Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  With a metallic sound, the redhead woman’s nails suddenly grew by half a meter, it shined with a faint l.u.s.ter in the dark. She laughed and said, ”I wanted to see how far people in this world have evolved.”

  Just as redhead woman’s nails extended, Lin Sanjiu kicked the chair forward to block the path of the two people. At lightning speed, Lin Sanjiu turned and ran; fortunately, she did not close the door when she entered so she had an escape route.

  Without even turning her head once, she sprinted for the stairways exit, skipping steps as she ran down the stairs. She could hear the immediate footsteps behind her; they continued to chase after her. Midway, she could even hear the young man complaining, “She injured me again!”

  She rolled a meter forward, turned her head and realized that the pair were about to reach her, just as they reached out towards her…

  A piece of white thing was abruptly flung into the air by Lin Sanjiu. With a thought in her mind, two large metal gates appeared out of nowhere in mid-air. It fell from mid-air with a swoosh of air, falling heavily on the young man as he shrieked. Lin Sanjiu fell to the ground as her legs gave way under her.

  The young man could no longer get up, but she did not feel even slightly happy. After all, the redhead lady was the one that posed the largest threat to her, yet she was standing without a scratch at the side of the metal gate!

  But, Lin Sanjiu could not run any longer. Each time she transformed a card, it took energy from her. Reverting the metal gate back to its original form had sapped the very last bit of energy that Lin Sanjiu had. Right now, she could not even stand up, so she laid on the ground staring at the redhead woman, feeling extremely bitter.

  Unexpected, the redhead woman sighed and did not continue chasing her. She remained where she was and sat down. She frowned and turned back to talk to the youth,”Why are you so stupid?”

  The youth who was trapped under the heavy metal gates did not actually seem to be mortally injured. He tried hard to cough out twice, gasped, then retorted, ”I am made of real flesh and blood, I am real and corporeal; obviously I can’t run as fast as you!” he coughed twice, “I feel terrible… the metal gate is pressing against my windpipe…”

  The redhead woman tutted and smiled coldly as she said, “Yeah, you are made of a body of fats. That’s why you are so slow. I don’t know how you were able to survive till today.”

  “Well, that is obviously because I have a very high growth potential!”

  Lin Sanjiu could not believe her eyes as she saw the two people, who had chased after her, bickering with each other as if they had forgotten about her existence entirely.

  “What?” The young man stuck his head through the metal rails of the metal gates and looked at her with astonishment. “Big Sis, did you think we were trying to kill you? No wonder you ran like crazy. I was yelling at you, but you did not stop… My evolution is already that advanced, why would I bother to kill you. You are like a newly hatched chick. How would that benefit me?”

  Looking at the highly evolved person who was stuck under the metal gates, Lin Sanjiu mouth twitched, but she did not say a word. At the same time, she felt her heart falling heavily back into her stomach. It was great that they were not hostile, but….

  “Big Sis, please get rid of the metal gates. I am almost flattened by it now.” the young man w.h.i.n.ed noticing that no one spoke a word.

  Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the redhead woman who was sitting on the ground. She did not know why the woman did not try to help. Hesitating for a moment, she replied coolly, “I can do that, but both of you should introduce yourselves first.”

  “Yes, we should. I am Luther. It was nice knowing you. Do you want to shake my hand?” The young man leaned his head against the metal rails. Probably because he spotted Lin Sanjiu rolling her eyes, he quickly laughed and said, “Oh! Yes. This is one of my alternate personalities, she is called Marcie.”

  Lin Sanjiu’s eyes widened. “Your other personality?”

  “That’s right. Before the New World arrived where I came from, I was the second person on the entire earth that was diagnosed with having a genuine case of Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Luther sounded exceptionally proud when he said this. He tried his best to raise his chin, ”After that, I evolved. I could separate Marcie as an individual entity, but we can’t be too far apart… Well, I won’t tell you too much about my abilities. Don’t ask me about how I knew your parents; this is also part of my abilities…” He was aware that he almost revealed too much and quickly tried to conceal his words saying, “Anyway, in short, Marcie is a biologist. She is very interested in humans who have just evolved, so she was a little too eager just now.”

