_A/N: This is a story taken from an excerpt of a book I am making. Sorry (or not) for the cliffhanger! ;)_

The sound of snow crunching underneath boots fills the outside of what remains beneath the whiteness, the seemingly almost emptiness of the lands, devoid of any color except for the one known as swans. Snow and swans were similar in a way. With the graceful movement, the silence that comes with it, and the cold yet so, so warm and familiar wind of the breeze nearby. Although, there was one thing, one tiny, tiny little detail that stood out as bold as it was, that made swans and snow different. Swans could be stopped, could be killed, could be put in a momentarily frozen state, stasis. Snow, on the other hand, could not. As powerful as it is, the blizzard blinds, and is never ending. To a song that was once called and vocalized loud, to the entire world, now lost in a white haze of cacophonic madness.

A light flickers in the distance. A small obelisk in times like these, stands out. It casts away the shadows of the ebony wood, revealing a man that stands between an overhanging of branches that once had beautiful and bountiful red leafs, have now dried out and fallen, becoming one with the cold. The leather boots kick a small pile that seems to have gathered on the ground, to the side, eyeing what was underneath it and shining the flashlight down near his feet. He scoffs, the pile having to be revealed as a small duo of roots sticking out of the ground. It wasn't uncommon to see roots and twigs scattered around the land. Cold, snow, white. That was all he had seen. Although to counteract the temperatures, the man's clothes that he was wearing weren't normal. If – if you looked closely, it was biotech. Products that had been modified to become something bigger, stronger, better in multiple ways that gave a human being supernatural abilities. Of course, wearing these things couldn't make someone Superman, that was stupid. Imagine this. You are in freezing cold temperatures. Below sub zero. Let's take an estimate here and… say the temperature is around 32 degrees Kelvin, or around -402 for Fahrenheit, and -241 for Celsius. In simpler terms, it’s subzero to the point where even just a walk outside could freeze someone half to death. So, in even more simpler terms, the Earth is frozen solid. In basic terms, pre-kindergarten terms.

It's cold as fuck.

Although the overcoat that the man had been wearing served as a very important heat source. Yet, heat was valuable in this land. So, with an exhale, the man would shudder quietly, taking out a radio communicator and clicking it on, speaking up. There was static, yet his voice was clear, stating a crystal point. "Bianca. I'm making my way back now. I didn't find anything, but make sure to not have the entrance locked this time. We don't need another repeat of the Incident. Got it?" A couple of moments would pass before an awfully cheery voice responded to the previous statement.

"Ugh, finally! Was wondering when the big and mighty Felix Aurelio was going to ask for my help! Don't worry, the one and only Bianca Laurier will help! Now, uh- just stay put, I need to get your coordinates, heh." There was a slight chuckle from the other side, and a sigh escaped out of the man's mouth, who is now identified as Felix Aurelio. Known under the code name as Tempest, he was a high level ranking scientist that dived into molecular structure, and figuring out if atoms could be able to rearrange or not to save individuals from harm (Note to self; that did not entirely work. Either the subjects would become someone else entirely, or explode.).

Murmuring underneath his breath, Aurelio nods, scoffing a bit as well. They had done this before, and he thought of it as a game of "ring around the rosie". It was honestly stupid. Coming up with a way to pass the time, he clicks a couple of buttons on the side of his mask, covering up all of his face, and adjusts the dial, allowing the protective cover that was over the 'eyes' part of the mask be hidden, and therefore allows his eyes to become a weak spot, if anyone were to attack there. The shield was lowered down, flag at half mast, and so Aurelio took a gaze around, without the slightly darkened filter over his eyes. He had never really seen The Outside before, since the futuristic-like mask had hidden his gaze from the snow, sleet and hail that was being thrown around without remorse, yet, he found it quite pretty.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he focuses again, shifting around and adjusting the faded dark blue overcoat he had draped over his heated, dark brown vest that also had some of the color drained out of it. Slicking back his ginger hair, making sure it doesn't cover anywhere near his eyes, he clicks the remote on again, hearing his partner speak up once more. "Aaallright! I got your coordinates! Make your way back to headbase! Over and out!" Bianca would say, before a click would come out of the radio, and quiet static fills the communication line. Aurelio sighs under his breath once again muttering something similar to "why do I put up with this lady", before adjusting his overcoat once more, fixing the mask, covering his eyes with the filter once more, and starting to walk, back into the coldness of the white depths once again.

"This is hell…" Aurelio murmurs to himself, a displeased noise escaping his mouth as he wades through the snow. He knew that the chances of snowstorms were high, but blizzards on the other hand were undetermined. "Trust the radar, she said. It'll be fine! She said." He grumbles a bit further, wiping the snow that had been gathering on the glass-like covers where he saw from. There would be silence as he continues to tread, until the crack of a branch suddenly breaks it, snapping in half like a firecracker making a noise that echoes throughout the night.

Aurelio stops, his breathing pausing alongside his movements. He glances around, his gaze falling on a hillside covered in white. Despite pretty much everything being covered in white, he could make out something engraved on the snow. It wasn't something, it was someone. "What the hell…" Aurelio would murmur quietly underneath his breath to himself as he eyes the other individual, staring at him as they stare him back. Aurelio could tell that they were human, considering that there were footprints on the ground near the other person, yet what was odd about those footprints is that it had circled back to where Aurelio was standing, as if he had been the one to walk over there in the first place.

The sound of the breeze drifting back and forth and the occasional crunch – either coming from afar or close by would break the silence, as Aurelio would attempt to speak up, seeing if he could get the makeshift clone of his to respond back. "Hello? Who's there? Show yourself! I won't hesitate to… to… shit." Aurelio would grumble, fiddling around a bit as he attempted to unhook the gun he had from his inner jacket, and quickly aimed it at the figure. "I won't hesitate to use force! Speak up, now!" He yells with slightly shaking hands. There is no response, other than the faint wind crawling back and forth, making the hair on Aurelio's skin stand up. A couple more moments pass of the almost burning cold, until the figure speaks up, its voice monotonous, yet with a slight echo to it, as if it was farther away than Aurelio had thought. Except it sounded closer.

"You are not the first." Aurelio swallows, his grip tightening around the cold metal of the trigger of the gun. He replies, a stutter entering his voice. "I-I'm sorry, the first what? First… human to survive a second ice age? Haha, very funny…" He laughs as he takes a couple steps back. Mirroring Aurelio's actions, the clone would seemingly take a couple of steps forward, as if challenging him in a sort of way. Noticing the action, Aurelio raises his gun up higher, his hands having tightened even further against the grip of the metal. "You are not the first." The clone would repeat, taking a couple of more steps forward, still eyeing Aurelio with a cold glare. Aurelio snarls, before raising the gun up and firing.

A loud gunshot echoes throughout the forest, cutting through the calm atmosphere like a knife. Aurelio pants quietly, feeling a bead of sweat start to form on his brow. He lowers the gun, looking around in the area in which the clone had stood. With a shaky sigh, he rehides the gun in his inner jacket pocket, and walks forward, heading to where the clone had previously lingered. Looking around and down at the footsteps, Aurelio would notice that the footsteps were in the imprint of a boot shape, almost exact to the ones that Aurelio had worn. In fact, he was wearing those boots right now.

He hums quietly, and takes out another device, which scans the ground in a small radius to see if any traces of DNA was left over, or, to see if anything was hiding underneath the snow that was starting to recover the tracks. The device beeps, and scans once again, identifying what was underneath the snow. Not even a minute later, it would beep again, detecting metal.