Excerpt
“New video from L.A.?” Nick asked.
As he asked the question he realized his own mistake. He had seen the bended mushroom cloud that
had formed over downtown Los Angeles.
The cloud on the television screen was much different looking. It seemed full and symmetrical in
comparison. It looked like a perfect
explosion, similar to what was always shown during Cold War documentaries.
“It’s Tehran,” Shane said angrily as he pushed past Nick to
enter the living room. “They don’t have
any footage from Mashhad or Shiraz yet.”
Nick realized his early morning departure was not the only
reason his brother was so angry. He
moved far enough into the living room to see the headline below the image:
Iranian cities devastated by U.S. nuclear attack.
Though the headline lacked ambiguity, Nick felt obligated to
ask the question anyway, “We nuked them?”
“And then some,” Shane scoffed. “President Dawson took the massive
retaliation doctrine a little too literally.
They killed tens of thousands of us so we’ll murder tens of millions of
them. Never mind the fact that they only
have a handful of crude atomic bombs.
Never mind the fact that there has been no evidence presented that
proves Iran was responsible. Never mind
the fact that their civilians sure as hell weren’t responsible!” Shane turned
away from the images on the screen as if they were physically harming him. He wiped the tears off his face with the palm
of his hand.
Sgt. Brown’s final words echoed in Nick’s head. There was really not going to be any war, not
in a traditional sense anyway. As he
watched the images on the television screen, he had a very different reaction
than that of his brother. He knew many
people had just been killed, although the estimates of twelve million dead
would not come out for several weeks.
Nick was not appalled like his brother.
A surge of pleasure pulsed throughout his body. Justice was being served. His only negative feelings came from knowing
that he would not be able to be a part of the retribution.
“They started this,” Nick said coldly. The anger he felt dwarfed the intimidating
confrontation he had just had with Shane.
“Those civilians supported the government that killed mom and dad.”
“It was a theocracy!” Shane emphatically shouted. “They didn’t have a choice. Democratic movements inside Iran were
systematically crushed. Most people
there are like most people here. They
just want to keep to themselves and live their lives,” Shane paused and forced
himself to soften his tone. His brother
was not the reason he was mad. “Mom and
dad wouldn’t have wanted this. It’s mass
murder in the name of vengeance.”
Nick was not so sure his parents would disagree with the
retaliation, particularly his father. He
did not bother to argue the point. At
that moment he did not really care what his parents would have wanted. He was happy with the outcome, and that was
all that mattered.
“Well, at least Iran won’t be stupid enough to attack us
again. Or any of the other Muslims for
that matter,” Nick said to his brother.
Shane snorted before responding, “No, of course they
won’t. We should have tried this a long
time ago. Attack us and we’ll annihilate
your entire civilization. That’s a hell
of a deterrent.”
“At least it’s over,” Nick scoffed. He was getting increasingly irritated by
Shane’s point of view.
“Over?” Shane asked rhetorically. “Four cities destroyed by nukes, two key
economies devastated and millions of people dead or dying. It’s not over. It’s not anywhere near over.”
Author Bio
I graduated from The Ohio State University in 2004 with a degree in history and political science. Six months later I decided I wanted to be a writer, which made the degree largely worthless. By my estimate, I will need to sell another 13653 ebooks to pay off my student loans. So... if you could recommend me to your friends that'd be super.
I have written six novels in genres ranging from science fiction to political satire. I tried combining the two genres once, but I didn't think anyone would care about a sex scandel involving the President of Blargon 7.
When not writing, I enjoy being asleep.
I currently live in central Ohio, or as you might know it better as, "that state I fly over on my way to a state I care about."
Links
Amazon Buy Link
Barnes and Noble Buy Link
Smashwords Buy Link
Author Goodreads Page
Author Facebook Page
No comments:
Post a Comment