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“We’ll speak more of this at dinner.” Muchen Feng scoffed as he slammed the door shut.
Cutting the spat short, he left without bothering to look back at his wife, who helplessly rolled her wheelchair closer to the door as if to catch up.
He had no time for her tirade, and further irritated by the notion of enduring hours of morning traffic, he left home in a terrible mood. Her constant nagging continued to ring in his ear even after he left. Following 45 years of marriage, the woman perfected her art of getting under his skin.
As the elevator sank into the basement floors, he couldn’t help but sneer at his reflection in the mirror. Therein was a wizened man in his early seventies, with ashen long hair combed neatly over his shoulders. Custom made Italian suit; a formal gray tie worth as much as a year’s worth of rent in the suburbs; a very nice watch — he had it all.
Muchen was a wealthy man at the peak of his career, yet on his face lingered only traces of inherent exhaustion. Despite the power of his authority, the innumerable cars in his garage, and the respect of the entire science community — this old man never felt accomplished as of late.
Wealth is meaningless after a certain point, and the adoration of the masses served no purpose to him. Muchen was a man who has never cared about trifles such as reputation among mortals to begin with. His goals were much grander, and aimed even higher than the stars known to man.
That said, he felt he was truly pitiable, for all his riches and name meant nothing in the long river of time. His reputation and family became shackles that tied him to the gray, dull construct that is the modern world.
In truth, he was a mage, and a very powerful one at that. Yet, stricken by love, he abandoned the pursuit of the everlasting. What was supposed to be a mere facade to hide his secret became reality over time.
By the time his daughter was born, he thought he no longer needed magic. He was at peace for a while, absorbed in the fruits borne of true love. His family gradually grew, as did his distance from all that is supernatural.
Over time, that changed. An odd premonition unsettled his heart as the years passed and he aged. Money. Power. Status. A loving wife who bore him two children. A daughter and son he could never feel too much pride for. And yet… why is it he still felt unaccomplished despite having everything?
Where did this unhappiness stem from?
As he questioned himself, he couldn’t help but sink into “what ifs”. What if he chose magic over the mundane — would he feel more gratified?
Still absorbed in his regrets, he finally reached work — a prestigious scientific development center in the heart of Shigatse, China.
As he passed through the layers of stringent security, he finally made it into his lab with a more tranquil heart. Easing himself into his work, he readily found a distraction from the questions gnawing at his core.
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- — ☯ — -
( Wiiouuuu! )
Blaring nuclear sirens erupted at every corner of the facility all at once!
Pulled out of his engrossed work, Muchen observed the red lights flashing across the corridor with a grimace. He was unsure what it signified, but hoped his cynicism was wrong and it wasn’t the beginning of a new war.
The possibility of a drill was eliminated, as he was in charge of approving those. He briefly entertained the idea that it was a prank, or a ruse of some sort. Expecting it to stop at any moment, he was proved wrong after a minute. The alarm rang continuously through the whole section, as if purposefully trying to deafen them.
Unbothered by the noise, he shot a glance at the time display —19:48; 23.06.1999— and frowned, “Damn. I missed dinner again.”
Grumbling silently and swearing at his one-track mind, he hesitated for a moment before pulling out his flip phone. The dial didn’t go through, and he couldn’t help but wonder if his wife was asleep already or if she was still sulking.
It was at this moment that a woman barged into his office, not bothering to knock or greet him.
“Director Muchen! There’s been an accident with the reactor. Please evacuate at once!”
Despite her exclamations, Muchen’s face remained unchanged. A soothing aura seemed to surround him amidst the crisis, and it inadvertently calmed his assistant as well.
“Please explain,” he asked unhurriedly, “What’s happening?”
“Reactor 3 was damaged by seismic activity. We’ve tried to salvage the situation, but the shut-down programs won’t work. We’re evacuating all non-essential staff.”
“I’ll head down there myself. Give me a damage report and contact the city hall, just in case.”
“Yes, sir!”
Watching his assistant scurry out of his lab in a frenzy, he couldn’t help but sigh wearily. Despite the urgency, he shut down his computer without haste as he continued to dial his wife’s phone. His call was still unable to go through.
The earth shook again, this time with even more potency, as if the planet itself was revolting against them. Walking out into the hallway, he saw his co-workers in a panic. Some lost their balance and fell, yet the old man waltzed through with a straightened back and an uncanny grace.
Passing through the narrow hallways, he made his way downstairs towards the reactor. His assistant finally caught up, her forehead bruised and battered by an apparent fall. She passed him the faxed document.
“An 9.1 magnitude earthquake? Is this confirmed!?” even Muchen couldn’t contain his shock at this point.
Geographically, Shigatse was in the western mountain range of China, bordering Nepal with just a hundred km from the Himalayan mountains. Though there were earthquakes and landslides often, it was rarely anything above 6.0 on the Richter scale.
His worry couldn’t help but intensify as the dull beeps on his phone signaled his wife was still out of reach. By the time he mulled over the rest of the report, his facade of calm broke and he fell into full panic. Leaving his assistant in the dust, he broke into a full sprint despite his aged bones.
“The reactor is going to explode! Call the prefecture commissioner and order a full and immediate evacuation of the city!”
The assistant broke out in a cold sweat. She’d seen the data herself, but she never thought it was this bad. Meanwhile, the elderly boss had long since disappeared by the other end of the corridor.
“He’s fast...” she muttered in a daze, before limping away to the surface.
Despite the rushed journey, Muchen didn’t make it in time. By the time he reached the reactor, he was convinced the reactor could no longer be salvaged. Broken pipes were bleeding steaming hot coolant, and boiling mist shrouded the room in a fog of death.
He sighed, “It’s too late.”
His exhausted feet finally voiced their complaints as he sat down. Unbothered by the mild pain, he stared in a daze at the continuously rupturing security measurements. As plates were torn off by the sheer pressure and pipes burst in successive implosions, the reactor was finally primed.
( Boom! )