Washington D.C., the Congress Building.
This building, a symbol of the United States of America's political order, was usually shrouded in a solemn and dignified atmosphere.
Tourists spoke in hushed tones in the rotunda, congressmen walked the halls with a steady gait, and even the air itself seemed meticulously filtered, free of any trace of the mundane world.
But today, that order had collapsed.
The Congress Building had become a chaotic marketplace.
The hallways were filled with sprinting interns, bellowing chiefs of staff, and panicked representatives from lobbying groups.
Phones rang incessantly, and behind every carved wooden door, fierce arguments were raging.
Yesterday's massive blackout on the East Coast, and the subsequent failures at a Pfizer cold storage facility and a United Health data center, had landed like a depth charge, completely upending Washington's political ecosystem.
Hart Senate Office Building, Conference Room 301.
