Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

181: We Are Here To Bring You Home

Since evolving, Lin Sanjiu had never doubted her eyesight until now. However, no matter how often she checked the route map, it still indicated Mausoleum Elementary Station as the next stop—previously after Kisaragi Station, now changed to Home.

"What does this mean? Is it forcing me to alight at this station?" Lin Sanjiu pondered the situation, standing still in the same spot. Upon looking up again, she discovered that, somehow, once again, it was dark outside the train. It looked exactly like the previous part of the track before she arrived at Mausoleum Elementary.

Despite her confusion, Lin Sanjiu resolved that she would clench her teeth and alight at Mausoleum Elementary Station if she had no choice. No matter how normal this train seemed compared to that elementary school, she knew she couldn't possibly stay on this train for fourteen months without eating or drinking.

Returning to her original seat, Lin Sanjiu felt confused and perplexed by the situation. Although she knew sitting down would help conserve her energy, she couldn't explain why she didn't feel like it. She had faced a similar situation before, taking quite a while to convince herself to sit. Regardless, she avoided the other seats.

"Never mind. I should search for some clues inside this train. If it doesn't work out, I will smash open the door to the driver's compartment." However, given the circumstances, Lin Sanjiu found that the driver's compartment was probably empty. Grumbling, she dragged her feet through all the train carriages, inspecting every detail.

Alone in the flickering fluorescent light of the train carriage, Lin Sanjiu held onto the train handle as it swerved left or right in the seemingly endless dark tunnel. This time, she noticed many details she had failed to see before, but they seemed almost useless.

"A flattened cigarette butt proves that there were other people here in the past, right? Why is there an advertisement leaflet here?"

Finding these items, which reminded her of her previous normal daily life, calmed Lin Sanjiu's anxiety. Once she relaxed, she found it amusing that she disliked the train seats. She shook her head and forced herself to sit down in a seat beside the train door, planning to reserve her energy and compose herself. But seconds after she sat down, before she could think about the unusual aspects of this world, she heard a soft screech from the train brakes. The train slowed down almost instantaneously—she looked up and saw the train gradually driving toward the station platform.

'It has been less than 20 minutes. Isn't this a little too fast compared to the previous time?'

The dots representing Home and Mausoleum Elementary were still very far apart, so she assumed it would take at least a few hours before the train arrived at the station again. She stood up to alight from the train, feeling very uncertain, but her heart froze for a second without warning.

When she saw Mausoleum Elementary the previous time, the school's position was directly outside her carriage. Oddly, when she moved down another five train carriages, the position of the elementary school was still directly outside, such that her field of vision was still in line with the gates of the elementary school. This was the same scene she experienced previously.

It was almost as if the school gates were moving according to her position. When the teachers and children saw her, they smiled even more brilliantly. This time, Lin Sanjiu could clearly see the mole on the teacher's cheek.

This was because the road had disappeared.

Previously, there was a narrow road from the train station to the school. Lin Sanjiu couldn't imagine how people would walk to the school without this road. On the other hand, without the road, the entrance to Mausoleum Elementary was almost right outside the glass wall of the train station. It was as though the entire school had shifted one large step forward.

Naturally, the people at the school gates stood closer to the train station. The boy at the forefront was pressing his face against the glass wall of the train station so tightly that his oddly flattened, misshapen face was visible. Yet, he didn't even consider moving back a step. Lin Sanjiu could still see the smile under his squished, crooked nose.

A terrifying thought surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind, "If I don't alight here, are they coming to get me?" She had decided to alight just a few minutes ago, but now, her determination had faded like melting snow in spring. Turning her head back, she watched the cigarette butt lying on the floor of the carriage silently. She immediately felt that staying on the train was safer. 'Anyone else would refuse to get off the train, right?'

'If I don't get off the train, those people might not... come to get me... Maybe I am overthinking?'

The train door beeped twice, almost urging her to decide quickly. Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and was about to take an irrevocable step forward when she caught a glimpse of a ball of paper stuffed in the seat she had previously occupied; it was sticking out from the crevice between the back support and the cushion of the seat. She also thought she saw someone's handwriting on the piece of paper.

She hadn't noticed it when she was sitting because of its angle. She would have missed that item if she hadn't hesitated for some time at the door.

Lin Sanjiu's heart thumped loudly; she felt like a student who had finally found an excuse not to go to school. She retreated from the door as if escaping. When she stuck her hand into the crevice of the seat, the door closed again.

Meanwhile, the teacher and students outside the glass window did not look slightly disappointed. Their smiles were still the same. But now, every pair of eyes followed the train as it moved until their pupils reached the corners of their eyes.

Lin Sanjiu only sighed in relief when the school disappeared out of sight. She pinched the paper ball with her fingers and pulled it out hurriedly. As she was a bit careless, she tore the paper a little.

The paper was very thin and appeared to be a torn corner of a newspaper without any print. There were indeed some hand-written words on the piece of paper. Lin Sanjiu quickly unraveled the paper. When she saw the words, she couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief, as it was Chinese.

Concentrating, Lin Sanjiu read the note again, and she felt a chill all over. She felt fearful as she remembered what just happened.

Do not alight from the train! You must not alight from the tra—

It looked like a female's handwriting. It was quite messy as if the person had scribbled this note quickly. Half of the second train on the note had been torn. There were definitely words on the other half of the paper, but Lin Sanjiu didn't know where it was.

'Do not alight from the train!' This was the only sentence that echoed in Lin Sanjiu's mind. The cold wind continued blowing at her. Shivering and at a loss as to what to do, she looked up. If it was up to her, she didn't want to get off this train either. She might have a limited food supply, but with that [Vending Machine], it wasn't a pressing problem.

The real problem now was...

Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at the train's route map. The next stop was still Mausoleum Elementary Station. 'What should I do if the teacher and her students come even closer next time?'

She couldn't help thinking about another horrible thing. If the girl who wrote the note didn't alight from the train, where was she now?