Chapter 65 - EXPLOSION!

Over the course of the next two years Aeolus constantly accompanied Kaiser and after some discussions with the teachers and principle he was even allowed to enter the classroom whenever he wanted and even sing countless melodies he had picked up all around the district. However, although Aeolus knew so many melodies Kaiser could always feel the unhappiness and envy in his heart that drove him to learn more and more. Wanting to help his companion to overcome these issues Kaiser spend many hours talking and spending as much quality time as possible with him to work things out but despite his best efforts he hadn't achieved much.

Today, almost exactly two years after Kaiser had met Aeolus something disturbing happened. Now at the age of seven he, like all other children born in his district, had to go to school after a few hours of helping with the harvest. In a few more weeks they would have no school for a while and help with the harvest all day.

Shortly after their first break all electrical devices went dark which weren't connected to a battery and a sound of something exploding could be heard rather quietly. Irritated their teacher moved towards the principle office after sternly reminding the children to continue with their work silently and telling them that he would return in a few minutes to check their work.

Only a few seconds after he had closed the door to the classroom and the sound his footsteps had vanished all hell broke loose. Some tried to voice his opinion on what had happened while others began to panic and continued to ask about the cause of this event, raising the volume to the equivalent of a fully booked out, excited football stadium. Meanwhile Kaiser sat somewhere close to the window, somewhere in the middle rows and tried to look for the cause of the exploding sound. Somewhere, some distance away, he could see a small pillar of smoke rise to his right. Aeolus, who had evacuated from the classroom the moment everyone raised their voices extremely, mentally messaged Kaiser that he would go and find out everything. After around half an hour the teacher returned and everyone was naturally still busy talking, some even eating their food despite not having a break. Slowly after everyone had quieted down the teacher continued his lesson after explaining to everyone that the power lines nearby was broken and needed to be fixed by experts to work again. Perhaps a tree had collapsed on the line and ripped it apart?

Of course Kaiser saw through the lie and what Aeolus told him soon after only supported his assumptions. A few people had blown up the central power line leading from District 5 to them, causing them to loose most power. Emergency generators kept the "most important" buildings like the garrison of the peacekeepers, the large storehouses close to the train station as well as the city hall and a few other, smaller and less important buildings. Additionally to the power loss the explosion had blown a large hole in the fence and strategically placed smaller portions of explosives had blown even more holes in it in many different places, some unknown to even the peacekeepers as their usual methods of surveillance had been totally destroyed after the attack. The sound of the smaller explosion had probably been overshadowed by the louder and larger explosion, masking most of the other ones.

Although Kaiser found this quite interesting and entertaining he couldn't help but question the reason for such things. What could be gained from this? He didn't need to question himself for long to come up with possible intentions behind the attack.

The many small holes in the fence would allow the people responsible for the attack to escape. That was the easiest part to understand. Although destroying the main power line aided with that he was sure that it hadn't been the main reason. Perhaps they wanted to target other important buildings ad people to cause more chaos as long as the security was disabled? According to that line of thought the additional holes would be used to allow them to escape in case something bad happened which meant that they would be used as a backup.

Although his speculations made sense he didn't make the error to fully rely on them as humans tend to surprise everyone with either their genius out of the box thinking process or their stupidity.

As it turned out shortly school ended in the afternoon after which he would have to return to his mother to aid her with work the latter one had been the case. The instigators of the incident had been caught trying to smuggle explosives into the city hall in a uniforms a few peacekeepers but had nothing prepared to prove their identity when they had been asked to show their ID. Under a bit of torture they had told everything they knew and everyone that had taken part in the endeavor had been captured. In order to celebrate the failure of their attempt to take over District 11, which had been their great goal, everyone would receive a free day from work with the opportunity to watch a delightful execution of all participants of the revolt in the evening at the town square (which was mandatory).

Apparently the school had other plans and had quickly come to the decision that everyone would take part in a trip around District 11 to not only gaze at beautiful scenery but also visit the old battlefield in the rebellion against the Capitol. Although many were a bit disappointed that they couldn't use the day to simply laze around and do nothing most were really excited that they would get to see the majority of the district with their friends especially when considering that most people were seldom allowed to move between the different zones District 11 was divided in.

After Kaiser left school and walked back to the orchards and field with his schoolmates, passing the large guarded gates and fences which separated their living and common area from the production areas, he joined his mother and sister in harvesting the last remnants of cherries that grew on the trees. Feeling the warm summer breeze blowing through his straight long black hair that reached just below his shoulder blades. He closed his vibrant green eyes and simply relaxed. Although he had never felt as miserable and helpless like in this world everything felt so much more intensive and realer compared to his last world. Perhaps all this fixation on his training had truly experiencing his life to the fullest and limited him in a certain way? Perhaps his power had him look at everything at a different angle?

Now that he was more like a normal person he was reminded even more just how fragile life was. The smallest mistakes could end it like frost a delicate blooming flower. Even though this life scared him a bit it seemed all the more enjoyable. Somewhat excited he looked forward to the trip they would make the next day. Until this day he had never really crossed the border between the zones and had been kept away from them. What was especially exciting to him was the question on how they would visit most of the district in a single day especially since he didn't even know how large it was and only knew that it was one of the biggest.