fuel | flynn garner

follow up to this & that.

”You killed the only people that knew anything about what was going on in that laboratory!”

”But do you think you could continue his experiments?”

”No!”

”You are obliged to help to Capitol, Flynn.”

”I am not a pharmacist; I don’t know how to make drugs. Speak to the Thatchers, they are the pharmaceutical gods!”

The cheek of the peacekeepers to even suggest that I continue my grandpa’s experiments! They are the ones that executed the man behind it all, they should have kept him alive if they were so interested in the drug. All that happened in that laboratory started this whole mess, maybe Johnny would be alive right now if it weren’t for it. It is not a coincidence that one of my grandpa’s workers was reaped after everyone else was arrested. Though I would have probably never met Johnny if not for him working for my grandpa. Maybe that would have been for the best, he would still be alive, and I wouldn’t be living in this hell.

Finally, the interview with the peacekeepers is over and I am let out of the District 6 holding center. Hopefully that is the last of that. Something for my family to brush under the carpet and whisper about now and then. Everything just seems to happen all at once, my life just never wants to take a moment and slow down. It is another reason why I am pushing everyone away. I just want to breath. Just one moment to breath. The past near 7 years have been scarring.

It is dark outside as I head straight back to the victor’s village, which is a fair trek. I will have to pass the factory that is now all boarded up. I wonder what will happen to it. Is it now seized, or will it go to my dad and uncles?

There is only one good thing that can happen to that place.

It is just a short detour down a street to the District’s pharmaceutical manufacturing hub. The Thatcher & Thatcher units are a complete eye sore compared to the smaller independent factories next to them. Though that family seems to be buying out everyone else, I am surprised they won’t try and buy Profoundling, the deadly drug from the peacekeepers.

One of the windows in my grandpa’s factory isn’t quite secured as the rest, I slip through the gap and end up in the factory floor. The place looks ransacked, all the stations are turned over and there is glass shattered everywhere. There will be nothing left in here, I am not even sure why I am in here. I head straight to my grandpa’s office, the only place I can ever remember him being in my mind.

All the filing cabinet drawers are opened; besides a few dusty books, all the important paperwork seems to have been seized. Left in the middle of the desk are a few pens, blank sheets of paper and opened pack of cigarettes with grandpa’s trusty silver lighter. I am surprised the keepers did not pocket that. I will though. It seems the right time to pick up bad habits. I am in the right District to treat a self-inflicted co-morbidity.

I light up one of the cigarettes while flicking through the books and blank sheets of paper. Nothing, the only trace of my grandpa left in here is his nicotine filling my lungs. It is the best thing. This whole place needs to be flattened. Maybe I can help.

I screw up a few balls of paper, throwing them into the wicker basket garbage can that is besides the desk. The paper is not the only fuel lighting up this place.

It is those that took Johnny away from me that are adding to the blaze. Along with my grandpa and his wicked secrets. It is the past seven years of my life. It is the plague. It is the Capitol. Everything is igniting this little flame that will burn this factory down to its beams.

I finish the cigarette and flick the end into the piled-up paper. It is takes me some time to even think about fleeing as I watch the smoke build up within the office. Being a victim to this fire just seems a waste. Seems the easy way out that the Capitol are begging for.

Back through the unsecured window I go, now packing a new bad habit in my jacket pocket. I look back just to make sure, there is smoke coming out of the window that I have just climbed out from. Grandpa is gone, my family should thank me in the morning.