Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t quite remember what happened afterward. It was like looking at a flower through fog; she felt that she remembered everything but when she tried to recall it, all that appeared in her mind was merely some fuzzy images.

There were times when she was lingering at the border between sleep and consciousness, and distant music would play out in her mind and leave her very confused. Up until now, she still couldn’t be sure whether her memory had gone askew or if there was really a low susurration from the speakers along the street on that day when she was in the Reverie Libretto.

Yu Yuan raised his head and looked ahead. A playful smile touched his lips, but it did not reach his eyes. The wolf head on his cheek pulled out of shape as he talked, “I think I have an idea on how to keep going forward while talking.”

‘He didn’t hear the noise?’

Lin Sanjiu pricked her ears and listened intently. She realized that the noise sounded like a musician rosining a bow. There was a faint, faraway strain of sound, as if somebody was playing piano, resonating in the sky. The sound from the piano blended with the vibration of the strings and created a calm but empowering melody that undulated in every inch of the air.

‘Is this… Mozart’s piece?’ Lin Sanjiu asked inwardly.

“Can you see the electric fence?” Suddenly, Yu Yuan’s voice came sliding into her ears and snapped her out of her thought. He was staring at the electric fence, and it seemed that he hadn’t noticed the music that was echoing in the air. “They must be leaving it constantly energized, otherwise there would be no need for it to be there. That’s what we are targeting. Shoot the fence when somebody passes by and try not to make it explode—we just need some fire sparks and a little power leakage. And then when they are thrown into disarray, we’ll finish them off one by one.”

Lin Sanjiu listened quietly and nodded. She picked up the rifle and pointed the muzzle through the gap between the branches.

Peering through the leaf, both of them stared at two police officers that were walking towards the entrance of the street.

Silence befell them. There was only the harmony of a piano and a cello echoing in the air above Peanut Town. It sounded like a sea wave pounding against a cliff or the blazing sun showering the sky with its golden lance.

When the two police officers arrived near the electric fence, a chance sprung upon them. They pulled their trigger and fired shots into the fence. As the piano key struck hard and emitted an unpleasantly loud sound, sparks rose and flames flared up from the fence.

Lin Sanjiu let out a long sigh. Her anxiety evaporated and transformed into a deep sense of gratitude.

At that moment, the melody suddenly took a sharp turn and became so loud and impressive, it was as if the sky was falling down. Both police officers screamed out loud in panic as they were pushed back toward the inflamed electric fence by the lethal barrage of bullets Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan showered on them.

Then, the rhapsodic music grew even louder, and with a twang from the cello, the fence exploded and burst into flames.

The explosion had sent panic spread across the police officers in the distance. Some of them dashed over to the electric fence while others blitzed their hiding spot with a staccato of gunshots. Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan were fast enough to lay down and avoid being hit. The bullets whistled past their heads, lodging into the rank of trees behind them.

“Let’s go to the other side,” Lin Sanjiu announced, reloading her rifle. “I will cover you.”

With that, Lin Sanjiu pulled the trigger and a gunshot rang out, which was followed by an angry note that blared from the cello. She lowered the rifle and looked ahead. There was a string of fire sparks spitting off the electric fence and going into the sky.

“Freedom.”

Despite the cacophony of gunshots, yelling, and music that soared through the air like an eagle on an up-lift, Yu Yuan’s calm and soothing voice managed to squeeze into her ears.

“Is not an ability, but a condition.”

Lin Sanjiu cocked her rifle at two police officers that were hiding behind a billboard. It seemed that the music had entered a new verse as the tempo of the piano part became milder. She pulled the trigger twice and the bullets went right through their targets, shattering the billboard and ending the two police officers’ lives.

In the blink of an eye, the fire gusted forward and hopped around on both electric fences, looking like a group of fairies dancing along with the music.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Freedom has nothing to do with the choices of a person. You can still be free even though you have zero options. A man hanging on a cliff has no other choice, but he is still free. Freedom, generally, is having the ability to act and change without constraint or forced by the will of the others.”

Yu Yuan spoke in a calm tone as he continued to relentlessly shower bullets towards the front. “I will explain it to you in more detail. Perhaps it might help you figure out your storyline better. When you have freedom, it means that the decisions you make or the actions you take are not forced or constrained or affected by other forces. Whether you can form your own actions according to your own free will, that is individual freedom. What the guy told you is just wrong.”

“Then what is it?” Lin Sanjiu frowned.

“Let me ask you something first: do you think you have the freedom of not dying after you jump off a cliff?” Yu Yuan said, a grin filling his face. “The answer is no. Even a posthuman will not survive falling off a cliff. This is because that is a sort of freedom granted by an omnipotent power, and it’s entirely different from individual freedom. So if you think that you are not free because you would die from jumping off a cliff, then you’ve confused freedom granted by power with individual freedom.”

Just as he was about to continue, he suddenly realized something and turned around, whispering to her, “There are more reinforcements coming from the other directions.”

