Jaime Reyes | Blue Beetle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beetlebutt) wrote2021-04-12 05:38 pm
beetlebutt) wrote2021-04-12 05:38 pm
Memshare#1, cw: nuclear horror
It starts with a very normal scene. A dark-haired boy who's only about 12 or 13, sitting on the couch, with his textbooks and homework piled around him, working on something in a notebook. A little girl of about only 3 or 4 is sitting on the floor, playing with dolls, babbling in silly imaginary voices.
The TV has some daytime talk show on it. It's the semi-respectable kind of daytime talk show where people argue different political opinions rather than the "you're the baby daddy" kind. The boy is ignoring it and the woman in nurse's scrubs who was probably watching it can be seen in the kitchen behind him prepping some food to be cooked later by someone else, and packing a lunch.
Then a breaking news update suddenly shows on the TV, with a reporter reporting in a voice that is only barely controlled. Footage livestreamed by someone and picked up by the news shows a mushroom cloud in the distance.
"- are estimating 11 million people may have been caught in the blast zone. Clouds of radioactive fallout may cause even more -"
It is the dire kind of news report no one ever wants to see.
Jaime slowly puts down his schoolwork and gets up. Automatically, he reaches down for his sister, as if his first instinct on something scary and uncertain happening is making sure she's close. He even thinks to give her one of her dolls.
"Mom!" he calls out to his mother. "Mom, come quick!"
His mother comes in and looks at the TV, confused.
"Jaime, what movie is this?"
"It's not a movie, it's the news!"
Bianca Reyes comes up to watch, her hand going over her mouth as she takes it in.
"Ay dios mio..."
Then the screen blanks out and goes to something else no one ever wants to see, something that slams the panic button of anyone that sees a version that isn't a test.
The emergency alert system, telling people in major cities to shelter in place and prepare for possible nuclear attack, due to a nuclear attack on a major city from an unknown source.
Jaime doesn't get much time to watch the message because his mother ushers him and his sister towards the basement door.
"Basement. Come on, gogogo!"
"Mom?"
She sweeps over to a counter and snags her phone off it, already dialing as she runs down the stairs behind her kids.
"'Berto, did you see - where are you? No, 'Berto you need to stay there, you could be caught out in the open. 'Berto - no. yes. The basement. Please stay there - 'Berto - ' Berto?"
Whoever it was hangs up and she looks anxious but worries first about her children.
"Mom, what do we do?" asks Jaime.
"Sit down, right there, next to the stairs."
She starts piling things up around them as shielding, leaning a mattress in a lean-to over them. She starts lugging bottled water over near it, finds an old radio and some batteries, flash lights. Jaime's sister starts to get upset over the chaos and Jaime hushes her, gently patting her hair.
Then someone can be seen outside the basement windows, moving bags of topsoil that were meant for gardening, and using them to block each basement window from outside. After that, the door to the house can be heard closing and footsteps come down the stairs in a clatter. Jaime's father is sweaty and out of breath.
"Did you run all that way?" Bianca asks.
"Yep!"
"That was stupid, 'Berto!" she says.
"Yep! But there's no way in hell I wasn't going to be here."
She hugs him tightly, and then they start rummaging through the basement.
"I did a little shelter but I don't know what else we should do," she says.
"I put bags of dirt over the windows, so that should help shield the gaps, but we need to pile furniture around the shelter," he says. "The more hard substances the better. It's mass plus distance."
"Did they teach you this in your army manuals?"
"Yes. Although out in the field the directions are pretty much 'dig a ditch, pray, and get ready to kiss your ass goodbye.'"
"Language."
"My point is we're pretty far off from the city center and lucky enough to have a basement. There's already stuff under the stairs, so that's one side shielded. Putting some mass in the way of anything else could be enough."
"Could?"
"Should," he corrects.
When they're finished, the two of them finally clamber through furniture, pulling it back into place around them and join Jaime and his sister in the shelter. The two children are silent. It is not the silence of children who are calm. It is the terrified, teary-eyed silence of two children almost too scared to cry. Jaime has only managed to keep his sister calm through some pretty intense hugging and hair-petting and it's clearly a situation where he's a good big brother in general, because she's found it soothing enough to only cry a little.
"Thank you for taking care of your sister," says Bianca. "I can take her now."
"Mi hijo, it's okay," says Alberto. "C'mere."
Jaime finally lets his sister go, so that Bianca can hold her and all but dives into his father's arms.
"Are we going to get blown up?"
