Fukushima's towers poured black smoke into the already tense air. The wind blew it and it left a death trail in which Japan knew would never again be able to be inhabited. He cringed and fell on his side; first the tsunami, now Fukushima. This might not have been his first nuclear disaster, but this time the pain was much worse.
All he could do is listen to people scream. Out of fear, out of pain, and out of sorrow. His people crawled and scavenged for their families in the muck containing parts of what used to be their houses upon shore after the tsunami and earthquake. Fukushima was only just happening and he didn't know what was going on, but it didn't look good.
"Japan!"
Japan turned around, his black hair soaking up dirty water, to see America and some other countries rushing towards him. Japan was thankful for someone like America; the young man always was willing to help others. It was an admirable trait Japan liked, even though other countries found it to be annoying.
"Japan," America caught up to him and fell to his knees wondering what to do with the broken-down country. "Oh man, do you know what's happening, dude?"
Through gritted teeth and pain, Japan said, "No…it all happened so fast," he struggled for breath.
America's fear grew—Japan could see it in his eyes. The younger nation looked up to see the power plant releasing its harmful radiation out into open air where lots of citizens loomed searching for missing and dead relatives.
America stood and turned to the nations behind him. "You guys, come on! We have to help these people!" he glanced at the crowd. "Someone stay here and help Japan! Alright, let's go!" He dashed off, as did many others, but one man stayed. Japan vaguely recognised him in his delirious state, but the scarf blowing in the toxic wind was a giveaway.
"Ru-Russia…?" Japan gritted. The larger man walked closer and kneeled down carefully not to splash the debris-filled water in the Asian's face.
"Da," Russia didn't look at him; instead he took out a roll of white cloth and started to unwind it. "I remember my first accident. You might beat me in being the worst nuclear disaster, I'll give you that much."
"Oh…that's right…" Japan managed to say. Russia helped Japan sit up in a sense so he could dress his wound. "Chernobyl. Yes…radiation was worse than 400 atomic bombs."
"Still is," Russia said absent-mindedly.
Japan pondered. "But…wait, isn't that Ukraine?"
"Back when Chernobyl exploded, it was the USSR, so I was blamed. Plus, I was the third country with the worst radiation from it. The wind was blowing northeast that day, so it spread all over my lands."
"Can you tell me…" Japan stopped to catch his breath from the pain, "how it went?"
Russia nodded and he tied off a coil of cloth around Japan's waist. "Da."
"Miss Ukraine?" a worker poked his head into her office. She was there after hours, as was everyone else, but the testing couldn't be done with citizens about. The clock next to the lamp read a dreadful 1:25 am. Ukraine was tired, but if it was for the sake of her people, she need no second thought.
"Yes?"
"We have a situation—"
Before he could finish, the fire alarm blared in all of their tired ears. Everyone jumped, with both fear and shock, and sprung up from their posts to outside in the control panel where another man was hovering over a map of the power plant.
"What's happening?" the first worker shouted above the siren.
"We have a fire in Reactor number four, sir!" the second yelled back, placing a gloved finger firmly on the paper view of the fourth reactor.
No one needed to thank him; developments rushed to the stairwell and Reactor number four. The fire was a large gaging one, engulfing most of the pipes and boxes around it. Everyone panicked, and in a megaphone mounted above the raging alarm, someone screamed, "Nuclear Emergency! Nuclear Emergency!"
XXX
The fall of the snow in Moscow couldn't have mixed better with the silence. It was peaceful, with absolutely no wind to be forecasted, and clouds as far as the eye could see. The peace in Moscow could be enough to call abnormal, considering it was April 26th and snow should not have been seen this night; but it was indeed heavenly.
Russia slept like he had never slept. His boss had given him the worst headache (like he normally did), but Russia was happy to crawl in bed at one in the morning—the earliest he had been able to all week. His hands were folded neatly over his stomach as he found in his slumber a comfort of this kind of cold.
He however was oblivious to the snow outside turning black. It rained soot and slop over what once was a blanket of healthy white snow. The fire burned in the reflection of the windowpane, but Russia was not one to see it right away.
