Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Though his physique might not look decent, his response was quick. He only saw the expression of her face for a second, yet he immediately jumped aside and scanned the periphery with the corner of his eyes. He then quickly jumped back anxiously and angrily. "Captain! Captain!"

  One of Silvan's knees were already on the ground. He was shaken back to his senses by Meme after a few powerful tugs on his uniform. Silvan looked up, seeming dazed. He looked at his knees and said quietly, "What happened to me?"

  "Captain, you and her… and this man…" Meme's lips were trembling, unsure how to explain.

  Lin Sanjiu, still on her knees, interrupted the boy with her softened voice, "You… Are you trying to be like Yu Yuan? Crawling on the ground?"

  Silvan glanced over at Yu Yuan and nodded. His golden hair slid off the edge of his brows, hiding his calm expression behind the veil of gold.

  In his opinion, the scene that happened before his eyes seemed perfectly normal and natural. Like how a person would sleep when tired and drink when thirsty, there was nothing special about the urge.

  Unfortunately, Lin Sanjiu felt the same way.

  "Me too," she said while trying her best to keep herself from crawling on the ground again. The feeling was strange, as if she was doing something against the natural order of things. She felt that kneeling down, crawling on the ground, and sticking her face on the ground were the most natural and reasonable things to do. However, she fought the urge bitterly, even forcing herself to stand up in a wobbly fashion.

  "I also want to crawl on the ground. Do you think we should…" she muttered.

  The latter part of her sentence was soft and dispersed into the mist, but Meme understood her meaning. He called out nervously, "No, we should not!"

  Silvan slowly stood up and patted the dust off his body. The bluish-gray mist floated past his body, blurring his sun-like hair, adding a screen of cold and lifeless white to his face. He looked like a meticulously sculpted piece of art.

  "Why shouldn't we?" he asked softly.

  Meme looked at his superior, and realizing his higher command was talking in a serious manner, he could no longer control his fright. "Captain, are… you joking with me? Why would you think this is normal..."

  It was then that the boy's anxiety reached the brink of erupting. He dashed over to Yu Yuan's side and flipped him over by pulling his arm. Yu Yuan seemed to have fallen into a slumber; even when he was pushed to the ground, his tightly shut eyes did not even twitch.

  "Look, if the two of you crawl down, you will become like him! Your consciousness will be lost," Meme said as he squatted down, slapping Yu Yuan over and over. "Hey, wake up!"

  The young man did not open his eyes, but his breaths became rushed and his eyelids moved.

  Meme flushed and it seemed as if blood was bursting out of his head. He cursed under his breath after realizing he failed to wake up Yu Yuan. He jumped up and ran forward. Seconds after he dashed into the mist, a sudden bang came and a torchlight fell on the ground, rolling away as the boy's painful cries came, "Captain, I've tripped! Come here! Come here quick, there are even more people here!"

  The two of them exchanged gazes before they slowly walked toward the voice. Silvan panted softly and roughly; when heard through the misty environment, it sounded so clear that it felt like strands of hair tickling her ears. Lin Sanjiu could not help but take a deep breath. It seemed like he was facing the same problem as her, which was fighting the d.e.s.i.r.e to crawl down.

  The bluish-gray mist was like schools of fish, splitting up and swimming away with every step they took, but before they could catch a clear glimpse of the frontier, the thick mist rumbled and converged again.

  "Meme, don't stand up! I have something that can diffuse the mist," Lin Sanjiu shouted, followed by an "Okay" from the boy. However, though it took her a while, she still did not want to take out [Tornado Whip] from its card. There was no special reason behind her action, she just did not feel like it and thought it was an insignificant action.

  "Take it out. Everything we don't want to do must be done quickly," Silvan suddenly got close and urged her. His hair and breath got closer, and even in the thick mist, she sensed the presence of sunlight.

  "You trust Meme that much?" Lin Sanjiu asked with suspicion while summoning [Tornado Whip].

