Dad opened his arms to the scene around him. ‘Home!’ he said. He smiled, waiting for the reaction. Zak was the first to speak.
‘Dad, this is obviously the North Pole, not Warwickshire,’ he quipped.
‘It’s not Warwickshire now Zak, but it’s what Warwickshire will look like in thirty years time.’
Another pause followed, as Zak and Skye appeared to be taken aback.
‘I don’t believe that for a minute,’ said Zak. He felt the need to say something just to break the stunned silence. ‘What makes you think it’s going to be like this?’
‘It’s not what I think Zak, it’s what scientists around the world are predicting,’ said Dad confidently. ‘The world is entering an Ice Age, and this will be the result.’
Suddenly, they found themselves in the street outside their house. It was a sunny day, but they still wore their winter clothes. The three-story terraced houses stretched in both directions. The odd motor car was dotted around – a few people still owned those. Then, almost instantly, the sky went grey and snow started to fall. Beneath them, the snow settled and quickly accumulated. Zak realised that the scene was progressing at time-lapse speed, each second covering several days.
As the snowfall intensified, the snow underfoot began to rise, and the four of them rose with it. The motor cars disappeared one by one, presumably, Zak thought, to represent their owners getting rid of them. But one remained, and it was soon submerged under the rising sheet of snow.
The sound of a window smashing made Zak and Skye jump. But the sound became frequent as more windows followed. Zak was startled to see that the windows on their own house had become boarded up, but again, that pattern followed quickly throughout the street. The family stood there, continuing to rise.
