by Nathan Jones
Matt could only shake his head. They both knew the information that had reached them over the radio. “At least it wasn't a total nuclear war. From what we know the nukes only flew between the US and the countries that make up the Gold Bloc. The rest of the world is probably untouched.”
“At least until nuclear winter sets in.” Sam shivered as if imagining it and huddled closer to him. “There were enough nukes for that, right?”
“I think so. After the hard winter and spring there weren't as many good targets in the US so our enemies might not have wasted too many nukes on us. Lewis and Chauncey think they may even have used the fewest nukes possible, hoping to leave as much land livable as they could so they could settle here now that their countries are obliterated. But if all the reports are true and we really did fire everything we had at the Gold Bloc than that's more than enough all on its own.”
“I wish we hadn't,” his wife mumbled. “So many people dead. I almost would've preferred to be invaded by the Gold Bloc, for our country to be taken over by invaders.” She looked up at him anxiously. “Is that wrong?”
Matt leaned down to rest his face against hers. “I think most of us feel that way. Not about the just letting the Gold Bloc invade without fighting back, of course, but about any alternative being better than this. There's a reason nuclear war hasn't happened up until now on a global scale, and even the horrific Middle East Crisis was the only one of its kind since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think you can safely say what happened today was the biggest tragedy in human history, and just about everyone on both sides is going to be dead by the end of it.”
Sam fell quiet, looking out at the horizon with the lowering sun at their backs. “Not us, though,” she said with sudden fierceness. “We'll survive this.”
He nodded and held his wife closer, feeling his own surge of determination. “You're right, we will.”
End of Book Three
The story continues in Reclamation,
Book Four of the Best Laid Plans series.