  There was a reason behind her questioning. Silvan's words obviously pointed out that he did not believe his and Lin Sanjiu's judgment. Besides themselves, they could only rely on Meme's opinion.

  "No, I don't exactly trust him, as I don't know him well. I only trust my own analysis and speculation of the current situation, even though the result is telling me to not trust my own feelings and opinion. Conflicting, isn't it?" he chuckled.

  Lin Sanjiu shook her head, as she strangely understood what he said. She removed [Tornado Whip] from its card, and since she was afraid of hurting Meme, she swung it softly. The end of the whip stirred up a gale of average strength and instantly diffused a wide area of the mist in front of them; looking like a bunch of cotton candy that caved in.

  Meme was squatting on the ground, holding his bag. He looked empty as he squinted his eyes in front of the gale.

  The mist scattered past him, revealing a large expanse of dirt and sand along with the rounded backs that crawled down across the land in a standard posture.

  The people who left the theatre with them were all currently crawling on the ground in the same position, causing them to look all like a large stretch of multi-colored mushroom caps. No one moved or made a sound. They froze in that posture as if they were dead, and they crawled on the ground in silence until the mist returned and shrouded the figures once more.

  "Captain, did you see that? I don't know what got into you two but this is not normal at all! Think about it, before today, have you ever performed this strange position in your entire life?" Meme asked softly in a hurry.

  The two of them shook their heads in silence.

  "Then don't even mention these people who came all the way here, to a strange place and are crawling on the sandy ground weirdly. Why did you do it, captain? Is it your own will?" It was chilly with the mist, but Meme was sweating.

  "Now that you mention it, it seems like it's not my own will," Lin Sanjiu said softly. She exchanged gazes with Silvan. Although the two of them were suppressing the urge to crawl on the ground, the d.e.s.i.r.e was persistent and there were times where they had the urge to grab the boy and force him down as well.

  Meme did not know what was going on in their minds, but he heaved a breath of relief after he heard what she said, as if a heavy burden was lifted.

  Silvan walked several steps forward. Further away from Meme was a back wearing the uniform of the Munitions Factory. He bent down, intending to check on the person, and Lin Sanjiu clearly saw Silvan's fingers shaking. The shaking was from the tug of war between his sanity and the uncontrollable urge.

  "Are you okay?" she could not help but ask.

  The man with the golden hair curled his fingers around the collar of the Munitions Factory staff member and dragged the person up, the mist and shadow shrouding his expression with a blurry veil. He lifted the man by the collar for a few seconds before chuckling softly. His voice trembling, he said, "I'm fine… This feeling is satisfying,"

  Meme looked up, a blank expression overspread his face.

  "The biggest enemy is yourself and I find it to be true. I am now fighting 'myself' inside my body… Come, give me a hand," Silvan laughed gravely at the other two and pointed at his throat softly.

  Meme finally responded to the situation. He quickly grabbed the staff member of the Munitions Factory by the arm and hoisted him up. The man was taller than him by a head, so he had to drag and carry the man backwards.

  Lin Sanjiu looked at Silvan absent-mindedly, wondering how he did it. It was difficult for her to even think about running away, let alone seizing the initiative to pull someone up from the ground. She bit herself strongly and used the quivering pain to forc
e herself to turn her head around. She strode toward Yu Yuan and said, "I... I'll bring Yu Yuan away..."

  Her voice weakened at the end of the sentence. Fortunately, she mustered up enough willpower to keep moving.

  The young man covered in tattoos was laying on the ground while facing the sky, just as they had left him. She stopped beside the young man and turned around to see Silvan's figure in the blurry mist. She saw him walking towards the center of the expanse of human backs.

  Mrs. Manas' voice got louder.

  Lin Sanjiu forced herself to bend over slightly, and just when she was almost done carrying Yu Yuan up, a shout came from behind her, "Be careful of their faces!"

  Chapter 780 - Twin Soul

  Face?

