The World's Choice

The slim brunette figure sat at a desk encircled by three grim faced and gray haired suits. A seemingly insignificant silver briefcase, sitting in its own reflection upon the desk, shook the room with its power. She paid no mind to the muted pounding on the door, now locked, and covered with a bookcase, as she fixed each man with the same riveting blue-fire gaze she used to convince the people to elect her.

“We will be remembered forever,” her now passionless voice the infamous pin drop in the room.

The roar of her inaugural crowd died down but a few weeks ago and now there was only one thing that could stop her. The bookcase shook more incessantly as if, by instinct, it knew the time had come. This was no longer a drill, those had proven this plan would work. The outcome was still a vague haze of uncertainty but the initiation could not be stopped once started.

“We will be remembered only if there are any left to remember,” the short, round, balding Secretary of Defense, whose loyalty, unbeknown to the others, she had bought with her body, mumbled at her shoulder.

“That decision is not ours to make. You all have agreed the world must change, will change, through our actions or others. This is our best chance to survive that change. The only option in which we are acting and not merely reacting. What we do here today will change the world, it is up to the people whether that change will include or exclude the human race.” Rising and falling in rhythm, her voice drew them in, painting the picture she wanted them to see. Crowds around the country experienced the same voice and could not deny it.

Eyes now glowing with passion hid the thoughts streaming behind them. The world must change and change through fire. Everything done had been necessary for this moment. With two keys turned together the lock humanity placed on the chains it had wrapped around the world would be released. With time nature would return to reclaim what had been lost. The world would decide if humanity got a second chance.

As the last of these thoughts trailed through her mind her hand turned and, whether from practice or the spell she spun around him the man beside her turned his key in unison. Released from their confines and allowed to fly free fifteen inter continental ballistic missiles hurtled towards their targets. None of them carried a nuclear device, or any explosives to speak of. No one but the five inside the gently curving oval shaped room knew that fact.

The door and bookcase fell silent.