Nine

 

  District 8 and District 3 fell within three days of each other, in that order. The militia rebels turned up in overwhelming numbers, causing violence and bloodshed, and that violence eventually led to the districts’ citizens ousting any sort of governmental persons and taking over.   “Is it the dawning of a new era, one where we will no longer be suppressed by totalitarian governments. A new era of democracy and freedom, of - ”   There was a loud snort from across the table and the voice drifting serenely over the airwaves was cut off with a sharp snap.    “Hey, I was listening to that!” Minseok pouted at Jongin who just rolled his eyes at him, moving away from the radio. “Why’d you turn it off?”   “Because we’ve done nothing but sit around for two days, listening to underground radio channels, and you,” Jongin gave Minseok a pointed look, “have been skipping out on training.”   “We still have time; it’s not like we’ve decided on any concrete plan yet.” Minseok puffed up his cheeks mutinously, making them look rounder than ever.   Jongin glared at him. “If we’re going to do this right, we can never be too ready.”   “He is right about that.” Dr Lee’s voice was coming out from halfway down a corridor, but everyone in the living room could hear it loud and clear.   When he seemingly materialized out of the dark of the corridor, Dr Lee could be seen holding a thick wad of papers. When I gave him a questioning look and pointed at the wad of papers, he gave me his fatherly smile and he put his reading glasses back on, peering down at the papers.   “What I mean by that is that I’ve found some very interesting documents that I’d forgotten the existence of up until now.” I watched as Dr Lee made his way to the coffee table, crouched down in front, and began to spread the papers out on the flat surface. “Jongin, could you go and call Kyungsoo back from the library and Luhan back from his housekeeper duties. I think he’s beginning to like that job of his a little more than he thought he ever would.”   I cracked a smile at that, and unknowingly I found myself looking at Jongin’s face to see his reaction.  He looked up from the ground and smirked a little at Dr Lee’s joke, and before I knew it, he’d caught my eye and his mouth twitched back into a straight line.   “Yeah, I’ll go get the others.”   He was gone in a puff of black smoke and I wondered if I’d ever fully get used to that.   I moved myself next to Dr Lee and squinted at the ridiculously small, cramped, yet neat handwriting on the pages. It was strange though, in this day and age, to see such detailed information on anything handwritten.   Dr Lee glanced across at my furrowed eyebrows and smiled. “Min, I can't risk having the government discover it if I save it on a computer somewhere, can I?”   Before I had the chance to question his logic, Jongin reappeared right next to me, with Kyungsoo and Luhan in tow.   “Now that everyone is here, please take a seat around.” I watched as Dr Lee gingerly picked up an especially thin and translucent piece of paper and began to read off it.   “These children, who are special beyond definition have great powers, yet do have their limit. There is no way to dramatically increase or even remove this limit, save for one option.” He drew in a deep breath before he continued reading, and I didn't even realise that I'd been holding my own breath. “When the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun is when they will be strongest, fully in control of their power and able to unleash it at its full force.”   He looked up as he took off his reading glasses, glancing at each of our faces.   “So... when is the solar eclipse going to happen this year?” Luhan carefully asked, cogs in his mind turning.   “This year, it will happen on the November 27th,” Kyungsoo spoke up, and Dr Lee nodded at him to continue. “The last solar eclipse was June 2nd, just yesterday, except that one didn’t affect us here in Asia.”   “Yes, in fact it was the solar eclipse yesterday that suddenly made me remember these old notes I’d taken all those years ago,” Dr Lee said as he slowly sat down on a couch.    “The one on November 27th is going to affect most of Asia,” Sehun stopped halfway through his sentence before he looked around the circle. “Wait - you don’t mean...?”   “I think it’s about high time we did something, isn’t? The Capitol can’t be brought down without us.” Dr Lee’s smile radiated nothing but pride in all of us.   “Actually, we’ve - Dr. Lee and I - have already worked up a plan, a strategy,” Kyungsoo admitted, stepping in.    Dr. Lee nodded in encouragement, and Kyungsoo continued.    “The plan involves two groups. The focus of our attack is on District 1 and District 4.  We