Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1552: Standing by the Window

It had been two days since Pence discovered the hand in his pocket.

These two days felt like an ongoing dream for Lin Sanjiu. She seemed to float on Wu Yiliu's back, checking corners of the room with him, repeatedly turning the TV on and off, observing others' faces over and over, and daring only to doze off in a corner when tired.

The others were no better; everyone's faces were pale from lack of rest. Day or night, two people were assigned as sentries, monitoring the situation inside and outside the house. The forest outside had spread so far that it was impossible to see its end, even when climbing to the roof to look afar. The path they had taken was swallowed by the dense greenery.

Of course, they weren't naive enough to think that they could come and go as they pleased in the pocket dimension.

Watching Pence and Cuining go out on patrol with their weapons, Wu Yiliu finally let out a half sigh of relief. He lifted the sofa cushions, meticulously searched all around, not missing any nook or cranny, before finally sitting down carefully.

Two days ago, when Pence realized his hand was being held by another living female hand, he was stunned for a few seconds. Then he violently shook his hand, almost going mad as the hand clung to his fingers. After swinging it around in mid-air several times, he finally managed to fling the female hand away.

The four spent the whole night searching for the hand but never found it. Without finding it, they naturally couldn't understand what it was. Since then, Wu Yiliu felt that the hand could appear in any crack, making him check almost neurotically every time he moved or touched something.

They all knew that the pocket dimension had started, and something was happening; but what tormented them was that none of them knew exactly what was happening.

On the surface, everything seemed normal again: Pence had already thrown his pullover out, and Cuining had stuffed her hat into the kitchen trash bin. They took turns guarding the inside and outside of the pocket dimension, relying on their own water and dry rations, never leaving anyone alone even when sleeping.

But then what?

They couldn't leave, didn't know what to do next, couldn't analyze the situation, and didn't even know what was wrong. The apparent calm only heightened the growing frustration and anxiety in the house.

"It's so strange, I just can't understand," Abby murmured as she sat down beside Wu Yiliu. "Why are we trapped like this without purpose? Every pocket dimension should have a goal; what is this goal? Are the people in the other half also trapped like us?"

She scratched her golden hair in annoyance. "If I knew it would be this troublesome, I wouldn't have come."

After the first night, the four had divided into pairs: Pence and Cuining formed an alliance, naturally leading Abby and Wu Yiliu to team up. Abby's straightforward personality made her a reliable partner, and Wu Yiliu preferred to stay closer to her.

"I've thought about what the goal could be many times," Wu Yiliu said.

Outside the window, Pence and Cuining were walking past the wooden porch; Wu Yiliu glanced at them out of the corner of his eye and quickly turned away. Pence's chin was nearly melting down to his chest, pulling his face, eye corners, and revealing the white of his eyes and underlying blood-red. If it fell further, Wu Yiliu didn't know what might be exposed beneath the skin.

Now his hallucinations have spread to Pence.

"What's the matter with you?" Abby asked, noticing his shiver. "Since we entered the pocket dimension, I don't mean to be blunt, but you seem a bit...distracted."