XXX
Belarus flickered her eyes open. Minsk was cold as well, but snowfall was far from her capital. There was a strange taste in her mouth; like she was eating a copper penny. She opened her eyes fully to see a bright burning blaze through her window. It was in the direction of Ukraine's house.
"Ugh," she got up and held her head as it suddenly began to spin. Her stomach churned as well, along with an itch in her lungs and throat. She slipped on her boots and lazily walked to the door and headed towards her older sister's house in hope of an explanation.
XXX
"Nuclear Emergency! Nuclear Emergency!" The call still was echoing through the metal walls of Chernobyl. Ukraine followed the workers as they scattered from left to right searching for the fire department who said they would be there three minutes ago.
Finally, the crew came in, and the water was sprayed onto the wrathful fire. There was a boom a little after, and something had exploded; everyone ducked and ran; two bodies were on the floor immobile.
Ukraine had no choice to run. As much as it hurt to see her people get killed, she couldn't allow herself to get in any more danger than she already was.
Outside it was worse than she thought. Through the night of almost two o'clock a cloud of smoke containing more than ashes contaminated the atmosphere of the nearby town Prypyat and was heading towards her younger sister's house. The fire squad continued to battle the flames that were visible from the outside of the plant; but Ukraine knew that they were too late.
XXX
Russia's eyes flew open. His ceiling however didn't contain the answer as to why his mouth tasted so metallic. He sat up and rubbed the still-existent headache he had received from earlier and glanced around his room, swallowing repeatedly in a slurred effort to get the taste out of his mouth.
The last place he looked was his view window in which a ball of something orange and bright resided not too far away. Russia squinted, still half-asleep, and threw the covers off of his legs. He strode over to his windowsill and peered at the fire in the distance. "Huh," he muttered aloud. "That looks like…" and as the realisation hit him, the more awake he became.
His breath ran short as he stumbled back from the glass and burst out of his bedroom door through the hallway. "Ukraine!" he shrieked. "Ukraine!"
Out into the freezing weather he went, through the streets and down the unpaved paths to the source of the fire. He was correct when he made it in his pyjamas; it was Chernobyl.
He watched the fire burn for a second, and then scanned the crowd of workers for someone familiar. He had to act, or more than something to Ukraine could take place.
Ukraine. There she was. "Ukraine!" Russia cried to her.
She noticed, but instead of being joyful on seeing he was alright, she panicked and shouted, "Russia! Get out of here, you'll just get hurt!"
Russia was taken aback. "What? No! I have to help you!"
"Russia, please!" Ukraine screamed. "Go home! Don't come closer, you'll get contaminated!"
"No!" Russia pushed past the border of his sister and himself, staggering towards the fire. Ukraine rushed over to push him away, but only managed to struggle in one place.
Belarus, who was nearby, choked and fell to the ground. The two siblings noticed and ran to her aid instead of theirs. Behind them, Chernobyl's Reactor four exploded completely, illuminating about twenty-nine other workers within the area. Ukraine screamed out in pain and stumbled to her knees, holding her bleeding side. Tears streamed down her cheeks in the midst of the pain.
Russia grabbed Belarus and Ukraine and pulled them into his lap. Belarus was coughing blood and also crying uncontrollably. "It hurts!" she sobbed. "I can hardly breathe!"
Russia kissed their foreheads and watched as Chernobyl went up in flames. His vision eventually grew watery, and he too cried. He cried for Chernobyl, he cried for his pain…but most importantly, he cried for the pain of his sisters. He prayed that the seriousness of the disaster was well over to God, but he had yet to find out that this was to last over a span of more than hundreds of years.
The two girls in his arms made him cry even harder. He kissed them again, whispering "You'll be okay," to them as soothingly as his ragged voice could manage.
The siblings sat in the grass in misery as the biggest nuclear catastrophe in the world unfolded. Nothing would be the same.
You can trust me on the facts, I did a project. I'm not positive about the weather in Moscow, but I know that radiation speeds up the water cycle so it either rained or snowed.