Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

The wind blew, and snow fell. The gale caused the hiking group to be unstable on their feet, and the fanatical chanting was getting closer and closer. The chanting eventually became louder than the whipping snowstorm. It pressed against them like an imminent avalanche. However, the satellites still captured nothing around them.

“Command, we can hear human voices coming from the summit. Captain Gu suspects it is the Inuits performing some kind of ritual.”

“Copy that, Arctic Wolf. There is no change from the satellites… All we can see are your teams.”

“Command, we are going for an ambush, over.”

When they were still over thirty meters from the summit, the leaders of the joint team had a quick discussion and settled on an ambush. The Russians agreed to provide support. Even they wanted to find out what was going on.

“Copy that…”

The voice from the communicator suddenly became muffled in static. The signal weakened quite suddenly. Gu Jun turned to the Russians to try to warn them. Considering what had happened at the cave with the zombies, Gu Jun told Ivanov seriously, “Perhaps what we have heard and seen are just a very powerful illusion. Someone or something is casting a spell to do that to us.”

“A spell?” Ivanov’s face was instantly covered in suspicion and confusion. Granted, he had received some updates about this before, but he had always thought those were some kind of myths. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Gu Jun said frowningly. “Do not get sucked into the illusion and do not get tricked by them. One careless step and your life will be gone.”

“Okay…” Ivanov gave Gu Jun a once-over. His facial expression belied none of the thoughts in his mind. In any case, he did walk back to his group to communicate with the rest of them in Russian.

Xue Ba kept his tab on them. After Ivanov wandered away, he turned to tell his teammates, “I’m afraid that man does not quite believe us.”

The Arctic Wolf squad could not find themselves blaming Ivanov. After all, they had felt the same way yesterday. Superpowers and the supernatural, they should only exist in fiction, right?

All the members of Phecda could do was to focus on their own task. As Gu Jun suggested, they did not split up, but the whole team of twenty-three people would charge ahead in the ambush. Their hands tightened on their respective firearm of choice. However, it was the Russians who would be leading the charge. It was as if they were afraid that Phecda might rush to the summit first and steal the discovery from them.

“вперёд!вперёд!” Ivanov shouted for his team to mobilize. His AK-12 was aimed forward. The Russian storm troopers were the first to reach the summit, and then Yu Xiaoyong, Gu Jun, and the rest climbed up with the former providing cover. Everyone was instantly stunned by the scene that appeared before them. The rather large snow-capped summit was covered in animal carcasses. Whole reindeers, musk-ox, and arctic wolves were pierced through with icicles and arranged in some kind of grotesque formation. The strangest item on display was definitely the arctic wolves.

1

There were twenty-two wolves in total, and they were arranged into two straight lines, eleven on each side. They formed a path that seemed to welcome the group. Their hides were peeled off, but no blood gathered underneath them because their blood had been frozen solid in their bodies. Their heads were surprisingly well-preserved considering the rest of their bodies. The animals’ rounded eyes were filled with fear and horror. The pairs of eyes stared at the newcomers, and Gu Jun swore he could see human emotions in them.

At the end of this grisly path, there were about ten Inuits standing there. There were adults and children. They were only dressed in animal hides that would not have provided them with much warmth. The animal hides were stitched from the skin of the arctic wolves, and the snowy white fur was covered in strange symbols painted in blood. At that moment, it dawned on Gu Jun why the birds had flocked over here. They were eyeing the feast of carrion. They had been drawn here by the scent of fresh blood.

“НеДвигаться!”

1

“Don’t move!”

Ivanov and Yu Xiaoyong shouted at the same time. All of their gun barrels were pointed at the Inuits. According to the satellite screening, these people should not be there, but they could not be sure they were just mere illusions either because they appeared so real. Being surrounded by so many lethal weapons, the Inuits showed no trace of fear. Even though their maddening chanting had stopped, it did not seem to register that they were under attack. Their eyes floated over the threat as all of the eyes fixated on someone. The broad-shouldered men, the tough-looking women, the youthful teens, and the children… they were all looking at Gu Jun.

Suddenly, the group of Inuits said in unison, “You have arrived.”

It was eerily similar to the greeting Ol’ Uncle Dog offered him in the nightmare as well as the affirmation he had heard from the villagers when he was in the Nan Tang Village illusion. That sentence suggested that they had been waiting for him.

“Ergh.” Gu Jun’s vision was blurred as his head pulsed with pain. The Inuits were slowly overlapping with the images of the villagers from Nan Tang Village. He tried to channel his focus to chase away the illusion, but the illusion responded by sending shards of pain into his mind. Twenty-two arctic wolves and twenty-three members from the Phecda assault team… Without him, there would be twenty-two people left. The arctic wolves’ carcasses were coming alive, twitching on their icicles. Their eyes turned toward him. They reminded Gu Jun of Xue Ba’s eyes, Uncle Dan’s eyes, and Wu Siyu’s eyes…

‘No, they are just an illusion.’ Gu Jun groaned in pain as he tried to resist the mental assault. He uttered in a low growl, “Yes, I have arrived.”

“Be careful…” Wu Siyu also sensed the strange energy in the air.

“Everyone, stay in position. Leave this to Ah Jun,” Xue Ba ordered.

Lou Xiaoning turned to remind the Arctic Wolf squad, “Do not forget that our mission is to protect him.”

But on the other side, Ivanov summoned his people in Russian as they continued to storm ahead. “Keep up, keep up…”

Hearing that, Xue Ba immediately tried to stop them in his rusty Russian. “Danger, mental attack!”

Even Yu Xiaoyong was screaming at them. “Stop what you’re doing. Look around you. Does this seem normal to any of you? Is this the time to charge ahead‽”

Gu Jun picked up the anomaly in Ivanov’s reaction. His tone, Ivanov’s tone did not reflect the surroundings that they were in. It spoke of arrogance instead of confusion and caution.

“Those damn Inuits dare challenge us without even a proper weapon. We are definitely not going to take this lying down,” Ivanov grumbled in return. He waved his hands and led a few of his people to charge forward. At the start, they were shouting orders to each other, but the closer they got the Inuits, the more silent they became.

“Something is not right,” Gu Jun said urgently. “They have been brought under the influence of an illusion!”

The others were startled. Yu Xiaoyong instantly kicked into action. He was about to have his members go over to pull back the Russians when Gu Jun grabbed him and shouted, “Do not go after them!”

If they got too close, they might be affected by the spell themselves, and there was no telling what the Russians might do if they were interrupted. After all, the bullets would not listen to reason.

Just like that, the team from Phecda watched as Ivanov’s group slowly stalked past the Inuits. They walked toward the cliff, and one by one, they jumped off the edge.

“Ah!” Uncle Dan could not help but gasp. The cliff dropped at least six hundred meters, and below was the frozen sea. For a second that seemed to stretch into eternity, even over the wind, they could hear the dull thuds of bones and muscles slamming against the thick layer of ice. The mass of flesh and blood, the splattered guts and brain matter, Ivanov’s passionate face… they all froze under a sleet of ice once life departed.

The command center’s urgent voice came from the communicator. “Arctic Wolf? Arctic Wolf? How come it appears like… Captain Ivanov’s team has all committed suicide?”

1

Those Inuits were not distracted by the Russian’s collective suicide. Their eyes were still fixated on Gu Jun alone.