2 January 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2605: A Bad Day in Mustov

This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - 2 January 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2605: bad sign

Enjoy !

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay - I was looking for a straightforward mushroom cloud, but this image made me chuckle, so here it is.

Igor Straskevitch flopped down in his worn armchair.

"Turn on the telly, Yelena, let's see what depressing things the news has to tell us."

Yelena put down her cup of black tea and turned the ancient device on, tapping it in just the right place to get a picture.

The news was indeed on, the anchor mid-sentence introducing a report.

"... reporter outside the capital of Nord, Sluga. What's the situation, Karolina ?"

The image showed a person, presumably Karolina, all dressed up in a baggy green rubber suit with goggles and a mask on. The only way to tell she was human was the muffled voice as she spoke into the microphone.

"Behind me you can see all that remains of Sluga, beneath the mushroom cloud created by the surprise Milanian nuclear strike. Casualties are estimated to exceed a million, and the emergency services have been unable to cope with the injured. It's a significant escalation of hostilities, and a bad sign in relation to the peace talks that were scheduled."

Igor harumphed at the television. "Bad sign, I'll say it is ! Where do they get these idiot reporters from, anyway ?"

Outside, a siren started to wail, drowning out the rest of the television report. It was joined a few seconds later by others all across the city of Mustov. It wasn't just any siren; a rising and falling multi-tonal deafening wail that meant only one thing.

"Now that," said Yelena between sips of tea, "That really IS a bad sign."

Four minutes later, the weather forecast temperature of a spring-like fifteen degrees in Mustov turned out to be inaccurate by around 7500 degrees centigrade.