Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  When Lin Sanjiu got down from her truck, she conveniently grabbed a T-shirt and tied it to her face using it as a mask, so she felt much better compared to the other two. Tolerating the pain from the scalding yellow sand which lashed continuously at her exposed skin, Lin Sanjiu said quietly, ”I am certain. That car had been following us for some time. But the sandstorm is really bad, and it is quite some distance from us, so it was only visible at times… Wait, it’s coming!”

  When she finished her sentence, they indeed spotted a car some distance away stirring up a trail of dust. A Citroën so dirty that its color was indistinguishable, drove out of the churning storm of sand.

  Unexpectedly, when the driver saw that the three large vehicles had stopped, and Lin Sanjiu and her gang were in the middle of the road, the person braked sharply and turned his head as if he planned to escape. Unfortunately, the distance between the car and the three vehicles was too near, so this wasn’t up to the driver. Lin Sanjiu sprinted forward and sped up and, before the Citroën could turn away, she leaped onto the hood of the like leopard.

  The hood of the car dipped which shocked the driver of the Citroën. Its wheels made an ear-piercing screech, and the driver inside shouted vaguely. Lin Sanjiu was rocked by the movement of the car, so she quickly laid low on the hood stabilizing herself before she yelled toward the car interior, “Get out!”

  Within a blink of an eye, Luther and Marcie also rushed forward and surrounded the Citroën together with Lin Sanjiu. The car stopped, and its engine was cut.

  Through the dirty windscreen, Lin Sanjiu could see the vague outlines of a person. She could not tell if it was a male or female, young or old. It was incomprehensible how that person could still drive with such visibility. She had waited for a while before she knocked on the windscreen with her police baton impatiently, signaling for the driver to get out of his car.

  If she was not wrong, the car had been following them since they had left the shopping mall.

  The car door at the side of the driver seat opened. A man wearing a crumpled western suit wiped his forehead as he stepped out.

  The man looked like he was only about twenty plus. He wasn’t tall, and his skin was tanned. He had a round fleshy face, and the white shirt that he was wearing was now a dirty, blackish yellow. Lin Sanjiu did not know why, but she felt that if he had some whiskers, he would certainly look like a vole. Even though his suit looked like it was made from a good material, it did not seem to fit him well. His pants, far too long for him, were rolled up, revealing his ash-grey, knee-length socks.

  “Who are you? Why are you following us?” Marcie questioned with a frown.

  Luther scoffed at him, “So you accidentally followed us all the way here?”

  Lin Sanjiu jumped down from the car. She gripped the police baton and stood in front of the car not saying a word. The man appeared to be very afraid of Lin Sanjiu. When she got off his car, he immediately shifted a few steps away from her, putting some distance between himself and her. At the same time, he anxiously explained, “No, no. Listen to my explanation. I’ve actually seen all of you much earlier. I don’t mean any harm. I am a salesman for medical devices. That night, I had just finished entertaining my client. When he was driving me back, there was a sudden power outage, and we were stuck in the jam at the shopping mall…”

  “Get to the main point!” Marcie shouted in a sterner tone, probably losing her temper as they were tormented by the sand.

  “Ahh… yes, yes. Anyway, we were stuck in front of the shopping mall, and we did not dare to get down from the car. We relied only on the carton of drinks in the car for two days… I saw the few of you a couple of times, entering and exiting. You seemed to have adapted so quickly, it was impressive!” when the man explained to this point, he even remembered to flatter them. Noticing that they did not react, he spat out the sand in his mouth, embarrassingly. Then, he continued, “After that, on one night, a rather good-looking woman came to us. She said that she had water at home and told my client to get down to accompany her to get some water. I was distracted for a moment, and suddenly, my client disappeared! The women left and continued to the next car!”

  The three of them were stunned for a short moment. Obviously, Kong Yun did not show mercy to the survivors who were on that street outside.

  When the man saw their expression, he pushed his luck and continued, “I did not dare to remain in the car, so I ran to the convenient store that was across the road. I managed to survived till today… This morning, I saw all of you leaving. I was afraid too, so I followed behind…”

  “What’s your name?” Luther was starting to feel a little annoyed as the man was so long-winded.

