The Cold War

(Sorry if the ending is rushed)

Back in the 80's, literally everyone was worrying that a nuclear war between the US and Russia will commence. Thankfully that didn't happen. But what if it did?

I was watching TV with my cousins and big brother. We all enjoyed the shows made by DiC, like The Real Ghostbusters. As we were watching Scooby Doo, an interruption happened, and the TV went crazy and then static bellowed the screen. My second cousin had autism, so when this happened, he screamed so loudly that his parents came in and actually covered his mouth and took him upstairs to his room. While we looked back at the TV, a screen came up, saying "EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM" and it had the Civil Defense logo on it. The text "URGENT MESSAGE" was next to the Civil Defense logo. A beeping noise burrowed from the tiny speaker holes and it felt like our eardrums were gonna explode since the beep was so high. A large black bar appeared in the middle, and then an announcer says this:

"This is not a test. At 7:52 PM Central Daylight Time, a national emergency was issued for the Continental United States. A nuclear attack is occuring."

My big brother began to bite his nails, and my other cousin started to cry.

"For the safety of the general public, Civil Defense is urging all residents to relocate and head for the nearest fallout shelter. If none are available, locate your nearest police officer, or military guard for directions to an alternative shelter."

My big brother is a Nintendo geek, and he didn't want all of his Nintendo Power magazines in ash. He got a box and threw his NES inside, along with his Nintendo Power magazines. My cousin then got my stack of VHS tapes and put them in his backpack. My brother broke his own Gameboy by tripping over one of my cousin's toys.

"Bring food, water, clothing, a first aid kit, a flashlight with extra batteries, and your ID. Since time is limited, move fast. Additional information will soon be presented when the threat is identified."

The narrator stopped talking, and thus, the EBS is over. It went back to Scooby Doo, but 4 seconds after the broadcast came back, the cartoon fuzzed away. A "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" screen was present. My mother then came down, in a panic. She asked if everyone got the alert, and we all said yes. She went back up to get my autistic cousin. As we began leaving with all of our appliances, another emergency alert came on. This time, the screen was really distorted. We all went down to the downstairs TV, and it had the CD (Civil Defense) logo on the top. There was no voiceover, and the screen was black with just the CD logo. Then, red text appeared on the screen. It said "SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY". Everyone began panicking, and since my dad was a police officer, he actually panicked the most and shot his gun multiple times on the walls. And then the "seek shelter" text got changed to something saying:

THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN OUR SYSTEMS. WE CANNOT STAY ON THE AIR MUCH LONGER. STAY SAFE.

I don't know what that meant, but I thought some kind of militia group attacked the station. A few seconds after, the broadcast went to static and we were met with color bars, with text that says "OFF THE AIR" in the middle.

So we all went to the minivan, while my cousin's parents went to their SUV. As we drove through my no-longer peaceful town, it was like my middle school during a blackout. Most houses looked like they were exploded, and they were on fire. People scrambled out of the burning homes, taking appliances. One of the people there was carrying a washing machine. My autistic cousin was doodling on a glow-board which keeps him busy, which was a good thing. The last time we exposed my autistic cousin to R-rated stuff, he went hyper.

We drove to the police station, but when we walked in, there weren't any police officers. There weren't even anyone in that building. We saw blood on some of the walls, meaning that someone has probably invaded the place. One part of the wall had these words written in blood, and it said "THEY HAVE INVADED, GOD HELP US". That meant whatever invaded the station must've invaded the police too. That explains the lack of police cars. But as we walked out, we saw helicopters fly over us. They began to lower.... and as they were at ground level, the door opened. Swarms of people wearing swat gear that looked like roundified robots came through, and held us at gunpoint. Thankfully my dad had his pistol, and shot all of them. It's pathetic they didn't have bulletproof vests. As we drove out, we went on the freeway, which was completely deserted with no cars. We went to our town's fallout shelter, and when we went in, we were surprised to see most people in there tied up. That's when we realized that those guys we met at the police station were there.

And I couldn't remember anything after that.

I was separated from my autistic cousin and big brother as we were transported to Russia. We were forced into hard labor. It wasn't until 1991 that a Canadian task force has broke us out. We were transported to Toronto, and I still live there today.

Now most of my grandkids knew I was taken by the Russians, and they kept telling me to repeat my story. All I say to them is:

My name is Jason, and i've felt the true meaning of Communism.