Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Xu Xiaoyan put down her binoculars and stared blankly at the two roads in front of her.

Her gaze involuntarily drifted back to the narrow dirt road clinging to the foot of the mountain.

It looks so unremarkable, even a bit desolate, but what if... what if it can follow the contours of the mountain, avoid that terrible chasm, or find a shorter detour?

Taking the back path might shorten the journey and save precious energy and time.

Once the thought arose, it occupied her mind, with the lessons learned from the past and the possible shortcuts at hand clashing fiercely in her mind.

Hesitation and weighing the options were brief. Xu Xiaoyan took a deep breath, and her gaze finally settled firmly on the dirt path clinging to the foot of the mountain.

An unknown rift valley is an insurmountable barrier, but an unknown path at least leaves a sliver of possibility for overtaking on a bend.

"As long as the direction is right, it doesn't matter if the process is a bit tortuous," she thought to herself, trying to use this reason to suppress the faint unease rising in her heart.

The path down the mountain was slightly better than expected. She carefully chose her footing, trying her best to avoid loose rocks and potholes hidden under the fallen leaves.

The dirt road in front of us was indeed uneven, full of deep ruts left by wheels and cracks from drying.

But for walking, it is still within an acceptable range; at least, it is walkable, and, as she wished, it extends roughly in a northwest direction.

Once you step onto the path, a sense of desolation even more intense than on the highway washes over you.

On one side of the path rises a towering mountain with exposed rocks and overgrown weeds; on the other side stretches vast, desolate farmland.

The ridges are still there, but there is no trace of any crops left in the fields.

There were only patches of withered, drooping, or unusually lush weeds, which frantically occupied every inch of land, some so tall they were almost above the calves.

Xu Xiaoyan could even clearly hear the sound of her own heartbeat and the faint sound of her feet stepping on the clods of earth.

She quickened her pace involuntarily, her wary eyes scanning every bend in the road ahead and the overly dense bushes along the roadside.

After walking for a full five hours, the winding dirt road stubbornly continued forward, the outline of the mountain on one side becoming blurred in the fading light of the sky.

On the other side, in the boundless wasteland, the weeds rustled continuously and monotonously in the evening breeze, a sound that sent chills down one's spine.

In the desolate, uninhabited area, let alone villages or people, even a distant bark of a dog is a luxury.

She subconsciously touched her arm.

A cold touch came from my fingertips. I didn't know if it was the chill of the night dew or the fear growing in my heart. My arms were already covered with a layer of fine goosebumps.

"Where have I ended up in this mess..." she muttered to herself, a strong sense of self-doubt welling up inside her. Was choosing this path another wrong decision?

The sky was completely dark, and the moonlight cast a pale halo, barely outlining the blurry contours of the surrounding scenery.

Xu Xiaoyan got tired and found a relatively flat large rock by the roadside to sit down.

He pulled out a packet of instant noodles and a bottle of water from his storage space, mechanically munching on the dry noodles, finding them tasteless.

The cold liquid slid down her throat as she drank, making her shiver involuntarily.

In this desolate place, far from any village or shop, I didn't even have the energy or the will to find a secluded campsite.

Danger?

Perhaps, but at this moment, extreme exhaustion and a deep-seated sense of loneliness overwhelmed the fear of unknown dangers.

She almost acted with a "what's the use" attitude, clearing out a small, relatively clean area of ​​the ground.

Then, he took out the tent from the space, his movements swift yet numb: setting it up, securing it, climbing inside, and zipping it up.

In the cramped space of the tent, only her own heavy breathing could be heard.

After traveling for so long, every cell in my body is screaming with soreness and exhaustion.

But her spirits were somewhat heightened by exhaustion and the pressure of the environment. She curled up in her sleeping bag and closed her eyes tightly.

"Even if... I could just meet a normal person to talk to..." This thought popped into my head uncontrollably.

The strangers she once avoided at all costs have now become her deepest desires. She can't help but sigh that humans are indeed social animals.

After that, she walked alone along the path for three more days.

To combat the almost maddening silence and the potential for wild thoughts, Xu Xiaoyan could only take out her phone to listen to audiobooks.

Let those fictional stories and dialogues fill your mind, squeezing out the space where fear and loneliness might take hold.

Apart from the sound of my own footsteps, breathing, and the narration of the novel flowing through my headphones, there were no other sounds in the world that belonged to "human beings".

The three boxes of pre-charged power banks in the space gave her the confidence to be so "luxurious," after all, the consumption of electricity was far less terrifying than the threat of a mental breakdown.

With the novel as her companion, the journey became less arduous. She simply moved her legs mechanically, her gaze habitually sweeping across the unchanging desolate landscape ahead.

On the afternoon of the third day, the audio was playing the key part of the story where the protagonist finally found a shelter after going through many hardships.

Without warning, a small, moving dark shadow entered her field of vision.

A human figure?!

Xu Xiaoyan suddenly stopped in her tracks. She quickly stopped the music on her phone, pulled off her earphones, and put them away.

The surroundings instantly fell silent, with only the howling of the wind. She narrowed her eyes and stared intently at the figure.

It was a young girl who looked to be around twenty years old, with a slender figure, walking unsteadily along the opposite side of the path.

If you ignore the thick layer of dust on her face, her messy, matted hair, and her clothes that are almost unrecognizable in their original color and torn in many places, she should be a very pretty girl.

Just as a feeling of "finally meeting someone like me" was about to well up inside him, it was abruptly suppressed by the girl's unusual state.

The girl saw her too, and her steps suddenly stopped. The next second, before Xu Xiaoyan could make any response or even utter a single syllable, she stopped abruptly.

The girl was like a frightened rabbit, nervously hugging herself tightly with her arms, clutching her already tattered clothes, and trembling violently.

"Don't touch me! Don't touch me—!" The shrill and piercing cry tore through the silence of the wilderness, carrying a fear and despair on the verge of collapse, stabbing painfully into one's eardrums.

The girl's eyes were unfocused and filled with terror, as if she were seeing something extremely horrific through Xu Xiaoyan, and her face was deathly pale.

Xu Xiaoyan was so startled by her sudden stress response that she took a half step back, and the hairs on her body stood on end!

She wasn't frightened by the girl's scream, but rather by what the reaction implied.