Doomsday Wonderland

Regardless of your identity, whether you had been kissed or not, or what kind of life you led in the past, everything would disappear the moment you stepped on the land of Shambhala.

Right now, they were approaching their destination.

Following the choppers in front, the skytrain traversed in the ever-surging thick fog for almost an hour. Silvan had shut down every radar system, making them disappear off the grid. The world seemed dead. Aside from the rumbling of the engine and the chuffing of the chopper, there was only an eerily silence.

Everybody was sitting in their own seats. Some of them were taking a nap while others just stared blankly into the fog-laden sky. No matter what they were doing, all of them were waiting for the same thing—the final moment.

Lin Sanjiu was forced back to reality by a noise.

“Captain, wake up. Captain!”

She peeled her eyes open and saw the scrawny boy standing beside Silvan. He looked a little nervous as he held the back of the chair with his hand. His back was stiffened into an arc, making him look like a frozen shrimp. His lips were as pale as his pallid skin, which accentuated the acne scars that marred his cheeks.

The man with golden hair who sat opposite of her flipped his eyelids open and responded in a drowsy voice, “Yes?”

He seemed tired, so like everybody else, he took a small nap.

“Captain, er, I,” the boy’s voice faltered when he locked his gaze with Silvan, “I… I want to ask…”

“Yes. Spit it out.”

“Erm… our radar… Do you know that our radar has been offline since we stepped onto the skytrain?”

“Yes, I know,” Silvan smiled. He stretched his body and found himself a comfortable sitting pose. “Is there anything wrong?”

“Don’t you think it is weird?” The boy suddenly raised his voice. “We don’t even know where we are now and which way we’re heading. And, and there is fog everywhere, so—so—”

It was at this moment that he realized something was amiss. He turned his head and then he snapped his mouth close. Everybody was looking at him right now. Neutral expressions sat obediently on their faces.

The boy was good at reading the atmosphere. Even though his face turned pale, he changed his sentence in the end. “So how can we get to Shambhala?”

Even Lin Sanjiu could see that that wasn’t what he intended to say at the start.

“That’s weird,” his captain raised his hand and played with his golden hair, “Can’t you sense the bio-navigation inside of your body?”

“Bio… naviga—what?”

“Where is Shambhala?” Silvan suddenly asked. Though he held the boy’s gaze, he was not asking him. Before his voice died away, everybody in the skytrain stretched their arms and pointed towards the right.

The boy recoiled in panic. He shrunk back a little and that made his shoulders look even smaller and his head larger. “I… I understand. I just did not notice it until now.” There was apparent panic on his face. He gulped heavily, his distinctive Adam’s apple descending into his chest as he peeked at Silvan. “Captain… Do you have the bio-navigation thing as well?”

“Of course.”

For a few seconds, the boy was dumbstruck. Just as he recollected his senses and was about to walk back to his seat while murmuring something under his breath, Silvan called out to him.

“You sit beside me,” ordered Silvan. “After we arrive at our destination, stay close to me all the time.”

Keeping his head low, the boy sat down, his body shaking fitfully. He darted glances at Silvan from time to time, but what he did not know was that while he was observing his captain, Lin Sanjiu was studying him as well.

“What is your name?” Lin Sanjiu suddenly asked, making him jump. He shrunk back a little and raised his head to look at Silvan. After receiving a nod of approval from Silvan, only then did he reply to Lin Sanjiu warily, “My name is Meme.”

Meme seemed to hold Silvan in high regard.

Lin Sanjiu fell silent. She examined the boy from the corner of her eye. The boy looked young. His face was blemished with acne scars and his facial features were flat, but his eyes were bright. He tilted his head slightly and thought about something before asking Silvan, “Captain, have you been to Shambhala before?”

Silvan shook his head. “No, I have never been to Shambhala before.”

“Then… why do you want to go to Shambhala so much?” Meme pitched his voice very low, so even though Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan were sitting opposite them, they could not hear him well. As soon as Silvan heard his question, he jerked his head up. He looked into Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan’s eyes, and the three of them could see the perplexity in each other’s faces.

Why did they want to go to Shambhala so much? What was so special about this place?

Meme waited for a while, yet he received no response from his captain. He could see the bewilderment on Silvan’s face. He knew something was wrong with his captain, and when he spoke again, his voice was thick with desperation, “Captain… please think about it carefully… What is that place? Can you tell me why y… why we are all so hell-bent on going to Shambhala? Why don’t we return to the Munitions Factory first?”

