Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Right now, Lin Sanjiu could see the reflection of Zhu Mei's abnormal face on the curved surface of that silverware.

  Zhu Mei was sitting beside Lin Sanjiu and was looking in Doctor Chen's direction. Even though she didn't turn her head to face Lin Sanjiu, she was staring firmly at Lin Sanjiu sideways. Her black pupils were so far to the sides of her eyes that they were almost completely hidden, her eyes were almost just white.

  The silver sauce boat reflected a pair of snow-white eyeballs which were fixated on Lin Sanjiu. "Normal people shouldn't be able to do this, right? Why isn't Doctor Chen noticing this?"

  Lin Sanjiu felt as if she was near a bed of needles just sitting beside Zhu Mei.

  "Alright, we should leave now." Lin Sanjiu forced a smile when she said this. As a quick thought flashed in her mind, she turned to look at the side-view of Zhu Mei's face and said, "I was under the impression that the money he was holding was blue. Isn't that strange?"

  As soon as Lin Sanjiu said those words, Zhu Mei's pupils shot back to the middle of her eyes.

  "Blue? It must be the light. Your eyes were probably playing tricks on you," Zhu Mei laughed turning her fair, moisturized and slightly plump face to Lin Sanjiu. "Do you want to have a sleepover at my place tonight?" she asked Lin Sanjiu with that same familiar face.

  Lin Sanjiu forced herself to swallow the immediate "no" that she was about to blurt out. After hesitating for a few seconds, she shook her hand rejectingly and laughed, "If I go back with you, we won't stop chatting. I will be too tired at work tomorrow. I won't go!"

  Zhu Mei looked at her for a second and slowly responded with a smile. She didn't say anything else.

  When they were walking out of the restaurant, Lin Sanjiu felt the cold breeze from the air-conditioner at the entrance. She couldn't help shivering a little as her body was covered with cold sweat. Even though Doctor Chen had kindly offered to drive both of them home, Lin Sanjiu couldn't maintain her fake composure much longer. She gave the excuse that she was tired and bid both of them farewell hurriedly. She slipped into a cab, almost as if escaping. It was only then that she felt slightly relieved after taking a few quick breaths.

  "Where do you want to go?" the driver asked her after a few seconds. She could only see the black shadow of his frame.

  Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to utter "Fortune", she suddenly paused.

  "Where? Shouldn't I be going home?"

  She almost saying "Fortune Westerns". That was the name of an estate in the most expensive and luxurious part of town. In her dream, Lin Sanjiu had moved there because of a person named Ren Nan.

  Obviously, she couldn't afford to live in such an upscale estate. The dream was certainly too realistic. Lin Sanjiu held her forehead and suddenly found herself at a loss.

  "If that's the case, what is my address again?"

  Lin Sanjiu felt as if someone was hammering her left skull. Tolerating the intense headache, she tried to remember her own address.

  "There is something very wrong…"

  "Miss, what's wrong? Where do you want to go?" the driver asked again, probably because the passenger in the back seat wasn't responding.

  "Wait. Give me a minute…" Lin Sanjiu massaged her left temple. Due to her headache, her breathing grew heavy, "Let me think…"

  There was total silence in the car for one second.

  Suddenly, without any warning, the driver's voice became very gentle. He turned his head slightly and lowered the volume of his voice. "Do you want to go home?" he asked softly as if to show his patience and understanding.

  That gentle tone of voice somehow came as a sudden jolt to Lin Sanjiu. She suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body. Her head was still throbbing badly but Lin Sanjiu couldn't care less. She gulped and stared at the driver's silhouette. Her fingers were already on the handle of the car door.

  The door was locked. She couldn't open it.

  She didn't know why but she had a very strong intuition that she should not give a confirmatory reply. It was as if there was something in her mind warning her. Unfortunately, the warning came too late.

  "Did you forget your own address?" the driver asked in a gentler tone. His voice was like a muscle relaxant. Hearing it made Lin Sanjiu feel like she just wanted to sink into a sofa and sigh.

  "But, how can a person forget their own address?" the driver answered his own question.

  Though her head hurt badly and she was feeling very fl.u.s.tered and anxious, she suddenly felt a wave of ease and security. Lin Sanjiu knew that she shouldn't trust those feelings but she couldn't help closing her eyes. Her shoulders relaxed and her fingers slipped from the door handle.