"Chances are, this is some kind of isolated attack by a supervillain on Metropolis. Superman has a lot of enemies. And even if it was worst case scenario, with villains doing it to more than one city, El Paso probably isn't a city that would get targeted. No supervillains here. And even if it was worst-worst case scenario we're pretty far off from the city center, okay? And a basement is a good shield. Your mother and I are just being extra paranoid. That's what you get from a nurse and an ex-soldier, we try to always be prepared."
Jaime nods into his father's shoulder, but his shoulders tense up.
"It's okay to be scared," says Bianca, brushing her fingers through the hair on the back of Jaime's head.
"And it's okay to cry when you're scared, too," says Alberto.
Jaime buries his face so far into his father's shoulder a crowbar would be necessary to dislodge it, and his shoulders shake. Alberto reaches over to turn the radio on to a local AM frequency, and then just holds him with both arms. Eventually his shoulders stop shaking and he eventually stops sniffling.
And there they stay for a while, listening to the ongoing news broadcast about the attack, until finally Bianca and Alberto get to breath out bodily in a sigh of relief.
"- authorities have now put out an all-clear notice for all major cities other than the Metropolis greater metro area and surrounding suburbs. I repeat, all other emergency alerts issues through the country have now received an all-clear. According to authorities, there is no further expected nuclear threat from international or internal sources. The Justice League has verified that this is an isolated supervillain attack on Metropolis and that the guilty parties have been taken into custody. However, residents of Metropolis and surrounding areas, as well as nearby states that may face nuclear fallout risk, have not received an all-clear and should remain tuned into emergency channels for further advisories and instructions -"
"See, I told you," says Alberto, switching the radio off. "We're safe."
They are safe but also aren't anymore. This is something Jaime realizes when they go back upstairs. In their rush to the basement, the TV was left on. It is back to the news broadcast.
"- destruction unlike anything we've ever seen. Authorities are estimating a possible death count of -"
"Jaime, mijito, can you take your sister to your room and watch her for a little while. Your father and I want to find out what's happening but we don't want you to see. Some of it could be upsetting."
"But I want to know what's going on!"
"I promise we'll tell you, we just don't know what pictures or video will show, okay? Do you want Milagro to see anything scary?"
"No," says Jaime sulkily, and when his mother puts Milagro down again, he dutifully takes her by a tiny hand. "C'mon, Milagro."
"I'll be in in a few minutes," says Bianca.
He leads his baby sister back to her room, peeking out the door at his parents
"'Berto, all those people..." Bianca says in a voice close to breaking, and his father wraps his mother in his arms.
"I know."
After that, nothing is the same.
The TV has some daytime talk show on it. It's the semi-respectable kind of daytime talk show where people argue different political opinions rather than the "you're the baby daddy" kind. The boy is ignoring it and the woman in nurse's scrubs who was probably watching it can be seen in the kitchen behind him prepping some food to be cooked later by someone else, and packing a lunch.
Then a breaking news update suddenly shows on the TV, with a reporter reporting in a voice that is only barely controlled. Footage livestreamed by someone and picked up by the news shows a mushroom cloud in the distance.
"- are estimating 11 million people may have been caught in the blast zone. Clouds of radioactive fallout may cause even more -"
It is the dire kind of news report no one ever wants to see.
Jaime slowly puts down his schoolwork and gets up. Automatically, he reaches down for his sister, as if his first instinct on something scary and uncertain happening is making sure she's close. He even thinks to give her one of her dolls.
"Mom!" he calls out to his mother. "Mom, come quick!"
His mother comes in and looks at the TV, confused.
"Jaime, what movie is this?"
"It's not a movie, it's the news!"
Bianca Reyes comes up to watch, her hand going over her mouth as she takes it in.
"Ay dios mio..."
Then the screen blanks out and goes to something else no one ever wants to see, something that slams the panic button of anyone that sees a version that isn't a test.
The emergency alert system, telling people in major cities to shelter in place and prepare for possible nuclear attack, due to a nuclear attack on a major city from an unknown source.
Jaime doesn't get much time to watch the message because his mother ushers him and his sister towards the basement door.
"Basement. Come on, gogogo!"
"Mom?"
She sweeps over to a counter and snags her phone off it, already dialing as she runs down the stairs behind her kids.
"'Berto, did you see - where are you? No, 'Berto you need to stay there, you could be caught out in the open. 'Berto - no. yes. The basement. Please stay there - 'Berto - ' Berto?"
Whoever it was hangs up and she looks anxious but worries first about her children.
"Mom, what do we do?" asks Jaime.
"Sit down, right there, next to the stairs."