  Lin Sanjiu looked over to Marcie as she nodded with a serious face.

  “But she extended her nails…” Lin Sanjiu looked at Marcie’s nails, perplexed. Under her flashlight, those ten fingernails were now back to their normal form, short and rounded.

  “Wait, you are saying that not only can you evolve and gain abilities. But even your personalities can do that?” Lin Sanjiu was really shocked. Luther was indeed worthy of the title of Heavenly King of Potential (this was what he called himself). “That means, if you continue evolving, you will become a single person with the power of a whole army?”

  “It is not that simple…” Luther said with a difficult expression. “At this moment, my ability is pretty useless. Other than her nails, Marcie can’t even hurt a person right now. Alright. I can’t tell you any more about my power; it is too dangerous. Just let me out from under here. We can talk it through if we have any other misunderstandings.”

  Lin Sanjiu exhaled deeply. Perhaps, suddenly seeing her dead parents was too strange that it spooked her. After speaking to Luther, she realized that she did not feel any malice from him or Marcie. She grimaced and admitted, “It is not that I don’t wish to release you from under the metal gates, but I really don’t have the energy right now. I need to rest for a while. Why don’t you tell me more about this thing called New World…”

  Just as she finished her sentence, they suddenly hear an odd “Ah gu?” sound coming out from the guardhouse.

  Marcie, who had been sitting silent, suddenly jumped up. With a grave look, she whispered, “Damn it.”

  [1] The original term can also be interpreted as evolved human. In the context of this novel, the term ‘posthuman’ carries the a better intended meaning of the author.

  Chapter 6 - Outcome of the First Battle… Fled

  “You are new, so you don’t know this…” Marcie said hurriedly; she was speaking much faster. “To adapt to a New World, two evolutionary pathways exist for humans.”

  “Ah Gu?” An almost perplexed-sounding guttural voice came again from the guardhouse.

  “You, Luther and me, all belong to the first type of evolution. For those that belong to the second type, we call them ‘duoluozhong’[1].”

  Lin Sanjiu raised her head absently. At the moment, she was still unaware what was happening.

  While Marcie was rushing to finish her sentences, the door handle illuminated by Lin Sanjiu’s flashlight started to turn slowly. With a “click”, the door opened.

  Marcie took a deep breath. “Duoluozhongs will do anything to survive. Since I don’t have any combat abilities at all, we will have to depend on you to defeat the duoluozhong. Otherwise, we will not survive this!” Her words shot out quickly like a machine gun. Just as she finished her sentence, she jumped up to the tree beside them, before Lin Sanjiu could even react.

  Lin Sanjiu looked at the spot that Marcie disappeared from, dumbstruck. Then, she looked at Luther who was lying on the ground. Luther smiled at her rather helplessly, showing his sharp bucktooth. “Big Sis, I can’t move anyway… stop looking at me, the duoluozhong is coming out!”

  She scrambled with her flashlight before pointing it back to the door of the guardhouse. When Lin Sanjiu’s gaze reached the door, she shoved and swallowed her intended “Don’t call me Big Sis!” reply back int
o her stomach. She had never seen such a disgusting thing…

  Its wrinkled, viscous-looking dark brown skin clung tightly to its skeleton. At its joints, the excess skin acc.u.mulated in layers. It had shrunk to half the size of its original human body — other than its bones and skin, there was not a single piece of flesh on its entire body; it was as if they had all been totally extracted. Above all, the worst thing, which raised goosebumps, was that barely human-like head. The area where its nose and mouth should have been was replaced with a large, long and slender, needle-like instrument which was like a mosquito mouthpiece. As the duoluozhong approached, saliva dripped from that needle-like instrument drop by drop.

  “Gu... You’re all so beautiful…”

  Unexpectedly, that needle-like instrument similar to a mosquito mouthpiece actually produced a drone of human speech. “Your skins look so supple… they must be so moist…”

  Lin Sanjiu froze on the spot. Suddenly, there was a whisper from the ground beside her. “Big Sis, we are all counting on you!”

  The voice did not belong to Luther. Lin Sanjiu turned her head and found that it was not a handsome young man that was trapped under the metal gates. Instead, in his place, there was a honest-looking girl who was about ten. She had rosy cheeks and looked like a kid from the countryside.

