Under the evening sky, a combat group sat in a trench. After an exhausting day, the tired soldiers finally had a chance to rest. Most of them were gathered around a makeshift table — a simple square board placed on a box — enjoying dumplings. A sniper slept separately from the group; he hadn't closed his eyes for over a day, so he fell asleep without even having dinner. A machine gunner lay unconscious just as separately, wrapped in bandages, some of which had already turned crimson. The commander, who also served as a medic, said he would regain consciousness by tomorrow.
A silence fell over the trench, as if the very walls absorbed the sounds, and only the heavy breathing of the soldiers broke the stillness. The commander, Apollo, also wasn't eating. He stood at the edge of the trench, gazing into the distance. His troubled eyes incessantly peered into the darkness. The muffled thunder of shells exploding far on the horizon could be heard. Apollo was plagued by a bad feeling. His intuition told him that something was approaching, something he might not survive.
Apollo was used to trusting his intuition. This made the situation even stranger: what could threaten him now, when he and his group were so far behind the lines? What could be more dangerous than what they had already survived? They had survived the assault of an entire company. And now, after the counterattack, the enemy was broken and retreating, and the allied forces should have pushed them back by several kilometers. Apollo couldn't find an answer. And that scared him the most.
But despite all logic, the commander couldn't calm down. His whole being screamed, "Run! Flee! Hide!" And with every second, the feeling of danger grew like an avalanche sliding down the mountains. And at the last moment, everything disappeared as if someone had cut the thread that held his fear. His intuition no longer screamed to run, and the next moment, he was gone. The flash was so bright that it seemed as if night had turned to day. A nuclear mushroom cloud rose into the sky.