boyutpedia Chapter 264 Let's give them a break first
Chapter 264 Let's give them a break first
LaSalle County, Illinois.
Bradwood Nuclear Power Plant.
This dual-unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant, built in 1988, can provide electricity to two million homes when operating at full capacity.
But now, it is completely deserted.
Three days ago, when Hughes's infection wave swept through South Chicago, the power plant workers were either infected or had already fled.
The very few surviving staff members also disappeared completely two days ago.
Of course, these are not the most terrifying things.
The most terrifying thing is that the power station's diesel generators were damaged by infected individuals as early as when the infection was spreading.
In other words, the power plant's cooling system has now completely shut down.
When the cooling system of a nuclear power plant shuts down, the end result is that the reactor core temperature rises.
In the vast power plant control room, only the warning light indicating that the battery still had some charge was flashing in the darkness.
In the silence, the temperature of the reactor core had exceeded 1200 degrees Celsius.
The zirconium alloy cladding begins to react with water vapor, producing a large amount of hydrogen gas.
3:17 a.m.
The hydrogen concentration has reached the critical point for deflagration.
Suddenly, without any warning.
With a muffled bang, cracks appeared in the containment structure.
Radioactive vapor spewed out of the crack, carried by the night wind, and spread southeastward.
Thirty minutes later, in a basement four kilometers from the power station, eight survivors of the disaster were eating canned food around a battery-powered lamp.
They hid here for three days.
They lived cautiously, like rats, avoiding the infected and the mob.
They thought they had been cautious enough.
But they had no idea that something even more terrifying was filling the air above them.
After eating, everyone huddled in a corner again, their eyes numb...
However, just two hours later, a four-year-old girl among the survivors began to vomit.
At first, her mother thought the canned food had gone bad.
But what happened next made the group realize the seriousness of the situation immediately.
Soon after the little girl vomited, others began to vomit as well.
Then, the third, the fourth...
By the time everyone realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
They began to feel weak and listless, and their entire bodies, even their internal organs, began to ache intensely...
Soon, as these people continued vomiting, they started vomiting blood, accompanied by brown blood clots.
When these people realized what was happening and tried to escape, they had already lost the ability to move, lying weakly and coughing incessantly on the ground...
Until the very end... they didn't even know they had been killed by radiation.
Until their deaths, they all believed it was some kind of new infection.
……
However, their deaths were not the end, but only the beginning of all suffering.
At the same time. El Paso, Texas, border area.
As the sun rose, the crowd on the north bank of the Grand River swelled from 20,000 yesterday to nearly 60,000.
And there are still survivors pouring in from behind.
After all, these survivors believed that the South was safer than the North.
It is precisely this understanding that has led more and more survivors to flee the area with their families.
However, while ideals are beautiful, reality is often very cruel.
Because the drug lords in the south have no intention of opening their doors to them.
……
Miguel hadn't slept for thirty-six hours.
He stood on top of the pickup truck, holding a megaphone, his voice hoarse from shouting.
"Everyone back off! Back off to the safety line! We will not let you through!"
However, no one listened to him.
The crowd continued to surge forward.
Those in front looked at the heavily armed drug dealers with fear in their hearts, but were pushed along by those behind them and couldn't stop.
"Boss, they're going into the water again." The vigilant subordinate looked at Miguel.
Miguel put down the megaphone, a rare look of seriousness appearing on his face.
He was a drug dealer, and he had killed people before when gangs fought over drug territories.
But those fights are all between gangs. If you don't shoot and kill someone else, you might be the one who dies.
However, right now, just across the river from him, most of the people are civilians, and they don't even have weapons...
Finally, he addressed his men:
"Fetch water."
As he finished speaking, the machine gun fired again, and bullets kicked up water columns on the river.
The people in the river screamed as they swam back.
But the crowd on the north bank had lost their minds.
Those at the back couldn't see what was happening in front; they just kept pushing and shoving forward.
The pressure on the crowd grew, and those who hadn't yet managed to get ashore were pushed back into the water.
"Boss! There are people on the east side too!"
Miguel turned to look upon hearing this.
About a kilometer to the east, they saw a large group of people wading across the river.
It was a shallow area, with water only up to waist-deep.
From a distance, at least two or three thousand people were wading through the water, a dense crowd.
They bypassed the main blockade line.
"Take men and stop them!" Miguel roared at his deputy without hesitation.
Upon hearing his words, the deputy did not hesitate and quickly gathered his men, driving three pickup trucks to turn around and head east.
But by then, it was clearly too late.
Before they even got close to the shore, the first group of people wading through the water had already reached the south bank and were frantically climbing up the riverbank.
At this moment, men, women, the elderly, and children alike were all soaking wet, desperately climbing upwards.
By the time the deputy arrived, over a hundred people had already reached the shore.
"Go back! All of you, go back!"
The drug lord in the pickup truck was firing his gun into the air.
