ME: Time to get back to Gale and Enobaria.
"You were actually a good person once."
Gale was surprised at the Peacekeeper spirit saying this. "What, no snark?"
Enobaria shook her head and smiled grimly before grabbing his forearm. "I know, you're shocked at my sincerity. I know I've told you we'd be focusing on what happened in Two, but there's something I should show you first. Something to show you what you could have been."
They were transported to District Twelve during 75 ADD (After Dark Days). Gale flinched, knowing what had happened.
With Thread and his Peacemaking Brigade and all but a company of the old guard transferred to District Eleven, President Coriolanus Snow signed the death warrant for thousands of men, women and children.
The electricity was shut off (under Thread, infrastructure had improved considerably, in contrast to the decay that occurred under the mismanagement and corruption of Cray) and the bomber squadron of the Praetorian Enforcers screeched on what was once Hazelton, Pennsylvania. The pilots were loyal to Snow like Thread, but unlike him possessed no morality; as a result, none of them felt regret when they dropped thermobaric bombs on Twelve.
The only place the high-temperature explosions did not destroy was the Victors Village; nothing else was spared. The Justice Building, the shops of the Market, the houses of the Seam and even the Peacekeeping Complex were obliterated. Peacekeepers and civilians alike screamed as they were burned alive. Some were lucky enough to be killed instantly, while the Peacekeepers who had pistols or rifles put their guns to their foreheads and pulled the trigger to euthanize themselves.
Less than a thousand people were fortunate enough to escape past the fence into the woods. Leading this eight hundred was a terrified young man named Gale Hawthorne. His relatives and the Everdeens all escaped, while the Mellark family were all murdered.
"This was horrific, no?" Gale did not answer, for he was too horrified to do so. "No one who survived this would wish for such cruel atrocities to be inflicted upon even their worst enemies."
She took Gale to one last sight; now Gale Hawthorne, the Butcher of District Two, would face his greatest sin.
ME: A/N: I know this is one of my shorter chapters; quite possibly the shortest or second-shortest considering Chapter One. Hope y'all enjoyed this regardless; I was inspired to write this because of a similar chapter in T.J.98's Cries of the Fallen. Check it out, it's good. Additionally, my headcanon is that Head Peacekeeper Romulus Thread is similar to the main antagonist of Les Miserables, Inspector Javert; an overzealous lawman who's dangerous because of his rigid enforcement of unjust laws.