  Following Yu Yuan's unstable breathing, upon his youthful face, which was covered in flower-patterned tattoos, his eyes were shut and his brows were furrowed. Tattoo patterns began to extend downward from the tip of his brows to his nose and then his lips, his smooth skin glistening dimly. Lin Sanjiu was slightly frightened when she looked at his face; however, she did not notice anything strange.

  Right when she lifted her head, intending to ask 'What's wrong with your face?', she saw a sudden tremble of Silvan's shadow further away in the mist. Followed by a flurry of light, almost inaudible footsteps, he instantly disappeared.

  "Hey, where are you going?"

  The call spread further away but no answer was given.

  She anxiously looked at Yu Yuan in her arms before she turned around and glanced in the direction where Meme left. The mist blanketed the sky and earth like a curtain, and the moment before, she failed to see where the boy had gone. She did not know if Meme heard Silvan's call earlier.

  Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment. She clenched her teeth and shouldered Yu Yuan whilst making her way towards the direction where Silvan disappeared with arduousness. No longer struggling to leave, she instantly felt a lot more relaxed. Her limbs and bones felt lighter and refreshed; the closer she was to the bottom of the slope, the quicker her steps.

  Her mouth held a torchlight while one hand held Yu Yuan's arm, which lingered over her shoulder. Her idle right hand was left free to handle the unexpected. More and more people fell to the ground but most of them were dragged up and laid side by side next to each other, seeming to enjoy Silvan's work. In the blurry mist, she caught sight of several people with their heads down. She barely noticed the shadow's facial features and failed to observe any strange happenings that she needed to be cautious of.

  "Silvan!" she called out in a sharp yet soft tone. She listened carefully for a reply but received nothing in return.

  She sat Yu Yuan down and leaned his body against someone's back, beside the people who were leaning against each other. She walked towards a person who knelt down with his arms laid out straight and his face stuck to the ground.

  Silvan had not moved this person. As a matter of fact, this person was part of a queue, as no one else was carried up after him. The people's backs, which appeared like mushroom caps, spread further away in the mist.

  Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment then forced her shaky hands forward, grabbing a person by the collar.

  She mustered her strength and dragged the person up.

  Before the person's arm could continue to shake or even show his face, a black shadow jumped out of the mist. She quickly took a few steps back, and it was at that moment that Lin Sanjiu comprehended with surprise that something was not right with her body.

  She was not afraid at all.

  No matter what stage the evolution had reached, fear was one of the survival methods of humans. It had never disappeared from within posthumans, but now...

  Lin Sanjiu stood there, looking at the face emerging from the mist. It was getting clearer in the air and getting closer by the second, yet her legs did not move. It was certainly the face of a man because when she quickly looked around, she realized the person she was carrying up remained still in her arms while his head remained lowered. She released her hands, and the person fell back to the ground with a thump.

  As she gazed around, the shadow of the human face shrouded her sight.

  One eye socket had a slippery eyeball, while the other one was as black and empty as a void. His nose lacked structural support, so his flappy skin rustled with the air. His mouth slowly opened up.

  "Don't touch those! Don't move." Silvan's voice suddenly sounded from an unknown direction. The voice quickly dissipated, but it sounded close, and even the breathing of his voice was clear. "If you move and also see it, you must… resist!"

  However, his words came too late. As Lin Sanjiu's heart skipped a beat as she tried to force herself to move. In an instant, the face in the air stuck to her face—when the face's eyeball touched her forehead, it immediately became sandwiched in between the two as the eyeball slipped down. A cold and wet fishy smell filled her nose; then a purple-black tongue stuck out from that mouth and licked her cheek, the corner of her eyes caught an area of white that abruptly shone on her face.

  Mrs. Manas activated [Defense Forcefield] in the nick of time which completely covered her.

  The face wrapped Lin Sanjiu's face tightly, temporarily blinding her. She then felt something was l.i.c.k.i.n.g her [Defense Forcefield] ceaselessly as if the thing was trying to make its way in. For a few seconds, she was stunned on the spot before finally moving her body. She searched for a small knife in her card storage, forcing her shaking hands to pry away the face from her.

  When she finally forced the face off herself, she had never felt so exhausted before.

