[ WP ] After you are elected President , you discover a big red button hidden in your desk in the Oval Office . When you ask your predecessor about it , he said that it had been there for decades , but the secret of what it did died with Kennedy . After a few years , you finally give in and push the button .

The button feels pretty solid under my thumb. It's the last day of my first term. Things around the world are getting worse, and there are a thousand smaller projects that I wish I had time to fix. But the President of the United States only has so much time, and only so many things he can do. 
 
 I'm waiting on the VP to come down for our last meeting of the day. But she is taking her sweet time getting here. And I'll be honest, I've been curious about this thing ever since I sat down in the big chair. It is n't labeled, there is no explanation of where it goes. I remember I had an idea to get an electrician out to see where it was wired, but that did n't pan out either. There are some wires, but they seem to meld with another wire, and that one melds with a few more. The guy said he'd never seen anything like it. 
 
 So I left it. Small mystery, for a small world. 
 
 But it's been staring at me ever since I took this job. And I have to know. 
 
 The button itself is bright, and red. It never seems to get dusty, even when I'm away from the office for a week or three. It's not like one of those buttons in the arcades. It has some heft to it. You have to put some weight down on the button to get it to press down. And I'm sorry, but I had to do it. What would you do? 
 
 For an instant, nothing happens. And for a few minutes more, still, nothing. I figured if a bomb went off, the red phone would start ringing. But it's eerily quiet. 
 
 I decide to grab the *regular* phone, and call up Sheryl, since I'm waiting on her. But there's no dial tone. I shake my head, and walk to the door, opening it. `` Hey, Sam can you give Sheryl a call? And get someone from maintenance down here to check on the phone? There's no dial tone.'' But Sam does n't move. 
 
 The guards down at the end of the hall do n't move either. I nudged one of them, and he fell like a ton of bricks. But he did n't get back up. 
 
 I think I had a mini panic attack at that point, so I ran outside to get some air. And noticed some birds... frozen in the sky. 
 
 What had I done? 
 

