Nuclear Dreams

[The Animator]

It was night, and I was back at my parents home in Tampa. I was standing outside in the back yard with my dad, enjoying the night sky. I see something familiar, looks like a shuttle launch. Those never fail to get your attention, even 300 miles away from the Cape.

That's funny, I didn't think they were ever going to launch anymore. But then I saw more of them, Dad counted 27 at least. They were also coming from the wrong direction. You have to look South East from my parents property to see a shuttle launch, these were coming from the North West, in retrospect probably MacDill AirForce base, or a ship in the harbor.

They were missles, or rockets or something.

What's that fool got us into now, I thought. He had to have started another war. Then as slowing as they stretched up into the sky, they started to come back down.

Jesus, can't they do anything right? Well at least there are saftey features on these things right? I mean, if there is a misfire and they don't travel the distamce they need to they won't detonate right?

That's when I saw the expanding hemispheres of white light form in the distance, there were many of them.

"Dad we'd better get inside." I said to him.

"What for?" He asked, I could hear the inevitable defeat in his voice.

I reply, "Cause if we survive there's going to be radiation." That got him moving. As I enter the house a wave of panic hits, "Where's Mom?" Sometimes she goes out with the ladies at work and she might be caught in all this.

Thankfully, I hear running water coming from the shower, and I breathed a sigh of releif that she was home. It dawned on me that I should check on the extended family. For half a second, I was torn between who I should call first, my grandmother, who lived next door. Or my cousin David, who is as close to a brother that I'll ever have.

I was surpised I could still get through on my cell phone as I dialed my grandmother. She didn't even know what was happening. I had to tell her that a nuclear war just started...


That's when I woke up. And the scary thing is, I was alot calmer than I thought I'd be. It was like I knew that it was only a matter of when. Right after I woke up I started thinking about short ranged missles, tactical (baby) nukes, and obviously the point of origin, and it hit me...

The sonofabitch was probably going to blame this on somebody else and use it.

I really wish I could say that it was just a dream, and be comforted by the fact that I live in a reality so far from that dream that it could never come true. But I don't, and in truth, I know deep down it's only a matter of when.

[MrScorpio]

1. How about a man in black with a tree tattooed all over his back?

Think... This is important