Duty, focus and agony

  

On an air base far from the mainland but closer to the threat, Max and his navigator are one of 2 crews ready to drop the third nuclear bomb in the history of humanity

Briefing room (duty)

Chief of operation : They are fueling their nuclear ballistic missile, The mission is a go. Gentlemen, it’s us or them now, it’s not about winning a war, it’s about protecting our families and loved ones. Crew “Bravo” is compromised , crew “Alpha” is still the main crew and should proceed. Any questions Max?

Max: No sir, we’re ready.

The hallways (focus)

Max leaves the briefing room on his way to the tarmac while reaching for his phone to turn it on and hears his wife's soothing voice before this stressful mission, but her phone was unreachable and then pending messages of text and missed calls started pinging just before he turns it off again, he stops to check them out and as he expected, one of them is from his wife "Happy anniversary baby, surprise..we'll be waiting for you where I first met you ;) "

Max keeps gazing at his phone's screen for few seconds that felt like long years and starts slowly walking again to the tarmac.

Max slowly picks up the pace catching his colleague, he does enormous effort to appear calm and not withdraw attention and keeps on walking with thoughts in his mind combating each other, questions that are not even completed, let alone answered and one thing made way through all that chaos of thoughts, an idea that prevailed, and it said “rehears the procedures step by step Max, you’re the only crew ready” . all other feelings and thoughts froze and put on hold.

at 40,000 ft. (agony)

Everything went as planned, Max demonstrated high level of skill and leadership, waiting for the call after reporting that all weapons systems are green. The call comes in, Max flips the switch, he feels a slight shake on the aircraft as the bomb releases and he “flips” screaming in a frightening way, howling like a wolf with a hundred wounds slamming his helmet against the canopy glass, scratching his face with his nails through his gloves . The navigator tries to calm him down and end up shouting “Sir, you gonna kill us, pull your self together” . Those thoughts and feelings that he had suppressed so that no one would notice and compromise the mission are now released and fluxing viciously, bombarding his brain with bolts of pain, and even worse when he heard the words on the radio “detonation, the mission is a success”. Every one in the operation room realized how it feels but that was way more extreme than expected.

Back on the tarmac, the plane stops, the ground crew gives the sign to stop the engines, Max eyes move from the ground crew member and down towards the dashboard, engines sound start fading, Max doesn't look up and a tear drop crawl from his eyes, engines stop and so does Max's heart. Dropping a nuke is not an easy task psychologically, especially if your wife and son are on ground zero.

Especially when your wife and son are on ground zero.