Hearing his words, Lin Sanjiu angled her head up and looked into the street that was flanked by two firewalls. Then, she spun around, and she saw several figures wearing uniforms rushing out one after another from the two ends of the t-junction.

“It’s time to get funky,” she grinned. “Let’s talk while we run.”

Both of them exchanged glances and leaped out of the bush, dashing towards the town hall at their top speed. There was no need for plans or tricks anymore in the final lag of the course, for they could only rely on their speed, strength, and guns.

They had to get rid of the last two groups of police officers and get into the town hall before the reinforcements caught up to them. That was their only way to stay safe.

The music flowed smoothly like water and entered yet another verse. The rhythm of the music picked up again, and the altercation of piano and cello made their hearts jump even faster. Like a hungry monster on a hunt, the flames quickly invaded the remaining inches of the street, gobbling everything down into its fiery stomach. The sky had turned crimson red, the temperature around was exceedingly high, and the light was bent, causing everything to look like it was doing yoga.

The pianist responded to Lin Sanjiu’s footsteps by striking the keys harder and harder. The powerful music swirled around the sky above the sea of flames. As if something had gone into their minds, the last two groups of police officers finally came around from their panic.

“Find your cover!” a police officer raised his voice and barked out loud. Receiving his order, they then lunged to the side and desperately searched for hiding spots.

Lin Sanjiu raised her rifle. However, before she could pull the trigger, a gunshot rang out along with a single resonant chord from the piano. Then, the unfortunate figure in front of her dropped to the ground.

“You see, we can say that they are our external obstacles to reach the town hall,” Yu Yuan continued. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why but his voice suggested that he was pretty happy right now. “Although we have met obstacles, we still retain our freedom. There is no one telling us what we cannot do or refraining us from proceeding in this manner. If we can act on our own will to get the desired result that we wanted, then that is freedom.”

They looked like goats that were being chased by hunters or two leopards that charged into a herd of deer. The line of defense had crumbled. Almost all of the police officers that were tasked to guard the town hall were dead. Meanwhile, those who survived had run away, their figures blurred out by the raging flames and the billowing rising smoke.

“The cliff and the law are the restricting conditions in one’s environment. The “freedom of action” refers to the ability of a person to decide on his course of action based on his knowledge to pursue a certain goal. Meanwhile, those conditions are usually what one will consult to make a judgement. Nevertheless, there is one thing—”

Before he could finish his sentence, both of them made it to the entrance of the town hall. Lin Sanjiu jerked her head back and saw that the reinforcements finally arrived. However, due to the flames, they were not able to come to them. Lin Sanjiu retracted her gaze and turned to Yu Yuan. A smile broke across their lips as they looked into each other’s dirt and sweat-laden faces.

They closed the door and began examining the town hall.

Mayor Orlean was nowhere to be seen. The town hall was silent. The music outside seemed to have reached its final verse. The fast-paced and arousing melody had ebbed away, replaced by a light-paced and elaborate tone that reminded people of the swallows that shuttled cheerfully amongst the clouds.

“So, what were you saying before?” Lin Sanjiu walked silently as she asked in a hushed tone. She gripped the rifle so tight that her fingers were turning white, even though she knew very well that a rifle could not do much against Mayor Orlean. Their only chance of defeating him was by attacking him from the dark.

“The condition for making a decision cannot be constructed with the will of a certain individual or a small group of people. For example, a citizen in Peanut Town knows that if he does not finish the food or does not go strolling, he will be punished. However, since this is a law made by Mayor Orlean’s will alone and not a social system that draws up through the collective will of Peanut Town’s community, himself included, he still does not have his freedom,” Yu Yuan stated, his voice turning cold.

“The coercion is an action or practice of persuading you to do or not to do something by using force or threats to achieve one’s own goal.” Yu Yuan beamed at Lin Sanjiu. “The people in Peanut Town regard their lives as perfect because they have lost the “positive liberty”. Hence, they can’t make their own judgement. Speaking of which, positive liberty is the possession of the capacity to act upon one’s free will. Hence, if you want to know about the storyline of your libretto, you can ignore what they said to you.”

Lin Sanjiu began to understand the whole scenario after she heard what Yu Yuan said.

She raised her head and looked skyward at the spiral staircase. This was where she met Mayor Orlean and Yu Yuan, but right now, it seemed that there was no one on the second floor.

“When we meet him, we should ask what he wants from the people of Peanut Town.”

“He is just a spokesperson for the black mountain. We should ask what the black mountain wants.” As they carefully moved up the staircase, Yu Yuan chortled gently. “Talking about these theories really brings me back to the time where I used to go to school every day.” He raised his head and there was something glistening in his eyes, but Lin Sanjiu couldn’t be sure. “Alas, I miss my hometown a lot.”

Lin Sanjiu responded with a smile. She gripped her own hands tight and said, “The next fight should be a tough one.”

Both of them realized a problem.

They were very certain that Mayor Orlean knew everything that happened outside, so did he know they were in the town hall now as well?

The sound of the piano slowly dissipated. As Lin Sanjiu climbed up the staircase, the corridor suddenly turned dark.