A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 28
This is the sixth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Today’s story: 8 Nuclear Weapons the U.S. Has Lost.
During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. These are the stories of what the Department of Defense calls “broken arrows” — America’s stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.
A disquieting thought especially since there are B-52s flying at all times around the Arctic Circle, loaded with nuclear bombs. Then, too, they have to transport bombs from air base to air base across the continental U.S. from time to time. Mechanical failure do happen. Here is one such instance from the article:
January 24, 1961. A B-52 carrying two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed while taking off from an airbase in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the weapons sank in swampy farmland, and its uranium core was never found despite intensive search efforts to a depth of 50 feet. To ensure no one else could recover the weapon, the USAF bought a permanent easement requiring government permission to dig on the land.
We’ve already had the 1996 action thriller Broken Arrow: “Terrorists steal nuclear warheads from the U.S. military but don’t count on a pilot and park ranger spoiling their plans.”
So what if we went the comedy route? Imagine a couple of characters like these two guys:
Let’s imagine the pair is especially down on their luck when lo and behold, a hydrogen bomb lands in their back yard. What would two really dumb guys do when they suddenly found themselves in possession of a nuclear bomb? Quite a bargaining chip with civil authorities, don’t you think?
“We’ll give it back, but only if you give us a lifetime supply of Twinkees… and a WWF championship match broadcast live from our basement… and Betty White to read ‘Goodnight, Moon’ go us and tuck us in at night.’”
Of course, government officials could threaten to arrest our heroes, maybe even open fire on them. But then, that is an actual hydrogen bomb sitting right there behind our boys, as they sit splayed in their broken down lounge furniture, sucking down Grain Belt beer (“And oh yeah, we want you to replace our patio furniture with reclining Barcoloungers… with the massage fingers… and heat element to warm our asses”).
Besides once this hits the press, every crazed militia member from across the political spectrum would show up to protect our guys, holding Washington D.C. over a barrel. Hell, once you’ve got a bomb in your back yard, you could pretty much declare your 2 acres of property abutting a swamp a sovereign nation.
And this is before the guys haul the bomb into their van and take off across America for their cherished dream of doing a rock and roll tour for their heavy metal duet known as Bongwater. Name of the tour: “The Goin’ Nuclear World Tour”. Driving hither and yon, blithely oblivious to the fact that the damn bomb could go off any minute.
There you go: My twenty eighth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!
What would you do with it?
Each day this month, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in comments (hit Reply to join the conversation). And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.
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