Late last year I entered a contest for a military based short story, the word count was limited. I got a honorable mention, below is the story as submitted.
Nine months have passed since the end of the world. I’m one of the very few survivors of the shortest war in history. World War III lasted all of 18 hours. 5 billion people died within 96 hours, another billion died within the next six months. Funny I don’t feel very lucky. My wife and children didn’t have the ability to escape. I was lucky only in that I was touring the old Cheyenne Mountain NORAD facility. We knew for years our enemy planned to strike at us. We knew they wanted to destroy the world as we knew it so they could remake it the image of their religion. Their plan was executed better than anyone thought possible. It was simple and also frightening how quickly the entire world fell for their sucker punch. I remember the opening moves like it just happened. On the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, nuclear bombs exploded in New York City, Washington DC, Moscow and St. Petersburg Russia, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong China. America thought we were under attack from Russia and China. Russia thought they were under attack from us and China, of course China thought we and Russia attacked them. With each country’s capital destroyed, strategic command switched to each countries military back up. Russia was the first to respond with 500 land based intercontinental ballistic missiles targeted at our major military facilities and our cities. Russia launched 800 short and intermediate range missiles at China.
Our space based early warning satellites saw the thermal plumes of the Russian launches. They flashed their warning to NORAD and the pentagon. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs took it upon himself to issue the launch orders. He felt that without civilian leadership and seeing as how the Russians launched a massive attack after their decapitation strike, he had to act quickly if America was to have any chance of launching a counter attack. America launched 445 Minute Man III, ICBMs, 5 were down for maintenance, In the 25 minutes between receiving the warning and the warheads landing, the USAF managed to get 22 bombers into the air, the US Navy was able to get 5 Trident missile submarines out to sea, each was armed with 24 Trident D5 ballistic missiles individually armed with 4 nuclear warheads. The Chinese managed to launch 4 long range missiles against America, and 6 against Russia, their lone missile submarine blew up when the fourth missile launched blew up before it left the submarine’s launch tube.
Thousands of nuclear warheads exploded either over their targets or at ground level. In the Middle East Israel decided to settle its security issue for all time. Upon learning of the explosions in America, Russia and China, Israel launched 400 nuclear missiles and attack aircraft against every one of their enemies. At the same time India and Pakistan attacked each other with nuclear weapons. North Korea decided the time was right to attack the South, they sent 50 divisions across the DMZ. South Korea was driven back to Seoul. Having no choice the American commander in South Korea launched 24 nuclear armed cruise missiles at the North. North Korea ceased to exist within thirty minutes. Seeing the war on the Korean Peninsula Japan decided to ensure they never had to worry about their old enemy again. Japan with a secret inventory of nuclear weapons , launched twenty-five fighter bombers to Korea carrying fifty nuclear bombs, as the South started to celebrate their victory over the North, the Japanese weapons arrived, thirty are dropped on targets in the South and twenty on targets in the North, in an hour both Koreas ceased to exist. Around the world hundreds of millions died from radiation, starvation, local fighting over fresh water and various plagues that sprang up weeks after the nuclear attacks.
Al-Qaeda stared WW III to remake the world; they succeeded more than they thought possible. Al-Qaeda died when Israel settled the Middle East question. The Southern Hemisphere tore itself apart. We the survivors live in deep shelters or in small armed communities. Our food will last 25 more days, and then I’ll join my family.
Copyright 2013 IJT
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