Illustrated by Michael Neno, Lesann Berry’s third episode of her Alternate History Archive appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7. Here’s the opening paragraph:

“The ruin crumbled around Kiefer, hunks of concrete dropping away to litter the ragged piles of rubble below. Inside the fractured shell of the embassy, in the days after the bombs finally stopped falling, and before the stench of the fallen became unbearable, he bore witness to the destruction. Camera crews swarmed over the twisted jungle of rebar, shutters snapping, and journalistic fever roaring. He and a handful of other soldiers stood watch, scanning the devastation for aggressive response. The others, also like him, bit the insides of their cheeks raw, chewing the words down to crumbs so they couldn’t escape. Instead, they spat them out, brief splatters of saliva coagulating in the ash and dust until the rapacious summer air sucked away the tiny oases of moisture.”