The desert is superb this time of year. At dawn, before sunrise, the desert is a grey hazed wonderland. You would swear it was some set for a dragon fantasy film and half expect to run into dry ice machines and painted backdrops. But it's very real. First it is slate grey and the mountains are purple-black against the light. And then the purple slowly dominates the mountains and it looks like a low-lying fog shrouds the desert buttes and mesas.

One gets used to all this majesty after awhile and at the same time one never gets used to it. The cholla and saguaros can be seen more clearly spotting the wide-open land with each passing moment. The final cries of a coyote in the distance announce he plans to retire before the heat of the day sets in.

Nothing about today was unusual or indicated it was different than any other. I was in my office, shuffling papers and around 4:30 I decided to pour myself a cup of coffee. A custom blend of Kenya and mostly decaffeinated Columbian makes for a weak pick me up, but a fine flavor. I sipped carefully from the still steaming hot cup and looked out my window.

Then it happened.

A bright flash filled the skies. The all pervasive kind, which lightens everything. In less than the nanosecond it took to process the data, I knew it was a nuclear detonation. A hit somewhere southwest of my location. How far, I could not guess before I slammed to the ground, face down preparing for the initial blast wave and radiation.

"Everybody get down" I screamed at the top of my lungs, in case they were unaware of what was happening. The pit of my stomach was sick. My solar plexus were all tied up in a knot and I knew I was unable to reach the proper shelter in time.

The blast wave arrived.

The building shook, the glass shook and imploded in less than a second, sending debris landing over my back. And then in less than a few seconds the shaking subsided. Others were not even on the ground and were running about confused. My mind calculated that we were at least twenty miles from the epicenter and had a chance for survival, but a slim one. For the first time my mind tried to calculate who had nuked us. North Korea was the first one that came to mind. They used the confusion of the elections to somehow catch us off guard. Yet my mind fiercely fought the suggestion because I knew none of their missiles could ever reach this far into the continental USA.

A multi-pronged, multi-city terror attack? Suitcase nukes? This seemed more likely. Yet my survival instinct overrode this line of thinking and moved immediately to try and save folks and get them into a shelter. I walked down the stairs. Suddenly I experienced a moment of denial. No, it couldn't be a nuclear bomb after so many years under the cold war threat only to be nuked now was impossible. There had to be another explanation.

I arrived to the ground floor to find more glass and confusion.

"We need to get to shelter. We've been nuked!" I said with conviction yet part of me still desperately wanted to deny it and hoped someone would explain what happened in another way.

The secretaries were dazed. My senses were still reeling and I looked up and out a huge picture window that had caved in.

I saw three of our nuclear resistant jet/choppers in the air flying overhead in tight formation to a destination north at upwards of 500mph. These craft are always grounded unless a nuclear strike occurs. Their existence was above top secret and they are stationed in the cities to extract key personnel in the case of a nuclear attack. These craft have a single, huge 6 foot wide turbojet underneath a thick tank-like body made up mainly of radiation shielding. A helicopter blade tops the unseemly affair and is designed to make the craft capable of hovering during extraction. I had never seen one in flight before. And seeing them made my heart sink again. I knew it was true then. We had been nuked and in all likelihood me and the folks around me were already dead. The 3 craft wobbled in the air somewhat even in tight formation, and it was strange that I found time to realize the pilots were unaccustomed to flying the behemoths.

Suddenly without realizing it, I looked at my arms. They were bleeding and pieces of glass were embedded in them. I hoped that other cities were not hit. I desperately wanted to get information, but instead shouted again, "Too the shelter everyone...NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Women and some men were crying and hysterical. I led the group to our fallout shelter entrance a hundred yards distant. The skies were red and white. And I had seen countless shades of red in the desert skies but never this shade of red - this appeared to be an unearthly red. Ths skies glowed with, what I knew was radioactivity In the short march I tried to pinpoint the mushroom cloud, but could not. However, that meant it was an above ground detonation and even more deadly. I was surprised again to find my mind ruling out the terrorists. Above ground detonation meant missiles. Suddenly I realized we had to have been hit by Russia, France, China or some other nation with this capability. And again the thought of that they waited for the elections struck me. My mind made note of the inefficiency of thinking the same thought twice and vowed to be more efficient.

"What are we going to do...we're going to die!!!"

A woman was fully hysterical now.

"My children!!!!!!! My kids I have to leave!" another woman screamed and ran off.

I wanted to go chase her, but knew in the time it would take to bring her back, it would delay the group and more radiation was being absorbed every moment. The effort would also be futile. I realized, in times like this, folks have to make their own decisions and priorities.

I opened the blast door and folks quickly scrambled into the shelter. I desperately wanted a geiger counter, but knew these things were stocked below and that I. like everyone else, need to take shelter and stay put. Invisible dangers seem so unreal. Part of the mind suspends belief.

All at once, concern for the well being of my loved ones overwhelms me and I know instinctively lots of my family and friends are already dead. For the first time I wanted too blame someone. The liberals brought this upon us, I think to myself, they showed the weakness of America. The next thought immediately denounces the former. No, one can't blame them - it's the ones who nuked us who are the scourge.

Then something entirely unexpected happened...
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...I woke up.