Doomsday Wonderland

A soft snapping sound, like that of a broken twig, broke the morning silence. Before the sound even faded into the background, Lin Sanjiu suddenly opened her eyes and sat up quietly.

She could sense the forest around the camping ground even without walking out from the wooden cabin. The leaves bristling in the wind, the sounds of twigs breaking, the sounds of birds flying… They all came together to create the tranquil sounds of the forest.

The night sky was accompanied by a trail of silver-gray skirting. The fog made everything outside seem like a muddled mess. The sun had not fully risen. The cold air left a layer of condensation and dew on the surface of the glass windows.

Lin Sanjiu turned around and got down from her bed. She stared at the glass window and slowly approached it. Her grand prize had lit the fireplace the night before, so it was a lot warmer indoors compared to the forest outside. Lin Sanjiu stuck her hand toward the window and wiped some of the condensations lightly with her finger. The glass window gradually grew clearer after some squeaking sounds. It finally showed the true colors from the outside world.

Dull red lips, yellowish skin and a pair of unmoving, round black eyes…

A stranger’s face with a rigid expression was staring straight back at Lin Sanjiu through the window. The latter inhaled, sprung up, and reached out to open the window. The person outside the window seemed startled. He turned and ran. While he ran, he shouted, “They’re awake! They’re awake! Get ready! They’re coming out!”

“Oh, it’s another lunatic.” Lin Sanjiu hit the window frame and exhaled. The noise woke Ji Shanqing, who was behind her. On the other hand, Qing Jiuliu was the only one fast asleep after a hearty drinking session last night.

Lin Sanjiu opened the wooden door and the cold morning wet air slipped in immediately. Before she took a step forward, she blinked. Her higher consciousness flooded forward. It hit a small black shadow which was heading toward her and flung the projectile far into the forest.

“Doggo, what are you doing!” the skinny old man from yesterday was holding a basin. He stuck his head out from his cabin and yelled, “Put down that rock!”

The man, apparently called Doggo, was the person who was previously at the window. As Doggo bent to pick more rocks from the ground, he continued throwing rocks toward Lin Sanjiu. As he did this, he continued yelling, “Don’t lie! All of you are not humans! I know you are not humans… You killed all the earthlings… All of you…”

Lin Sanjiu knitted her brows. Using her higher consciousness, she repelled the rocks which flew in all directions. Doggo froze for two seconds and acted as if he had seen a ghost. Following which, he shouted at her as if he had gotten the evidence he needed to justify his claimed, “ALIEN!”

“Go back!” the old man placed his basin down. He walked over with his skinny, twig-like legs and heaved with each step before he finally managed to chase Doggo away. After that, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and apologized, “This old man wakes up early, so they are early-risers too. We’re sorry to disturb you…”

Under the foggy grey skies, the old man was all bones and skin from his long-term malnutrition. Naturally, Lin Sanjiu wasn’t angry with him. She nodded and turned to another wooden cabin. There were two faces peeking from the windows of that cabin. Once their gazes crossed Lin Sanjiu’s, they quickly shrunk backward.

“I’ll boil some warm water in the morning,” the old man pointed toward his own cabin. “Why don’t you wash your faces and drink a bit of warm water before you go on your way?” he looked to Lin Sanjiu and the grand prize.

She had not said anything but he had already used his own means to “remind” her to leave. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help finding it a little funny. She didn’t want to make things difficult for him so she nodded. Ji Shanqing was even happier. He even asked if he could wash his hair.

Just like the man himself, the old man’s cabin reeked with a slight old person smell. The old man introduced himself with his surname, Ke. He even joked that his name had cursed the people around him. While he said that, his crazy son remained in a corner watching Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing with a cautious and fearful expression.

“It must be hard on you to take care of them yourself, right?” Lin Sanjiu asked after looking around in the cabin.

“There is nothing hard about it,” Old Ke held a pot of boiling water with some effort. The veins on his skinny black arms popped from his exertion. He poured a cup of water for both of them each before continuing, “If I didn’t need to take care of them, I wouldn’t have survived so long.”

“Surviving with only that bit of intravenous drips, his body should be very weak. With that skinny, undernourished body of his, he had to take care of the few mental patients in the camping ground. Such a burden would have been unimaginably difficult even if there wasn’t an apocalypse.”

Watching the steam spouting from the plastic cup, Lin Sanjiu suddenly realized she couldn’t help these people even one bit. She could neither feed the old man nor let his son become well again.

“Miss, do you want to wash your hair?” Old Ke asked as he placed the pot down. He did not forget the grand prize’s request. “I have a pot of water here. It might not be enough. Wait for a while and I can boil more for you…”

Ji Shanqing shook his shoulders before he withdrew his gaze from an unknown direction. He immediately relaxed his brows. “It’s alright, I won’t wash my hair,” he laughed. “It’s too troublesome for you.”

