[TOMT][BOOK] Short story contained in an anthology – A district of London is suspended in time by an unknown effect of the ongoing nuclear bombardment.

I read this in the 2010s but could be an old anthology. I had thought it was in the same anthology as “On the Beach” by Nevile Shute but I think I just read it at the same time and it has a similar vibe.

I recall the bombs formed some kind of shape that locked the area down in time. The firewalls at the end of all the streets were the edge of the nuclear blasts and were gradually moving up the street. There was a great sense of camaraderie overlaying hopelessness. The narrator’s friend at one point starts to experiment with the firewall, putting objects into it to see how they disintegrate at different levels. Said friend I think builds a suit or otherwise believes he can enter the firewall and survive, and does, but then at a certain point he falls in and he’s instantly atomised, and the narrator can see his scorch-shadow on the interface for a while until the blast wave moves enough to make it indistinct.

At the end, I think the bombs all finish exploding and they all die, and nobody outside noticed that it happened.

I am pretty sure it’s NOT “Countdown to Midnight: Twelve Great Stories About Nuclear War” but is very similar, but some of the descriptions of stories in that book are hard to find or interpret, so if it is that one, let me know.