She starts piling things up around them as shielding, leaning a mattress in a lean-to over them. She starts lugging bottled water over near it, finds an old radio and some batteries, flash lights. Jaime's sister starts to get upset over the chaos and Jaime hushes her, gently patting her hair.
Then someone can be seen outside the basement windows, moving bags of topsoil that were meant for gardening, and using them to block each basement window from outside. After that, the door to the house can be heard closing and footsteps come down the stairs in a clatter. Jaime's father is sweaty and out of breath.
"Did you run all that way?" Bianca asks.
"Yep!"
"That was stupid, 'Berto!" she says.
"Yep! But there's no way in hell I wasn't going to be here."
She hugs him tightly, and then they start rummaging through the basement.
"I did a little shelter but I don't know what else we should do," she says.
"I put bags of dirt over the windows, so that should help shield the gaps, but we need to pile furniture around the shelter," he says. "The more hard substances the better. It's mass plus distance."
"Did they teach you this in your army manuals?"
"Yes. Although out in the field the directions are pretty much 'dig a ditch, pray, and get ready to kiss your ass goodbye.'"
"Language."
"My point is we're pretty far off from the city center and lucky enough to have a basement. There's already stuff under the stairs, so that's one side shielded. Putting some mass in the way of anything else could be enough."
"Could?"
"Should," he corrects.
When they're finished, the two of them finally clamber through furniture, pulling it back into place around them and join Jaime and his sister in the shelter. The two children are silent. It is not the silence of children who are calm. It is the terrified, teary-eyed silence of two children almost too scared to cry. Jaime has only managed to keep his sister calm through some pretty intense hugging and hair-petting and it's clearly a situation where he's a good big brother in general, because she's found it soothing enough to only cry a little.
"Thank you for taking care of your sister," says Bianca. "I can take her now."
"Mi hijo, it's okay," says Alberto. "C'mere."
Jaime finally lets his sister go, so that Bianca can hold her and all but dives into his father's arms.
"Are we going to get blown up?"
"Chances are, this is some kind of isolated attack by a supervillain on Metropolis. Superman has a lot of enemies. And even if it was worst case scenario, with villains doing it to more than one city, El Paso probably isn't a city that would get targeted. No supervillains here. And even if it was worst-worst case scenario we're pretty far off from the city center, okay? And a basement is a good shield. Your mother and I are just being extra paranoid. That's what you get from a nurse and an ex-soldier, we try to always be prepared."
Jaime nods into his father's shoulder, but his shoulders tense up.
"It's okay to be scared," says Bianca, brushing her fingers through the hair on the back of Jaime's head.
"And it's okay to cry when you're scared, too," says Alberto.
Jaime buries his face so far into his father's shoulder a crowbar would be necessary to dislodge it, and his shoulders shake. Alberto reaches over to turn the radio on to a local AM frequency, and then just holds him with both arms. Eventually his shoulders stop shaking and he eventually stops sniffling.
And there they stay for a while, listening to the ongoing news broadcast about the attack, until finally Bianca and Alberto get to breath out bodily in a sigh of relief.
"- authorities have now put out an all-clear notice for all major cities other than the Metropolis greater metro area and surrounding suburbs. I repeat, all other emergency alerts issues through the country have now received an all-clear. According to authorities, there is no further expected nuclear threat from international or internal sources. The Justice League has verified that this is an isolated supervillain attack on Metropolis and that the guilty parties have been taken into custody. However, residents of Metropolis and surrounding areas, as well as nearby states that may face nuclear fallout risk, have not received an all-clear and should remain tuned into emergency channels for further advisories and instructions -"
"See, I told you," says Alberto, switching the radio off. "We're safe."
They are safe but also aren't anymore. This is something Jaime realizes when they go back upstairs. In their rush to the basement, the TV was left on. It is back to the news broadcast.
"- destruction unlike anything we've ever seen. Authorities are estimating a possible death count of -"
"Jaime, mijito, can you take your sister to your room and watch her for a little while. Your father and I want to find out what's happening but we don't want you to see. Some of it could be upsetting."
"But I want to know what's going on!"
"I promise we'll tell you, we just don't know what pictures or video will show, okay? Do you want Milagro to see anything scary?"
"No," says Jaime sulkily, and when his mother puts Milagro down again, he dutifully takes her by a tiny hand. "C'mon, Milagro."
"I'll be in in a few minutes," says Bianca.
He leads his baby sister back to her room, peeking out the door at his parents
"'Berto, all those people..." Bianca says in a voice close to breaking, and his father wraps his mother in his arms.
"I know."
After that, nothing is the same.