Silvan let out a sigh as he planted his face into his palms. His golden hair slipped down and covered his knuckles. Using the interplay of shadow and light, it delineated the outline of his knuckles.

Meme continued, his voice was shaky. It seemed to Lin Sanjiu that he genuinely cared for Silvan. “Captain? Are you okay?”

Before Silvan could reply, a palm landed on the boy’s shoulder. A middle-aged woman dressed in a security department uniform pulled him up from his chair. Just as she was about to plant her lips on his, Meme came to and struggled with all his worth. He twisted his head as far away as possible from the woman, his veins bulging from his neck. “What are you doing? I have been kissed! I have been kissed! Captain, help me!”

‘He’s given himself away…’

Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at the two people in front of her. She felt that Mrs. Manas’s voice had become louder in her brain. Two opposing voices were tearing her apart. “Let go of him!” By the time she heard the screaming, she realized it was her who had screamed. “Let him go! We don’t need to spread it to him anymore!”

The middle-aged woman turned her head to look at Lin Sanjiu, but she did not release her hand, “Why?”

Standing stock-still, Lin Sanjiu did not avert her eyes. Meme was disturbed with fear, but he was curious as to why Lin Sanjiu would help him at this moment. He tried to peek at Lin Sanjiu through the corner of his eyes while facing another direction, as he feared that somebody might seize the chance and kiss him.

“Because Shambhala is here,” she slowly said.

The light in Meme’s eyes distinguished when he heard what Lin Sanjiu said. As he turned his neck with an abysmal level of animatronic stiffness, the middle-aged woman released her deadly grip. She pounced towards the window, and the sound of her head knocking on the window made Meme jump. Everyone in the skytrain rose to their feet as they looked outside through the window.

The greyish mist dispersed as the choppers began to descend. The land below them was barren and artic white. The skytrain followed the choppers and landed on the ground with a loud thump, causing everyone to get thrown into the air. They soon rose to their feet and regained their balance. Their eyes were gleaming brightly.

“We’ve arrived!” somebody yelled excitedly. “We’ve arrived!”

“Shambhala!”

“Quick! What are you still waiting for? Open the door and let us out!”

People were shouting and crying tears of joy on the train. Before Silvan could issue an order, the staff members from the security department opened the door. The light and fog found their way and spilled into the train, causing the temperature in the train to drop as the freezing fog lingered around the people’s noses like pieces of broken ice on the water.

“Let’s go!” a posthuman hollered out. Before the staff member could move away, the posthuman pushed him out into the fog and then dashed out. When the remaining posthumans saw that somebody had gotten out, they became restless. Their docile temperaments evaporated as they began to push each other and thrust their way towards the exit.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart was jumping fast beneath her chest. Her skin tingled as her blood flow became faster and faster. She didn’t even feel this excited on her first date. Be that as it may, she, Silvan, and Yu Yuan were the only group of people who weren’t dashing towards the exit. It wasn’t because they did not want to go out yet, but that somebody was gripping their hands very tightly.

“Please!” Meme’s eyes glistened with tears of fear as he pleaded, “Captain! Captain! Please think again! There’s nothing wrong with your body, so why do you want to come here so much?”

He tugged at Silvan’s sleeve while holding Lin Sanjiu’s hand tightly.

He knew that there was nothing he could do to stop his captain from leaving if he let Lin Sanjiu go. Hence, Meme daren’t let go of his hand. He squatted on the ground and pleaded again and again, “Captain! Captain! Please wait another five minutes! Just five minutes will do!”

There was nobody holding Yu Yuan, but since Lin Sanjiu couldn’t go, he didn’t either. He stamped his feet impatiently as he shouted, “What are you doing? Just shrug him off! Shambhala is just in front of us! We don’t have time to waste, we have to go now!”

As they were speaking, everyone already got off the train and stepped into the thick greyish fog outside. The fog billowed like boiling water. It engulfed anyone who dared to walk into it instantly, leaving only their laughter behind.

“Please wait another five minutes, captain!” Meme refused to let go of Silvan. If Silvan insisted on going down from the train, Lin Sanjiu was certain that he would let her go so that he could use both of his hands to keep his captain from disembarking the train. Part of Lin Sanjiu wanted to rush into the fog, but another part was shouting at her, telling her not to move. Torn between the two opposing factions inside of her, Lin Sanjiu did not go down from the train but stared fixedly at Meme.

“Listen!” the boy almost cried. “There is no sound out there!”

The three of them froze. They pricked their ears, and as Meme said, there was only silence outside the fog.

The people who went out just now were gone.