Chapter 3: Gone With The Ashes

Chapter 3 - Gone With The Ashes Taking a moment to calm down and think properly, Kieran quickly concluded that he was overthinking. The explosions happened where he lived, close to the slums but even that area, although small, when compared to the rest of the zones in the city, was very large.

The reporter mentioned the explosions occurring north of the area, his house was situated east. With this, he was finally able to calm down and head towards the infirmary.

After getting patched up in the infirmary, Kieran attended the remaining classes for the day with his head down, completely avoiding Richard. He had already experienced his fair share of beating today and while he was sure his body could still handle some more, he wasn't sure he could let himself get beat without snapping.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his mind off what he heard in the news earlier.

When school ended, Kieran looked at the school again and cursed every single one of them in his heart, he turned away and took his usual path home.

Coming out of the zoom bus station close to the end of the mid zone, Kieran breathed in the surrounding air which was filled with the scent of cigarettes and alcohol and sighed deeply in comfort. For someone who had grew up in a place no different from the slums, he was never really comfortable with the strangely clean air in the inner zone, it made him feel like a part of him was missing, but now that he was home, he felt complete again.

"Huh?"

Suddenly Kieran frowned and looked towards a particular direction where a column of smoke could be seen rising up into the air.

'It's coming from the direction of our house, but the reports said the explosions happened on the other side of the slums. Did something else happen?'

Kieran thought, but he wasn't really worried. Stuffs usually happened in the slums and fire accidents were usually used as a good coverup, as long as it didn't make it to the news like the explosions earlier, then it wasn't something major or something that he needed to worry about.

This wasn't the first time he was seeing incidents like that.It also wasn't the first time one was happening close to his home. The city administration also handled fires quite quickly, so there should be a team putting it out presently.

The thought of the explosions earlier during the day didn't occur to him.

Kieran moved toward his home at a leisure pace just to be welcomed with the sight of his home among those on fire.

A whirlwind of emotions hit him like a speeding truck; shock, surprise, fear, anger, they all came at him at once devouring him whole. His feet were rooted to the ground as his neck stiffly turned towards the firemen who were putting the fire out.

His eyes caught sight of some bodies in the ambulance and his heart palpitated as a possibility he didn't even want to consider came up in his head

'No! There's no way they're part of the casualties! It's still their working hours!'

Despite trying to assure himself that his parents were safe at work, there was a feeling gnawing at him that he couldn't get rid of.

After putting out the fire one of the detectives who 'officially' was in charge of investigating the source of the fire noticed from the edge of his eyes a boy who seemed to have been standing there a long time.

Approaching him he called out in a low voice,

"Kid!"

Kieran was jolted awake by the voice as he stared at the man

"Y-yess?" he answered, his trembling voice reflecting the messy state of his emotions.

"Are you perhaps Kieran Callum, the son of Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Kate Callum?"

"Yes, I am!"

At this response the detective looked at him with a hint of pity on his cold face

Seeing this Kieran asked in a doubtful tone,

"Is there something I should know?"

The detective looked into his eyes for a long time and then said slowly

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but your parents are dead!"

"N-n-nno, that's impossible, they're at work! What do you mean DEAD!"

Kieran shouted the last part in panic and disbelief.

The detective repeated calmly

"They're dead kid! They died in the fire, I guessed they didn't go to work today or maybe they had an early close."

His attitude was indifferent as he couldn't care less about a kid from the slums. After all, people like them were rats waiting to be exterminated!

Kieran's mind went blank at the revelation and after standing in the same position for a few minutes, he was only pulled deeper into the whirlpool of emotions he was feeling. It felt like the world was spinning around him and the ground was about to swallow him up as tears streamed out of his eyes. He was never going to hear the cringe jokes of his father that he never used to appreciate, or the taste of his mother's cooking, the comfort and love his family gave him; the only warm thing in the cold society he was born into. It was all gone with the ashes.

"Usually the government won't bother and you'd have to be on your own, but luckily your dad seemed to have registered you and made you a citizen unlike the other rodents who live in this shit hole!"

Kieran just nodded, barely getting the detective's words. He didn't share the detective's surprise as his dad had made him aware a long time ago of his citizenship status, even if it was of the lowest kind.

"So?"

He asked, his voice still shaky.

"So, since you're a citizen the government has a certain amount of responsibility in a situation like this, but it isn't for free. You can either join a military academy and serve for an amount of time which will be specified upon joining"

"Do I have a choice?" Kieran asked, wiping off the tears on his face.

"It's either that or you stay here and fend yourself! So, yes! You do have a choice!"

"I'll take the military then!" said Kieran, who already had thoughts of joining the military

"Good! We can leave—"

"Before that, can I have a look at their bodies?" Kieran interrupted the detective who now had a sour look on his face

"Bodies? They were completely brunt in the fire so we couldn't retrieve any bodies", the detective replied in a nonchalant tone.

"I see..!"

Kieran muttered subconsciously, still finding it hard to process what the detective had just told him.

The fact that they had died was one blow, but the news that their body couldn't even be retrieved and that he couldn't even look at their dead bodies or even perform a proper burial for them was something else.

"Hmm...here's my contact card" the detective interrupted his train of thought while throwing a card to Kieran

"Meet tomorrow at zone C267, 7am sharp, I won't wait!"

Catching the card Kieran looked down to see it contained the detective's contact info, without waiting for a reply, the detective got into his car and drove out of the slum.

Kieran looked away from the car which had disappeared into the distance, he stared at the huge wreck he used to call home for an unknown period of time and then he walked away disappearing into the shadow of the surroundings.