  [Apparently, one of Luther’s ability was shapeshifting. Furthermore, the appearance of his transformation probably depended on his target…] Just as this thought flashed across her mind, Lin Sanjiu scolded back, indignantly, “I’m also injured!” She quickly took two steps back. As she retreated, Luther was revealed. Under the dim light from the flashlight, his small face showed an expression that was on the brink of tears.

  Seeing Luther, the desiccated corpse-like duoluozhong, with a mosquito mouthpart, paused for a moment, visibly.

  Lin Sanjiu stealthily shifted her position a little.

  “Sis?” the "desiccated corpse" suddenly stepped two steps forward. It scared Lin Sanjiu, and she retreated one meter backward; she was on full alert. Yet, the “desiccated corpse” did not even give her a glance. Its pair of exposed eyeballs stared directly at Luther, “Sis, what are you doing here?”

  The "desiccated corpse" was too close. Before it could finish its sentence, the salivary fluid from its mouthpart had already dripped over Luther’s face. It was clear that Luther shuddered for a moment from the disgust, yet he managed to control his expression perfectly, ”Brother, I came here to look for you… Help, help me. The weight of the metal gates is hurting me…”

  The "desiccated corpse" hesitated for a while, seeming to harbor an unknown thought. It turned a deaf ear to Luther’s plea and sighed in a low voice, “Sis, you shouldn’t have come. You shouldn’t have come…”

  Noticing that the "desiccated corpse" in front of her was totally distracted, Lin Sanjiu rushed to the tree where Marcie was on and waved her hands. She gave Marcie a few signals — retreating further and further away as she signaled.

  Marcie jumped over to another nearby tree silently. She slid down the tree truck and hurried over to join Lin Sanjiu. [Fortunately, the monster had retained its rationality and human nature; otherwise, the situation would have been thorny…] This thought barely appeared in Lin Sanjiu’s mind when the "desiccated corpse" suddenly lifted its head and made a series of intense buzzing sounds. Surprisingly, it managed to swing its sharp mouthpart nimbly in the air for a few times; as it did this everything nearby was covered in its saliva.

  “But sis, I am very happy!” it continued in an ear-piercing buzzing voice; there was a cheeriness in its tone. “The body fluid from a family member is a great supplement for your brother… I am so happy. I don’t even have to go home, and you came here by yourself!”

  That chilling sentence nearly scared the souls out of the three of them. No one would have guessed that Luther would suddenly be treated as a defenseless piece of meat. As Luther saw the "desiccated corpse" eagerly lifting its mouthpart, he cried out in fear, “Marcie, save me!”

  “Don’t!” Before Lin Sanjiu could block her, Marcie had already run past her. Lin Sanjiu was so mad that she stomped her feet before she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

  Nevertheless, Marcie had made the right decision. Just when the sharp mouthpart was about to pierce into Luther’s c.h.e.s.t, she violently hit it with her long metal nails.

  The mouthpart was pushed upward while Marcie’s nails, which appeared powerful, were smashed into bits and falling all over the ground. It was after all only for drawing blood.

  Facing a small obstruction, the exposed eyeballs of the "desiccated corpse" turned toward Marcie. It did not have even the slightest interest in her; instead, it buzzed: “Get lost! False blood and flesh… Sis, I am coming…” When it lowered its head, it paused. “Huh? Who are you? Where is my sister?”

  The two "desiccated corpse" stared at each other for a few seconds.

  “Did you absorbed my younger sister?” Perhaps, the "desiccated corpse" was not that intelligent. As it realized that the flesh from its family member it was so close to getting suddenly disappeared, its mouthpart vibrated rapidly in fury, “Gu… Agh… Gu… Agh… I will kill you!”

  This time round, it lifted its mouthpart much faster. Just when Marcie was about to block it with her arm, the "desiccated corpse" whirled its mouthpart to one side and pushed her away. She flew backward, landing heavily on the ground nearby.

  As he saw the sharp instrument coming down on him again, Luther closed her eyes, quietly preparing himself for his imminent death...

