that scientists stop trying to stop Global Warming and started trying to survive it.

They didn't anticipate the Great Freeze, and when temperatures started dropping again, the people celebrated. The scientists prepared for the worst. They created safety pods and gave them out, for free, to anyone who'd listen. Most people took no notice, but the few people who listened survived, and their children live to tell the tale.

Or so they think.