The Last Cigarette

the long version

**This is not a test.** Walter Regin has led a good life: a beautiful wife and beloved son, both of whom mean the world to him. His work as a sportswriter for the top newspaper in St. Louis gives him career fulfillment and leaves him complacent. That complacency shatters when an argument leaves him by himself after his wife takes their son and goes to stay with her parents, 900 miles away. Walter struggles to come to terms with where his station in life and how to fix it. Lost in thought, an emergency broadcast shakes him from his malaise with an unthinkable message: **Nuclear war has begun.** With precious little time before the bombs arrive, Walter must contend with frantic neighbors and a mind plagued by helplessness. Can he make peace with his family or will he face nuclear atonement alone and afraid? **Is there still hope, or is this truly the end?**