The Coming of the Sun

by Escher

Twelve minutes, fifteen seconds…and counting.

Tom looked up from his oversized diving watch, given to him by a college friend who had joined the SEALs, and glanced up into the sky. The stars were there still, but slowly disappearing with the coming of the sun.

The sky was beautiful right now. Tom had never really been a morning person, preferring the darkness and the night, thereby earning him the nickname of “vampire” from people who knew him. He usually required numerous cups of coffee to even be able to function…just to get into work. This morning, unfortunately, he had none of his special roast blend of coffee. He was “making do” with a soda from the machine. It served. Unfortunately, there had been no whiskey to be had. Whiskey would have made it near perfect. Well, whiskey, and Marie by his side. Neither was possible though. Whiskey, any alcohol really, was illegal on site. And Marie was located 85 minutes to the north and west. He’d thought, briefly, about calling her, but decided not to in the end.

“Let her sleep,” he sighed. “Please, let her sleep.”

He looked around the sky again. The flat plains and lack of trees gave him an unobstructed view of the dwindling stars, the quarter moon, and the sixty, seventy, at least eighty plus contrails (that he could see) that led up into the sky. It could almost, almost, have been called picturesque.

Tom turned towards the building. There was still some muffled sobbing coming from inside. Walking to the open window, he opened it slightly to allow him to stick his head inside.

“Kevin,” he whispered, “Is he gonna be ok?”

The heavyset man turned at the sound of Tom’s voice, the still damp tracks of tears visible on his face. He scrubbed his face with the sleeve of his shirt and sighed.

“Yes sir. He’s just…he called and talked to his wife. They’ve only been married about 8 months now.”

Tom nodded his head. “I understand. And, for what it’s worth, I am sorry.”

Kevin’s head jerked up. “No sir! No, it’s not your fault. You were doing your job. What you’ve been trained to do.”

He knelt down by the silently sobbing man and draped his camouflage jacket around his shoulders.

Tom nodded, and stepped back to hide his own tearing eyes. He and Marie had only been “official” now for a little under a year. His eyelids were quivering now as he held back his tears as he thought about Marie…and Anne and Lynne. His three “darlings” as he called them.

He successfully fought back the tears. He’d been crying as he had turned the key earlier. He’d also cried as he walked from the 20’ x 40’ hole in the ground that he called his office. Bryan, his deputy crew member, had been screaming at him not to go as he walked past the thick steel door, and Tom reflected that it was probably a good thing the pistols had been removed several years earlier.

As he had rode the elevator up, he had wiped his eyes. When he told the topside personnel about what was coming, he’d been dry-eyed. Now, he had only (he glanced at his watch again) four minutes…exactly. The exact measure of time got a wry grin from him. Somewhat ironic.

He crumpled up his empty soda can, tossed it over the high barbed wire fence, and looked to the sky. “Nope, can’t see ‘em yet,” he whispered. Moving at a slow lope, he hopped onto the hood of one of the site trucks, then vaulted onto the garage roof.

On the roof, he stood and turned a complete 360 degrees, arms stretched out. The morning was a crisp one still. And his thin, blue uniform wasn’t built for warmth.

Tom stopped his impromptu pirouette suddenly and looked east. There. The “sun” had come…finally.

“That’ll be Kilo zero-two I figure. But it’s already empty. All of ‘em are.”

As the sky lit up, Tom looked into the brilliance.

“Marie,” he silently mouthed, “I love………”

The shockwave hit, with the coming of the nuclear sun.