  “My name is Tian Minbo. Everyone calls me Voley,” the man smiled and replied hurriedly.

  Voley was startled and quickly replied, “I really mean no harm. I have my own supply of food and water. I just want some companions. And, I wanted to give you an advice.”

  “An advice?”

  “You have been driving your vehicles for some time right?” Voley asked as he eyed the vehicles. “I advise all of you to stop driving now. You should wait till night comes.”

  “Why?” Luther looked around, still frowning. The spot they were at was not very safe. In the past, the area was a famous park. It was originally a vast expanse of greenery and the best part of the city. However, after this one month, any remnant of the original park had long disintegrated. All that remained was just sand as far as the eye could see and the blacked charred remains of countless trees, along with the mixture of this combination stirred by the wind. They could even see the indistinct outlines of a few duoluozhong wandering around. The sky was a hopeless mustard yellow accompanied by a scalding sun.

  “This weather is really abnormally hot. If you continue driving, you will burn out the engines. You better believe me. I have already damaged one car, and that was a Mercedes Benz. Still, it broke down! It nearly burst into flames! Let alone your trucks and bus…” Voley wiped the sand off his face showing a sincere look. “It’s true. If you don’t believe it, you can try to touch your engines.”

  Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu sighed and stopped Marcie who was heading back to check, “You don’t have to go. It’s true. Even his Citroën is hot to touch.”

  When Voley heard what Lin Sanjiu said, he immediately m.o.a.n.e.d and turned to open his hood. A white smoke accompanied by a burnt scent drifted out. It almost instantaneously dissipated due to the sandstorm. Voley fiddled with the engine nervously, he finally lifted his head with a face still filled with lingering fear, “That was close. It nearly broke down.”

  The three of them exchanged looks. They were at a loss. If even that France-manufactured Citroën was going to break down soon, what more could be said of their normal vehicles, they were certainly in a worse state. It seemed like that had no choice but to wait here with Voley for their engines to cool down. The only thing was that Lin Sanjiu was opposed strongly to staying here due to the surroundings.

  Their surroundings were too empty. After the park which covered the area of a few thousand square meters had become destitute of vegetation, there was an almost boundless, unobstructed view of the area. That is to say, if they met any danger, they wouldn’t be able to find a place to hide.

  “That’s right. Besides, it is too hot outside, so it is not a good place to chat. Why don’t all of you come into my car, we can chat in the car? Let’s be friends!” Seeing that the others were convinced by him, Voley quickly opened his door eagerly, even offering Marcie a bottle of water. “I don’t have a specific place that I want to go, I just want to find a few companions. Where are you all heading? If you don’t mind, let me go along with you?”

  The three of them looked at each other and did not reply for a while.

  After that whole incident with Kong Yun, they knew that they had to be more cautious; on the other hand, they knew that they could not let the incident affect all their future decisions. No matter what, they would definit
ely need to interact with other people. When Lin Sanjiu thought of this, she said, “You can come along with us, but you need to tell us what’s your ability.”

  Voley made an “O” shape with his mouth.

  “Don’t tell me that you don’t know anything about abilities after this one month?” Lin Sanjiu gave a cool expression and purposely used a threatening tone. “How are we supposed to trust you and be your companions if we don’t even know what you can do.”

  Even though she put it that way, Luther and Marcie looked at each other with some unease. They could not blame him if he did not want to reveal his ability, it wasn’t really wrong...

  But they did not anticipate that Voley would nod his head with little hesitation, “So you already knew that… Okay, I will show you.”

  After he had said this, he took out a mobile phone from his pocket. The mobile phone was in a cheapskate plastic casing, making it look very unfashionable. Voley pressed a few buttons on the screen then showed the screen to the three of them. The screen showed an ongoing call, and the party on the other side was actually 110[1].

