Invasion of America

Chapter 98 Child’s Play
After Washington, D.C. was placed under lockdown for 24 hours, an eerie silence fell over the nation's capital.

The streets were deserted, with only soldiers on duty standing at the intersections. Ordinary people could only stay at home and pray silently.

There were only a handful of vehicles running back and forth, most of which were ambulances transporting patients or trucks carrying daily necessities.

The news that the Vice President had officially assumed the office of Acting President was broadcast across the country in an emergency broadcast.

At that moment, a huge American flag appeared on the TV screen, and he stood under the flag and delivered a speech to every citizen.

"Fellow citizens of the United States, it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that a deadly virus, deliberately released by hostile foreign forces, is threatening our nation.

Congress has authorized me to take all necessary measures to protect our society and economy from further devastation.

I have ordered the mobilization of state troops and the National Guard to immediately implement a nationwide lockdown until this outbreak is over."

These words were like a bombshell, instantly detonating public opinion across the country and even the world.

On the city streets, people gathered in bars, cafes and street corners, staring at their TV screens, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.

On social media, angry posts flooded in: "Lockdown? For what?", "This is a conspiracy!", "Are the country people crazy?"

Civilians flocked to supermarkets to buy goods, merchants worried that goods would be stranded at ports, scholars questioned the authenticity of the data, and politicians were urgently discussing countermeasures behind the scenes.

Panic spread like wildfire, and sporadic protest groups began to appear on the streets, holding signs and shouting slogans, their voices drifting in the cold wind.

Just when everyone was furious and the situation was almost out of control, the vice president's second order came like a bolt from the blue.

"To curb the spread of rumors and negativity, internet services will be cut off across the country for 12 hours.

We will only retain basic telephone communications and television broadcasts, and all other network services will be suspended except for the necessary flow of information."

Not long after, Quanmi's network signal suddenly disappeared - the signal icon on the mobile phone screen turned gray, and the computer displayed "Unable to connect".

The hustle and bustle of online social networking came to an abrupt end, leaving only deathly silence.

Compared to the "hairy" president who made his fortune in real estate, the vice president from the countryside was younger, more energetic, rougher, and tougher. He did make the right move.

But after the Internet was disconnected, people in the city were stunned, looking down at their suddenly silent mobile phones, as if they had lost some vital signs.

In a cafe, a young man angrily threw his laptop to the floor. In an office, white-collar workers in suits stared blankly at their monitors, at a loss as to what to do.

The whole rice seemed to have been muted, with anger and fear pressed hard in everyone's chest, but with nowhere to vent.

Under the iron fist of the blockade, high-rise buildings are like silent monsters, and military trucks rumble into the streets.

The National Guard soldiers wore masks and even protective suits, held rifles, and scanned the surroundings vigilantly.

The once bustling city suddenly emptied out, the ringing of phones the only sound piercing the silence. Everyone's internet addiction was cured at that moment.
-
When the Vice President announced that hostile foreign forces had spread the virus, he left that blank, deliberately vague—he did not specify who was behind it.

The job of "throwing mud" was left to the Department of Homeland Security.

At this moment, the streets of Washington, D.C. are filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant.

The soldiers, wearing heavy protective clothing and holding sprayers, moved through the fog like a group of silent ghosts.

As the lockdown entered its second day, the once bustling U.S. capital was now left with only the low hum of engines and the occasional thud of military boots.

Most of the vehicles on the road now are ambulances and supply trucks.

Monica sat in the back seat of a black SUV. Outside the window, soldiers in chemical protective suits waved for the car to stop.

Jaeger, who was driving, rolled down his window and handed over an emergency pass.

The soldier took the ID, scanned it with the barcode reader in his hand to confirm its authenticity, and then took a few steps back.

When the car window was raised again, several other soldiers sprayed out a white mist from their sprayers, covering the entire car.

Jaeger, who was driving, stepped on the accelerator and slowly drove into Washington DC, which was blocked by barbed wire and troops.

The highway that was once jammed with traffic is now empty. There are a few abandoned cars leaning on the side of the road with their doors wide open, like empty shells hastily abandoned by their owners.

People eventually found a place to stay in this chaos - hotels and inns in the Special Administrative Region became the last safe haven.

Rumor has it that some guest rooms were crammed with double or even triple the number of people, so people had to sleep on the floor when there weren't enough beds, and even the corridors were covered with makeshift blankets.

Monica glanced at the ubiquitous surveillance cameras on the roadside, gritted her teeth, and cursed under her breath, "Idiot."

Jaeger, who was driving, held the steering wheel without looking away, as if he didn't hear the complaints of the "rich lady" in the back seat.