  "There must be something very wrong here. Don't you think so, miss?" the driver's voice dissipated in the tranquil atmosphere in the cab like a mist, making Lin Sanjiu feel more relaxed.

  As the driver turned his head to look at her, Lin Sanjiu lifted her heavy eyes.

  He was wearing a baseball cap and a tan jacket. However, the space between the cap and his collar was just a patch of black nothingness. There wasn't anything. There wasn't a face. There wasn't a neck. Lin Sanjiu stared blankly as the driver raised his empty sleeve and reached for her.

  Lin Sanjiu felt a sharp pain in her head as if something had pierced through her brain.

  "Move! Quick!" an extremely furious voice yelled at her from an unknown location.

  Chapter 303 - Lin Sanjiu Finds Herself In A Fleshy Cavity

  There was a milk-like vapor in the air. It was thick and sticky. It moved slowly, almost as if it was alive. Little by little, it entered Lin Sanjiu's nostrils. Her eyelashes were just fluttering moments ago. Before any light could even enter her amber eyes, her eyes fell shut again, uncontrollably.

  Lin Sanjiu woke up.

  This time, she was fully aware that she had woken up from a dream. When she sat up, she felt all her muscles screaming at once, probably because she was in an unnatural position for a long time. However, that did not affect Lin Sanjiu sensations. She could feel strength coursing through her body once more—a familiar, formidable strength.

  Lin Sanjiu flexed her fingers a few times. After recovering her strength, she slowly stood up. Everything about her surroundings was confusing. She didn't know if it was very foggy or if it was night time. She could only see constantly morphing deep dark purple color around her. That was the only thing she could see but it wasn't unpleasant.

  As the constantly changing purple washed over her whole body like gentle waves, it brought a mesmerizing sense of comfort and warmth. She couldn't hear a single sound and any sort of disturbances which came with it. She only felt an everlasting peace. She did not need her thoughts, her battles, and her worries. She only needed the changing colors that would soothe everything.

  "Maybe, I'm dead. Maybe, this is heaven?"

  Before she could hold that fragmented thought for half a second. It disappeared. Lin Sanjiu wasn't even aware that such a thought had crossed her mind.

  Was she standing now? Or was she sitting? Was she lying down? She just wasn't sure. One moment she was walking and the other moment she was floating. She could still feel the strength in her body but Lin Sanjiu felt that she no longer needed it.

  As she sunk in this gentle comfort, she suddenly felt a slight pain. She couldn't tell which part of her body was hurting. It was as if her body had already melted. The pain could be from her leg or her back. Though the pain was trivial, it interrupted her peacefully floating sensation. It was extremely irritating. Lin Sanjiu wanted to wait for the pain to go away and return to the gentle embrace of her purple surroundings.

  However, she felt a second painful prick. It just continued. Lin Sanjiu wanted to swat that sensation away but she didn't know where it was coming from. Third, fourth, fifth… The pain rained down on her and soon it became a torture. Lin Sanjiu let out a soft disgruntled noise and felt her body once more. She opened her eyes after the third prick.

  The purple fog had disappeared as if it had never even exi
sted.

  "You're finally awake!" a familiar voice rang out. "Quick, get up!"

  Lin Sanjiu thought she heard someone speaking into her ears. After half a second, she realized that it was from her own mind. "Mrs., Mrs. Manas?" she blurted out unconsciously.

  When she said that name, she felt a strange sense of long-lost unfamiliarity. "Where… am I?" There was dusky darkness around her as if it was just dawn. There was barely any light around her. There was just a sort of formless chaos around her. The wisps of milky vapors that were floating around made the most striking impression on Lin Sanjiu. They had a heavy and sticky consistency. They flowed toward Lin Sanjiu like a tangible substance once it detected her presence.

  "Don't breath that in!" Mrs. Manas warned just when that 'milk' was about to touch the tip of Lin Sanjiu's nose. Lin Sanjiu quickly covered her nose and mouth. She didn't dare to touch that thing so she lowered her head and dodged it. However, the 'milk', which was now behind her, turned around and reached out for her like a white tentacle. This time, more 'milk' flowed toward Lin Sanjiu as if she was standing on low-lying grounds.

