Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

She thought the allocation process would begin immediately.

According to what was just announced over the loudspeaker, each soldier should lead fifty men, be randomly assigned to hilltops, and then set off.

She was already prepared to be called by name and stand in a queue.

It turned out that this was not the case.

She saw that the curtains of the military tents in the center of the camp were being pulled open from the inside by soldiers.

Previously, those tents were all pulled up tightly, so you couldn't see what was inside.

Now the curtain has been lifted and secured to both sides with ropes, exposing the scene inside to everyone's view.

Light shone from inside the tent, and she squinted to look inside. The first thing she saw was a folding table, military green, with aluminum alloy legs and a dark green velvet tabletop.

A laptop and a black rectangular device were neatly arranged on the table.

There were more than one laptop; there were two or three in each tent. The screens were lit up with a blue-white light, displaying some tables and text that she couldn't quite make out.

Someone was sitting in front of a computer, dressed in military uniform, their fingers tapping on the keyboard, as if they were inputting some data.

She had never seen those black, rectangular devices before. They were about the size of a thick book, and the casings appeared to be plastic. There were some buttons and a small LCD screen on the surface.

The device is connected to a cable, with the other end of the cable connected to a laptop.

Soldiers were testing them, heads down, focused on pressing the buttons on them, green numbers flashing on the LCD screen.

She stood in the crowd, craning her neck to look for a long time, but still couldn't figure out what those devices were for.

She understands laptops; recording information, assigning lists, and managing data all require computers.

But what about those black boxes? They didn't look like printers, scanners, or any of the common equipment she had ever seen.

Someone whispered behind her:

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before."

"Could it be some kind of test?"

No one can answer.

Soon, the soldiers had all those willing to follow orders line up in four long rows.

A soldier carrying a megaphone walked past the tent, his voice emanating from the megaphone with an undeniable sense of command:

"Those who are willing to accept the assignment, please line up here in four neat rows. Do not push or cut in line. Those who are not willing, please leave on your own and do not disrupt the order."

The crowd began to move.

Some people squeezed out of the crowd and walked towards the line.

Some people stood still, their faces showing hesitation.

Some people turned and left, carrying bags and bags, heading towards the foot of the mountain without looking back.

Xu Xiaoyan was among the first to join the team.

Without much hesitation, she chose a line and stood in the middle towards the back, with about twenty people in front of her and others following behind.

The queue gradually grew longer, from a short section into a long, winding dragon that stretched out of sight in the rain.

No one cut in line, no one scrambled, and two rows of soldiers stood on either side of the line, silently maintaining order.

The people in front moved forward little by little, and with each person who entered, the line shortened.

Xu Xiaoyan was in the middle of the line and couldn't see the specific operations inside the tent.

All you could see was people walking into the tent one by one, and then coming out a while later, each with a slip of paper in their hand.

Then, they were led in another direction by soldiers standing at the tent exit.

Four tents were pitched side by side in the center of the camp, with a soldier standing at the entrance of each tent to control the number and pace of people entering.

Xu Xiaoyan slowly moved from the back of the line to the middle, and then from the middle to the front.

She could hear sounds coming from inside the tent: the sound of keyboards being typed, voices, and the faint "beeping" sound from the black device.

The sound was faint, barely audible amidst the noise of the crowd.

It was the person in front of her turn.

It was a middle-aged man carrying a worn-out woven bag.

He hesitated a bit when he went in, and came out clutching a piece of paper, looking bewildered, as the soldier led him to the left.

Then it was Xu Xiaoyan's turn. She stepped into the tent, which was larger than she had imagined. The lights were bright, and two people in military uniforms, a man and a woman, were sitting behind a folding table.

The man had a laptop in front of him, while the woman had a black rectangular device in front of her.

There was a soldier standing next to him, holding a notebook, as if he was checking something.

"Put the backpack on the ground," the female soldier said without looking up, pressing a few buttons on the black device.

Xu Xiaoyan placed her backpack at her feet, stood there, and waited for the next instructions.

The male soldier looked up at her, his gaze lingered on her face for a second, and then returned to the computer screen.

"Name?" he asked, and Xu Xiaoyan gave her name.

The male soldier tapped a few times on the keyboard, and something popped up on the screen. He glanced at it and nodded.

The female soldier picked up a square, card reader-like object from the table and handed it to Xu Xiaoyan. "Put your hand here, your right hand."

Xu Xiaoyan was taken aback for a moment, but still did as she was told.

She placed her palm on the device, her hand pressed against the cool metal panel.

The device emitted a short "beep" sound, and a green light lit up on the panel.

She felt something brush against her palm; it wasn't a tactile sensation, but rather an indescribable, static-like, slightly tingling feeling.

Then the light went out, and a "beep" sounded again, followed by a line of green numbers appearing on the LCD screen.

The female soldier glanced at the screen, nodded, took out a small piece of paper from the drawer of the table, wrote a few words on it, and handed it to Xu Xiaoyan.

"Take this, go outside and turn left, wait at the foot of the mountain over there, don't exchange it with anyone else."

Xu Xiaoyan took the note, glanced at it, and saw that the folded piece of paper was less than the size of her palm, white, and had a set of numbers and a letter written on it with a ballpoint pen, like some kind of code.

She folded it neatly as instructed by the female soldier and held it in her hand.

She turned and walked out of the tent. The soldier outside glanced at the note in her hand and pointed to the left. "Go that way and wait at the foot of that mountain."

Xu Xiaoyan turned around and followed the others who were also clutching slips of paper to the left.

The team ahead led her to an open, flat area where she could see the main camp in the distance, as well as the blurry silhouettes of several surrounding mountains.

Many people had already arrived and were scattered on the slope in twos and threes. Some were standing, some were squatting, and some were sitting on their backpacks, all holding the same white paper strip in their hands.

No one spoke, no one made a fuss; a silent tension permeated the entire hillside.

Xu Xiaoyan found a tree, put down her backpack, and sat down leaning against it.