  “This mobile phone is my ability. 110 is the only number that I can call right now. If I was under attack, I could dial 110, and in the time frame of 5 to 10 minutes, I will be impervious to all attacks. Of course, it works faster than my demonstration.” Voley looked a little timid as he asked, “Is this okay?”

  Translator notes:[1]1-1-0, the emergency telephone number used to reach police services in Iran, Germany, Estonia, China and Japan. Also used to reach the fire and rescue services in Norway and Turkey. -Wikipedia

  Chapter 24 - It's a Universal Law that the Main Character Must Die? (1)

  Lin Sanjiu could feel something pressing uncomfortably against the back of her head. Half a day had already passed. She felt exhausted and did not feel like moving, so she just flipped sideway hazily. At that very moment, she suddenly heard a line from a song, “You are my little, little apple”[1]. It broke the tranquility of the night and sounded rather irritating.

  [Whose ringtone is so loud? That’s too disturbing. I can even hear it from the 38th floor.]

  Lin Sanjiu suppressed her sleepiness and opened her eyes. She saw a row of orange round circular grab handles. [That’s right, I am not in that 38th floor penthouse—this is the New World…]

  She sat upright and saw the rows of seats which were filled with cardboard cartons of supplies. On the side of the wall beside her, there was still a green sign stating, “Priority Seat for elderly, disabled, pregnant, and injured”. The rare starlight from outside the windows illuminated the rim of the sign dimly.

  At the top of the exit doors, there was a piece of route map of something similar to that. But the only thing she could discern was the numerical “3”.

  Suddenly, there were a few quick knocks on the door of their public bus. The volume of the “Little Apple” song grew louder and was followed by Voley’s voice, “Hey, it’s already ten, you should all wake up. Let’s go!”

  Lin Sanjiu rubbed her eyes as memories of the current reality flooded her mind.

  That’s right. This afternoon, they had agreed to bring Voley along their journey. They even went into his car, eating, drinking, and chatting for a long time. Even though Voley looked like a timid guy, they only found out that he was quite an attentive person after interacting with him. To conserve their energy for the night, all of them went to rest quickly. Voley, being the only person with a mobile phone, had volunteered to set an alarm so that they could set off at ten pm. Lin Sanjiu jumped up and walked over the driver’s seat. She pressed a button, and the door of the public bus opened, showing Voley who was still cladded in that oversized western suit.

  Lin Sanjiu eyed him a little moodily, “You should switch that alarm off quickly. What will we do if it attracts the duoluozhongs here? And the volume of that thing is way too loud!”

  Voley responded with an “Oh. Oh.” and quickly switched his phone off. Once that “Little Apple” song faded, Lin Sanjiu felt that the world became much more peaceful. Voley smiled and asked, “Where is Miss Marcie? What about Xiao Lu, are they awake?”

  “They’re at the back…” Lin Sanjiu replied.

  Meanwhile, Marcie yawned and walked over. She rinsed her mouth with mineral water and sat down in the driver’s seat sleepily. Luther nodded his head at Voley acknowledging his presence and rubbed his eyes as he headed back to the truck. From the back, he also looked listless.

  Everyone looks so tired. Lin Sanjiu thought as she could not help yawning again.

  On the contrary, Voley seemed to be in high spirits. He went back and forth checking all the engines. Once he saw that there were no problems, he waved his arms enthusiastically, “That’s great. We set off now!”

  After she washed up and sat in the truck for a while, her drowsiness slowly abated. She was finally fully awake. She looked at the map in her hands searching for the road towards the industrial park in Xijiao and was the first one to start up her vehicle.

  The other vehicles followed her lead and slowly started their engines.

  She had to admit that allowing Voley to join them was right. He not only knew how to maintain cars, but the most surprising thing was that he had a few sets of walkie-talkies in his car. Even though the walkie-talkies could only work within a short distance, but at least they could communicate with each other while driving their own respective vehicles now.

  Luther’s jovial voice came through the walkie-talkie on the seat beside her, “Xiao Jiu, how far are we from the industrial park?”