The dark-skinned man in the passenger seat had no such patience. He slowly turned his head, his eyes as cold as hockey pucks staring at Monica, and asked in a muffled voice, "Who are you calling an idiot?"

Monica's anger was instantly ignited, and she retorted without showing any weakness: "You pig, am I talking to you?"

The dark-skinned burly man narrowed his eyes, his mouth twitching slightly as he whispered, "I feel like you're scolding me. You look down on me, but I'm better than you."

Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, Jaeger coughed heavily, interrupting the tense confrontation.

The US military's "X" project in poor areas transformed a group of uneducated and untouchable people into "monsters."

These "monsters" have amazing combat power, but their brains can't keep up. If you say something wrong, they will flip the table on the spot.

Logically, this emotionally unstable test subject should be destroyed after the test.

But Jaeger had no choice - the last time six "cleaners" surrounded Zhou Qingfeng, he was the one who cleaned up the scene.

Ordinary people are no match for Zhou Qingfeng, so Diaz can only ask the military for this "monster", hoping that he can fight the target to a draw.

Monica glared at the dark-skinned burly man fiercely, gritted her teeth and swallowed her anger, but the frustration in her heart was boiling like a volcano.

She leaned back in her chair, old Mrs. Grey's confession before her death coming to mind.

The most crucial part is the line "he drove the pickup truck south." Based on the timeline, Zhou Qingfeng must have been trapped in Washington, D.C. Surveillance footage along the way also confirmed this.

However, after the pickup truck entered the District, the National Guard began to close the road, and the road was in chaos.

The surveillance footage showed that Zhou Qingfeng's pickup truck suddenly turned around in front of the blockade line, drove in the opposite direction for a while, drove off the shoulder of the road, turned around again, and then disappeared.

Monica found Zhou Qingfeng's abandoned pickup truck on the highway. Apparently, the guy was extremely cautious and had changed cars along the way.

After all, he had plenty of money, and waving cash could accomplish many things. The difficulty of finding him suddenly increased.

The good news is that he is definitely still trapped in Washington, D.C.; the bad news is that there are now hundreds of thousands of people crowded in D.C., and he may be hiding in the streets, hotels, and even the sewers.

God knows where he is hiding like a mouse?
-
While Americans elsewhere still believed the virus was a lie, the locked-down Washington, D.C., and its surrounding areas were experiencing immense panic. The Arlington neighborhood was unsettlingly quiet, with all residents staying home and the streets seemingly empty even in broad daylight.

At this moment, a sudden knock on the door broke the silence of Thomas's house.

Lucy opened the door, her eyes cold and alert. Standing outside was a middle-aged man, his hand still hanging in the air as he knocked.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

The man didn't answer immediately, but instead glanced into the house.

He looked over Lucy's shoulder and saw old man Hammer sitting on the sofa in the living room and the news on TV.

"I'm the neighbor who lives across the street. I saw someone was in this house, so I came over to check it out." The man paused. "It looks like you're not the owner of the house, are you? Do you have authorization to move in?"

"No." Lucy answered bluntly, staring at the man coldly, as if assessing how much trouble he could cause.

The man chuckled dryly and pointed inside the house: "This house... is actually a crime scene. Did you know that? It happened a few days ago."

"We saw it," Lucy interrupted. There were still dark red stains on the living room wall behind her, and dark spots on the back of the sofa. "The blood is still there. No one has cleaned it up."

“So you guys…” The man frowned, as if he wanted to say something, but swallowed it back.

"We have nowhere else to go, so we chose this empty house to stay in." Lucy looked directly at him. "Do you have any better constructive suggestions? Like letting us stay at your house?"

The man waved his hands repeatedly. "Oh... No! No! I don't have any objections! I just... came here out of my obligation as a neighbor. Now I completely understand!"

He smiled awkwardly, his feet unconsciously taking a few steps back, then turned around and ran back to the house across the street.

As soon as he entered the house, the man shouted to his wife, "Someone has indeed moved in across the street! A young girl and an old man. There was also a young man, but I didn't see him.

They must have been locked in the community and couldn't leave, so they occupied Thomas' house. I said they were living in a haunted house, but they obviously had no choice.

The man's wife looked worried and shook her head at her husband's inquiries. "The virus is spreading now, so don't go out and meet other people. It would be bad if you spread the virus to our family."

Didn’t you notice that the community security personnel didn’t show up, let alone take care of things? They all know that it’s not appropriate to go around knocking on doors now.”

