1049 You Are Our Power, Our Ligh (1/2)
With the night fully in place, the dark had settled across the town like a blanket.
Without the full moon, the lone stars could only shine sparsely.
Right now, most people had only just finished their dinner and were watching boring soap dramas or variety shows on television, or browsing through their phones.
Vladimir stood on high ground, watching the village not too far away.
A street light by the border of the village was the first to go off.
Was it just a coincidence?
In this day and age, even unknown villages like these rarely had power outages, unless it was a season for high power usage, like summer. But it was barely May, and there was no need for air conditioning.
Besides, all these streetlights were solar powered. Even if the main circuit was interrupted, these streetlights shouldn't have been affected.
Then another one went out.
Just like someone had flipped a switch, the streetlights and house lights started to go out one by one, and the darkness swallowed up the village, starting from the corner.
But the people had phones in their hands, and even with a power cut, they wouldn't be plunged into complete darkness.
The people roamed around with their phones in the dark, complaining about the sudden power cut.
The kids were glad, because without light they wouldn't have to do their homework. But seeing their mothers light candles, the glee on their faces quickly dimmed and instead became dismay.
Vladimir calmly watched everything as it happened, watching as the darkness fell over the whole village like dominoes.
”Picking up the steel roads, plucking out electricity poles, raiding the cruises in the middle of the sea! Even the great America is afraid, England, France, Russia, and Germany, crying constantly…”
He hummed a riddle from god knew how many years ago, pleased with the executive ability of the strays.
Electricity was the base of modern society.
Without electricity, human society would be as easy to tear apart as paper.
The first day, it would be alright. Some people might even be glad.
The third day, people would start to complain, but they could still bear with it.
The first week…
The first month…
With the darkness as their shield, the huge group of strays retreated from the villages after their successful attack.
Some of the families in the countryside had prepared their own generators in order to cope with the high usage during busy periods. Not long later, the roar of the generators rang sparsely, bringing light back into the world. But these bits of light couldn't compare to the vast darkness.
People gradually left their hope, torchlights, and flashlights in their hands as they roamed, calling those that knew electrical engineering to check on and repair the circuits. They would find some silly malfunctions in those places, like a stinky pile of cat p*ss, or a dead rat.
They would fix those malfunctions quickly and bring light back to the village.
But this was just a small experiment to observe the humans' reactions during the short break in electricity. And, predictably, humans were so fragile and helpless in the dark.
As for attacking the strays and vicious dogs, this was just a precursor to their experiment, removing any form of possible variable.
The strays gathered back at the high grounds. They'd suffered different degrees of injuries, some of them needing the help of their buddies in order to stand and move around, but they were all extremely excited from the win. They had just taught a huge lesson to the vicious dogs that had used to terrorize and harm them, making sure that the dogs would tuck their tails in fear the next time they saw the strays.
”Comrades, you have worked hard!” Vladimir announced, a paw raised high. ”Let us adjourn for the day and go back to rest well and tend to our injuries, as a bigger challenge faces us in the future! Remember, we will definitely win the final victory, because death will not befall a believer of the Meow Meow Doctrine!”
The group hollered excitedly, not calming down for a long time. Finally they went back to their own territories.
Not too long later, the plot of land had gone back to the peace it once had.
Several of the guard cats wanted to send Vladimir back, but had met with its rejection. It didn't need their protection, and…it still had some unfinished business.
Some time later, Vladimir was again left alone on the high ground…seemingly.
It didn't leave, and it kept its eye on the village not too far away. The electricity had been restored to most of the village, except the streetlights, since they were too high up. Most of the families had returned to the light.
The people weren't alarmed by the sudden break in electricity, and continued to laze on their beds or sofas, watching television or playing on their phones.
”Stop hiding. Come out.” Vladimir spoke without even turning his head.
It was quiet up there, the only sounds those of rustling grass and insects.
Was it talking to itself, or to the air?
”Meow! Galaxy was right, Vladimir is really good at hide-and-seek!”
A black and white cat slowly walked out of the tall grass.
Vladimir turned over, staring at Galaxy as he asked, ”Are you here to stop me?”
The flame still burned in its eyes, green with a mix of gold, the burning desire gathering within its small frame.
Due to the worship from all the strays, he felt his own power growing—growing so much that it had almost reached its peak!
”We are justice!” it insisted. ”No one can stop justice!”
In contrast to Vladimir looking like it was about to face a huge monster, Galaxy was sitting on the floor casually, swatting at a mosquito that had landed on its nose with a paw.
”Meow! Galaxy's here to play hide-and-seek!” Galaxy shook its head then, denying its guess. ”But there are so many mosquitoes here, it's not fun to play here. Let's go home.”
Vladimir was confused. Galaxy definitely didn't seem to be here to stop it, but certainly it was not here just to play hide-and-seek.
It didn't know when Galaxy had arrived here, but it had noticed that there was something or someone observing it, just like it had observed Zhang Zian on the ground. Back then, just by observing his actions and words, it had noticed that there was something else following them that it couldn't see.
Vladimir was confident in its observation skills, or it wouldn't have been able to command a whole army and gain victory in a battle so far away just by using a crude map drawn with its claws.
If Galaxy really was here to stop it, then this would definitely be a tough war to win, so it had quickly ended the pep talk with the strays and gotten them to leave first just in case things got out of hand.
Even though the other seemed strong, it was still confident that it would win, because death did not befall a believer of the Meow Meow Doctrine!
It had already lost all hope towards humankind because most of them were only silent bystanders.
Galaxy turned around without any reservations, walking towards the slope before turning back again. ”Meow! Vladimir, are you not going home?”
”Home?” Vladimir was stunned and immediately followed. ”For justice, the world is my home!”
Galaxy looked up at the starry sky. ”Meow! Galaxy likes to be free and unrestrained too, but it's nice to have a place to go back to after you're tired from running around.”
Vladimir was silent.
Galaxy's eyes turned down and landed on its face. ”Meow! Maybe after a few days, you will change your mind.”
Vladimir didn't think too much of that. It didn't think it would change its mind, and neither would humans change.
”Besides, Vladimir, did you not see? You and your strays will soon meet an even greater challenge, and not one from the humans.” Galaxy's gaze went past Vladimir, staring at a certain spot very far from him, its gray eyes reflecting countless stars.