Awakening - Chapter 209

Chapter 209 Electricity

For any City, the electrical system is very important. If there is a City-wide power outage, there will be all sorts of harms caused by many unintended variables.

Nine years ago, there was a massive power failure accident in the Northeastern parts of the United States, eight midwest states, and the province of Ontario in Canada. According to the preliminary statistic, in New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Ottawa, Toronto and other major cities and their surrounding areas, fifty million people were affected. Of which, manufacturing, food and beverage, retail, as well as the aviation industry suffered the most. Most of the economic activity appeared to be stagnated. All of these directly or indirectly caused an economic loss of up to $30 billion.

And tonight, once again there were widespread power outages in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, New York and other major cities.

Although the blackout was smaller than the one happened a few years ago, went major cities in the United States went into darkness, some abnormal sound rang out.

After one hour of the blackout, the residents living in the fifth avenue, New York were the first to hear the gunshots. Before those shooters were taken care of, a burst of even more unexpected sounds of explosions rang out.

Not just in New York, the residents in other cities affected by the outage have also heard the persistent gunshots and explosions.

In all major streets, many large stores were forced open, the ATMs were also pounded by mobs, but the jewelry stores were the favorite. In order to open the doors of the shops or stores, some even directly crashed cars into it.

No one knew why these people became like this. But a few people living not far from large Malls or banks saw that not long after the electricity went out, the ATMs in the malls suddenly exploded without any warning. After the explosions, the Mall doors were burst open, giving way to the flying cash from the exploded ATMs to scatter like leaves. Seeing all this cash, as well as free access to major shopping Malls, many people went crazy.

They began to frantically grab the cash on the ground or flock inside the Mall to steal precious commodities.

Not only that, as more and more shopping Malls with ATMs were burst open, the craziness spread among the crowds like an unknown virus. Not only people on the streets, even ordinary citizens ran out of their houses and joined the ranks of the robber. Some of the men, unsatisfied with the items that they robbed, began to hit other stores and shops.

Under this crazy herd mentality, more and more people began to participate in the destruction and looting.

In the dark environment, all of the looters have an illusion, that is, no one would recognize them. Thinking that their behaviors were reasonably concealed, the dark side of humanity began to rise to the surface.

In the end, the greedy crowds turned into mobs, damaging and looting stores and shops.

In addition to ordinary citizens, the gangsters who lived in the dark were like fishes in the water. Some people began to loot the gun store.

Men with guns started to rob ordinary people, or they just simply crashed cars into stores or use guns to break open the doors to loot more efficiently.

But before long, endless police vehicles gradually left the outside area and began to enter the inner city to suppress these people.

Constant roaring of sirens scared the ordinary looters; They immediately scattered to escape.

Under the guidance from the helicopter above, dozens of police vehicles successfully drove and laid siege hundreds of armed men.

“You have been surround, put down your arms and surrender immediately.” A police officer shouted through a megaphone from a helicopter above.

Looking at the numerous police vehicles flashing red and blue lights in front of them, the surrounded men began to be afraid. Although many of them were gang members or socially marginalized people, it did not mean that they are not afraid to die.

“I repeat, you have been surrounded, immediately lay down your weapons and put your hands above your head, otherwise we will shoot.” A warning sound came from the helicopter once again.

Finally, some people began to lower their weapons and held up their hands. Seeing this, other people began to follow, laying down their weapons and holding up their hands.

Seeing more and more people laying down their weapons, the surrounding police breathed a sigh of relief.

But just when everyone thought things were over, a ten fists-size long object with ‘fireworks’ spray on its tail quietly flew at a breakneck speed toward the helicopter.

“Boom,” The helicopter was suddenly caught fire and blew apart in mid-air and finally fell on top of two police cars, causing a more intense explosion.

This sudden explosion caught all the people off guard; all of them froze. Many police who stood nearby did not have the time to react and was instantly killed by the shockwave of the explosion. Others were killed on the spot by the flame and debris.

When everyone thought that they were in a nightmare, suddenly several semi-elliptical black objects were flown from that group of men with guns toward the police cars.

When one of the police who just crawled up from the ground looked at that strange objects that landed in front of him, his face immediately went pale.

“Boom, boom….” Several successive massive explosions destroyed the police vehicles.

The surrounded gun-toting men could not believe their eyes as they saw several police cars were overturned in that chain of explosions. Many police were flung into mid air or blown into flesh and blood.

The flame of explosions and the wave of hot air made the area turned into a purgatory.

After these explosions, a more alarming scene emerged. The police who were spared from the explosions began to shoot those armed men.

Seeing that people next to them were being shot, the other men instinctively returned fire.

Nobody realized how could it turn like this. After the explosions, in quick succession, everyone lost their normal thinking capacity. Everyone wanted to eliminate the enemy in front of them to survive. With continuous fire from both sides, many of the men with guns began to look for cover as they shot back. Meanwhile, the police desperately called out their headquarters for support.

Because of the insufficient manpower in the police force, this predatory behavior continued to happen in many areas. The shooting on the street intensified and more and more police from the outer areas joined the fighting ranks.

Shootings and explosions could be heard everywhere. The whole City seemed to become a dark battlefield. Everyone went crazy, and the whole City went mad.

Not only in the City, other populated areas that were affected by the outage also suffered similar looting and shooting on the streets.

In addition to the car lights, flares and the occasional strange flash of glow from the outside, the City remained dark, but not calm.

There were battlefields everywhere. The reporters who went to report cannot believe that the scene on the ground looked like a war scene.