Alas. The man sighed deeply and nodded to admit that his wife's point of view was correct.
-
The iron curtain of control has been drawn over Washington, DC for three full days.

The streets of the community were deserted, and the roadside trash cans were filled with discarded empty cans and packaging bags, and even the stray cats were too lazy to look through them.

On the first day of the lockdown, there was still some noise in the community, with neighbors visiting each other and exchanging rumors about the virus.

The next day, the atmosphere began to become depressing. People retreated into their houses, closed their windows, and the ringing of the telephone became the only noise.

By the third day, tension had spread like a plague. With internet communications cut off, the distribution of supplies that relied on the internet was completely paralyzed.

Supermarket shelves were emptied long before the lockdown, and delivery drivers were afraid to even approach the border of Washington, D.C., after hearing rumors of the virus.

The only force the government could mobilize was the army, but those soldiers in camouflage uniforms were better at patrolling with guns than delivering bread and milk door to door.

When the supply trucks rolled into the neighborhood, the usually elegant and composed middle-class crowd went berserk like the paupers of the slums.

The supplies in the boxes were scattered all over the place, some milk was spilled on the ground, and some bread was crushed to pieces. The scene was as chaotic as a refugee camp in a war.

In three days, not to mention the more than 700,000 people in Washington, D.C., all major cities in the United States were in an uproar.

The sick cannot get medical treatment, the healthy people lack food and clothing, and "zero-yuan shopping" is happening one after another.

Logically speaking, the officials should have thought of a solution at this time, but even more outrageous news came on TV.

A well-dressed congressman made a bold statement on the show, “The government should not impose lockdowns, but should completely relax the restrictions!

Citizens shouldn't blame or complain. The government doesn't owe anyone anything. Rescue? That's something only the "University of Tokyo" would do.

The taxes you pay determine the services you can enjoy. Without money, there will be no electricity, no water, and no security. Don't be part of the problem, but be the one who solves it.

Lockdowns are causing too much damage to the economy. Let natural selection decide our fate – the strong survive and the weak are eliminated.”

The light from the TV screen reflected on Lucy's face, and her expression changed from shock to anger, and finally she turned off the TV in annoyance.

Old man Hammer's worry was etched in the deep wrinkles on his forehead, "This kind of statement is testing public opinion.

The lockdown has only been in place for three days, and the White House is probably overwhelmed. The price is too high, and there must be a lot of people putting pressure on the Vice President.

The United States has long ceased to be a production-oriented country. It relies on finance and consumption for support. Once the entire region comes to a standstill, society will collapse in minutes.

As expected, on the fourth day, the Governor of Texas took the lead and refused to continue to enforce the "White House" lockdown order.

"We need to restore logistics and networks, and the economy must restart. Every day of stagnation kills more people than the virus."

Soon after, several West Coast states followed suit, with spokespersons confidently stating: "The economy is our lifeline, and lockdowns are chronic suicide."

By the fifth day, the East Coast could no longer hold on.

The mayor of New York City threw up his hands helplessly at a press conference: "As an international city, population mobility is the guarantee of wealth. Locking down is digging your own grave."

The irony is that those high-ranking officials fear both an economic collapse and being infected by the virus themselves. Consequently, the only areas still gritting their teeth and insisting on a lockdown are Washington, D.C., and its surrounding areas.

At dusk on the fifth day, there was another knock on the door of Thomas' villa.

Lucy frowned and opened the door. The neighbor across the street stood outside and asked anxiously, "Do you have any food left? Can you sell us some? I'm willing to pay double the price."

He looked past Lucy and tried to look inside the house, as if looking for a glimmer of hope. If he hadn't known there was a young man in the house, he would have rushed in to rob.

Lucy no longer laughed at Zhou Qingfeng's "making a fuss" a few days ago - the flour, sugar and butter that she had spent thousands of dollars to stockpile before the lockdown have now become the biggest trump card for her and her grandfather to survive.

Facing her neighbor's plea, she shook her head. "Sorry, we're short of food too. The refrigerator is almost empty. Maybe we should ask for food from the troops blocking the road."

The neighbor gave a wry laugh. "I already asked. The soldiers just said they would send supplies as soon as possible."

But it wasn’t delivered the day before yesterday, and it wasn’t delivered yesterday.

I went there again today, and they didn't even bother to talk, just told me to wait. If this continues, my family won't even know what to eat tonight."

Lucy remained indifferent, but offered a suggestion, "Maybe you could go watch over the soldiers enforcing the lockdown. When they eat, ask for food."

The neighbor sighed and shook his head, then turned and left, his back hunched like an old man, and he disappeared into the night with dragging steps.

(End of this chapter)