ccnovels #897 - Have you ever seen Los Angeles at 3am? (First update!)
#897 - Have you ever seen Los Angeles at 3am? (First update!)
The two black men did not walk far. Instead, they walked to the next intersection, stood on the side of the road, took out a pack of cigarettes from their pockets, lit them, and looked at the place where they had thrown the cigarette butts, smoking intermittently.
After a long while, a bright light suddenly appeared in the darkness at the place where the cigarette butt was thrown.
The infrastructure in these communities is not very good, and the street lamps are dim, making this light particularly obvious.
It was a pile of dry fallen leaves that caught fire!
Seeing the fist-sized fire, the two black men breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at each other and took a deep puff of the cigarette in their hands.
A puff of old cigarette passed through his lungs and was then exhaled forcefully.
Looking at the smoke spitting into each other's faces, the two black men chuckled and threw the cigarette butts in their hands to the side again, into the pile of dry fallen leaves.
After throwing away the cigarette butts, the two black men turned around and strode towards the next intersection. Then they stopped at the next intersection, stared at the place where they had just thrown away the cigarette butts, took out cigarettes again, lit them, and started smoking intermittently.
As the two men headed east, passing a community with eight intersections, seven or eight motorcycles were speeding on the street.
The people on the motorcycle, whether men or women, black or white, all had dreadlocks and were screaming along with the roar of the motorcycle.
Amid screams, the people on the motorcycle picked up the bottles at hand, lit them with lighters, and then threw them hard at the roadside, at the fallen leaves, at the trees, and at the uninhabited houses.
Compared with the two black men who threw cigarette butts, the bottles thrown by these people were more powerful because these bottles were filled with gasoline and were like Molotov cocktails.
The bottle broke, the gasoline in the bottle splashed, and then was instantly ignited by the flames.
Seeing the fallen leaves, trees and houses on the roadside being set on fire, the people on the motorcycles screamed again and became more excited.
The person controlling the motorcycle twisted the throttle frantically, making the motorcycle engine roar even more violently. The roar of the engine made the person on the motorcycle more excited, and then, more Molotov cocktails were thrown.
At the same time, at the Los Angeles Police Department, operator Mary sat bored next to the phone, with her right hand resting on the table and her left hand holding a nail polish brush, carefully painting her right hand.
"This red is too bright! It doesn't suit my temperament."
"This green isn't bright enough to attract attention."
"Blue... a little bit darker blue..."
"I didn't add enough pearl powder, but pearl powder is so expensive, it's so annoying!"
Today is Christmas Eve, and unfortunately for her, she has become the unlucky person on duty.
As a woman, Mary couldn't understand why the men in the police station didn't take the initiative at all on Christmas Eve. When they saw such a beautiful girl like her on duty, they didn't even offer to take her shift.
That's enough.
Those useless men.
Mary felt her heart ache when she thought that she had to go to work on Christmas Eve while those useless men could go home and enjoy Christmas Eve dinner and delicious food with their wives and children.
When her heart ached, she wanted to wash her face.
Why!
With a sigh, Mary sat up, stretched out her 60-centimeter-long legs, moved her 300-pound body, and slowly walked towards the bathroom.
She is 35 years old this year and is no longer young.
But she longed for love, the kind of love between the male and female protagonists in Titanic.
She hoped that someone would drive a Porsche, slowly stop in front of her, take the red rose from his mouth, slowly put it in front of her, and then ask in a very gentlemanly tone:
"Beautiful lady, can I have dinner with you?"
This was Mary's dream, and she knew it was a dream.
So, she has never been able to say those words out loud. Maybe today, on this Christmas Eve, she can say what she has been holding back in her heart.
Then, continue to work.
He took a deep breath, placed his right index finger on the second phone on his left, picked up the receiver and put it to his ear.
Exhaling softly again, Mary asked in the gentlest tone possible:
"Hello, this is the Los Angeles Police Department. I'm Mary, the operator on duty. How can I help you?"
