It's All Over But the Crying
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The loud and drunken happy yells almost hurt my ears.
"Woo!" I yelled, ignoring the ringing in my ears. People around me drank more.
"Hey Cole!" I looked to my left through the crowd and saw a familiar face.
"Hey Colonel! Enjoying the party?" He smiled sadly. The new-years party was set up in a empty hanger that after a few weeks was made to look like the White House.
"I would be more if their wasn't 2 AC Carries coming in." I spat out my drink. Fortunate. Didn't really like the taste.
"Whos? Shouldn't we be out their now?" I asked a bit concerned.
"Nah. Dont worry about it we've got a flock of B-29s with a full escort going in to talk to whoever it is." I checked my watch. The Colonel had a wider smile than ive ever seen on him. "Still cant believe i've lived this long." I chuckled.
"One hell of a life huh, sir?" He chuckled.
"Yeah... Yeah it has. I just wish th-" A bright red light flashed in the room and the music soon stopped. A crackle from the P.A signaled it was being turned on and soon a voice flowed from the speaker.
"Uh... All Pilots report to your stations... this is a... oh god... Code red!" The voice of the radio operator was drowning in worry and fear. I looked to the Colonel.
"Jesus Christ Cole, You know what this means dont you?!" Even the Colonel was spooked. What the hell was going on? I nodded no furiously. The hanger was quickly emptied and shouts and yells of panic accompanies the fighter and bomber propellers starting up.
"No! What the hell is going on?" The Colonel looked right in my eyes, fear plain on his face.
"Bombs, Cole! And not just any bombs..." He trailed off, looking away slightly.
"You don't mean..." I know what he meant. It was a rhetorical question. I shouldn't even be here anymore. I should be in a bunker. Why was i here?
"Atomic Bombs Cole!" He turned away and started to run. "Come with me!" I nodded and started to run with him out the emergency escape door out onto the runway. Planes flew overhead, mostly ours but a few enemy fighters flew on, gunning our planes out of the sky. The Colonel held out his arm to stop me right before I charged across the runway to the shelter below the tower. "NOW!" He yelled just as a small group of fighters finished strafing the tarmac.
I never ran so hard in my life. Once we cleared the strip we ended up at a small door into the basement. I yanked it open and turned to let him in but found nobody next to me. "Colonel?!" I looked back to the runway to see him slumped onto the concrete runway in a puddle of his own blood. two large bullet holes in his chest. I couldn't help him. No matter what. "Oh god..." I opened up the basement door and stepped down the stairs. Then I saw it as I turned around to close the door.
The flash from the bomb. It wasn't a joke. We really are getting hit. Who was it? The Chinese? Russians? Whatever. I was on a limited time here.
The small cellar connected to a large steel door, most likely the shelter and the rest of the room was dark and dirty. grabbing a nearby blowtorch I ran into the bunker and shut the door. the inside has multiple metallic locks which I each fastened tight then welded over. "Nobody else made it..." I was sealed in. With nobody else. Why did I even think this was a good idea? Now im doomed to die a slow death unless somehow the blast reaches through to me. Please let that happen. I slumped down the wall I had my back pressed to and ripped my black tie off. A few tears flowed from my eyes. Why wouldn't I cry... Everything I knew was just obliterated.
I stood back up and turned around and took note of my surroundings. The room I was in was plastered with old posters and propaganda from the second great war. The lights flickered for a bit until they went out entirely. "Shit..." I wandered in the dark for a bit until the lights came back on. "Oh thank God..." I proceeded deeper into the bunker until I reached a door that had a trail of blood leading into it. It looked old and the next thing I noticed were the two shell casings for a small handgun in the blood puddle. A foul stench reached my nose as I placed my hand on the door which was slightly ajar.
Blood.
The room was littered with bodies and and blood. It was a small hall that connected to a door with a key inside it, a hand still on it. I couldn't stand the smell and the horror anymore and puked out whatever was inside my stomach. "Why..?" I asked myself as I stepped over body after body to reach the door. The door was unlocked so I opened it up after gently moving the hand off it and looked inside. the room was small and cold. I stepped in and rolled the sleeves on my white dress shirt down. It was light by a single dim sealing lamp. The room was stuffed with shelved which hosted an assortment of food and drinks. "These people killed each other over food..." I spoke in horror. The realization of what humanity was capable of for survival was awful. Forget awful, that didn't even begin to describe it. I looked over a corner and saw a man, lying in the fetal position. A bloody gun next to him. Upon further examination I noticed his hands were bloody and he looked familiar, so I stepped towards him. Probably not my best idea but someone to talk to for the rest of eternity would be nice.
"Johnny?" I called to him. The man looked at me and I got a look at his face. It was Johnny. Me and him were friends and our dads fought alongside each other during the war. His eyes widened in panic and he quickly grabbed the gun and aimed it at my head. "Whoa! Johnny wait!" He smiled and lowered the gun. But it wasn't a friendly smile, it was one of insanity.
"O-oh hey Cole! Sur-re nice new years isn't it?!" He stood up and slowly started to walk towards me, gun in hand. "Sure have been some nice fireworks, huh?" My back hit a wall. I wasn't strong enough to fight him even if I wanted to. Even if he didn't have the gun. I may have been in the army but I was only a pilot. Johnny was a marine.
"Johnny... J-just back up... Please..." I pleaded. I didn't want to live through the deadliest explosion just to get shot by a good friend. "D-did you kill... all those people..?" I asked in fear, hoping for him to say n-
"Yes Cole. Very observant. You see, I needed to be in control and the food was my ticket to it." Why the fuck did he lose his shit so fast? He literally went from 0 to 100. "But they got rowdy... You wont do the same... Would you Cole?" He asked as he pressed the barrel of the gun to my forehead. Cold metal. Before I could respond he started to squeeze the trigger. My pupils turned to pin-pricks.
"YES!" I shouted just before he shot. He nodded and smiled, lowering the gun.
"Good. Now you listen and listen close." He handed my the gun and took a few steps back. The blood from his hands dripped onto my hands. It was Disgusting. "Shoot me." I gulped and stared at him.
"W-what?" He closed his eyes and lowered his arms to his sides. I held the gun ready in my hand in case I really needed to kill him. "You want me to kill you?"
He nodded. "I've just made terrible mistakes for no reason at all. I saw the end of the world as a time to do whatever and feel no remorse. But... I do. I just killed families, Cole. Do you know how that feels..?" I nodded. "Of course you do, you dropped the big one after all." I gulped. I tried to forget about that. "What is it Cole? You killed thousands of Russians and almost saved our country." I was getting mad. Everyone asks me about the 'Democracy' sooner or later. It was a time I was blinded by the wonderfulness for the USA. But... Almost saved the US by bombing Moscow..?
"It was the Russians? How do you know?!" I asked in anger. He laughed. I raised the gun to eye level with him.
"You dropped the big one on Moscow. Its only fitting they would come back for revenge." He stopped talking. "Anyways, just get it over with. Your the reason millions died today." That was the breaking point. I pulled the trigger. The recoil was minimal as was John's life. He died like the rest of the county.
A tear dropped from my eye as I looked at the gun.
I should do it. Im the reason the world just ended.
IT WAS ALL MY FUCKING FAULT.
I Dropped the gun on the ground and fell over, tears flowing from my eyes. "Why has life led me to the last living man down here... Karma... I guess..." I whispered in sorrow and regret as I passed out. The days sorrows hitting me as I tried forgetting everything. It was futile. Like trying to stop a stampede of elephants with tape.
