A is for Atom
He could smell smoke and heard the crackling of fire.
Percy blearily opened his eyes, glancing around him. When did it get dark? Percy thought as he looked up at the night sky. Everyone was huddled around a fire that someone had conjured up next to the lone wall in a sea of rubble.
Fred was sitting right next to where Percy was lying, his back up against the wall, his head thrown back. Loud snores escaped his mouth as he slept. Millicent was also sleeping against the wall, next to Fred, bat still in hand and her head against his shoulder. Malfoy was lying close to the fire, completely still. It took a moment for Percy to find Penelope, but he saw a dark huddled mass lying in the shadows. She had chosen a spot away from the fire and the others. Everyone was asleep. Except for Angelina.
Angelina was staring darkly into the fire, poking it steadily with a stick.
"Angelina?" Percy called out in a whisper, trying not to wake the others.
Angelina whipped her head around and in a flash she was kneeling next to him. "You're awake!" She whispered excitedly. "How do you feel?"
"A lot better actually." Percy was surprised to find that there was some actual truth to that statement. He did feel better. The little bit of water that Fred had allowed him to drink had done wonders. He was still in a lot of pain and his whole face had gone numb- not just the left side anymore. Percy was not a Healer, but he knew that numbness was not a good sign. He felt stupid for not ever learning a good healing charm.
Angelina nodded. "I'm glad."
"How's everyone else?" Percy asked. Angelina bit her lip at his question, casting a furtive glance at Malfoy's direction.
"He fell asleep as soon as we gave him some water. I… I haven't seen him move in a long time." She answered. "I-I haven't… you know… checked… but I think…" She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.
Percy's heart gave a jump at the implications of what she was saying, but he quickly pushed it out of his mind. He couldn't think about that right now. "Angelina… what is going on? Everyone is asleep now; you don't have to worry about them overhearing you."
Angelina bit her lip again, clearly not wanting to tell Percy what was happening. Whether or not she thought he couldn't handle it, he wasn't sure. She sighed. "It doesn't matter now. It's just… What happened… It's called an atomic bomb. I'm not exactly sure how scientists make one, but it's something about splitting an atom or merging two atoms together…"
Angelina trailed off when she noticed Percy just staring at her, not comprehending a word she was saying. "An atom is a tiny molecule… umm, it's like this tiny thing. So tiny that an ant couldn't even see it. It makes up everything around us. The buildings, the air, our bodies. Everything. Although they're all different, that's why we all look different. Umm, and when you mess with them, like splitting them or merging them, they create huge explosions. Like the one we just went through."
"And Muggles know how to use these? How to create these explosions?"
"Yes. But… when an atomic bomb goes off it does more than just blow things up. It creates radiation. Radiation is invisible; you can't see it or smell it, but it's there. And when people are near it… sometimes they get really sick. I mean, really sick. They'll die."
Percy sucked in a breath. "That's why you didn't want to stop... I made us stop." He felt like he was going to throw up. Did he just sign everyone's death warrant?
Angelina shook her head. "I don't think it would have mattered if we had stopped or not. We'd already been out here for how long? Two hours? It was probably already too late. I don't think there's anything that we could have done if one of us gets sick. I was just… hoping that wasn't the case, I guess."
Somehow that didn't make Percy feel any better.
"Why did this happen?" Percy suddenly asked. This was something that he really wanted to know. If he and everyone he knew or cared about was going to die, he wanted to know why.
"There's been a lot of fighting going on between us and North Korea. The North Korean Muggle government had annexed South Korea and was threatening to invade some of the countries around it as well. We and the U.S. dropped some bombs on them and I guess they decided to retaliate. I know they tried to send a missile to the U.S., but it fell in the Pacific Ocean."
Percy blinked. "Oh. Somehow that doesn't seem worth… all of this." He gestured vaguely around them.
Angelina just shrugged. "Is anything?"
The two were silent for a few minutes, both of them just staring at the carnage around them. "Why didn't the Muggles warn the Minister of Magic that something like this could happen?" Angelina asked, turning back to look at Percy's prone form. "I thought the Muggle Prime Minister and our Minister talked or something."
Percy gave a wry smile. "The two only talk if it is something that the Minister of Magic needs to tell the Muggles about. The Muggle Prime Minister can't just Floo the Minister of Magic whenever there is a crisis in the Muggle World. I guess... I guess we just never thought something important could happen on that side that we would need to know about."
Angelina opened her mouth to say something, but before she could a sudden roar filled their ears. They turned to look and his eyes were immediately flooded with a bright light.
Oh, God. Not again.