Chapter 111: Chapter 110, The Storm
Osenia was already soaked through.
She had been running in the storm for a long time. Even though she wore a raincoat, her slender figure seemed as if the wind could blow her away at any moment amidst the heavy rain and strong winds.
More than once, her subordinates had hoped she would return inside the building, but she had refused them all.
“You’d do better to do something useful than waste time persuading me,” she said.
And that was what she did.
In theory, once all the work arrangements at the food distribution points were in place and the attack on the food convoy had been resolved, there should be no significant problems as long as the plan was executed step by step.
At most, they had to worry about public security.
Over the past few days due to war and unrest, many of the residents of the outer city of Revival City had fallen into starvation.
While they weren’t called rabble or rioters, one couldn’t expect these people, most of whom had experience wandering the wastelands, to be rule-abiding. Many of them had blood on their hands.
It was all too common for public security issues to arise during the long wait to receive food.
She had anticipated these issues and had established some rules. The armed soldiers would sternly warn those in line to behave. Those who didn’t would not only face suppression from the soldiers but would also lose their qualification to receive food.
Coupled with her tireless propaganda that there was an adequate supply of food, the likelihood of disputes and security problems was greatly reduced.
In the beginning, everything did indeed go as she had planned.
That is until the storm hit.
When the storm first arrived, Osenia sensed trouble.
Waiting in line in the wind and rain was a test for the people’s health, a test for their mood, and a test for her subordinates and the soldiers maintaining order.
When would it be a good time for wind and rain? Why did it have to be now!
There was no choice but to grit their teeth and carry on.
The storm caused a great deal of chaos, significantly increased her subordinates’ workload, and led to numerous emergencies that were reported to her, one after another, requiring her to come up with solutions or even handle them personally.
Many things couldn’t be resolved just by sitting in an office, listening to reports, and making decisions.
She ran through the rain among the various food distribution points, confronting one issue after another on the front lines.
Busy, tired, and challenging, but her will was resolute.
This was the first and most crucial day of building a bridge of trust between the governor and the people of Revival City. She had to do her best in her role.
No storm could hinder her determination to see everything through smoothly.
That was until the two-hour evacuation order was relayed to her.
It left her feeling disillusioned.
She had never complained about the hard work, but this news nearly made her collapse.
She couldn’t help but feel lost.
What was the point of the previous efforts, including the sacrifice of those soldiers guarding the transport routes?
She stood there, staring blankly at the people queuing in the storm.
There were parents with young children, couples hunched over, creating a small shelter for their child against the wind and rain, but the little boy, who looked to be only four or five years old, was still inevitably drenched;
There was a limping man who had come alone; he slipped while walking forward, fell into the water that was deep enough to submerge his feet, and couldn’t get up for a long time, relying on the help of others to stand again;
Everyone in the storm seemed so hard-pressed, so helpless.
Were they to abandon them after only two hours’ time?
Osenia felt she couldn’t do it.
But moments later, she told herself in her heart:
“You must do it.”
She couldn’t see the whole picture, but she wasn’t a fool. She could guess that the pressing reason behind the evacuation had to be this storm that kept getting worse. It had even occurred to her that the storm could potentially kill everyone.
If there were a choice, His Excellency the Governor certainly wouldn’t make such a decision, but it was the lack of choice that drove him to it.
So what she needed to do was to ensure as many people as possible could survive.
This held the same meaning as the earlier food distribution, only it was now much more difficult.
Whether it was the specific tasks that needed to be done or the determination that had to be made.
She wiped the rain off her face, but it was in vain, as more cold rain slapped against her skin.
She gestured for her subordinate to come over, and yelled into their ear over the sound of the wind and rain, “Notify all food distribution points! Instruct each one to keep a line clear, arrange for everyone who has received food to gather outside the city!”
“Tell them the storm is a conspiracy by the Cult! Leaving the city is for their safety!”
“Use all the megaphones, put them all to work!”
“Select volunteers from those who have received food, have them quickly inform everyone they know! Leave the city! Leave some reliable vagrants to help us maintain order!”
“You go now and rally a squad of soldiers, set up a temporary camp outside the city, find a place without wind and rain! Get all the drivable vehicles moving, take the food from the gathering point over there!”
After that, she connected with Lambert’s signal, instructing him to move as much of the inner city’s food as possible to the temporary camp outside.
Having done all this, she heard a rumbling sound.
At first, she thought it was thunder, but then the ground started to tremble, and it didn’t seem like thunder at all.
Stepping outside, she saw seven orange glows from around the city, streaking across the sky and crashing to the ground.
The sounds like muffled thunder came again.
A little while later, another seven orange glows fell from the sky.
Was this orbital bombardment?
What issue had escalated to the point of needing an orbital bombardment?
Osenia shivered.
Although it was only at the edges of the city, about ten to twenty kilometers away from the center, such terrible power meant that if there were people or homes in those areas, they would likely…
She shook her head; those things weren’t for her to worry about right now.
The matter at hand was more important.
The food distribution point here was already in chaos.
The order to evacuate had been given.
Osenia knew clearly that the forces under her control couldn’t guarantee orderly evacuation under such a storm.
She also wanted to organize the poor into orderly groups, each accompanied by at least a squad of soldiers to maintain order and guide them to the evacuation points outside the city.
But that was completely unfeasible.
Given time and a stable environment, she might have managed, but now, arranging for as many people as possible to leave the city in two hours amid the storm was too difficult.
The noise of the wind and the rain, mixed with the thunder, was so loud that even if she shouted at the top of her voice, it would not carry far.
If the goal was to evacuate as many people as possible, then she’d rather sacrifice some order, even if it meant more chaos, as long as she could spread the message further and wider.
Let the locals figure out their own way to get out; they might be faster than trying to organize personnel herself.
Her top priority was to ensure the evacuation routes stayed open, preventing a large number of people from getting stuck on the roads out of the city, culminating in nobody being able to leave; she also needed to set up points outside the city to ensure supplies, to avoid the scenario where lots of people leave the city only to die of starvation in the wilderness instead of the storm.
There was a list of tasks to do, each critical, yet hindered by environmental and logistical difficulties; time was of the essence, two hours were not enough to do much, even if one fought tooth and nail.
But the saying still stood, one must fight with all one’s might.