Author’s note: Given the antipathy some fans have towards Tom Sloane, and some comments made by readers in the course of posting this story, I decided to add him in it. This was originally written for the “1,001 Deaths of Tom Sloane” thread on the PPMB, and I have made it canon for Apocalyptic Daria. It takes place in Chapter One of the main story. Tom was closer to Daria and Jane on Black Saturday than any of them realized...

oooooooooo

It was an plain old Saturday morning early in April and Tom Sloane was flying to Pittsburgh to visit a friend at Carnegie-Mellon. He had wanted to drive, but his father insisted that he fly from Baltimore to Pittsburgh instead. Something about the Pinto being unable to make such a drive. "Eh, whatever," he muttered and looked out of the window.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the pilot speaking. It is now a minute before eleven and we're beginning our approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. We don't see any --"

Suddenly the pilot screamed as a bright white flash illuminated the inside of the plane.

What the hell? Tom thought as many of the passengers also screamed.

"I'm blind! I'm blind!" a man across the aisle from Tom yelled. Many others yelled the same thing. Fortunately, he hadn't been blinded, but seeing the panic didn't help much.

A woman cried out, “It’s a nuke! Oh, my God, Pittsburgh’s been nuked!”

Several people started crying out prayers and one child cried for his mother.

Suddenly the plane plummeted and Tom had a moment to think as he watched the tree-covered hill come towards the plane at a high rate of speed.

Oh, s--