Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 364 The place is deserted

If she continued walking forward, it would seem too deliberate, and at this critical juncture, the act of running away would evoke too many unnecessary associations.

She slowly turned around to face the group of people.

The person who called out to her was a middle-aged woman of about forty years old, standing near the front of the crowd.

Wearing a drab gray short-sleeved shirt, her hair casually tied back, and an almost eager expression on her face.

There were a few other people standing nearby, including an elderly man with gray hair and a young man wearing a green coat.

Two middle-aged women carrying plastic bags, and a few others standing a little further away, were all looking in this direction.

"You live in this neighborhood too, right?" The middle-aged woman took two steps forward, looked her up and down, and spoke with certainty, not in a questioning tone.

Xu Xiaoyan neither denied nor admitted it; she simply stood there, her eyes quickly scanning the group of people.

"You're young and quick-witted," the middle-aged woman continued, her tone carrying an almost instinctive trust.

It seems that the word "young" is naturally equated with having ideas, being able to get things done, and being able to discuss things together.

She paused, gestured with her chin toward the crowd behind her, and added a sentence, her voice a little louder than before, as if she were speaking to everyone.

Xu Xiaoyan stood still, without moving.

Her mind was racing; the group included men, women, young and old.

They all seemed to have been alerted by the announcement over the loudspeaker, and they all rushed to the door to discuss a solution.

Their presence here indicates that they, like her, felt uneasy.

"Young lady?" When the middle-aged woman saw that she didn't speak, she took another half step forward, and the expression on her face changed from eager to a hint of worry.

"What's wrong? Are you scared? It's okay, everyone's here. Don't wander around by yourself, it's even more dangerous outside."

Xu Xiaoyan looked at those eyes that shone too brightly in the moonlight, and a complex feeling welled up in her heart.

"I just came out to check the situation," she said, her voice low and deliberately calm.

"I have something to do, I have to go out for a bit," she said, turning to leave.

"Hey—" The middle-aged woman reached out to pull her, but withdrew her hand halfway through, probably feeling it was inappropriate.

"Don't go out alone. It's very dangerous outside right now. You're just a young girl; what if something happens to you..."

"I know," Xu Xiaoyan said without turning around, only slightly turning her face to the side. "I'll be careful, thank you."

She walked out, and this time, no one called her back.

Behind them came the voice of the middle-aged woman speaking to someone next to her, low and tinged with a hint of helplessness, "This girl, she's too bold..."

Then came another voice, a man's, gruff and rough: "Who cares about her? She wants to leave, why are you stopping her?"

Xu Xiaoyan didn't turn around. She quickly turned onto the road leading outside, leaving all the sounds behind.

The water dispenser and supermarket were about a fifteen-minute walk from the residential area, so she hurried on her way.

As a result, she could see from afar that the water room was completely dark, with no lights or moving figures. Her steps unconsciously slowed down, but her heart started beating faster.

No, she told herself. Maybe someone just accidentally closed the door and the light inside was still on.

She quickened her pace, almost running, until she reached the water room door.

The gate was wide open, with two iron doors hanging crookedly on the hinges.

One door was half-open, and the other was completely open. The lock on the door panel was gone, leaving only a keyhole that had been pried open.

The space inside the door was pitch black. Moonlight shone in, but only illuminated a small patch of concrete near the doorway; beyond that, nothing could be seen.

But that small patch was enough to illustrate the point: the ground was spotless, with no buckets or anything.

Xu Xiaoyan took a step forward and leaned inside.

After a few seconds of eye adjustment, the outline of the interior slowly emerged in the darkness: an empty counter, shelves removed from the wall, and even the wooden chairs were gone.

She stepped out and turned to walk towards the supermarket.

The shelves were gone, the counters were gone, and even the user manuals and price lists that were posted on the walls were torn down completely.

Only a few whitish tape marks remained, forming some meaningless shapes on the wall.

Xu Xiaoyan stood at the supermarket entrance and slowly squatted down.

Her mind was blank, with only one sentence echoing repeatedly—the army took away the capable people, and they were left behind.

She didn't quite understand something. They had water, population, and relocation plans; everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.

What could possibly force them to abandon them and choose to leave alone?

She pondered this question for a long time, and finally she thought of something very important—food.

Xu Xiaoyan suddenly stood up. She had been squatting for too long, and her legs were a little numb. She staggered for a moment, then steadied herself by holding onto the door frame.

This thought suddenly made everything she had never been able to understand clear.

Soldiers are people too, and people need to eat. How much food do they have? How many people can they feed?

Our own soldiers need to eat, the people who moved from the underground city need to eat, and the scattered masses in this area also need to eat.

Water can be found, wells can be dug, and pipes can be connected, but food won't just grow out of the ground, at least not in this hot weather.

If the army has a limited amount of food, then staying here means distributing that limited food to more and more people.

How can you maintain order if your own soldiers aren't well-fed?

The people in the underground city are starving, how should they be housed?

If residents in the neighborhood don't have enough to eat, will they cause trouble? Will they loot? Will they, like those people in Building 3, use loudspeakers to "notify" everyone to hand over their houses?

If they can't solve the people's food problem, what's the point of them staying? Are they just going to watch the people starve to death? Or are they going to wait until the people go crazy with hunger and then rob them?

Therefore, the only path facing the military is to cut off those who only want to depend on them and make them self-reliant.

They then led the people they had created to find a region where food could be produced and settle down, so that at least some of them could survive.

Xu Xiaoyan turned around and walked to the other end of the street, her mind preoccupied with thoughts.

The military no longer intervenes in civilian affairs, and from now on, no one will be there to maintain order in this area.

This place will become a place without rules, without constraints, and without any bottom line.

At that point, they won't care who you are or what you did wrong.

They'll only see one thing: you seem to be doing better than them, and that's your original sin.

And she, a single woman whose space was crammed with supplies, was like a sheep wandering into a pack of wolves if she stayed in such a place.

Therefore, rather than being put in a passive position later, it's better to take the initiative to leave now.

If you enjoy stories about surviving the apocalypse by stockpiling supplies, please bookmark: Apocalypse Stockpiling Survival Story