Work Text:
★Another day, another dusk, another... ★
It was just another day, another day of sleep, eat work and repeat. Right now he was getting ready to leave for his office, but something felt strange. He could not put his finger on it, but since he had woken up, he felt dread in his stomach. But he still went to the work, like any other day.
Children were playing outside, cars were rushing to their destination and the sun was shining for the first time that year. It was just February after all.
He made himself a coffee and started with his work, signing all the papers, getting through emails and contacting all the important people. All of the everyday stuff.
It was close to twelve o’clock, when he wanted to leave for the lunch, but someone, or something, had other plans.
“Code red zero, code red zero. I repeat, code red zero.” A robotic voice sounded through the entire building, even managing to sound slightly panicked.
Most of the people just stopped and wondered, confused what is happening, but the unlucky ones froze. Just as him. His blood run cold and his eyes almost fell out, “this can be happening” he thought.
Then suddenly, almost like someone hit the button play, everyone started moving, panicking and rushing.
“mister prime minister, we have to get you somewhere safe!” a guy hurried to him, taking away. “President is already in plane.” He looked at him, stopping for a moment, almost dreading to ask. “ Which one? “ looking him straight to the eyes, he waited for his answer. His friend swallowed, “ The doomsday plane.” He finally answered. That answer alone felt almost like a bullet to the guts. He hoped, prayed really, that he will start laughing, but that sound never came. So they went, through the halls, through the tunnels, right to the helicopter.
He hated flying, he hated being scared and he hated conspiracy theories. He was the prime minister after all, he knew the truth. But right now, he was flying, he was most definitely scared and the conspiracy theories were most probably turning true just now. What a great day to be awake.
They went through every possibility, every scenario, but when he walked through the door of the bunker, everything changed.
“The Eagle has fallen.” General said and looked at him. It took him moment to process that information. “ What? You mean the president is dead?” he asked not believing. “ Sadly yes, the enemies’ forces shot the doomsday plane down, no one survived. Our technology is incomparable to the aliens one. We don’t have much of a promising future, but you are the new president now, and we will follow your lead.” And another punch to the guts, he was going to go down the history as the president who couldn’t defeat the aliens. Well hopefully there will still be a history book to write it in to. Or at least a human to do it.
“We have to get rid of them, we can’t let them defeat us! We must strike back!” he said, his mind working over time, but he will rest after this ends, not now. You can rest when you are dead, as they say.
The discussed, argued and fought, for over three hours when a voice broke through the rumble of voices. “We have to use the atomic bomb, there is no other way! Their mothership is coming at us, many cities are already destroyed, we have to at least try to save something!” Someone said what everyone feared. And after few minutes of silence, the new president looked up, ”All right, lets light this bastards up.”
So the preparation began, briefcase was brought to the table. Every general looking at maps and plans. But the decision was already made and it was probably a final one.
Bomb was ready, everything prepared and time was running quick. They observed everything through a big bullet proof window.
New president stood from his chair and walked towards the briefcase before the window. It was already decided and there was no other choice. So he stepped over the imaginary line of no return. “We stand before a difficult decision, but it is one that we must take. It is our only chance to save our people, to save the entire planet. Even if the price may be high, price for doing nothing is higher. So let’s get over with this.” He looked at his colleagues, all of them stiff as a ruler.
“Let’s just hope that the next generation will forgive us.” He said quieter, looking out of the window right at the reddish sky. A raven croaked somewhere around the corner.
He took that all in and with final look and a silent prayer, he pressed the bloodlike coloured button. A beep sounded, then an explosion, then another...and then... silent.
And with that, the sun set for the last time...