Grace Period Short Story
The flash of light, the shock wave, the blinding light, all part of the detonation of the weapon of mass destruction: the atom bomb. In the short story “Grace Period” by Will Baker the protagonist experiences the detonation of an atom bomb in a nearby city. The article “Nuclear Weapons Effects” by John Pike in 1998, will help determine what happened exactly during and what will happen after after the explosion rocked the city.
Each and every explosion starts with the surface burst. This is the starting explosion “ in which a weapon is detonated on or slightly above the surface of the earth” (Pike, 1998, p. 4). In this area the destruction is extremely concentrated. Then comes the primary blast wave, this wave is so strong it vaporizes everything within approximately 1 kilometer. The protagonist in “Grace Period” saw this part of the explosion as “a fluctuation of light, a tiny pulse, coming from behind the hills” (Baker, 1989, p. 7); this comes with an EMP or electromagnetic pulse that cuts off all electricity the protagonist notices this when none of the phones work when the protagonist tries to call for help when they thought they …show more content…
The Fallout will continue to fall for the next 24 hours. This fallout is extremely radioactive and will continue to be for approximately 3000 years. The radiation goes by the rule of seven. After seven hours only 10% of the radiation is remaining, after 49 hour 1% would be left, and so on and so forth until there is so little it no longer affects humans. The protagonist in “Grace period” would most likely die because of the radiation from the fallout around her house. In the short story “on the windowsill outside, against the glass, a few flakes of ash ... settled” (Baker, 1989, p. 9) this was the fallout giving off an extreme amount of radiation. He was already exposed to the radiation so he should have died soon after the end of the
Each and every explosion starts with the surface burst. This is the starting explosion “ in which a weapon is detonated on or slightly above the surface of the earth” (Pike, 1998, p. 4). In this area the destruction is extremely concentrated. Then comes the primary blast wave, this wave is so strong it vaporizes everything within approximately 1 kilometer. The protagonist in “Grace Period” saw this part of the explosion as “a fluctuation of light, a tiny pulse, coming from behind the hills” (Baker, 1989, p. 7); this comes with an EMP or electromagnetic pulse that cuts off all electricity the protagonist notices this when none of the phones work when the protagonist tries to call for help when they thought they …show more content…
The Fallout will continue to fall for the next 24 hours. This fallout is extremely radioactive and will continue to be for approximately 3000 years. The radiation goes by the rule of seven. After seven hours only 10% of the radiation is remaining, after 49 hour 1% would be left, and so on and so forth until there is so little it no longer affects humans. The protagonist in “Grace period” would most likely die because of the radiation from the fallout around her house. In the short story “on the windowsill outside, against the glass, a few flakes of ash ... settled” (Baker, 1989, p. 9) this was the fallout giving off an extreme amount of radiation. He was already exposed to the radiation so he should have died soon after the end of the