Ground Zero

I remember the day of the first flash, just another day. I woke up that morning just as I would any other, showered brushed my teeth, ironed my work shirt, ate my breakfast and went to work.
I remember people saying a lot can change in a day, well that could not have been more true on this day.
I arrived at my work, I worked at a coffee shop in Newtown Sydney. Nice little boutique café, a lot of morning customer traffic. The regulars come in, I hardly have to ask for orders, humans are very predictable and creatures of habit.
In the café we have a television with a TelePrompTer so there is no volume and the morning news was on. The usual stuff, tensions high in the Middle East , North Korea per suing nuclear weapons, Syria being bombed blah blah blah.
One of my regulars was chatting with me. His name was David, young man about 27 years old slim, business suit, slick hair.
"Hey Rich can you not make the milk to hot" he asked, as if I don't remember how he likes it.
"No worries mate" I respond with the standard customer service response.
" hey that's crazy what's going on with Korea" he says referencing the news TelePrompTer
"Yeah, same old same old, American imperialism at its finest" now I try not to get to into politics at work especially working at a café
"What do you mean bye that?" He responded looking confused
"You don't actually buy all the crap that the media feeds you" This is why I try to stay away from these conversations.
"No, well ahh I mean that you know North Korea shouldn't be developing Nuclear weapons right?"
" No body should be making nuclear weapons but there is more to it than that, America has them, Israel, Russia, the Poms and aside from that the Americans nearly destroyed North Korea with constant carpet bombing after World War Two, look mate I could go on but North Korea are likely trying to have nuclear weapons as a deterrent so what happened in the 50's doesn't happen again"
" wow, mate I didn't know that the yanks did that" he said looking a little shocked and defensive at the same time
"Mate the worlds a complex place, things are not as they seem, do some research look into it if it interests you, here's your flat white with soy milk not too hot"
I handed him his coffee as I did that the TV went blank, my manager went over to it with the remote. Then a customer said
"Hey your WIFI just died"
Ai then over heard another customer say they didn't reception on there phone.
Then I saw a flash of light in the far distance, now I don't know what happened inside of me but I knew I just new. I turned and said yelled out
"Quick follow me" being and older building in New town we had an underground storage accessible behind the counter and it happened to be near air tight due to the rubber seals. The only person that actually followed me was David, he must have seen the look of panic
You could feel a rumble,I flipped open the the cellar door David jumped the counter, the last thing I saw before shutting the cellar door was my manger still fiddling with the TV. I slammed it shut popped the latch
Everything started to shake, the was loud rumble that increased, we could hear people screaming in the café for a second, my ears popped like when you driving up a mountain . It's hard to remember everything after that but then there was silence.It was very hot in the cellar, David was screaming at me in hysterical fassion
"What the fuck is going on, what the fuck is going on, Rich what the fuck, what the fuckkk"
" I don't know, I don't know, I think it was a nuclear explosion" well that the only thing it could be?, couldn't it.
"How do you know?"
"I don't exactly" and I didn't but when I saw that flash of light the way I did it reminded me of all of those movies and or documentaries I have seen. The rest was just instinct.
I began to hear and feel some small explosions around us. Not sure what they where. I fumbled around to look for flash light as there was no natural light in this space. I found it on the wall beside a clip board and turned it on. The store room was about the size of a large bedroom, there was shelving with jarred foods, alcohol, there was a box freezer which has stopped now that there is no electricity. Water, thank the god's bottled water.
Now at this stage David and I were both in shock, the was some time before we spoke again.
"So you think it was a nuke? David asked me
I was still going through everything ion my head, if that was a nuke everything I owned is gone and likely everyone I know is dead or dying and my sister. My sister lives inland of New South Wales in a town called Wagga Wagga.
" I cant seeing it being anything else, I saw a flash and for whatever reason I just went into auto pilot"
David was looking at me with frightened eyes
" but this is Australia man why would anyone want to nuke us?, it just doesn't make sense, even before you were saying America,Russia, North Korea but there all far away, we aren't even involved in those things."  David said this with an uncertain tone
"No were not directly but Australian government does support American foreign policy, but I don't think that's we could have been targeted, I think this is much worse." As I said this my mind is reeling with all the potential reasons why, were, what are we going to do next.
"What do you mean much worse?" David says almost whispering
" Well I think this may be global nuclear war, its been on the cards for some time now really, I mean nukes have been around since the 1945, well that was the first successful test of a hydrogen bomb, and even in the 80's there were some close call's"I said rattling of these facts feeling like it isn't even really me saying it.
" How do you know all of this stuff?, what do you mean close call's in the 80's? I only remember the Gulf war." He said sounding a little agitated
"Look there is a lot more that goes on in the world that you don't hear about on the sunrise morning show or read in the daily telegraph, look I keep myself informed from multiple source's  and try and educate myself about world affairs, and what does it matter now anyway"
I said in the realization that this conversation is really meaningless at this point. We are both stuck in this storage room. I don't know how much air there is for both of us. There food and water to last. But it's the air. Don't know if there is radiation leaking into this room now. I feel as though this is a dream, it couldn't have happened like this. I mean yes I work at café in the city, I try and keep myself aware of world affairs, I contribute to society, I mean I got out of bed today came to work, served a number of other fellow people with paid employment there morning caffeine hit. How could I have known this was going to happen and even if I did what could I have done? This isn't my fault? Why am I even thinking that, I mean David doesn't even know anything outside of what he see's on the TV or reads in his Facebook feed. But what is better knowing or not knowing? Would we both even still be alive right now if I had my head in the sand like most of the population? Too many questions too many questions.
I can hear a buzzing sound 'ZZZZZ' 'ZZZZZ' its getting louder 'ZZZZ' ZZZZ' ZZZZ'
I open my eyes and it is my phone on the bed dresser, my alarm to go to work. It was a dream, the dream was so vivid, My heart was pounding as I sat up on the side of my bed. And it isn't fading like some dreams when you wake up. Oh well, better go Iron my shirt for work.