Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 486 Mutual Assistance

Xu Xiaoyan squinted, peering through the swirling dust into the distance, but she couldn't see anything clearly, and her heart sank.

Lan Yue sat down next to her, also breathing heavily.

Her lips were covered in sand and dry, cracked skin. She tried to moisten them with her tongue, but as soon as her tongue touched them, it was covered with a new layer of sand.

Her eyes were constantly filled with tears as the wind and sand blew from the corners of her eyes.

Before it could even trickle down my cheeks, the sand and dust swept it across my face, mixing with the sand and turning it into streaks of grayish-brown tears.

Xu Xiaoyan leaned against the ditch wall, looked up at the gray sky above, which was filled with sand and dust swept by the wind.

Looking up from the bottom of the ravine, the sky is cut into a narrow, irregular strip by the earthen walls on both sides.

More and more people entered the ravine; it wasn't just the two of them who came up with this idea.

Following them, more and more people were driven by the wind and surged toward this low-lying area, the only place that could offer some shelter.

The people were walking unsteadily in the wind, some with their backpacks covering their faces, some with their coats over their heads, and some supporting each other, in groups of three or five.

One, two, five, ten, fifty, one hundred—the number kept increasing, and soon the ditch was crowded with people, shoulder to shoulder, back to back.

Xu Xiaoyan could feel the corner of the backpack of the person on her right poking her ribs, and the back of the person in front of her was almost touching her knees.

The distance between people has been compressed to a minimum, and there is no such thing as a safe distance.

Someone touched another person's backpack in the dark, and the sound of their apology was half-blown away by the wind.

But some syllables still reached the other person's ears, and the other person said, "It's okay."

On this night when everyone was on the verge of collapse from the sandstorm, no one had the energy to be angry with anyone else.

Someone was looking for their child, calling out repeatedly. The child's voice came from not far away, choked with sobs, but the person was still alive, and that was enough.

Someone was helping an elderly stranger pull his luggage back from the wind. The old man's hands were so badly swollen from the wind that he couldn't hold anything and couldn't close them.

The backpack strap slipped from his hand, and the bag rolled several times on the ground before being blown several meters away by the wind.

If that stranger hadn't rushed forward in time, bent over and ran a few steps, grabbing the backpack strap, the bag would probably have been blown to the horizon by the wind.

When the old man took the backpack, his lips trembled several times as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded vigorously.

The stranger didn't wait for him to speak, waved his hand, turned around and walked back to where he had been sitting.

Xu Xiaoyan spotted Wang Hehua in the crowd. She was sitting on the other side of the ditch, right next to the young soldier, Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen was still carrying his canvas bag on his back, bulging and bulky. Xu Xiaoyan had no idea what was inside.

But judging from the way Wang Hehua kept glancing at the bag, it probably still contained the things she couldn't bear to throw away.

Her large hiking backpack was gone, replaced by a much smaller, gray-blue backpack, which looked like something Xiao Chen had found for her at the last minute.

Her face was turned toward Xiao Chen, and her lips were moving, as if she were saying something, but the wind was too strong, and nothing could be heard.

Xiao Chen had his head down, looking at something in his hand, but it was impossible to see what it was.

But judging from his posture, he wasn't impatient or perfunctory; he was listening attentively and answering seriously.

Team Leader Gu was also there; Xu Xiaoyan didn't know when he had arrived.

He stood at the edge of the ravine, leaning slightly forward, his gaze sweeping over the rows of people huddled together below, as if trying to confirm something.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't know what he was looking at; perhaps he was checking if anyone was injured, or perhaps he was checking if anyone had gotten lost.

A day passed, but the wind never stopped.

Sometimes the wind would be so weak that you thought it was finally going to stop. When Xu Xiaoyan poked her head out of the ditch, she was almost knocked over by a gust of wind.

Her hands braced against the sand at the edge of the ditch, her fingers digging into the soft sand and gripping it tightly.

As soon as she leaned out, the wind blew hard against her face, and her head snapped back, taking a while to regain her balance.

When Lan Yue climbed out of the ravine, she looked as if she had been dug out of the sand.

"Stop talking," Xu Xiaoyan's voice came from behind the collar of her windbreaker, muffled. "Save your energy for walking."

Blue Moon nodded without refuting.

The wind was so strong that Captain Gu could only hold the walkie-talkie with both hands.

He was listening to the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie. Sometimes he could only hear the last syllable of a word, and sometimes he could only hear a blurry static.

After listening, he hung the walkie-talkie back on his waist.

He turned around to face the line, the wind pushing him from behind, causing his body to lean forward involuntarily.

"Command center notification," he said, raising his voice as much as possible.

"The strong winds aren't going to stop anytime soon. The weather forecast says this storm is moving very slowly and is expected to last a long time. We can't just sit here and wait to die, so..."

He paused for a moment, then glanced at everyone again. "Now, while the wind isn't too strong, let's hurry and set off."

After he finished speaking, everyone stood up silently, and the group quickly set off.

Walking in the strong wind feels completely different from usual. Normally, when you walk, your attention is on the road.

But today, all your attention is focused on one thing: not getting blown over by the wind.

Xu Xiaoyan lowered her head, resting her chin on her chest, her eyes fixed on the heels of the person in front of her.

That wasn't someone she knew; it was a stranger in the crowd, wearing a pair of worn-out sneakers with the laces tied in two tight knots.

The wind grew stronger and stronger, reaching its peak around 10 a.m.

A middle-aged man was carrying a woven bag that was about the same size as him.

He was suddenly pushed by a strong gust of wind, lost his balance in an instant, and fell straight down.

The woven bag rolled off his back, bounced on the ground, and was then pushed by the wind for more than ten meters.

The man lay on the ground, struggling to stand up. He braced himself with his hands on the ground, his knees tucked under his body, one foot on the ground and the other groping in the air.

He was about to stand up when a gust of wind came and pushed him back down.

The two people next to him ran over bent over, one of them grabbed his arm, put his hand on his shoulder, and used his shoulder to support his armpit.