Chapter 209 Electricity Part 2

“Can you tell me what exactly is happening? Speak!” The Colonel’s blue veins were very visible as he pounded the stack of reports in front of the Lieutenant Colonel, the Intelligent Officer, and several other officials’ faces. Their faces were pale and no one dared to say anything.

Seeing this, the Colonel was about to explode in anger but at this time, the telephone on his desk suddenly rang.

“Who is this? Yes, I am sorry, I don’t know that it’s you. I was just berating my subordinates, please forgive my previous tone of voice.”

“I understand, I will arrange it according to your instruction.”

After he hung up the phone, the Colonel coldly stared at them and said: “All of you get out, right now.”

After they went out, the Colonel immediately picked up the phone and dialed up.

Around 2 AM, the chaos in the City has yet to subside even a little bit, people can still hear the sound of gunfire and explosion from time to time. In each area, the police station has run out of back up, all have been involved in the crackdown. But with respect to the looters and the rioting crowd, the police has considerable disadvantages in number. Therefore, they failed to control the situation. Moreover, the surrounding darkness increased the difficulty in controlling the situation. The police did not dare to send another helicopter to circle the sky anymore because several helicopters have been hit by rockets from one of the corners of the street, which then exploded and crashed.

However, when a group of camouflaged, heavily armored soldiers came into these Cities in batches, the situation immediately changed drastically.

Under the combined sieged of well-trained soldiers with heavy firepower, the rioters and looters with guns who previously have the upper hand immediately scattered in all directions. The marauding men have been effectively deterred. Many people, upon seeing the siege from soldiers in camouflage fatigues, stood up and raised their hands to surrender.

In the Southern part of Dover, not far from Philadelphia, there was a piece of continuous ten miles bay with a natural reserve. In the Northern part of this conservation district, there were ten inconspicuous yet big military base buildings.

Among all the military personnel who were sent to Philadelphia to suppress the riots there, one fifth of them came from this base. This military base is less than 100 km away from Dover Air Force Base, which was responsible for transporting the soldiers to assist the repression.

“What is the current situation?” At the basement office in this military base, a Lieutenant General-ranked man sitting in a chair asked a young aide in front of him. The young adjutant immediately replied: “Report General, just a moment ago, all three team leaders have given their reports. The center area of Philadelphia and its urban district have been successfully controlled by us, most of the looters and rioters have been arrested by the local police.”

“What happened with Major General White and Lieutenant General Hans over there?”

“Five minutes ago, Major General White’s troops have entered the second area. As for Lieutenant General Hans’ troops, they are still in the transport aircraft, it will probably take them another fifteen minutes to arrive.”

The Lieutenant General sneered, “I don’t know what are those police doing that they need our army to suppress it. The numbers of dead and wounded are none of our business.”

The aide said: “General, this time’s riot is very strange. Besides the 1992 Los Angeles riot, there have been no such large scale and serious riots in the United States.”

The Lieutenant General nodded his head, “Perhaps this is even bigger than that. I suspect that someone incited this riot from behind.”

“General, do you think the terrorist is behind this?”

“It probably is, after all, the United States have a lot of enemies. But this is the work of Intelligence Department, it has nothing to do with us, we only need to execute our command.”

Seeing the Lieutenant General’s somewhat tired look, the aide did not say anything anymore and ask to be excused. After all, they were all awakened in their sleep by the telephone at night.

When the aide went out, the Lieutenant General, no longer able to resist his strong feeling of sleepiness, walked to the nearby couched and laid down. After an indeterminate amount of time later, a burst of vigorous knocking sound woke him up. When he opened his eyes, he found that the room was dark.

“General, General Matt.” The aide shouted from the outside the door. The Lieutenant General groped in the dark toward the door. When he opened the door, the adjutant emotionally said, “General, our base is under attack.”

“What did you say?” The Lieutenant General could not believe his ears.

“General, our base is really under attack. The other is a group of mysterious men in black, we don’t know how they come in. They blew up our generators and backup power supply. Right now, our base is completely out of power.”

The Lieutenant General calmed himself down and asked: “How many people are they?”

“I don’t know, a conservative estimate put them at more than three hundred people. Each have powerful weapons in hands. Three areas and two areas’ doors have been forced open by rocket launchers. Moreover, from the smoothness of their actions, they should be equipped with night vision goggles.”

“How many men do we have in this base?”

“Because most of our people went to Philadelphia to suppress the riots, our base fighting personnel is less than two hundred people, the rest is logistic personnel about fifty people. Those men in black are moving toward the basement.”

The Lieutenant General was startled, “Immediately concentrate our people in the basement, we must stand our ground there. We absolutely cannot let them enter the level three basement. Also, immediately seek support from the outside.”

The aide’s face fell as he said: “General, we have no way to look for outside help now, because those people had succeeded in occupying the communication rooms in the second building and our weapon’s arsenal. I just tried to send a signal for help, but the signal transmission device that was mounted outside has been destroyed by them so we have no way to send signals to the outside. They know our communication method and communication facilities.”

Hearing his words, the Lieutenant General’s whole body shook. If all of these were true, then they have been completely isolated. This was obviously a carefully planned attack.

After a while, the Lieutenant General’s deep voice sounded in the dark: “No matter what happens, we must defend the lowest underground level, we absolutely cannot let them enter there. Since the communication facilities cannot be used, we need to create a huge explosion to attract other people’s attention. All right, let’s go.” With that, he went out of the room with his aide.