Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu sat on the ground, looking at Yu Yuan dully.

Silvan and Meme rushed over and came to her side after they heard the noise that scattered the mist. Their gazes landed on the human body under the glow of the torchlight and neither said a word.

It was Yu Yuan’s back that almost tripped Lin Sanjiu. The circle of light from the torchlight revealed his prone form on the ground amid the thick mist. His legs were in a kneeling position and were curved under his body, his hands laid straight in front.

The silence continued to grow as they all stared at him.

“W-What is he doing? Isn’t he the big brother who came out just now? Is… is he still alive?” Meme spoke up first, shattering the silence with his shaking voice. Carrying a bag of equipment that was much bigger and taller than himself, Meme’s body was taut like a tightly wound spring. He gripped the strap of the bag firmly while fixiating his eyes on Yu Yuan.

His voice subsided, but no answer came.

Meme arduously moved his gaze away from Yu Yuan’s body, his face immediately turning pale.

“What are you doing? Hey, what are you trying to—” He forgot to lower his voice, and it cracked in that moment.

It wasn’t until she felt her arm being tugged by another hand and lifting her up that Lin Sanjiu recovered her senses. She looked up and through the mist, saw Meme’s nervous face with his furrowed brows. He asked, “Why are you crawling around on the ground?”

Frightened, she looked down again, only to realize her legs had curled up and were kneeling on the ground. If it was not for Meme waking her, she would be in the same posture as Yu Yuan.

“I… have no idea,” she muttered, feeling like she was speaking the truth. Like how birds migrated to the south at the right season, she was driven by her instinct. She looked up and glanced over at Meme. Her expression then froze.

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 desire 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 desire 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 force 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!”