The Aftermath

I

It was a most pleasant evening for the Alenn family. Every evening was, in its way, pleasant on the planet Enoea, for one feels a strange feeling of freedom and coolness when the Star sets and stops scorching the surface of the planet with its searing heat. As Earth-people refer to their star with "Sun," the people who lived on Enoea referred to it simply with "Star." But the setting of the Star was not the only thing to be happy about this evening. A space trader had brought back a most delightful drink that had a sweet fragrance and a strangely satisfying bittersweet taste from a newly discovered planet. Now almost everyone on Enoea savoured this new drink, though most of them could only afford to drink it on special occasions. However, the Alenn family was one of the richest in the city, and they could afford to drink the delightful drink once every week. Furthermore, the boring culinary podcast on the radio had been replaced with a hilarious comedy! 

The Alenns enjoyed the jokes to the best of their abilities and laughed heartily even if they did not find the joke very funny. Colourful lights danced playfully on the ceiling of the hall adorned with decorations and statues of gold and marble. Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed the rather aristocratic atmosphere of the evening - everyone but young Oelin. Twenty-one-year-old Oelin Alenn was known for being very psychic, and he felt like something terrible had to happen to shatter the pleasant, relaxing atmosphere. Nevertheless, Oelin kept his thoughts to himself and tried to laugh with the others, but he just couldn't. An awkward feeling of foreboding hung over him like a big black cloud out of which an extreme downpour of rain could come any second. 

And it did.

Just as the comedian was about to utter the next joke, there was a loud crackling noise and there came the voice of a breathless man. He sounded like he was on the brink of death. "Evacuate! Terrorists! A-Bomb! Nu-" The man never finished his sentence, but Oelin knew what he was going to say.

Nuclear war!

The rest of the family burst out laughing. 

"I wonder what he meant to say, but it doesn't really matter!" one person said. "That was the most hilarious joke I have ever heard!"

Finally, Oelin could suppress his feelings no longer. He stood up and cried, "Well I know what he was going to say!" Everyone turned around and looked at him. "Nuclear war! That was no joke. No one would imitate a dying man like that. That man actually died, and we have to get out of here, NOW! Some terrorist is bound to drop an A-Bomb on us any moment!!"

"My dear Oelin," one person said. "Don't be that superstitious! We have the best security system. And besides, the terrorists couldn't build an atomic bomb."

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to die," Oelin cried defiantly. With that, he dashed out of the house and into the street. A few men and women and a little boy followed him. Everyone else continued drinking their drinks and listening to their jokes.

"Where are we going, Dada?" the little boy asked.

I think he should keep on believing that I'm his father for his own good, Oelin thought. Then he said, "The bomb shelter. It's a five-minute walk, but only a three-minute dash."

Everyone broke into a run. Presently they arrived at the bomb shelter. They instantly jumped in and closed the hatch so tightly that Oelin though the lock would burst. There were already some people in the small shelter. It was dark and it smelled foul. 

Two minutes after Oelin and those with him had leaped into the bomb shelter, there was a powerful explosive shock that threw Oelin and his companions across the shelter with the most fearful force imaginable. The mere shock caused several people to faint.

The bomb had been dropped. The nuclear war had begun.

Oelin stood up. The little boy was rubbing his eyes and crying.

Oelin put on an oxygen mask hanging on the wall and said, "I'm going out to find survivors."

He opened the hatch and crawled out of the bomb shelter. What he saw there he would never forget for the rest of his life. There was dust and ash everywhere. Not a single building was left standing. The sky was dark and had blackened out the starry night sky entirely. The road had been cracked in half and chunks of its pavement were everywhere - they had been hurled into the ruins of buildings, tossed onto the side of the road, or had been dashed against what was left of the rest of the pavement. But what Oelin would remember the most clearly were the corpses. They were scattered all over the horrible scene, and one could barely recognise what had once been thriving, living, innocent creatures in them. The corpses were torn apart, their faces entirely deformed, and they were covered in burns and blood.

Oelin felt a powerful urge to tear off his oxygen mask and scream, "You terrorists! You MURDERERS! YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!!" and it was very hard to fight this urge, even with the knowledge that he could not pull of his mask for fear of receiving a massive dose of nuclear radiation.

Oelin then moved on to the Alenn house. Its ruins were filled with corpses. That had once been my family, he thought. And he was suddenly filled with the deepest remorse - even guilt. It agonisingly pierced the depths of his heart, it made every muscle in his body ache, and it forced all other thoughts out of his brain. It drove him insane, and in some way this insanity seemed bittersweet to him, like the wonderful drink that his dead relatives had once enjoyed. He felt extremely guilty, for he could have grabbed his family members and forced them to get to the bomb shelter. 

But he didn't. Why? Maybe it was natural. When one is seized by extreme excitement or despair, they are not able to employ their intelligence, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. It just leaves them when they need it most. 

And that's how everything is in life, Oelin realised. When you need something most, it leaves you. Only true friends stay behind to help you in times of need.

Just then, he heard the earsplitting noise of airplane engines. He looked up to see a military bomber airplane flying towards the ocean.

They're going to kill those terrorists! Oelin thought. They will pay after all!

Oelin decided to return to the bomb shelter. Nobody could have survived this explosion. It was enough to exterminate an entire race.

A day later, a military vehicle came to take the survivors to a large bombproof military base. They also brought news that three more bombs had been dropped!

The nuclear war lasted only another day. The terrorists were destroyed, but all of Enoea was entirely devastated. Nobody could go outside because of the radiation and almost everybody who had survived had lost all their money. All of Enoea was left in poverty because of one terrorist who decided to drop a bomb.