Lü Gang asked them, “How long do you think that sun lasted just now?”
They thought back on it, and said it seemed like at least ten seconds.
He nodded. “I think so too. Judging from the duration of the fireball, it might have been in the megaton class.”
Now that their vision had returned, the children looked out toward where the sun had appeared and vanished. Something white was rapidly expanding on the horizon.
“Cover your ears!” Lü Gang shouted. “Quickly! Cover your ears!”
They covered their ears and waited, but no explosion came. The mushroom cloud on the horizon, silvery white in the morning light, now touched the sky. The contrast it posed with the land and sky was frankly surreal, as if a gargantuan fantastic image had been superimposed upon a realistic painting. The children stared in silence, and some of them subconsciously lowered their hands from their ears.
Lü Gang shouted again, “Cover your ears! Sound takes two seconds to reach us.”
They covered their ears tightly, and then the ground began to rumble beneath their feet like the surface of a charged drum, throwing dirt and snow knee-high in the air, and sending the snow cover down the hill as if it had melted. The noise penetrated their flesh and bones, bored into their skulls, and they felt as if their bodies were being broken apart and scattered to the four winds, leaving their terrified souls to quiver on the ground.
Lü Gang shouted, “Get behind the hill for cover. The shock wave will be here any moment!”
“A shock wave?” Huahua cocked an eye at him.
“That’s right. It might die down into a stiff wind by the time it reaches us.”
As the children retreated to the back of the hill, a sudden squall picked up around them, ripping the tents from their stakes and sending the equipment inside flying. Half the helicopters on the hillside were knocked over before flying snow whited out the entire scene, but they heard the sound of flying stones pelting airframes. The gale lasted for about a minute before rapidly slackening and finally dying away altogether, letting the snow and dust return gently to the ground. As the curtain fell, it revealed a hazy firelight on the horizon. The mushroom cloud was less distinct now but far larger, and now took up half the sky. The wind had blown its top portion to one side, giving it the look of a gigantic monster with a wild head of hair.
“The base is destroyed,” Lü Gang said soberly.
All communications from the base had been severed, and when they looked toward it through the dust that had yet to settle, all they could see was the dim fire on the horizon.
An advisor came over to tell Huahua that the American president was calling him. Huahua asked, “Will replying give away our position?”
“No. The transmitter is in a different location.”
Davey’s voice came through the wireless receiver. “Hey, Huahua, looks like that atom bomb didn’t have your name on it. You really are clever fellows to think of moving your command center. I’m glad you’re still alive. I’d like to let you all know that we’re starting the new game! Nuclear bombs!” He laughed. “It’s the greatest! Wasn’t that new sun pretty?”
Huahua said angrily, “You shameless pack of pissants. You’ve trampled over every rule of the games! You’ve wrecked their very foundation!”
Davey laughed. “What rules? Fun is the only rule!”
“Your adults were a bunch of scoundrels to leave you with strategic nuclear weapons.”
“Hey now, they only left a few behind carelessly. Our stockpiles were huge. You eat a big piece of bread and you’re bound to drop some crumbs. Besides, don’t you wonder if there might be any crumbs remaining from the Russians’ big hunk of bread?”
“That’s the crucial thing,” Lü Gang whispered into Huahua’s ear. “They won’t dare try a nuclear strike against Russia since they’re afraid of retaliation. With us, they don’t have that worry.”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff if you don’t have to,” Davey said over the radio.
“We’re not sweating it,” Specs said coldly. “In this insane world, there’s no point to getting mad on moral grounds. It’s too tiring.”
“Right, right. Listen to him, Huahua. He has the right attitude. That’s how to keep it fun.” Then Davey cut off the connection.
The Chinese children immediately contacted other Antarctic Games participants to set up an alliance to punish the American children for breaking the rules, but the outcome was a disappointment.
Huahua and Specs called Russia first. Ilyukhin said perfunctorily, “We have learned of what has befallen your country and express our deepest sympathies.”
Huahua said, “This abominable violation deserves to be punished. If this vile precedent is allowed to stand, they will move on to drop atom bombs on other countries’ bases, or even on land outside of Antarctica! Your country ought to stage a nuclear counterattack on the violator’s base. You may be the only one left with that capability.”
“Of course such conduct deserves punishment,” Ilyukhin replied. “I expect that all countries are hoping you will stage a nuclear counterattack to preserve the integrity of the rules. My country also desires to punish the wrongdoer, but Russia has no nuclear weapons. Our venerable fathers and mothers fired all the nuclear bombs into the sun.”
The talk with the EU was even more depressing. The incumbent rotating president, Prime Minister Green of Britain, asked innocently, “Why would your country believe that we have retained nuclear weapons? This is shameless libel of a united Europe. Inform us of your current position and we will deliver a memo of protest.”
Huahua set down the phone. “Those little punks just want to play it safe on the mountaintop and watch the tigers fight it out.”
“Very wise,” Specs said, nodding.
Communications were provisionally restored between the command center and the Chinese base, and an unbroken stream of frightening news began coming over the radio. G Group Army, stationed at the base, suffered a devastating blow; total casualties were still unknown, but it had likely lost all combat effectiveness. The majority of base installations had been destroyed. Fortunately, as the geographic scale of the games had grown, the other two group armies formerly stationed on base had moved over a hundred kilometers away, preserving two-thirds of the Chinese children’s Antarctic forces. However, the port they had spent two months building had been seriously damaged in the nuclear strike, posing a major supply problem for these forces.
An emergency meeting of high command convened in a hastily raised tent at the foot of the hill. Just before it began, Huahua said he had to step out for a moment.
“This is urgent!” Lü Gang reminded him.
“I’ll only be five minutes,” Huahua said. Then he went outside.
About half a minute later, Specs left the tent, too, and seeing Huahua lying motionless on a patch of snow staring straight up at the heavens, he went over and sat down beside him. The dust had settled and a warm, gentle breeze blew through the air, bringing with it the moisture of melting snow and the scent of damp earth. In the sky over the ocean, the expanding mushroom cloud had lost its shape, but had grown even larger, and it was hard to tell where it ended and the clouds began. The other half of the sky was painted by the rays of dawn over the opposite horizon.
“I really can’t keep it up anymore,” Huahua said.
“No one’s doing any better,” Specs said lightly.
“It’s not the same. This is impossible!”