Picture This

The ensuing blast would be so fleeting, malignant and destructive that any man who could lay claim to the most agile or quick on his feet would be rendered seemingly immobile before his eventual demise. His body would be turned from a proud, solid foundation to an ever-rising haze of tissue and blood that would, in moments too short for any human to count, be joined by the subsequent near-instant human decomposition just as fast as the first was. It would sweep through like a current of desolation and casualty witnessed only a few times in the course of human events.

Stronger foundations, those made of "solid" substances like cold concrete and steel would be swept away on the winds, taking with them whatever comes in their path from the unluckiest man, woman or child to the neighborhood puppy or playful kitten. The tears made for these misplaced dead will echo throughout the pages of history and in memory and lamented retellings of the story, word for word, graphic detail for graphic detail.

In moments that last shorter than the collapsing of an eyelid, the birds above would cease to chant their joyous song. The squirrels scattering among the parks and wooded areas would breathe once and never again. Fish would cease to wiggle their fins and the water they dwell in would be deemed hazardous for longer than empires live. Any inhabitants that happen to survive will become monstrous copies of what their pedestrian ancestors were, becoming both hideous and foul.

The crisp smell of the morning dew will be replaced by the toxic scent of death, ruin and a gloom that shall never truly elude the eye. The clouds above will desire that their exteriors burst open wide and they can die swift and painless before they can witness anymore of the doleful scene.

A Moment in the Future

Picture the previous scene upon the city of Los Angeles, the citizens not even having enough time to whip out their cell phones to say goodbye to the wife and kids at home before literally being torn apart and carried away by a blast so grand and terrible that it could only have been devised by the most foul or foolish men of history. Imagine the Hollywood sign ripping apart in seconds, the symbol of America's entertainment industry gone in the passing of a few heartbeats. Imagine seeing the large houses of Beverly Hills tuned into rubble in moments. Picture the children playing ball outside without hair, then without skin, then without body fluids and finally, without bones as they are converted into clouds of red mist as the blast rips their innocent bodies to pieces.

We have to come to grips with these images, America. Because it is a growing possibility that they could come upon us and soon. There is more reason to fear for one's safety than there ever has been. True, one could argue that there was indeed reason to fear destruction during the world's two world conflicts but they were by no means instantaneous except for the two forces unleashed upon an arrogant Empire of Japan that, in the end, won the war for the Allied forces. That same force that was let loose upon the unsuspecting plebian and patrician alike across the Pacific is quite possibly on our doorstep with the timer set and without informing us that it is there ticking away the seconds until we find ourselves with a crisis on our hands so looming that even Jack Bauer would be unable to stop it.

Yes, I am indeed referring to a nuclear explosion. That instantaneous force created by the mighty power of fission or the more powerful fusion. The type of weapon that our fathers and mothers lived huddled in fear of for most of their lives and still do, only this time without having "the shelter" to head to like their parents kept just in case.

The primary problem with having a shelter is that, more than likely, it will not protect its frightened inhabitants from the ensuing radiation and, more problematic than that, that by the time the bomb has burst apart and begun to tear through its target city, there is no time to "get down to the shelter!" - everyone will be dead in an instant. Those who live on the far outskirts of the target city will die in a less desirable way.

If we had a choice of how we wanted to die, most likely we would pick the "quick and painless" option. More than likely, that is how the deaths of those obliterated by a nuclear blast went in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We cannot know for certain for obvious reasons but even if there was pain, it was a fleeting sting before the brain is ripped apart into multiple pieces along with those other important body parts - eyes, ears, lungs, the colon and the heart.

So it is safe to conclude that if a city like Los Angeles were to be hit by a nuclear warhead that there would be no lives saved from "heading to safe places." It just would not happen. Man, woman, child, animal, vegetable and mineral would all be blown away. No Man of Steel or even Jack Bauer could stop this type of disaster. They would be annihilated along with the rest of the measly citizens of the California metropolis.

No more Hollywood Walk of Fame, no more Dodger Stadium, no more L.A. Times, no more LAX, no more UCLA, no more Hollywood sign and no more Staples Center. If you think the smog hovering over the city is bad right now, try picturing radiation in its place over the ruins of what had been the home of nearly four million people.

The scary thing is that we could be witnessing this unfathomable scene any day now, possibly the next time you turn on your television set.

(Part Two is in the works so be paitent, dear readers, this does have a point!)

(Photo Credit: http://www.parowanprophet.com/maps/mohawk_350_KT_nuke.jpg)