宫梓铭

【Introduction】

The deluxe train cut through the red wilderness. Joshua， the lonely traveler， arrived at the small town on the first day.

The town was always covered in fog. Sometimes the shadow of people flashed by， sometimes it seemed completely devoid of life. Time was not linear. The sun didn’t rise or set. This grey little town was the transfer station to Sailai.

Joshua knew nothing about Sailai other than the fact that he won his train ticket from a raffle. He met fellow travelers who were all heading to Sailai on his second， third or maybe fourth day. There was the stuffy professor who always had a leather bag in his hand; Joshua heard through the grapevine that he was going to Sailai to launder money. There was the middle-aged， generous businessman who wanted to offer help but always stopped short， seemingly concealing something. And there was Vincent， a mysterious young man， who told Joshua that he killed his own father. He was trying to avenge his father’s death by murdering the doctor who failed to cure him， but the person he ended up murdering was his actual father who swapped identities with the doctor to dodge his gambling debts.

On the fifth， or maybe the sixth day， the town got foggier and the time jumped more erratically. Joshua learned from the billboard inside the train station that going to Sailai required five tickets. More tickets meant a higher chance of getting onto the train. Joshua and Vincent decided to work together. Despite his inner moral conflicts， Joshua snuck into every hotel room and gathered five tickets. They headed to the station， hoping to board the last train to Sailai.

Just like Genesis， it was on the seventh day that any certainty left in the world was shattered. Everyone and everything dissolved into the fog. Joshua and Vincent did not make it onto the train. Their faces， bodies， words and even consciousness gradually lost all definitions， and blurred into each other. “The story has ended.” Joshua used his last remaining strength to push out the quotation marks. In the distance， a train sounded its horn.

第一天

薄霧裹着火车头，夹杂着汽笛声音的碎片。

约书亚·D从蒸汽火车上走下来，手里提着自己老旧的棕色皮包。等到因为久坐突然站起而发黑的视野重新清晰，一个雾气朦胧的火车站台出现在他的眼前，透过薄雾，可以勉强看见穿着漂亮蓝色制服的工作人员穿梭在人群中，拿着扩音器大声叫喊：中转站到了，请排队下车……而实际上这列连窗框上都镀着金的铁皮火车上的人少得令人惊讶。

真是一件奇怪的事，他想，这么一条冷清的线路怎么会有如此豪华的火车。车站中仿佛有背景音乐，但仔细倾听就消失了。火车活塞中再次冒出一团蒸汽，在简易的天棚上咬出了一个白色的缺口，几根生锈的钢筋从雾气边缘探出头来，试图证明自己的存在，整个车站除了蒸汽以外还弥漫着一股令人不快的偏执和冷漠。

撇了撇嘴角，名叫约书亚的旅人继续向前走。人都会这样，经常会有奇怪的感觉突然出现。他的老师吕西尼昂曾经在那个昏昏欲睡、充满蝉鸣的午后生物课中说道：“虽说经过了上万年的进化，人类的危机本能还是会保留。我们都有时候会感到背后有人，或者忽然袭来的悲伤与恐惧，这些不过是人类曾经灵敏的嗅觉的回光返照。”瞥了一眼正在用眼睛追逐阳光的小约书亚，年迈的老师叹了口气，继续道：“将普通的气味断定为掠食者的信号是我们忽然的危机感的表现……”

約书亚年幼时家境还算富足，但后来家道中落。他还是能记得总是坐在躺椅上，面目模糊不清的父亲在昏暗的灯光下一边喝酒一边嘟囔时的样子。

铁路线只有一侧有建筑，另一侧则是空荡荡的红色荒原，在来的路上约书亚每天所见的正是这幅景象，唯一的惊喜就是时不时出现的枯死的灌木。

刚开始这幅荒凉、凄清的景象令人生畏，过了几天，旅人们就已经开始欣赏这幅独特的景色了，但随着时间的流逝，单调的红色荒原让人厌烦，人们便全都缩到自己的小世界中，与外界切断联系。也就是在这种无尽的时间的冲刷下，在自己尝试着填满它的过程中，约书亚才真正感觉到轻松。在大城市中，所有人挂在光秃秃水泥墙上的时间表都是满的，找不到一丝空缺甚至连一分钟发呆的时间也没有。所以这几天的长途跋涉才更显得弥足珍贵。

告别那个狭小的灰暗的毛坯房时，他的内心是喜悦的，正如接受到车票时一般。大约在一个月前，约书亚在一次莫名其妙的抽奖活动中赢得了去往萨莱的车票——刚开始他还将信将疑，甚至尝试着举报这个公司——虽说他并不清楚这张皱巴巴的车票上终点站的名字意味着什么，但有一个脱离这无尽的繁忙的事务的机会正是他的一个梦想。于是，鬼使神差地，约书亚干了一件与他的谨小慎微的性格完全不符的事：出发。

就是因为这个疯狂的行为，他才会坐在一辆诡异的豪华火车上穿越无尽的红色荒原……然后来到这个更加荒诞，充斥着浓雾、水蒸气与若隐若现的琴声的中转站。

视线飞过钢铁的站台，隐隐约约能看见出口处的石砖广场以及几栋简陋的木制建筑，还可以看到房顶冒出的浓烟，和浓雾混在一起，遮挡住远方小教堂的轮廓。空无一人的假象消失了，灰色的、黑色的人穿行在灰白的空气之中，黑色的、灰色的人行走在充斥着煤灰味的世界里……

