Her important red telephone rang. Knowing full well that the red phone was only used in case of emergency, she hastily picked it up, almost knocking a glass of water onto all of her important documents. Relieving the receiver from the cradle, she barked.

“Hello!? What is it?”

“Madam president, we have some…” Crackled the disembodied voice from the other end

“What?” She croaked, fearing the worst.

“We have a missile, it’s coming right for us.” He said bluntly, he was not known for delivering bad news well. His voice was emotionless; it was hollow and detached, as if his mind was somewhere else, not delivering the disastrous news.

“Well…” Her brained failed her for a split second, she told herself to pull it together, she was the president, after all. “Have you deployed the defensive missiles?”

“We…err…can’t.”

“What? Why not?” She blasted

“You, yourself, cut our budget, they were the first to go”

She nearly collapsed from her chair; of course, she had cut it just after she took office.

“Is there anything we can do?”

“No, madam President, we’ve tried everything”

“Where is it headed?”

“Towards the white house…you.”

She sat in stunned silence for a moment, this was it. It was all over.

“How bad is it?”
”Bad. It’s big, and as far as we can tell, nuclear. It has the potential to wipe out at least half the country”

“W-w-w-hat are the causality estimates?” She sputtered

“Astronomical”

“When do we…” She got chocked up “…When will…it…hit?”

He sighed heavily “Any minute, we’re not sure exactly when, when it got close it scrambled our radars”

“Is there any hope?”
“…No. No, I’m afraid there’s not. Not ever our bunkers would stop the blast…”

There was more, but she had dropped the phone. She stumbled over to her veranda. She opened the big french doors, it was a crisp fall night, the moon hung so low that she swore that it was coming to watch the show. She kept her eyes on the skyline, watching diligently as it came into view. Some might close their eyes and pray in this situation, others would hurl themselves to the ground below. Instead, she kept watching as it approached. It was amazing that it hadn’t gone off already, she supposed that it wouldn’t do so until it hit the ground. She stood there; savoring the last minute of her, and many other’s lives. She outstretched her arms and reached for the marvel of mankind, a destruction machine capable of killing millions. She reached out her arms and embraced the bomb.