Atomic Momentum Nullification
You sit in a dimly lit room, trying to process the events of last week or was it month? It is all so confusing. On a monitor in front of you a young woman appears and nervously begins to speak.
“Hi. I’m Steffie. If you are seeing this, you caught the freeze disease. Although I am not supposed to call it that.” She smiles and looks down on a cue card. “It’s Atomic Momentum Nullification… AMN.” She looks up again into the camera. “You probably know what it looks like from the outside. After all the news love to talk about the latest weird position someone freezes in.” She laughs nervously “Yeah so. Randomly an affected person will just stop moving. But it is not a paralysis of the muscles or something. Somehow all atoms making up a person are locked into place wherever that happens to be. Can even be midair. Remember the guy who threw himself off a building and froze seconds before hitting the ground? They put an air cushion underneath him, saving his life.” She puts on a smile clutching her wrists.
“Anyway, all of that makes it seem like AMN is more or less harmless, but it’s not!” She emphasises, tensing up “When you freeze no time passes for you. It can be a week or a month or just 4 hours. You never know. Nothing can hurt you during that time, but that doesn’t mean things can’t happen to you. Or your stuff. Food can go bad from one moment to the next as you freeze for a few days. So do not eat while doing something else. Have natural light coming in that makes every skip obvious. Also make sure you have a clock in every room of your place, with a date function, so you know if and how much time you have lost.”
She shuffles in her seat thinking of how to say the next thing. “Do not, under any circumstances, use any car, train, bus, plane and so on… ever. If you freeze while inside one of those things you became a human sized projectile relative to the car. Yes, things you touch freeze with you, but only when they are in close physical contact. Like your clothes or something you carry. But even if you somehow froze with your whole car, you’d still be an instant roadblock.” She looks angry “They’re gonna take your driver’s license away by the way. You can use a scooter or a bicycle. It’s not ideal, but better then walking everywhere.”
After a short pause she continues “Other people don’t freeze regardless of contact. So, you can still be close to others. But no embraces. A mid-hug freeze can turn you into a prison for the other person. There are extra reading materials for safe sex positions, should you need that.” She blushes as she says that.
She then points to a white and dark blue striped arm band. “See this? It’s the same thing blind people get to make everyone aware of their condition. Except this transmits your current position via GPS. You have to wear this every time you leave your apartment. You will get fined if you don’t; big time! I know it’s annoying, but it’s for you own safety too. If you freeze somewhere inconvenient, it can cost you your life. This thing transmits your signal constantly, so when it stops, they assume you have frozen and rush in to check on you. So, keep the battery charged!” She pauses to sigh “Honestly, I wear it even when I’m home. My relatives get automatically notified when I freeze and can come and make sure everything is alright. Before I did that I froze during a shower once. The water kept running for 2 weeks. Luckily a high water bill was the only aftermath. Imagine cooking something and you freeze while the pan with oil is on the hot stove. Your place could burn down. I recommend eating cold or microwave only when you live alone. Also make sure all electronic devices have automatic shut off features. Will save you a lot of hassle.”
She shifts in her seat again. “You’ll get a pamphlet with more detailed information and you can ask your assigned social worker anything you want to know more about. But there is one more thing you should know. Cherish any moment you have with the ones you love. Due to the freezes you lose so much time. Well technically you don’t lose the time, but everyone else will age faster relative to you since you skip forward in time so to say. And… it’s increasing. People with AMN freeze more often for longer. You only lost a few days a year when the first cases happened. But now it’s months every year. If this goes on…” she swallows. “Good luck to you.” The screen goes black.
