Infinite Nightmares

Delicious sweet potatoes were paired with cucumbers and tomatoes washed clean in the creek. They tasted wonderful.

Song Jianguo and the cats ate without a care in the world, but at that moment, neither Auntie nor Zhang Wenda was in the mood.

"Do you think... the people who disappeared... are they in the same situation as we are now?"

Holding a sweet potato, Auntie asked Song Jianguo, "Do you think they’re just stuck living in this empty world for the rest of their lives, until they die of old age?"

"No way. There has to be a way out. Don’t let your mind run wild." Zhang Wenda shoved a half-ripe tomato into his mouth and took a large bite.

"But if there really is a way out, then why hasn’t a single person who’s experienced the paradox managed to escape?" Auntie’s words made Zhang Wenda’s heart grow heavy.

As their somber lunch progressed, Zhang Wenda suddenly glanced at his forearm. The sight of his significantly restored Yellow Core made his eyes light up. ’Perhaps there’s still a chance.’

He tossed the last small piece of sweet potato into his mouth. "Wait here. Maybe there really is a way. I’m going to the adult world to check it out!"

With that, Zhang Wenda reached out and pressed down hard on the Yellow Core on his arm. With a flash of yellow light, the environment around him rapidly receded.

When his surroundings settled, something unexpected happened. He was still surrounded by fields, with no change from before.

If it weren’t for the electronic pocket watch on his wrist, Zhang Wenda would have thought the Yellow Core had malfunctioned from being overused the day before.

Zhang Wenda glanced at his watch and saw the Yellow Core had a twelve-minute charge. It seemed that as its total capacity increased, its daily recovery rate did as well.

But even with the increase, he only had twelve minutes. ’I have to act fast.’

He reached out and stroked the head of the little cat named Mimi. "You and Auntie wait here for me," he said. "I’m going to look around."

After he spoke, he walked out of the fields and onto a concrete road. As he scanned the surroundings for the city built by the pre-fabricated people, he discovered it had vanished.

The skyscrapers and highway overpasses that were once there had all disappeared. All that remained was a small cluster of concrete buildings built against a mountain not far from the fields.

Everything here was deathly quiet, like an old photograph, just like the place they had come from.

’Even the adult world has changed? What in the world is happening?’ Seeing this, Zhang Wenda felt a pang of complete despair.

But just when he was about to give up all hope of returning, he suddenly saw something. Peering into the distance again, he thought he saw a human figure among the cluster of buildings!

"Hey! Hey!!" Zhang Wenda shouted, running excitedly in that direction.

As he got closer, Zhang Wenda could see more clearly. It really was a person! ’Thank God! I wasn’t seeing things! We’re not the only ones in this world!’

Just as Zhang Wenda saw the person, the person seemed to see him too. He raised a slender hand and waved back at Zhang Wenda.

’He’s responding! It’s a real, living person!’ Zhang Wenda was thrilled. But before he could get any closer, a gunshot rang out, and his body suddenly jerked and froze on the spot.

He looked down at his right shoulder and saw the sleeve of his jacket being rapidly soaked with a red liquid.

In that instant, every muscle in Zhang Wenda’s body tensed. Before the next shot could ring out, he dove into the adjacent field.

An instant later, a hail of bullets struck the spot where Zhang Wenda had just been standing. Staring at the concrete shattered by the impacts, a chill ran down his spine.

The pain in his shoulder told him that if he had been a single step slower, he would have died right there!

As Zhang Wenda carefully parted the corn leaves to peek, he saw it wasn’t just one person. A group of five people, all armed with guns, were heading his way!

Pressing a hand to his wound, pain caused Zhang Wenda’s face to twitch uncontrollably. He knew if he didn’t get moving, being found by them meant certain death.

He didn’t dare leave the adult world just yet. What if these people were terrifying giants in the other world? He couldn’t risk leading them to Song Jianguo and Auntie.

Fortunately, the situation wasn’t that dire yet. He pressed his hand firmly against his shoulder to keep the blood from dripping, then quickly retreated deeper into the field.

Though injured, the adrenaline coursing through his veins numbed the pain. Zhang Wenda ran and ran, putting as much distance as possible between himself and that spot.

But gradually, as the adrenaline faded, Zhang Wenda began to feel the pain intensify. Combined with the frantic sprinting, he was struggling to breathe.

’I’ve been running for so long,’ Zhang Wenda thought. ’They shouldn’t be able to find me now, right?’

He lay on his side in a thicket, trying to take off his jacket to check the wound. But just as he’d pulled one arm free, an old voice called out from nearby. "Who’s there?"

The voice sent a chill through Zhang Wenda, as if he’d been plunged into an ice cave. He couldn’t believe he’d run so far only to be found again.

He knew running again would be futile.

"Don’t shoot! I’m coming out," he said, cautiously parting the leaves of the bush to peek out.

Zhang Wenda’s pupils contracted. A white-haired old man had appeared before him.

The man didn’t have a gun, but a hoe slung over his shoulder. He wore earth-green clothes with a faded yellow towel draped around his neck—the very picture of an old farmer.

"Oh my, young man, you’re bleeding! Come here, quickly, let me bandage that for you."

Seeing Zhang Wenda’s state, the old man quickly and anxiously helped him to his feet. He led him forward along a small path between the fields.

"You... Sir? You’re not with them?" Zhang Wenda asked.

"Who? What are you talking about? There’s nobody else here." The old man seemed surprised by Zhang Wenda’s question.

"No one else is here?" Zhang Wenda was confused. "By the way, sir, do you know where this is?"

The old man smiled. "Well, you’re here, aren’t you? If you don’t even know where you are, how did you get here?"

"I had... an accident. But seriously, sir, where is this place?" Seeing that the man truly seemed to mean him no harm, Zhang Wenda pressed the question.

The old man smiled and replied, "This is the past."

"The past?" For a moment, Zhang Wenda’s mind went completely blank.

The old man extended a wrinkled finger, pointing first to the concrete buildings in the distance, and then to the surrounding fields. "Everything here... this is the world of the past."

At this, a complicated expression crossed his face as he looked at the nearby fields and a small wooden cabin in the distance. "There’s no place for an old man like me anymore. I wanted to come back to the way things were, even if I knew there wouldn’t be a single person left."