煤灰？

约书亚停下了脚步。

这个时代怎么会有烧煤的城市？奇怪。但这一路上奇怪的事多了。比如火车上那一盏在深夜还火热地发亮的灯，还有那奇怪的乘务员，她只要一过了下午六点就会将车厢中所有的窗帘拉上，并且用黄铜大锁将它与窗框锁上。就算你问她为什么，她也只会笑一笑，然后离去。

也许是因为路上有什么夜晚出现的飞禽吧。

双腿继续摆动，眼前的景色开始变得清晰，刚开始的那种诡异的危机感消失了。浓雾慢慢散去，久违的阳光终于光顾这个小镇，给广场中央古老的石雕镀上一层金。水潭中的小鱼欢快地游着。现在是初夏，没有冬天的余寒，也没有夏天的酷暑，有的只是温暖与光明。正悬挂在天穹正当中的太阳给予了人们无尽的欢乐。在这个古老的小镇中，在这个仿佛将人们全部带到中世纪的中转站中，人是幸福的。

而约书亚却不寒而栗。

他现在明白了乘务员为什么要在每晚六点拉窗帘了。

因为他想起来了，在火车上，那时至午夜还亮着的灯，正是现在看似温暖的太阳。

Day One

The first car of the train was covered in mist. You could hear the steam whistles coming through in pieces.

Joshua D stepped out of the steam locomotive with his worn down brown leather bag in hand. The head rush turned his vision fuzzy for a bit. After he could refocus， a train station shrouded in mist came into view. A station staff member in a neat blue uniform went through the crowd with a speaker in hand， “We are now at the transfer station， please get off in order.” It was quite surprising to see only a few people in this tin train that had gold-plated window frames.

How weird it is to have such a deluxe train operating on an essentially dead route， he thought. There seemed to be music coming from the station but disappeared upon a further listen. Another puff of steam came out of the cylinder， floating up and gathered beneath the modest roof， resembling a white hole. A few rusty pieces of rebar poked out through the steam as if trying to prove that they were still there. The entire train station， besides the steam， was permeated with a disturbing vibe of obstinacy and indifference.

Joshua pursed his lips and kept onward. It’s only human to have such strange feelings out of the blue. In a sleepy afternoon biology class， Joshua’s Professor Lusignan said through cicada chirps outside， “Despite tens of thousands of years’ evolution， humans still retained the instincts to sniff out crises. From time to time， we would still have this feeling that there’s someone right behind us， or feel a sudden wave of sadness or fear. But this is nothing more than just a return of our once acute sense of smell.” Glancing at young Joshua’s eager glimpses at the sunlight， the old professor sighed and continued， “Our sudden sense of crisis manifests in mistaking regular smells for a predator’s signal...”

When Joshua was young， his family was well off， but then things started to go downhill. He could still remember how his father used to lie under the dim light， drinking and mumbling to himself.

There were only buildings on one side of the tracks， the empty and vast red wilderness lied on the other. That’s what Joshua had been looking at since he boarded， with the only difference being dried out shrubs that appeared once in a while along the way.

This bleak and barren land was eerily petrifying in the beginning， but people started to appreciate this unique view after a few days had gone by. However， with more time passing by， the vast redness started to get boring. People on board started to retreat into themselves， cutting off their connections to the outside world. Joshua finally felt truly relaxed with his boundless efforts to fill what seemed like endless time. In big cities， everyone had full schedules hanging from their concrete walls. There was no downtime， not even a minute. This was exactly why the long journey these past few days had been precious.

He was just as happy bidding farewell to the cramped and gloomy house as when he had received his train tickets. Around a month prior， Joshua won the train ticket to Sailai in an odd raffle. He thought it was a scam at first and tried to report the company. Though he did not know exactly what the name of the destination meant on the creased tickets， it was his dream to get out of the endless hustle and bustle. So somehow Joshua did something completely out of character from his usual cautious self—he took off.

That crazy decision led him to this eerie deluxe train going through the red wilderness and dropped him off at the bizarre transfer station filled with fog， water vapor and indistinct background music.

He looked past the train station， seeing the stone square outside the station exit and a few buildings made out of wood. There was thick smoke coming out of the roofs; mixing together with the fog， it blocked the view of the chapel in the distance. Now he could see that there were people on the street. People who were grey and black， walking amongst this pale， coal-ash-smelling air.

Coal ash？

Joshua stopped.

Were there still cities that burned coal in this day and age？ How weird. But many things seemed out of the ordinary along the way. For example， the light that burnt bright into the night on the train， and the strange train attendant who would shut the drapes in all the cars the moment the clock stroke six and lock them to the window frame with a huge brass lock. When you ask her why， she would only smile and walk away.

Maybe there were some nocturnal birds out？

He kept walking and the view became clear. The dreaded sense of fear was gone. The fog dissipated and the sun shone upon this small town， gilding the old statute in the middle of the square. Fish swam around happily in the pond. It was the beginning of summer; there were no winter shivers nor summer burns， only warmth and brightness. The sun had brought people joy. People were happy in this ancient small town， in this transfer station where it seemed to bring people back to Medieval times.

A shiver travelled down Joshua’s spine.

Because he understood why the attendant shut the drapes at 6 every evening.

He realized that the light that shone into the midnight on the train was just the warm sun in the sky.