But nobody paid any attention.
These people only had one word in their eyes: survival.
A soaking wet man rushed toward the nearest pickup truck and tried to climb into the bed.
The drug lord in the truck bed smashed a gun butt into his face, knocking him to the ground.
But then another five or six people immediately surged up behind them.
In an instant, the already tense situation spiraled completely out of control.
At the same time, calls from various border crossings also came through their vehicle radios.
"The Tijuana section has been breached! A massive influx of people is underway!"
"The Nogales section is in trouble! They rammed the roadblocks with trucks!"
"Laredo, they...they have weapons! There are American soldiers mixed in with them!"
Miguel gripped the walkie-talkie so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Just then, Carlos, a bigwig in the league, broadcast a message on the radio.
"Stop refugees from crossing the border at all costs."
Upon hearing the announcement, everyone, from Miguel in the car to the drug dealers in the other vehicles, was stunned.
After a moment, Miguel seemed to have made a decision, then picked up the walkie-talkie and notified his convoy.
"All personnel, change target of firing position."
He paused briefly, then continued, "Fire. Shoot them down, eliminate any potential threats."
After saying that, Miguel put down the walkie-talkie and closed his heavy eyes.
At the same time, gunshots rang out outside the car, instantly echoing throughout the entire banks of the Rio Grande.
This time, the gunmen's shooting was no longer a warning.
Instead, they fired directly and without hesitation at the fleeing Americans.
In an instant, the heavy machine gun loaded in the back of the pickup truck began to spin rapidly, its ammunition belts spinning, and bullets swept across the densely packed figures on the river surface.
Amidst a hail of bullets, screams erupted from the north bank.
There were cries, curses, and wails...
But at this moment, all these sounds were drowned out by the hail of bullets.
In less than two minutes, hundreds of refugees fell, the riverbanks turned red, and the river water changed color.
Miguel sat in the back of the pickup truck, watching everything unfold before him. He couldn't help but take off his cowboy hat and wipe his face with the back of his hand.
His hands were shaking.
He never expected things to turn out this way.
The subordinate standing nearby, seeing the horrific scene outside, gradually turned pale as well.
He couldn't help but look at Miguel:
"Boss... these are all civilians..."
"Shut up."
Miguel's voice was somewhat heavy, yet it carried a hint of decisiveness.
"If we let an infected person in, it will be our civilians who die."
He may be a bastard, a drug dealer, but he is an utterly wicked person...
But one thing he was very clear about was that if he softened his stance now, his brothers and his family might be the ones to suffer next...
Feeling incredibly heavy-hearted, he could only put his cowboy hat back on and pull the brim down to cover his eyes, preventing himself from looking at the scene outside the car.
……
"Boss, our intelligence network just received two important messages."
In Raccoon City, Mark found Lin Fan, who had just woken up.
"What news?"
"The first one is about the US nuclear power plant."
According to reports, a nuclear leak has occurred at the Bradwood nuclear power plant in Illinois.
Our reconnaissance drone thermal imaging showed that the nuclear power plant's containment vessel may have ruptured, and radioactive material was spreading southeastward.
Currently, radiation levels within a 30-kilometer radius are severely exceeded. The data team predicts that this area of impact will continue to expand over time.
Has it finally come to pass?
Upon hearing this news, Lin Fan showed little surprise.
This was something he had anticipated.
What he didn't expect was that it would come so quickly.
"What about the other one?"
"Armed conflict has broken out across the border between Texas and Arizona."
Mark glanced at the documents in his hand and continued,
"According to our intelligence personnel, armed men in Mexico have opened fire on the refugees. The exact number of casualties is still unclear, and the drones we dispatched have not yet transmitted detailed data."
But in my estimation, the situation along the Rio Grande... is definitely not much better.
Is it a border conflict?
Lin Fan remained silent.
He leaned back in his chair and remained silent for about ten seconds.
"mark."
"exist."
"What do you think Xia Yanshan and his gang are feeling right now?"
Mark thought for a moment: "It must be devastating."
Lin Fan nodded.
"Give them two days. After two days, if they don't contact me..."
He picked up a pen and drew a circle around Cheyenne Mountain on the map.
"That means they really don't want to live anymore."
However, just as he finished speaking, the communication panel started flashing again.
Mark glanced down at the source of the signal, then looked up at Lin Fan.
"Boss, Cheyenne Mountain's signal."
"I thought these guys could hold out a bit, but it seems I overestimated them..."
Lin Fan's lips curled into a cold smile, and then he said,
"No rush, let them wait for now."
"Huh? Leave it to air dry?"
"right."
Lin Fan didn't explain much, speaking casually.
"There's a rule in business... people who are too eager to answer the phone don't get good prices."
mark:……
Upon hearing Lin Fan's answer, Mark was completely speechless.
He glanced at the still-flashing communication panel and couldn't help but feel sorry for those people.
Those people must be getting impatient by now, right?