Chapter 7.

In solemn stillness, the votes were counted, but impatience gripped the crowd like electric tension. Finally, the official delegation busying themselves around the ballot boxes filled out all the documents and had them signed by the mayor, who then climbed onto the podium and announced in an officious voice that the demolition of the wall was to continue. A few cheers rang out, but not a single worker moved. The charismatic graduate, leader of the SAWs, leaped onto the stage and commanded the crowd’s attention.

“Fellow citizens! What are you waiting for? The time has come to break the chains of ignorance! Look at the work of your efforts, look at all the breaches you’ve made in the wall! Hear how the wall trembles! The stone is scared of our resolve to conquer our freedom!” he yelled.

The crowd began to buzz with exclamations of approval. The graduate resumed even louder: “To arms, citizens! To the tools! Down with the yoke of the past! Down with the wall! Down with the wall!” The crowd echoed, “Down with the wall! Down with the wall!” to a crescendo of hammer and pickaxe blows. The revolt redoubled in fervor, workers exulting as they tore away at the wall’s surface.

Finally, in an earth-shaking quake, the large crack branched out into an infinity of fissures, and, raising a cloud of dust high into the sky, the wall collapsed along the entire length of the town square in a deafening roar mingled with cries of terror and howls of pain. Whole sections of wall collapsed, knocking out villagers who had not had time to move aside, and crushing the hands and feet of those who vainly tried to escape, but slipped on puddles of blood and stumbled over corpses. As if animated by a murderous rage, the wall unleashed all the violence it had endured onto the village, taking with it in its irreversible fall everything it had hitherto harbored in its shadow. Houses collapsed one after the other, a construction caught fire, and the flames blown by the blast of dust spread throughout the village. Terrified townsfolk could not decide what to do first: try to find their loved ones in the dust that would not settle, rescue the blood-stained victims, or search for water to extinguish the spreading fire. Chaos intensified, and the sky darkened as if in prelude to the world’s end.

“Move, for heaven’s sake, do something useful!” shouted a man close to my ear. Paralyzed by panic up to that moment, I pulled myself together and hurried to help people clear away a pile of rubble from which muffled moans were coming.

A lightning bolt ripped through the black sky, immediately followed by a downpour. The salvific rain settled the dust, calmed the fire and washed the blood and sweat from our hands and faces. We freed the last victims and carried away the bodies.

Only then did I remember to look where now there was a void. In place of the wall, sharpened by the black sky above our heads, the horizon gleamed with clear light.

What should the narrator do? Go towards the horizon – go to Chapter 14. Stay in the village – go to Chapter 16.