Plague Doctor

“Berry: Mr. Wales, we’re so sorry to dredge up these memories but this is our job, please cooperate with us.

Baldwin: Actually we are trying to help you. Put it this way, Mr. Wales, this will help clear up your suspicion of collusion with the enemy.

Wales: Collusion? How dare you! Don’t assume I’m a traitor just because of the state I’m in… if you have seen the things I have, you would not be taking me so lightly… That thing is not a freakshow from the circus, it is stranger than fiction. It possesses the strongest presence of death and despair even though it is definitely alive.

Berry: Sir, we are willing to believe you. Please describe it further.

Wales: That giant monster… there are no words that can encapsulate its horror. There is a river at the bottom of the hill. It emerged from that river. And the sound that it made… Urgh… My head.

Note: Jack Wales’ face blanched and he tried to bang his head against the table. The investigator provided him with an Aspirin.

Berry: Sir, do you feel better? Can you continue for us now?

Wales: That thing… is probably several hundred feet tall, it too was covered in scales. It looked similar to the carved monsters but it had more limbs. Once it crawled out from the water, it rushed towards the stone plaque… The moment I saw it, my head felt like breaking. I probably lost my consciousness then. I have no idea what happened later. I have no memory of how I escaped from the island. But I think I ran into a storm, there was loud thunder and other sounds…

Baldwin: Can you give us a more precise description of the monster?

Wales: I’ve told you, it is indescribable… Let me ask you, can you describe darkness? Darkness is darkness…

Berry: Then why would you think that is the Philistinian Fish God, Dagon?

Wales: I have a blurry memory of that storm. Other than thunder, I heard other sounds… That was why I believed the carcasses by the shore were sacrifices. The sounds were like evocation of the divine, it was the damn occult… They were calling the name, Dagon, Dagon…

Baldwin: Could that be part of your illusion? People would often hallucinate under the condition of extreme hunger and fear.

Wales: I… I cannot be sure, but after I woke up, I swore I could see it. It is following me, in fact, it is nearby now…

Berry: Mr. Wales, I can assure you that there is no sea monster about several hundred feet tall near this hospital.

Wales: No, you don’t understand… It exists in my mind, the monster is suckling on my brain matter. Damn it… I need a shot of morphine, please give me one. As long as my brain is numbed, it will disappear…

Baldwin: Sir, the doctor believed what you really need is a serene environment to calm your mind.

Wales: None of you believe me, I know it. Everyone thinks I am lying… How I hope that is true, that this is just a hallucination…”

After reading that page, the agitation in Gu Jun’s heart grew. It almost caused him heart palpitation. He believed Wales’ claim of the storm because when he conducted the autopsy, he experienced the same illusory storm. He too heard the passionate screams of Dagon, they were definitely cried out by Dagon’s worshippers.

‘Carving?’ Gu Jun was reminded of the statue that the R’yleh cultists worshipped. There had to be a connection between Dagon and R’yleh, but Dagon might not necessarily be equal to R’yleh. According to the cultists, the Lord of R’yleh had been in hibernation for millions of years but Dagon was seen by Wales in the past 100 year.

Perhaps this was a different cult, a Dagon Cult who worshipped Dagon like the Philistines. ‘Are they different from the R’yleh Cult or part of the R’yleh Cult?’ Gu Jun took a deep breath to ease his thoughts. He turned back to the medical report.

Los Angeles Hersai Hospital, the Psychiatry Department

Physician: Doctor Anthony Finn. Date: 4-25-1920

Patient: Jack Wales. Gender: Male. Race: Caucasian. Age: 40. Height/ Weight: 6 feet 1 inch/ 168 pounds

Diagnosis result: Shell Shock and Morphine Addiction

Detailed Report: The patient is once a marine lieutenant, he was made captive by the German. This experience caused mental damage to the patient. His symptoms include high tension, constant paranoia, insomnia, hallucination. Official diagnosis is shell shock. The patient adopted a quick addiction to morphine and showed self-mutilating tendency. Needs plenty of care.

Gu Jun frowned as he studied the old medical report. Shell shock was PTSD’s former name but was Wales suffering from normal PTSD?

Jack Wales was not a soft-spined person, in fact he was very tough or else he would not have survived the capture and being stranded for so long at sea. However, such a tough soldier lost his mind with just a glance at Dagon…

“Is it due to mental corruption?” The more Gu Jun thought about it, the more weighed down he felt. It was not rare for one’s mind to be traumatized through the sight of something highly terrifying. However, they had crossed paths with many mutated creatures in their line of work. Zombies, Deep Ones, Nightgaunt, after the initial shock, none of them had shown permanent mental damage. Then again, this Dagon was probably not a normal mutated creature. After all, it was a Fish God… Could this monster have taken a part in this tragedy? What was its connection to the foreign civilization and the Afterlife Cult?

Gu Jun had many questions. Some of the answers were just at the tip of his tongue but he needed a little more nudge to point him down the correct direction… He read all the documents on the table again and found nothing new. Back then the US military did not treat this issue too seriously. The conclusion drawn was that Wales suffered from shell shock after being captured by the Germans and then stranded at sea for so many years.

“Isla Salas y Gomez.” Gu Jun mumbled the name, he had a feeling he needed to be there in person. He arranged his thought before making a call to the command central. He shared his thoughts. He believed Wales was telling the truth, there was something strange about that part of the sea. There might be a channel there that could lead to Dagon’s lair and this illness was most likely related to Dagon’s influence.

His words did not technically bring any new breakthrough for Phecda had already started their investigation of the area. Therefore, the call ended fast. Gu Jun immediately returned to the morgue. Despite his pulsing temples, he needed to continue his work. His system was triggered at Long Kan Seabelt. He remembered seeing many inscriptions and carvings on the spires at the bottom of the sea… but did the spires exist for real? Phecda sent people to Long Kan Seabelt after the fact, and they reported no sighting of such underwater spires.

‘Is there a connection between all these?’ Gu Jun put on the scrubs and rubber gloves again as he headed towards the autopsy table.

‘I have to obtain the 10 star reward for this abyssal mission!’ Perhaps the system might provide him with the direction he needed to move forward.

…

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