Newsies One-Shots

Quietsies

DESCRIPTION: My niece asked me if I could write the newsies into a "A Quiet Place" situation. So, here we go. Disclaimer: a few people die in this so be warned.

Davey sat in the absolute silence of the fire escape, his legs hanging off the edge. He was reading a book on sign language, after all, it was the language of the future, since no one could make a sound if they wanted to keep their life. It had been that way for months. Who knew how many people hadn't made it. Davey was lucky that he still had his family, even if he was the only one who would learn sign language.

That day, as he sat on the fire escape, his siblings, Sarah and Les, quietly played with a deck of cards next to him. They had to distract themselves from the destruction and peril that had happened around them somehow. It had all happened so quickly, one moment they were enjoying a normal day, and the next, half the people they knew had been torn to shreds by monsters who apparently couldn't take even the smallest noise. 

The thing was, since the world was so jarringly silent, Davey and his siblings could hear even the smallest noise, including what sounded like a small pop, a hiccup, coming from inside their apartment. It was soon followed by another, and another, then breaking glass...

Davey and his siblings jumped up and realized what was going on, but it was too late, they heard their parents screaming and realized that it was over. Their only chance was to stay silent, even though they wanted to badly to scream themselves. Davey looked over at Sarah, wondering what to do. She shrugged and looked down at the city.

Davey nodded in understanding. The three siblings carefully climbed down the fire escape and started quietly walking down the street, trying not to cry... at least not loudly. 

A few blocks away from their home, there was another group of survivors. They had previously sold newspapers, but now they just stayed in their lodging house, spending every day in silence. Not many of them knew sign language, but a few of them had learned it so they could communicate without anyone else knowing what they were saying. 

One of those three, Crutchie, was watching out the window and saw the three siblings walking by. He frantically waved to his friends to get their attention. 

What is it? Crutchie's brother, Jack, signed.

Crutchie pointed outside, thinking if he signed the issue, it would be too late. Jack looked and saw Davey and his siblings, and he figured he oughta go see what the matter was. Hi didn't want to assume they knew sign language, so he brought a piece of paper and a pencil with him.

When he saw Davey's sign language book, he just signed to them, asking What's going on?

Davey handed his book to Sarah and brought his hands up to sign something, but he couldn't move them. He eventually just started silently crying. 

Sarah pointed to the paper and pencil Jack was holding. He handed it to her and she wrote down Our parents were killed by the monsters.

Jack read the note and frowned. He looked at Davey and signed I'm sorry. 

Davey shook his head, there was nothing that could be done now. Jack motioned for the siblings to follow him into the lodging house. 

Jack figured he should probably introduce himself, so he got the attention of Davey and signed J-a-c-k.

Davey nodded and signed D-a-v-i-d, then pointed to each of his siblings and signed out their names. 

Jack signed to the newsies explaining what was going on, or rather, he signed to a red-headed reporter named Katherine and she wrote it down for the newsies to read.