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Waking in her student dormitory room, Mia took a shower, got dressed, made some instant coffee and turned on the news:

“Scientists have warned that the threat of a nuclear apocalypse is closer to becoming a reality. The Bulletin's Atomic Scientists segment advanced its symbolic Doomsday Clock 30 seconds to two minutes to midnight – a reflection of how bleak scientists view the current nuclear dangers facing the world. The dial is now 23 hours 58 minutes. According to authors of the project, before the onset of «nuclear midnight,” humanity had only two minutes remaining.

“To label the world's nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger and its immediacy,” said Rachel Bronson, the bulletin's president – the news station’s CEO informed journalists in Washington.

The “clock” better known as the Doomsday Clock, was created in 1947 at the initiative of a group of scientists who participated in a project to develop an American atomic bomb. For decades, the project has been overseen by the editors of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which is published by the prestigious University of Chicago.

Explaining their decision on Thursday, scientists from the bulletin’s widely respected science and security board said they were disturbed by the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula: their increasing expenditure on nuclear weapons from major powers, the absence of arms control negotiations around the world, and the wavering political desire to combat climate change.

“The probability of a global catastrophe is disturbingly high,” warns the committee's journal on science and security.”

“The end of the world. The Apocalypse. Is there no news besides the end of the world?” Mia wondered and switched off the TV.

“There’s insurance for almost anything: an apartment, car, health, even Jennifer Lopez insured her famous derrière. But no insurance company will be willing to cover anything related to nuclear war... I will think about it tomorrow,” Mia then remembered a phrase of her beloved Scarlett O'Hara.

“But what if there won’t be a tomorrow after all this talk of nuclear war? Hmm… Then I need to look good today.”  After a shower, she dried her long hair and carefully combed it.

“I’ll need to wear something decent,” Mia thought and found a blue blouse in the closet. This color complimented her blue eyes, and as she looked in the mirror, she saw a beautiful girl with magnificent wavy hair and sea-blue eyes. A girl, which was impossible not to fall in love with as her smile was irresistible.

Her name’s Mia. The “Meow” in her name suited a cute, graceful, and freedom-loving girl like Mia, who could not be tamed. God gave her beauty and devil gave her brain.

Extraordinarily beautiful, with long flowing hair, huge eyes with long fluffy eyelashes, full lips, and a seductive figure with long legs. Her long dress only emphasized her shape, exciting the male imagination when the rays of the sun shone upon her. She walked proudly as if gliding along a wide street, her barely open eyes noticing anyone.

“What a girl!” - men sighed.

“A witch!” - one of the students was indignant. “Has she come to seduce men?!”

“No shame, no conscience!” - another added.

“Where did she come from?” an indignant brisk woman wondered.

“Do not look at her!” said a wife to her husband, blocking his view.

But when Mia raised her lovely long eyelashes and smiled at them, everyone was dumbfounded. Their faces blushed with shame.

“She’s is a goddess!” people whispered behind her. Ignoring them, she tapped her heels to her lecture.

Unbothered, Mia pays neither her admirers nor gossipers any mind. At this point in her life, she is not interested in anything but her studies. She’s a diligent student, studying at a prestigious metropolitan university.

Studying at this university is incredibly difficult: compulsory attendance of lectures, coursework, scientific literature, sleepless pre-exam nights - a routine that completely absorbed her. Endless sessions, term papers, mandatory practices - the end was not expected. Only the prospect of obtaining a prestigious diploma and securing decent employment attracted her ...

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