The next second, a panicked male voice came from the phone:
"I'm at House 17, Starlight Fox, Hamilton Avenue. We're on fire and we need help!"
on fire.
Hearing that the call was for this reason, Mary showed a hint of disappointment on her face. She recalled the emergency plan for handling the call in her mind and replied softly:
"Dear sir, this is the Los Angeles Police Department, not the Fire Department."
"If you need to put out a fire, please contact the fire department, or contact a community firefighter."
"But before you contact the fire department, you need to find out whether you have purchased fire insurance. If you have not purchased fire insurance, I suggest you directly implement self-rescue."
"Finally, I need to remind you that the police department has no obligation to put out fires."
“I wish you a happy life!”
After saying this, without waiting for the person on the phone to speak, Mamali hung up the phone, put the receiver of this phone aside, and after keeping the line busy, she picked up the first phone on the left.
This time, there was a panicked female voice on the phone:
"We have a fire here, we need help..."
Before the woman on the phone could finish her words, Mary interrupted her:
"Dear Madam, I need to remind you that the police departments in capitalist countries have no obligation to put out fires!"
"If you have fire insurance for your home, you can contact your insurance company directly, as well as the fire department."
"When the insurance company personnel arrive at the scene, they will cooperate with the fire department. The fire department will be responsible for extinguishing the fire, and the insurance company personnel will be responsible for paying for the firefighting service."
“If you didn’t buy it, then sorry.”
"I wish you a happy life, good health and comfort."
Beep, beep—
After making this phone busy, Mary reached out again, but this time she did not answer the call. Instead, she quickly put the receiver back on the phone and hung up the call manually.
After hanging up, she picked up the phone and put it aside, leaving this phone busy as well.
In a few seconds, all five phones in front of her were busy. No matter how people outside called, they would only get a prompt that the other party was on the phone.
After doing all this, she started to paint her nails again, but this time, no one would disturb her and she could paint very carefully.
By the time she finished polishing her nails on both hands, it was already 3 o'clock in the morning.
This was the time when a person was most tired. In order to relieve her fatigue, Mary had to stand up and move around.
After walking around the office twice, my fatigue did not ease, but became even worse.
As a last resort, she walked to the window and prepared to open it to breathe in some fresh air, but the moment the blinds were opened, a strange orange light shone into the room from the window.
The next second, she saw clearly outside the window.
The window was still shrouded in darkness, but beneath the darkness was a burning red.
The billowing smoke and raging flames turned the originally quiet and peaceful Los Angeles into a hell.
The originally quiet street was now filled with people. Among the crowd, there were vehicles that could not move forward because of the crowd. The drivers frantically honked their horns, trying to disperse the crowd, but there were so many people that the drivers' horns were of no use.
Instead, it angered the people around him. They were awakened by the fire in the middle of the night and rushed out of the house in a panic, carrying nothing with them except for that thin set of clothes.
But those thin clothes could not keep out the severe cold at the end of December, so these people were particularly irritable.
Hearing the horn, people around bent down without hesitation, looking for anything to smash the car.
Bricks, sticks, leather boots...
In short, use whatever you can get as a weapon and smash it hard at the cars that are honking.
Even after the vehicle was smashed, the driver did not back down. He pulled out a gun from the back seat and shot the person who smashed the car.
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Gunshots rang out and chaos began to spread.
Looking at the messy scene outside the window, Mary took a deep breath, turned around, rushed to her workstation, grabbed her cell phone and handbag, rushed out of the police station at the speed of a 100-meter sprint, rushed to the parking lot, started the car, and rushed home quickly.
The house where she lived was not far from the police station, only about 20 minutes' drive away.
And it’s a half-hour straight road.
Fortunately, this road is not a main road and there are not many pedestrians on the road. Although there are cars, everyone is thinking about escaping and running away, so it is relatively smooth.
Mary only drove for 15 minutes on a 20-minute journey.
When the familiar street name route sign appeared in front of her, she felt like the sky was falling.
