WA-6 Draft 2

Hello. My name is Jared Okamoto. I am a stockbroker employed by ETrade in Tokyo, Japan. This is a true story.

The date on the back of the photo is April 29, 2058. It was taken in my honor for the biggest sale in company history. That bridge in the background has my name inscribed in it. That day was probably the second best in my life. It would be the last day of my sane existance.

On April 30, at approximately 9:54 A.M, the Republic of China invaded the People’s Republic of China, and a nuclear war began. Hundreds of thousands died on that first day of war. Nuclear warheads were being dropped ten at a time over the mainland, and clouds of red hovered over the world like bloody shadows. Russia, not wanting to be left out of the fun, invaded all its bordering countries including: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China, North and South Korea, and Japan. The Russians had a chip on their shoulders when it came to their defeat in the Cold War. They wanted revenge on all the people they lost at the end of their power. The UN was furious. They halted all military operations elsewhere in the world, and focused all their power on the current Chinese and Russian conflicts. World War III had begun.

Luckily for me, I had been given permission to take a vacation for all my hard work. So after the ceremony, my wife and I hopped on a plane to Wakkanai that night. We found a nice hotel on the beach, and slept soundly that night. The next morning was chaos. Sarah had gone out to get coffee, and I was still in bed watching television. On every channel was the same message. “Stay in your house. Do not go outside. This is not a drill.” My mind went numb as I could make out gun shots in the distance. Then I heard a piercing scream and ran down stairs. Crashing through the revolving door, I skidded to a halt just outside the hotel. Russian soldiers scrambled over crumbled buildings through massive clouds of smoke. When some of the dust cleared away I saw Sarah lying on the ground. I ran to her and saw her white blouse become drenched with crimson, the spilt coffee seeping out of the upturned cups. My eyes filled with tears, and that was the last thing I remembered.

I woke up at a POW camp near Seoul, South Korea on May 1. I was hungry, thirsty, and my bones ached terribly. As I looked around, I noticed the vast size of the cell I was in. It was dug out of the soft rainforest soil and had a roof of trees and sizeable leaves. Water occasionally dripped through the roof and onto the heads of my many cell mates. During the days, we were forced to make weapons, every destructive device imaginable, for the Second Warsaw Pact Alliance; although they did not trust us with the nuclear weapons. At night, we barely ever slept, hunger keeping us awake. I survived in this camp for 892 days.

On June 9, 2060, approximately two and a half years after my imprisonment in the East Seoul Labor Camp, I was saved by UN forces when South Korea was liberated of SWPA control. On my way back to Japan, I realized that the world had taken as much nuclear war as it could. The world was a gray lifeless mass, full of lifeless people, and dead plants. When I arrived in Tokyo, everyone I knew was dead. My business was a pile of ruble. But the one thing that stopped me from taking my own life, was that bridge. My bridge was still standing. Fearlessly guiding people over the flowing water, for all time.