  Lin Sanjiu immediately took a step outward, dodging. When her feet landed on the ground, she heard a squelch. The ground felt strange. It was as if she had stepped into a puddle of soft mud on the ground after a heavy rain. It was soft, squishy and even had a disgusting bounciness. It was then that she snapped out of her dull confusion and finally was somewhat aware of her true surroundings.

  It felt as though she had been thrown into a large mouth.

  The pink fleshy walls rose and fell like rhythmic breathing. Some unknown substance was oozing out from the fleshy walls. The dark red "floor" beneath her feet reflected some light. This place wasn't that large. Lin Sanjiu tore part of her clothes and used it to wave away the wisps of "milk" and could see the entire area of the place she was in. The thing that shocked her the most wasn't that she was in a weird fleshy prison. It was the fact that she wasn't alone.

  This place was filled to the brim with people. There were lying and sitting down. Stacking up on each other, like dead fishes falling from a fisherman's net. There were multiple small hills of humans. Apart from their rising and falling c.h.e.s.ts which proved that they were still alive, Lin Sanjiu almost couldn't find any other vital signs which differentiated them from the dead.

  "Ah, I'm in a pocket dimension, right?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered everything. Her head hurt a little as her memories returned all at once. "Don't tell me Smiling Mermaid sent so many people into this pocket dimension after us?"

  Mrs. Manas did not answer. She did not seem to know the answer.

  Another wisp of "milk" headed toward her face. Lin Sanjiu quickly swatted at the vapor violently with the cloth in her hands. After she chased away that vapor, she crouched down and tried to wake Faun as he was lying closest to her. However, when Lin Sanjiu saw his body, she frowned.

  "Something isn't right."

  As Lin Sanjiu had just woken up from a comatose state, unavoidably, her mind worked a little slower. Despite that, she stopped her outstretched hand. She looked around at the other people and then at her own body.

  "How long have I been here?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled.

  "Frankly, I'm not sure," Mrs. Manas sighed, "I only woke up a few hours earlier than you."

  Lin Sanjiu swatted away the unrelenting wisps of "milk" near her face once again. She checked the condition of her body carefully. Just as in her memory, her sculpted flexible muscles were visible under her moist skin. She pressed her skin and it bounced right back—proving that she wasn't dehydrated. Checking herself, she found out that she didn't lose any muscle or fat mass. In other words, she didn't remain unconscious for long. At most, it shouldn't have been more than two days.

  However, the body condition of the people around her was very different. Faun's skin was as shriveled as a dry leaf. The skin on his face was so thin and gaunt that she could see the shape of his skull. The old Paleoindian had lost all his muscle mass. He was just skin and bones. His dry, yellow skin was taut around his shoulder bones and leg bones. It had lost all signs of moisture. Even the last bit of fat had already disappeared from his body. This meant that they had been unconscious for more than a few months.

  "What's… going on here?" She vigorously broke apart the thick white vapor of "milk" which had gathered around her. She took a few steps forward, treading on a few people and the disgusting fleshy floor. "We entered the pocket dimension at the same time. If I'm alright, they shouldn't have become just skin and bones!"

  She took a few more steps and found out that not everyone was as skinny as them. Some of the people were like herself. Their skins were still moist and they looked as though they were just sleeping. She took another few more steps and her gaze fell upon a group of bodies. She saw the glaze from a blue-white decorated porcelain vase. Lin Sanjiu pushed aside the person who was lying on that man. A few of these people looked familiar; they seemed to be members of Smiling Mermaid. After pushing the person aside, she saw Porcelain Vase's body in full view. If the other people looked bad, Lin Sanjiu felt like vomiting when she saw the state of Porcelain Vase's body under his clothes. He would have looked better if it was just his skeleton under those clothes. It was so gross that she refused to look at him and pulled down his clothes over his body once more. Staring at his grey tunic, she froze for a second.

  The symbol representing the Smiling Mermaid was missing from his shirt. Porcelain Vase wasn't the only one with a missing symbol. The symbol was missing from the shirts of the rest of the members, including Faun. When she looked closely, their clothes were different from what she remembered.