The community is on fire!
In the community, those trees that were once the most talked-about are now all engulfed in flames, fueling the fire.
The houses embraced by these lush trees were now all engulfed in flames.
The breeze blew, blowing the flames into various shapes, like buffaloes, wild dogs, and demons.
The flickering flame, with its back to the darkness, stuck out its tongue at Mary, as if mocking her folly.
At this moment, the woman, who was in her 30s and weighed over 200 pounds, completely collapsed. She fell to her knees on the ground, hurriedly took out her cell phone, and hurriedly dialed the police station.
However, the phone line was busy and I couldn't get through no matter how hard I tried.
The busy tone and the gentle reminder sound woke Mary up. She quickly hung up the phone and called the fire department.
The fire department operator answered quickly, but his words were annoying:
"Hello, welcome to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Should I address you as Mr. or Ms., or -"
The operator's voice was lively and a little playful. Judging from her voice, she must be a very beautiful woman.
However, Mary was not in the mood to appreciate the woman's voice. She took a breath of the air that had become scorched by the burning flames and cried out with sobs:
"My house is on fire and I need the fire department!"
Hearing that the house was on fire, the operator on the other end of the phone immediately became alert, and even his voice became much sharper:
"Oh? Beautiful lady, is your house on fire?"
"Can you please tell me the exact address and contact person so I can check it and contact the firefighters to the scene."
Mary quickly gave her address and phone number. At the end, she urged the firefighters to come quickly.
After urging, he didn't hang up the phone.
The operator on the other end seemed to have forgotten and did not hang up.
A few minutes passed, and amid the whistling wind and crackling of flames, there was no sound of the fire truck, and Mary became anxious.
She put the phone, which had not been hung up, to her ear and asked in a bad tone:
"Why hasn't the fire truck come yet?"
Just after the questioning, the operator's sweet voice sounded:
"Dear Miss Mary, I'm sorry, I just checked your address and contact person and found that you did not purchase fire insurance."
"And your personal financial expenditure is not enough to cover the firefighting expenses, so the fire department cannot send firefighters for you. Please understand."
"Given the current serious fire situation in Los Angeles, I suggest that you unite with your neighbors in the community to help each other, put out the fire first and then drive the fire to be put out later."
“I wish you a happy life!”
"By the way, if you need to put out a fire quickly, you can contact the insurance company now and purchase a fire insurance policy."
"That way, you can call us after your fire insurance takes effect and have our firefighters go to the scene to put out the fire!"
"While waiting for the insurance company to process your request, I personally recommend that you take some photos with your phone to record this wonderful moment."
"After all, there are not many people to see in Los Angeles at 3 a.m.."
Beep, beep—
The phone was busy when it rang. Listening to the voice coming from the phone, Mary, who was kneeling on the ground, could only raise her hands, cover her head with both hands, and force herself not to look at the burning house.
But she couldn't help but look.
Because she tried every possible means to extort the house from her husband.
But now, everything is gone.
Nothing is left!
Just then, a burst of hurried footsteps came from the side. She looked up and found that it was a group of firefighters in orange clothes.
They were pushing a cart loaded with fire hoses and hurriedly heading into the community.
Seeing the firefighters, Mary's heart was lifted up again. She ran over to the firefighters and said loudly, "I need your help. Please help me save the house."
On the other side, the leading firefighter simply glanced at her and issued a new order: "Bypass her and save others."
Two younger firefighters looked embarrassed, but before they could speak, they were interrupted by their leader:
“Think about those colleagues on 9/11!”
After these words were spoken, the young man with a difficult expression on his face suddenly became determined. He bent down and pushed the cart forward quickly.
Looking at these determined backs leaving, Mary fell to her knees again and burst into tears.
As she cried, she slowly stood up and walked towards the burning house with a staggering but extremely determined step.
He walked to the front of the house, ignored the materials on fire, pushed open the door that was still trapped in the flames, and then took another step into the room.
He raised his hand and closed the door, isolating the two worlds.