Radioactive

[Old Version] Things Heat Up.

It was time. That critical moment of decision. It had all been leading up to this.

Mai’s brow furrowed and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. She stood frozen in the glow of the radioactive device in her hands, finger hovering, trembling over the button that would change the course of human history. Fierce brown eyes bore intensely into the display of the device, a million thoughts racing behind them through her mind as she weighed the options. Should I do it? Should I push this button? Or should I leave and try to forget any of this ever happened? But how could I forget this?

There was a series of soft taps. Footsteps. Mai held her breath, praying she wouldn’t be discovered. Her wide eyes flickered from the display to the crack in the door, watching for the other person in the room. She saw the silhouette of a woman pass by, a dim halo of fluorescent light tracing the edges of her figure, heels clicking like gunshots on the cold, hard floor. Mai cringed as the bead of sweat dropped from her chin and hit the tile. It only left a minuscule, wet starburst, but to Mai it was a heart-stopping explosion that resonated for miles. It wasn’t until she heard the heavy door at the other end of the chamber boom shut that she exhaled. The woman had not detected her.

She remained motionless for a long enough time that the eco-friendly lighting recessed in the ceiling turned off, and the room was plunged into an unearthly darkness, save for the luminescence emitted by the display of the device. It cast a harsh, eerie light on Mai’s face, shadows outlining her features in a manner not unlike that of a flashlight on the face of a raconteur sharing a spooky campfire tale.

Bombs had been dropped earlier that day. Very soon, a great deal more would be dropped again. Mai had the power to change that. She had a few moments to prevent the future bombings. A few hours ago, Mai’s blood had run cold as she figured out who two of the targets would be. At that moment, she had decided to come to this place in an attempt to stop those targets from becoming victims. But now that she was here, with the device in her hand, she had come to realize that if she did, she would immediately bear the full force herself. Or, she could do nothing, avoid the danger, but then the bombs would almost certainly go off in a public place, directed at those two targets. Thus, Mai was currently in a state of hesitation over what action she should take.

One of the targets was a girl whom she did not have any particular love for, who tried to spite her at every corner: Avery. But the other was someone very dear to her, whom she loved very much: her boyfriend, Don. And who knows how many other people will be in range of these bombs? There could—no, there would be terrible injuries as a result, and these two were going to be recipients for sure.

And so Mai was left with a choice: Did she sacrifice herself, and spare friends, enemies, and strangers, or did she save herself, and suffer the guilt that she could have prevented a worse fate from befalling a loved one, an unloved one, and who-knows-how-many bystanders? It was a truly impossible decision.

On the screen of the device, the digital number changed, counting away the precious minutes.

Mai couldn’t help but recall the events that led up to this situation. If only she had not picked up that phone that morning. If only she had not noticed the peculiar bathroom graffiti that resembled a supermodel posing next to a large cat. And if only she had not grown curious about the ten-digit number scrawled in evergreen Sharpie directly beneath the odd drawing on the stall. If only.

She lapsed back into the present and checked the display again. The final digit had already gone from nine to five. In another five minutes, that final digit would read zero. And by then, it would be too late to change fate.

All of a sudden, she felt her cellular vibrate with a new text message. She recognized the number. It was from the person dropping the bombs. The message read: Are you in position? Mai swallowed and typed back: Yes.