  The face fell on the ground with a splat. As her eyes glanced around in a hurry, she seemed to have caught a glimpse of the several strips of black shadow from the 'tongue', which slurped back into the lips on the ground as soon as they fell. Lin Sanjiu panting heavily, she used her knife and pried open the lips that resembled two pieces of rotten meat. However, other than some pinkish soft connective mouth tissue, all she saw was the grayish ground through the mouth.

  The person that she carried up earlier had his head lowered as he fell beside her face.

  Lin Sanjiu extended her leg and kicked him over—something rattled and a grayish-white powder spilled all over the ground from his hair. As she laid her eyes on the powder, even though she did not feel nervous or scared, she couldn't hold back the disgust that rose from her stomach.

  After the face came off his head, his skull somehow turned dry and crispy. As he was kicked over, his head shattered like a plaster figure. The back of his skull was a black empty hole, no brain, no soft tissue or anything at all; not even a drop of liquid.

  Though below the neck was still the body of a human, above it should be where the head was, yet it looked like an empty rubber ball with a wig on it.

  Lin Sanjiu fixed her gaze at that half a black 'rubber ball'. At that moment, she did not know why she was not afraid at all, despite clearly knowing that if Mrs. Manas did not respond in a timely manner, she would probably have ended up like this dead person. However, she felt that the tension chord within her was loosened, she could no longer feel nervous.

  "Right," She looked at that half-empty skull and regained her sense of self: "Silvan, where are you?"

  Other than the slowly swirling mist around her and the backs of the people crawling on the ground from further away, Silvan's figure was no longer in sight. She scanned around, then bent over and picked up from the ground a paper crane that was left behind.

  It seemed like he used this paper crane as a reminder for her.

  "Where are you," She whispered to probably the most popular communication device in the Doomsday world, "I'll go find you!"

  Lin Sanjiu let free of the paper crane, she sprinted while following it forward. The slope became steeper, as the number of people on the ground started to increase. There were a few times where she almost tripped and rolled down the slope, she really did not know how these people balanced their body on a steep slope like this.

  The fur
ther she ran, the more surprised she became.

  They only brought out a hundred or more people, compared to this wide bulging land that is shaped like an upside-down bowl, it actually was not many. However, on the land blanketed by mist, the backs of people were tightly lined up together, hands touching legs, waist to waist. The torchlight's beam could reach at most 2 to 3 meters far, and she had ran for countless 2 to 3 meters intervals and what her eyes could see were just more and more people's backs on the ground, until she realized she had nowhere to land her step anymore.

  The people that were bent down over here had far surpassed the hundreds.

  While she absent-mindedly searched for a spot to land her next step, the paper crane flapped faster and flew further, swiftly disappearing into the shadow of the mist.

  "Damn it", Lin Sanjiu grunted softly.

  She carefully looked around, she realized the people around her had a layer of ash above their clothes. The ash looked grayish-white, how long had they been crawling around here? She endured the resistance that came from her heart, then abruptly flipped over a person beside her leg—the white bone powder rumbled like smoke when the body was flipped, a half-empty skull was exposed.

  "I am here, come over."

  Silvan's soft voice scattered together with the mist and entered her ears, she lifted her head up all of a sudden.

  "Don't make a sound, be careful with your movements."

  Lin Sanjiu quickly traced the source of the voice, with every step she tread, she had to fight against the urge of tripping because she had been stepping on countless people's hands. Right, when she tried to take another step forward she tripped. Out of nowhere a figure bolted up from the ground and grabbed her by the wrist.

  She absent-mindedly lowered her head, she just could not figure out why she was this careless yet not afraid, even when she met Sivlan's jade-like eyes, she did not heave a breath of relief.

  The man with the blonde hair signed to her to keep quiet and to squat down beside him.

  Her body bent over, a sunny presence and the smell of fig enveloped her instantly, a feeling like she was saved from the fishy stench lingering in the face rushed through her. Lin Sanjiu asked softly, "What, what are you doing?"