Ficlets

WarGames

My hand is still shaking. What have I done?

In the distance I hear the muffled roar of Skinny Jimbo lifting off, payload armed, rocketing towards the Kremlin.

Silence falls on the USS Vigilance. I glance around at my crewmates, somber and afraid. No one makes eye contact.

I realize I’m still holding the activator, as if I could reverse the toggle switch and save us all. Trembling, I pry my fingers away, drop the security hood, and collapse into my seat. I can’t breathe, my throat is so dry, and my head’s going to explode if that klaxon doesn’t shut up soon.

I never asked for DEFCON 1 . All I want is to be back in Charleston with Margaret again, to see just once the face of our new daughter. Instead I’m crammed in a sweltering naval bridge in the Bering Strait, taking calls from the President himself and lobbing nukes at Russia.

And they’ll retaliate. A textbook case of Mutual Assured Destruction. But I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d pull the trigger.

Today was a bad day. I destroyed the world.

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