Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Some people bring a lot and remain calm and composed; others bring less and begin to feel anxious.

Thus, this scene unfolds: at 10 p.m., the traffic comes to a standstill, the engines are turned off, and the lights are switched off.

Then, the sound of car doors opening echoed one after another.

People climbed out of the car, and some strolled around beside it, moving their stiff legs.

Some people gathered in twos and threes, talking in hushed tones and exchanging the information they had gathered.

Some people simply walked along the edges of the tunnel.

Over there, people are already setting up stalls.

Yes, setting up a stall.

Right on either side of the tunnel, against the gray cement walls, some people spread out a cloth or simply opened their trunks to start bartering.

When Xu Xiaoyan first saw it, she was stunned for a long time.

The scene was so familiar, exactly the same as the small night market in the East District, except the background had changed from neon lights to a gray tunnel, and the bustling market had become a motorcade.

But the enthusiasm for trading has not diminished at all.

She went over to take a look and found that people were exchanging all sorts of things.

A middle-aged man was squatting on the ground with two battery boxes in front of him, one large and one small. Several people had already gathered around him, all asking about the price.

"I don't sell points." The man shook his head. "What's the use of points now? Once you leave the dungeon, points are useless."

Someone asked, "What do you want to change to?"

"Meat, canned goods, compressed biscuits, anything is fine, as long as it's edible."

Another young man was holding a bag of fresh vegetables—tomatoes and cucumbers—which looked quite fresh.

He was haggling with a woman driving an SUV. She wanted to trade a box of hot braised pork for all his vegetables. The young man hesitated for a moment, but then agreed.

"I brought too much raw meat," he said, taking the box of braised pork. He opened the lid, smelled it, and a satisfied expression appeared on his face. "I couldn't cook it the whole way, it was almost rotten. It's good to be able to exchange it for cooked meat."

There was another person who was actually exchanging a power bank for water. His power bank was huge and could charge his phone many times, but now he just wanted to exchange it for a few bottles of clean water.

Xu Xiaoyan watched for a while and got a sense of the situation; everyone was checking for omissions and filling in gaps.

I brought a lot of food, but none of it was cooked. I'd like to exchange it for cooked food.

I brought a lot of water, but no fuel. I want to exchange it for gasoline.

We brought a lot of batteries, but not enough food, so we want to change our food.

I brought a lot of green vegetables, but they can't be kept fresh. I urgently want to switch to vegetables that can be stored for longer.

Everyone is exchanging their surplus for their lack.

Xu Xiaoyan followed the car in the dark tunnel for a full ten days.

There is no day, no night, only the eternal darkness of the tunnel and the ever-burning taillights of the cars.

She began to get used to this life, used to seeing the back of the car in front of her as soon as she opened her eyes, used to having people checking the situation around her while she ate, and used to hearing the snoring of nearby cars while she slept at night.

On the morning of the eleventh day, everything was as usual.

At six o'clock, the car started. She rubbed her eyes, put her sleeping bag into her storage space, took a sip of water, and then followed the car in front of her.

But as she drove, she realized something was wrong.

The convoy began to turn right.

For the first ten days, the convoy mostly drove straight, with only minor curves when it came to bends, which it would quickly straighten out of.

But this time, it was a clear right turn, and after the turn, she felt the ground begin to rise upwards.

It's uphill.

Although the slope was gentle, you could feel that the car needed to accelerate slightly to maintain its speed, and the engine sound was also a bit deeper than before.

Her heart started racing.

For the past ten days, she has been thinking about where this tunnel leads. Sometimes she even wonders if it will never lead out and will just keep going like this forever.

But now, we're going uphill, which means the path to the ground is just ahead.

She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her eyes fixed on the road ahead, wishing she could push aside all the cars in front of her and rush past them herself.

The slope became increasingly steep, and she had to keep pressing the accelerator to keep the car from rolling backward. The cars in front also slowed down, one after another, carefully climbing uphill.

And so, it took about five hours to drive.

Then, she saw the light.

It wasn't the dim emergency lights in the tunnel, but real light, white and bright, shining in from the front, growing brighter and brighter, more and more dazzling.

She squinted, trying to adjust her eyes to the light.

It's too bright.

Having spent so long in the dungeon, she had long since grown accustomed to the gloomy skies, the dim lighting, and the days when she could never see the sun.

Now, this real, external light stung her eyes, making them ache.

She squinted and continued driving forward, the road ahead growing brighter and brighter.

Then, she rushed out of the cave.

The light instantly engulfed her, and she couldn't see anything. She could only instinctively step on the brake and shield her eyes with her hand.

After a long while, I slowly opened my eyes and gradually adjusted to the blinding white light.

Then, she saw everything clearly.

She was still inside a large building.

The building was huge, with a high dome overhead and huge arched windows, but the window glass had long been broken, leaving only empty window frames.

The ground beneath my feet was rough cement, and the walls were covered with tiles, but most of them had fallen off, revealing the gray-black wall behind them.

Cars were driving out one after another, and she followed the flow of traffic, slowly driving out of the large building.

Stepping outside, she was completely stunned by what she saw.

Everywhere you look, there are only broken walls and ruins.

What was once a place of skyscrapers is now just a pile of twisted steel bars and broken cement blocks.

What was once a wide street is now buried under rubble, with only a few barely cleared paths passable.

Some buildings haven't completely collapsed yet, standing there crookedly; some buildings are only half-built; and some buildings still retain some of their original appearance.

But those remaining details only make one feel more desolate.

The ground was covered with cracks, and some cracks even had withered weeds growing in them.

This should have been a big city, but now it's shut down.

The sun was blazing overhead.

Xu Xiaoyan looked up and saw the sun shining brightly in the sky, its rays stinging her eyes.

heat.

too hot.

The heat wasn't the stuffy heat of the underground city, but rather the scorching heat of the blazing sun.

The sun shone down without any obstruction, making the car roof and steering wheel scorching hot, and causing her forehead to sweat profusely, her clothes quickly becoming soaked through.

The military vehicles ahead began to slow down, and then one after another they pulled over to the side of the road and stopped under the cover of some buildings.

The remaining ruins block some of the sunlight, casting patches of shadow.

Seeing this, the other vehicles also dispersed, each seeking a shady spot.

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