  “It depends. If we don’t meet any traffic obstructions, this shortest route should only take an hour. After we go over this hill, we will be able to see a traffic sign soon…” just as she said this, her stomach suddenly made a weird grumble. [That’s bad,] she silently thought to herself.

  Sure enough, Luther heard that sound, “Haha! What’s that sound? Do we have to stop for a while so that you can relieve yourself?” There was a sound of a laughter escaping from someone—obviously Marcie. “I am just a little hungry,” Lin Sanjiu scolded jokingly, “I’m sure a brat like you doesn’t have a girlfriend!” while she said this, she searched for a packet of cookies irritably, opened up the packaging and ate a piece, as the others laughed over the walkie-talkies.

  They were actually quite lucky since most of the cars, on the road they were on, parked lawfully at the side of the road. Even when they occasionally met some abandoned cars blocking the road, they managed to squeeze through—due to the serious desertification, the boundaries between the road and the sidewalk was no longer so clearly defined. As a result, even after they had been driving for over ten minutes, the group of vehicles was still heading toward the industrial park via the shortcut.

  “I heard a ‘pop’ sound just now, did any of you heard that?” Marcie suddenly asked while driving. Voley immediately responded worriedly, “Miss Marcie, let’s hope that it is not a problem with your engines. Where did that sound come from?”

  “It is too muffled, so I am not sure. But there is no sound now.”

  After hearing that, Lin Sanjiu could not help looking at her rear mirror. Behind the second truck, she could see the public bus. It was moving normally, and she could even see Marcie’s vague outline sitting in the driver seat. Nothing looked out of place. Not thinking anything more about that, she casually winded down her window. A gust of hot night wind rushed in, and her hair instantly flowed behind her.

  The subsequent turn of events played out like a movie. It happened so clearly yet so unrealistically.

  Almost suddenly, she heard a loud cry over the walkie-talkie. That was Luther’s voice, but she could not make out what he was saying. Lin Sanjiu’s heart trembled and just as she was about to ask, “How are you?” She heard a sharp screeching brake. Thereafter, a loud boom of collision rang out in the air.

  Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat, she stuck her head out of the window braving the strong winds and turned to look behind. Her heart almost stopp
ed…

  In the scene she saw through her flowing black hair, the front portion of Luther’s truck was now sideways, and the truck was stopped horizontally across the middle of the road. As there was no time to react, the bus that was behind it collided with it violently. Plumes of thick smoke rose immediately. Luther’s body flew out of the driver’s seat, as countless broken glass sprayed outwards, his body was stuck in mid-air as if time froze.

  A long mouthpart was protruding out from his stomach, and the thing behind the mouthpart was hiding within the truck.

  All these happened so quickly that she didn’t even have the time to blink.

  Lin Sanjiu’s eyes turned red, she yelled and stopped her truck. Once she got out of her truck, she raced toward Luther. But before she could reach him, the bus suddenly exploded with a boom. Along with the smoke and flames from the accident, glass flew out everywhere. The glass rain instantaneously scratched Lin Sanjiu’s exposed skin, covering her with bleeding cuts all over.

  She was pushed to the ground by the shockwave of the explosion, and her whole body was covered with wounds. However, Lin Sanjiu sat in a daze on the ground, as if she did not felt a thing. This was because she could see very clearly: As the glass fragments fell, she also saw pieces of blood covered flesh falling and that familiar red hair.

  The Citroën that was at the back of the line nearly hit the bus. Voley was so shocked that his face was a ghastly white when he opened his car doors. He shouted, “How… how did this happen?”

  After she sat startled for a long time, she finally stood up. Without a word, she ran toward the truck with her red rage filled eyes.

  Voley, who was panting heavily, quickly pulled her aside and yelled, “You have to calm down…”

  Before he finished his sentence, a dark shadow loomed over him. He lifted his head and was shocked. Probably because Lin Sanjiu did not secure the brakes on the truck when she stopped her vehicle so suddenly, it had rolled backward toward them. Voley wanted to let go of Lin Sanjiu and escape but the truck was too close—he had only lifted his feet when the large steel body of the truck swallowed the both of them.