Plague Doctor

Chapter 211: Return

‘Now what the hell does that mean?’ Gu Jun’s head hurt. With the echo of each word, his brain would pound with greater intensity. ‘Mask-bearer is not evil?’

The shadow beside the giant podium was becoming blurrier. It appeared like with each word, the shadow was fading further away, its voice harder to follow. “…Phecda Chaos… Secret Spell… Wearing a Mask… Gu Jun…” He heard his own name, the shadow knew his identity but at this point, that seemed to be a given… Ultimately, the questions were, who was this? And what was it trying to tell him?

“Mr. Nightmare Man, the channel is about to collapse soon!” Suddenly another voice cut in, it was the frantic scream of Peacock. The illusion of the grand library disappeared instantly and everything returned to darkness. But the darkness appeared to be boiling, it raged and swam… The ripples crashed into cracks, the dimension of space and time itself was becoming unstable. They could feel their own bodies disintegrating. If they did not leave this place soon, they would be forever trapped in this unknown dimension.

“It’s time to go!” Peacock said desperately, “Should we turn back?” The rest had no idea what was happening, they reached for their blindfolds.

“No, follow me, this way!” Gu Jun gritted his teeth and pushed the questions to the back of his mind. With his grasp tightening around the medic bag, he raced down a direction. “This way!” After the illusions faded away, so did the chaotic disruption, his spiritual sense was coming alive. He knew he was going the right way. And then came the light in the darkness, it was the exit!

‘I need to return!’ Gu Jun announced to himself, as well as the voices and illusions in the darkness. ‘I need to return to the world that I came from!’ Just as the dimension was about to collapse, he lunged towards the opening. The glow enveloped him and a different kind of dimensional feeling replaced the twisting spatial world, it became more stable, familiar and firm…

“Ah!” Peacock’s group cried out beside him, they too had jumped through the gap. With a thud, Gu Jun landed on the ground, the walking stiff flew out of his grasp. His palms pressed against the ground, sending back pangs of heat. He had landed on scorching sand.

“Hmm?” He narrowed his eyes to look around. As his eyes adjusted to the brightness, a desert came into his view, but it was different from the one at the Bnazic Desert! There were small bushes and when he turned back, he saw the cluster of stones from Kathlyn’s memory but the strange light between the bigger rocks had disappeared, the channel connecting the two worlds had collapsed.

“Have we returned?” He lacked the strength to sit up. He laid down in the sand, looking at the blue sky. Only then he realized how much he’d missed the clouds and sunlight.

“Mr. Nightmare Man…” Peacock began nervously, the rest of her question was incomprehensible. Other than the familiar moniker, Gu Jun had no idea what she was saying. They were no longer in Dreamlands, communication was not based on intention anymore. He turned towards the direction where Peacock was pointing, and saw a furry animal standing on its two feet. Its stomach was bulging out as it stared fixedly at them,

“That is an Eastern Grey Kangaroo.” Peacock did not understand him but Gu Jun’s laugh of relief did signify that they were in no danger. Eastern Grey Kangaroo, native to Australia. Then he saw a plane fly through the sky, leaving a trail of white smoke behind it. His laughter grew louder. “We’ve returned… to Earth!” Gu Jun laughed. He pointed at the sky for Peacock. “Look at that thing.” Peacock’s eyes were overwhelmed with fear, perhaps for her, that was some kind of giant flying monster. “That is a plane,” Gu Jun explained, not caring whether she understood it or not.

Relief and joy were not enough to describe his emotion. After experiencing death and so many ordeals, he had finally returned… But a worry still bugged him. ‘Is this the timeline that he had departed from? I wouldn’t have ended up in the plot of Planet of the Apes, would I?’

“Mr. Nightmare Man,” Peacock called out again. Then she pointed at her friends, especially their eyes and hands, clearly she was asking whether she could undo their binding. Gu Jun nodded his permission. Even though the Eye of Abyss was no longer usable in this world, he was not afraid of them. Peacock immediately helped her friends with their blindfolds and ropes. When the rest looked around, the shock was plain on their faces. Where was this place? Weren’t they supposed to be taught the Pnakotic Manuscripts?

Gu Jun struggled to stand up. He looked around and realized he had no idea exactly where they were. He knew the desert in Australia could stretch for miles without any human habitation, if they went down the wrong way, they might end up dying from dehydration.

“Peacock, I need you to summon Kathlyn.” He said, repeating the name, “Kathlyn!” Peacock and Kathlyn could communicate directly through mental connection so there was no language barrier between them as they had no need for language. Peacock had a few more words with her friends again before closing her eyes. Her facial muscles twitched and when her eyes opened again, she was already a different person. Her mouth gaped wide open as she stared at Gold and the rest, “Oh my god, who are these people? Tom! Please tell me I am not crazy!” But Malachite merely stared dumbly at her, clearly not understanding what she was saying.

“They don’t understand English.” Gu Jun said in English, “Can you speak Chinese?”

“Just rudimentarily.” Kathlyn shrugged. “I can understand it but I can’t speak the language.”

“That is good enough.” Gu Jun replied in Chinese, his English was not that good either, but a mixture of both should suffice for simple communication. He said, “Kathlyn, we need to leave this place and find somewhere with human habitation. Geikie, Windjana Street, do you know where that is?” He had a feeling it was nearby.

“Geikie? Windjana? I think I know where that is…” Kathlyn frowned to think, “I believe it is the name of a town somewhere on the northern-west side of West Australia.” Gu Jun had no idea what she was talking about, how he wished he had a phone then. According to Kathlyn, all the cities here were settled near the shoreline. So if they were looking for human habitation, then they should head back down the northern-east direction. He accepted this advice. Gu Jun used the shadow of the sun to determine the nautical direction. This knowledge that he picked during his training for the Problematic Team finally came into usage. Then he led the way and headed down the designated direction.

“So you are not Tom?” Kathlyn asked her boyfriend of many years. The confused gaze was answer enough. Malachite was for Tom as Peacock was for her. Kathlyn shook her head with a sigh, “This is so strange… and they’re also dragging a rock, can this get any stranger…”

Gu Jun ignored her. As he shuffled forward with the walking stick, he pondered what the shadow had said. ‘The mask-wearer is not evil? Use sweet dream to change chaos in Phecda? Is that what the shadow was trying to say?’ He tried to remember that injected memory. ‘Is it trying to tell me that I should continue wearing the mask… to hide my real identity? I know people would have assumed my death already… But no matter what, I need to gain contact with Dirty-minded Yu as soon as possible.”

Gu Jun adjusted his route, moving towards the bushes and a steadier ground. After about 1 hour of walking, Kathlyn suddenly yelped, “look, there’s a highway and a car!” Malachite and the rest looked like they were about to run to escape from the metallic beast but Gu Jun could not have been more excited. There was a highway down the distance, and a yellow pick up was barrelling down it.

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