Random Sequence

I stepped outside one morning and saw it immediately: a huge, black mushroom cloud rising above he jagged rooftops across the street. A second later, I head a loud thunderclap, combined with a strange whooshing sound. I felt that acidic, twisting, 9/11 sensation in my stomach: fear....a faint cloud of fear followed me for the next hour or so -- a 21st century feeling, I decided.
--from "Boom!" (by me), originally published in Hudson Current