Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 464 Maintaining Order

Above all this chaos stood a row of soldiers.

They were dressed in dark training uniforms and wore standard helmets, the curved outline of which reflected a matte sheen under the lights.

Each person's face was partially obscured by the brim of their helmet, leaving only their chin and lips visible.

All the soldiers had a small red light hanging on their chests, and those red dots flickered faintly in the darkness.

Xu Xiaoyan noticed a detail: the weapons they held were not guns, but long, black, rod-shaped riot control devices. However, she had no doubt about the deterrent power of these devices.

Sometimes, it doesn't matter what weapon you're holding; what matters is who's holding it and the look in their eyes.

A man who looked like an officer walked out of the passageway.

He wasn't wearing a helmet, and his hair was so short that you could almost see his scalp.

His facial features are very strong, with high cheekbones, a distinct jawline, prominent brow bones, and deep shadows cast in his eye sockets.

He stood at the edge of the emergency light's beam, and even without speaking, he was someone people dared not look directly at.

That kind of aura isn't something you can fake; it's the result of years of discipline and authority settling in a person.

He was holding a folder with a black plastic cover and some wear on the four corners.

After opening it, I glanced at the paper, then closed it again with a crisp sound of plastic colliding.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the entire hall, and then said, "Sector 7, all squads report."

Soldiers standing in different positions spoke in turn, their voices short and clear:

"The East is normal."

"The West is normal."

"One person in the south sustained minor injuries and is currently receiving treatment."

"The North is normal."

"The two men in the middle are fighting, but they have been brought under control."

While they were giving their reports, their eyes never left the area they were responsible for. Giving a report was one thing, but staying on guard was another.

Xu Xiaoyan noticed the soldier who reported that "one person in the south was slightly injured".

His eyes did not look at the officer, but continued to scan the crowd, his center of gravity steadily distributed on his two legs, ready to move in any direction at any time.

After listening to all the reports, the officer nodded.

Then he turned to the crowd in the center of the hall, and many people involuntarily lowered their heads as his gaze fell upon them.

By the time the third loud bang came, the situation in District 7 was completely under control.

The sound wasn't as loud as before, but the vibration was more noticeable.

Xu Xiaoyan could clearly feel the ground beneath her bottom trembling. The emergency light swayed, its halo drawing arcs on the wall before stabilizing again a few seconds later.

Out of the corner of her eye, Xu Xiaoyan saw a young woman about ten meters ahead suddenly raise her head, her mouth open, about to shout.

Then she spotted a soldier nearby, who was standing less than five meters away from her, facing her directly, and their eyes met.

He just stood there, the riot control equipment in his hand held vertically beside him, making no threatening movements, just standing there.

But the young woman seemed to suddenly come to her senses, and hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand, pressing it firmly against her lips.

Her knuckles turned white from the force she exerted, and she forcefully stifled the scream that was about to burst out.

Her shoulders heaved violently a few times, then slowly, very slowly, calmed down.

All the soldiers maintained the same posture and stance, seemingly unmoved even if the sky were to fall before their eyes.

They've experienced far worse situations and witnessed far more chaotic scenes; this level of commotion is probably nothing to them.

But it is precisely this composure that is contagious; fear is contagious, and so is composure.

Many people who were initially panicked gradually calmed down.

They discovered that the military was in control of the situation. Since someone was sharing the risks with them, wasn't that telling them, "Don't be afraid, everything is going according to plan"?

Lan Yue clearly felt her heart rate spike to a dizzying speed in the first few seconds after the loud bang.

But when she saw the soldiers standing motionless, her heartbeat slowly subsided.

After the aftershocks of the loud noise completely subsided, a new silence fell over the hall.

The thunderstorm that night stopped completely around 3 a.m.

Most people crouched in the dim light of the emergency lights, huddled together, and no one moved.

Some people are holding their heads in their hands, their heads are hanging very low, and their chins are almost touching their chests.

Someone was leaning against the wall, eyes half-open and half-closed, pupils unfocused, it was hard to tell whether they were daydreaming or struggling between sleep and wakefulness.

Some people simply collapsed on the ground and fell asleep, their limbs outstretched, their breathing heavy and even.

Xu Xiaoyan's legs were numb. She tried to straighten them a little, pressing her heels against the cold concrete floor.

The tingling and numb sensation gradually subsided, replaced by a dull, aching pain.

Lan Yue was completely asleep next to her, her head tilted to rest on Xu Xiaoyan's shoulder, causing Xu Xiaoyan's shoulder to sink slightly.

Her brow was slightly furrowed; even in her dream, she couldn't completely relax.

Her nostrils twitched faster than usual, as if she were still experiencing something nerve-wracking in her dream.

Xu Xiaoyan turned her head and glanced at her. Lan Yue's eyelashes were very long, casting a small fan-shaped shadow under her eyes.

There was a gray mark on her cheek that she didn't know when it had been rubbed on, which stretched from her cheekbone all the way down to her jawline.

Xu Xiaoyan carefully adjusted the angle of her shoulders to make Lan Yue's head more comfortable, then slowly raised her head, turned her face, and looked at the situation in the hall.

The emergency lights were still on, but the light was dimmer than before, and some of them were flickering slightly, as if the batteries were about to run out.

The lights flickered on and off at an unstable frequency, sometimes flashing two or three times in a row, and sometimes flashing only once every few seconds.

From the start to the end of the thunderstorm, the soldiers remained standing in the same spot.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't know how long they had been standing there; maybe an hour, maybe two hours, maybe longer.

However, Xu Xiaoyan noticed that some soldiers were no longer standing as straight as before.

It's not a relaxation, but rather the slight trembling that naturally occurs in the muscles after holding on for too long.

That trembling is physiological and cannot be suppressed by willpower; no matter how hard you grit your teeth, you can't control it.

A soldier stood about twenty meters away from Xu Xiaoyan, his legs slightly apart, shoulder-width apart, which was the standard standing posture.

However, there was a slight, visible tremor at the knees, and the fabric of the training pants had formed a fine wrinkle at the knees.

No one sat down, no one drank water, no one leaned against the wall; they just stood there. It was an inexplicable, almost self-destructive discipline.