Old Ke accepted it as it was probably because he didn’t have much strength to spare. He sat in the chair opposite from them, “Alright. Drink some water, you two. Drink some water.”

Even if she was a posthuman, that boiling water would definitely scald her tongue if she drank it immediately. Lin Sanjiu held the cup without moving. She was just about to ask another question when they suddenly heard a series of shouting noises from outside. Old Ke heaved a sigh. The wooden door swung open before he could stand.

A short man who was just as skinny as Old Ke stood at the doorway with a grim and vigilant expression. When he saw the old man, he lowered his voice and reported to the old man acting like he was a secret agent, “I found the two abandoned aliens. One of them is unconscious while the other had been captured by Doggo…”

Before he finished his sentence, he looked around the cabin and noticed Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing. With his mouth wide open, he did not continue.

Lin Sanjiu massaged the area between her brows. She could already hear Qing Jiuliu’s unhappy grumbling voice. Old Ke seemed hard-pressed as he quickly said, “I’ll go resolve the issue” before he headed out.

Hearing the noises outside, Lin Sanjiu was still worried so she walked to the window and looked out.

Looking out from Old Ke’s wooden cabin, Lin Sanjiu could see almost the entire camping ground. The other window was facing the wooden cabin where the mental patients were. She could look directly into their cabin. Even the curtains of their cabin had been taken down probably so that the old man could monitor anything unusual.

At that moment, Qing Jiuliu was standing between Old Ke and Doggo. He frowned as he massaged his temples in pain. He was still sleepy and hungover when a person pulled his ears and yelled at him. This apparently exacerbated his headache. After a while, Qing Jiuliu nodded after Old Ke said something. He started heading toward the old man’s cabin.

Old Ke sighed and said a few words to the mental patient. After that, the old man walked feebly back to the cabin where Lin Sanjiu was and closed the door. It was only then that Lin Sanjiu felt relieved and less worried about Magus, who was still in the other cabin.

She had returned to her seat when Qing Jiuliu opened the door and entered the cabin. He scared the crazy son so badly that the man started trembling and his face started quivering. Qing Jiuliu looked around the cabin lazily before he threw himself into Old Ke’s chair and crossed his legs.

“Is Magus alright?” Lin Sanjiu asked.

“Why don’t you ask about my condition? She has been treated way better,” Qing Jiuliu looked as though he was going to melt into the chair and just slip off it. He rested his head on the table, “My head hurts badly. It would be great if I could have a glass of whiskey now…”

Lin Sanjiu ignored him and did not take the liquor cabinet out for him. She tapped on the plastic cup, “There’s only water.”

Qing Jiuliu moaned.

“Isn’t it strange…” Ji Shanqing commented as he looked at his own cup. He held his chin as he remarked, “These lunatics have the same delusion. Of all things, it had to be aliens.”

When he heard that term, the man in the corner of the cabin shuddered. He was made to stay by his father. His face had turned pallid white from being alone with these “aliens” in the cabin. Qing Jiuliu tossed a glance at him and smiled, “This father and son duo look so different.”

Judging from the noise outside the wooden cabin, Old Ke seemed to be trying to convince the mental patients to return to their own cabin. As an “alien” herself, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t go out to help him. She could only look around the old man’s cabin while doing nothing.

Apart from the two bed and the table set, Old Ke barely had any belongings. She didn’t know how he lived his life. There were only two sets of clothes and a towel on his clothing rack. Other than that, there was only a basin and a pair of slippers.

Creak. The wooden door opened with a creak as the old man entered with a troubled face.

He was holding a teacup which looked a little old. He placed it in front of Qing Jiuliu as if it was a form of apology, “There’s nothing I can do. They react that way every time they see aliens. To them, anyone other than the people in this camp is an alien who is wearing human skin… Sigh, when there are no visitors, they’re usually easy to manage. Things get out of hand whenever there are other people.”

Lin Sanjiu immediately understood why Old Ke wanted them to leave so quickly. She couldn’t help feeling embarrassed when she realized that she had troubled him without being able to provide any help. She raised the cup and gave him an apologetic smile, “Thanks for the warm water. We’ll leave immediately after we drink it.”

As she spoke, she raised the cup to her lips. The water wasn’t as hot as it was before. When she held the mouthful of water in her mouth, it felt comfortable. That was until Lin Sanjiu tasted the sweetness of the water.

Old Ke narrowed his eyes into two crescents. His lip curled. “Drink up,” he said softly, “all you aliens.”