  He only heard a loud “Clash!” and with this, the expected stab disappeared. Luther immediately opened his eyes. At that moment, he spotted Lin Sanjiu making an urgent brake, she stopped the car exactly beside the metal gates. At the same time, the "desiccated corpse" was knocked two to three meters away by the Audi.

  Lin Sanjiu pushed open the car doors and jumped out. As she placed her hand on the metal gates, she shouted over to Marcie, loudly, “Marcie! Quick! Come over to drive the car!”

  The “desiccate corpse” stood up furiously and approached them in large strides. The knock from the car had left it unscathed. Its angry buzzing voice seemed to grow even sharper, but Marcie was one step ahead. Just as Lin Sanjiu got down from the car, she rushed over towards them.

  A white light flashed across her palm a few times; Lin Sanjiu’s body dripped with sweat as if she was standing under a showerhead. Her arm trembled more and more, but there was not the slightest hint that the metal gates were disappearing…

  Marcie threw herself into the car, she used one of her hand to open the back door of the car and yelled anxiously, “Quick, quick! It’s reaching us!”

  “Get into the car!” Luther’s voice rang abrupted from behind her.

  It turned out that Luther managed to get out under the gates when it disappeared for a moment. He rushed into the back seat. Just as he turned to look over, he saw the nearby "desiccated corpse" suddenly lunging its mouthpart forward, toward Lin Sanjiu. “Dodge!”

  Lin Sanjiu did not even have the time to turn her head, she just quickly pushed herself down to the ground. At the same time, Marcie kicked the car door open with her leg and, once again, it blocked the mouthpart, which hit against the car window, just in time. “Smash!” The windows shattered into a million pieces. Within this split second, Luther had already scrambled over and pulled Lin Sanjiu into the car. He did not even care to close the door, but instead repeatedly said, “Go! Go! Go!”

  As she saw the "desiccated corpse" lunging towards them again, Marcie turned the steering wheel vigorously. The car barely brushed past the side of the "desiccated corpse", and they heard an eerie scraping sound…

  She hit the accelerator all the way down, and the Audi sped away, leaving the "desiccated corpse" far behind them.

  Everyone in the car only managed to calm down and take a breath after the door was closed. Lin Sanjiu’s mobile phone had already fallen out at the entrance of the residential complex at s
ome unknown time. At that moment, Luther and her leaned against the back seat and stared through the rear window. Under the hazy light from the flashlight of her phone, they could see the "desiccated corpse" swaying as it chased after them for a few steps. Seeing the widening distance between them, it finally gave up. Appearing to stop and think for a moment, the "desiccated corpse" turned and walked into the residential complex.

  There probably would not be any survivors left in the Rongjun Residential Complex.

  “Apparently, the weakness of the duoluozhong here is the slow speed of their movement,” Marcie said as she wiped her sweat and looked into the rearview mirror.

  Lin Sanjiu gave the two of them a bottle of water each, from her stash she kept in the car. She, herself, gulped down a half a bottle of water. She sat in a daze not knowing what to say. The events that happened today, in merely a few short hours, simply felt like a dream…

  “And it seems like we can really coordinate quite well!” From the rearview mirror, they could see Marcie’s smile as she lifted one of her eyebrows.

  She was barely acquainted with them, yet they have already fought alongside each other in a life and death battle. Looking at the two people, Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly for the first time today: “That’s right. So, can we talk about this goddamn world now?”

  Translator’s note: [1] “Duoluozhong” can also be translated as fallen/degenerate type.

  Chapter 7 - This New World

  Under Lin Sanjiu directions, Marcie drove all the way to the 38-floor c.o.n.d.o.minium and parked the car in a secluded spot for them to rest. This was a high-end residential estate after all, so there were lesser people compared to the outside. Even in this world that had changed beyond recognition, the garden still looked unusually peaceful now.

  Hesitating for a moment, Lin Sanjiu sealed the broken window and switched on the air conditioner. Zhu Mei was no longer around… it made no sense to save that electricity. A cool environment would not only help her recover her strength, it would also be good for that wound on her neck. At least, it would reduce the chances of infection under such high temperatures… Despite how logical her decision was, she could not help feeling somewhat crestfallen as the cool wind started to blow.