  "Hey! Wake up!" she nudged the young man in the Zhongshan suit quite violently. Then, she stopped immediately. Her hand felt something scary. She was worried that if she shook him again, his bones would all break. "What's going on?!"

  "Don't even try to wake them up. It's impossible," Mrs. Manas interrupted her. "I managed to wake you up only because I am part of our consciousness. I don't think anything from their outside world can reach them."

  Lin Sanjiu knew that Mrs. Manas was right without even trying. She let out a long sigh, "In any case, I have to get out of here first…"

  She looked up at the spot not far from her.

  The wisps of "milk" had stopped pestering her for quite a few minutes. When Lin Sanjiu noticed that, she looked up and finally understood why. She couldn't help taking a deep breath.

  All the "milk" floating within these flesh walls had disappeared. No, the term "disappeared" wasn't right. They had merged into a thick substance not far from Lin Sanjiu as if they had all the intention to swallow her.

  She saw the mass of "milk" rushing toward her. For a moment, the white substance filled her entire vision. Lin Sanjiu quickly propped herself and stepped on a few people's bodies to jump in front of a wall not far from her.

  "This must work," she mumbled and activated her [Mosaic censorship]. Flesh and biological fluids exploded under her palm. Lin Sanjiu thought she heard something screeching. Before she could react, she found herself basking in white daylight.

  Chapter 304 - Heading To Free District

  Lin Sanjiu totally couldn't recognize where she was.

  It had been some time since she had woken up. A cold breeze blew as she stood feeling somewhat at a loss. She couldn't understand what had happened. Nothing made sense to her. She tried to piece together what had happened before she entered the pocket dimension, yet it still couldn't explain why she would appear here now.

  After she jumped out of the fleshy prison behind her, it started quivering like an injured animal. The milk-like white vapor poured out from the opening created by Lin Sanjiu and continued for several minutes. At first, Lin Sanjiu was very cautious about it. However, she discovered that the "milk" lost its original effects once it was exposed to the outside world, as if the air outside diluted it. They quickly dissipated into the cold breeze. When she accidentally breathed some of it, her mind felt a li
ttle light, but it didn't affect her much.

  Lin Sanjiu could feel a coarse and cold rocky surface pressing against both sides of her body. It was as if the rock walls were on the verge of closing and just swallowing Lin Sanjiu. As the space between the rock walls was narrow and irregularly-shaped, Lin Sanjiu's skeletal wings really posed a large problem for her. No matter how hard she tried to adjust the angles of her wings, they would always hit the walls. It was very uncomfortable. The only wider space was actually the location where that flesh prison was situated at. It was as though someone had made a pocket between the rock walls and somehow kept a prison made of flesh right in the middle of that pocket, even leaving some space around it.

  Lin Sanjiu had stopped trying to look upward. Even with her posthuman vision, the rock walls were as high as her eyes could see. White light flooded from the opening above. When she looked up for the first time, Lin Sanjiu took quite a few seconds to recognize that she was looking at the sky from the opening far away.

  Sighing, Lin Sanjiu fumbled through the two rock walls and took a few more steps forward. There was a thin layer of soil on the rocky surface which allowed a few malnourished green plants to sprout, although, just like the people in the fleshy prison, they were on the verge of dying.

  Lin Sanjiu remembered clearly that she had entered a pocket dimension with the members of Smiling Mermaid. However, she had no idea how she ended up waking in a fleshy cavity, right at the bottom of a deep ravine.

  After the fleshy cavity had been destroyed, slippery fluids poured out from it. Every time Lin Sanjiu took a step, she could hear the squelchy sounds that her boots made. Under the dim daylight from above, the gruesome deep-red walls of the fleshy cavity gradually dried up and became dark brown, as if it was near death. Regardless of what that thing was, Lin Sanjiu's attack had killed it.

  —

  Carrying the people out from that fleshy prison was harder than she thought. Though a few people looked healthy, most of them were emaciated as they had been in a coma for a long time without any form of nutrition. When Lin Sanjiu tried to carry a girl, she accidentally moved the girl's t.h.i.g.h. She heard a crack. The girl's leg bone was dislocated. It slipped from her pelvis bone leaving only a thin layer of yellow skin holding her leg to her body.