Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

182: She Did a Sudden 180

Lin Sanjiu didn't know if she had miscalculated, but this time the train arrived at the station in less than 20 minutes. Clutching the note tightly in her hand, she didn't move from her seat, forcing herself to look outside through the window. The note in her hand, with its messy handwriting, was the only thing stopping her from rushing outside to escape this torture.

This time, the glass wall of the train station was gone.

Without the glass wall, half of the train station seemed to merge with the elementary school building. The school gates and fences now inexplicably sat behind a bench in the train station. The signboard, "Mausoleum Elementary School," blocked the station's name from view.

The teacher and her students maintained their eerie smiles and postures, having moved forward about ten meters. The boy, previously squished against the glass, now had a reddish mark on his face. The patient female teacher once again gestured for Lin Sanjiu to come over.

Lin Sanjiu quickly looked away, her hands trembling slightly. The people in front of the elementary school were too strange, unlike anyone she had ever encountered. They hadn't attacked her, but they also showed no signs of letting her go.

"What... what are they?" Lin Sanjiu realized she was stuttering only after she spoke. Soon, the train doors closed, and it started moving again, rumbling as it left the school behind and entered a tunnel, plunging into familiar darkness. Without needing to check, Lin Sanjiu was certain the next stop would still be Mausoleum Elementary Station.

She took several deep breaths in a row but couldn't calm down at all. The cold seemed to make all the pores on her skin contract, leaving her cold from head to toe.

The note in her hand was now quite tattered from her grip. She knew the train would reach the station much quicker this time and that she needed to think of something fast.

As Lin Sanjiu pondered, she felt a cold breeze from behind. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up instantly. She turned around sharply, feeling extremely nervous, but the train carriages were still empty.

The train was a bit old, allowing the cold wind to seep in through various cracks from years of wear. The wind grew stronger each time. Lin Sanjiu mocked herself for being so jumpy, touched the bandage on her neck, and felt the hard choker underneath, which made her a bit less worried.

'In the worst-case scenario, I'll just fight,' she thought. Whether they were humans or duoluozhongs, they could still be killed, right?

Deciding on this, she felt more confident about her plan and less helpless. Estimating that the train would arrive at the station in another five to six minutes, Lin Sanjiu stood up and stretched her stiff, cold-numbed limbs, preparing for the upcoming fight.

This time, the train entered the station silently. Lin Sanjiu was so focused on her back twisting exercises that she didn't notice when the train stopped. When she faced forward again, the shock made her step back and nearly fall.

The female teacher was now standing in front of the train door, staring straight at her, her smile unnaturally wide. The students stood very close behind her, all smiling as they pressed their faces against the train doors. The gates of Mausoleum Elementary School were right behind them, and the teacher and students crowded the narrow gap between the train doors and the school gates. They were just one step away from entering the train carriage.

However, they remained outside the train, silent and unmoving. Lin Sanjiu found herself face-to-face with the female teacher, a sudden weakness overwhelming her, chilling her to the bone. For a moment, she was paralyzed.

The female teacher, however, stayed still, her gaze locked on Lin Sanjiu, her smile unwavering. She slowly shook her head, her eyes oddly not following the movement, instead darting in the opposite direction until they were fixated on the corners. Yet, her stare never wavered from Lin Sanjiu.

'What does she want? No, the real question is, can humans even do that?'

"What are you..." Lin Sanjiu's voice faltered. She thought she had yelled, but fear had stifled her voice. She had forgotten about her Pygmalion Choker. It took her a few seconds to regain her composure. She retreated to the far end of the carriage and pulled out her [Tape Recorder]. Just then, the door beeped twice, the sound cutting through the tense silence.

To Lin Sanjiu, the beep was unexpectedly soothing. Drenched in cold sweat, she felt she had narrowly escaped death. She watched the train doors close, narrowly missing the female teacher's nose.

The teacher's expression turned icy in an instant, her prior smile gone. The children's smiles vanished too, their gazes turning eerie, as if they were looking at a ghost. Together, they shook their heads in unison.

Minutes after the train departed, Lin Sanjiu couldn't shake off the image of the mole on the teacher's face as she shook her head.

Though not life-threatening, the encounter left her heart pounding, a sensation that lingered. It wasn't until she noticed the desolate landscape outside that she began to calm down. The train continued on without entering any tunnels. Lin Sanjiu, not realizing when, found herself sitting on the floor, letting out a long sigh, deciding to stay down. She craned her neck to examine the route map.

The next stop wasn't Mausoleum Elementary Station. "Bamboo Grove Mountains Station," she whispered. Under normal circumstances, the name would seem ordinary, but now, her nerves were on edge. She hesitated, then mumbled, "I should assess the situation before deciding if I should get off."

'The peculiar group of children and their teacher stood just outside, never boarding. Could it be they are unable to enter? Perhaps this carriage offers some protection? That might explain the note warning against alighting.' Lin Sanjiu felt drained, her head drooping in exhaustion as she sighed. From her vantage point, she could see underneath her previous seat.

Lin Sanjiu looked over and froze.

Beneath the seat was a face, devoid of emotion, staring back at her. How long had it been there?

Overcome by fear, Lin Sanjiu cried out and sprang to her feet, clutching her vibroblade. But within seconds, a nagging doubt made her pause. Her brows knitted ever so slightly. She stepped forward and peered under the seat.

The space beneath was empty.

It wasn't a hallucination—she had seen a face, but it was merely a photograph in a newspaper.

"Huh. Why didn't I notice this before?" The newspaper had slipped from a gap between the seat, revealing a large portrait on the front page. The dim light had tricked her into seeing a real face.

Lin Sanjiu reached under the seat and retrieved the newspaper. A piece was missing from the top-right corner of the front page. She quickly unfolded a crumpled note and tried fitting it into the gap. It matched perfectly, both in texture and the shape of the torn edge.

'The person who wrote the note must have torn a corner of the newspaper and scribbled that warning before squishing it into the crevice. But... if the person planned to warn future passengers of the train, why didn't she write a bigger warning and place the newspaper out in the open? Wouldn't that be more eye-catching?'

Lin Sanjiu thought about these perplexing questions for some time but couldn't make sense of it. She flipped the newspaper, hoping to find clues about this weird world. When she reached the next section of the newspaper, she froze.

Someone had written a few words with very large letters.

NO, I WAS WRONG. GET DOWN

The 'N' was dragged to the edge of the paper before it was abruptly chopped off.