Plague Doctor

Buzz, the strange wails exploded in people’s ears…

At the desert wasteland, strange creatures burst out from the ground.

“The heat sensors are not working…” Some frontline agents aimed heat imaging sensors at the flying polypus hydroids but it was ineffective. These abnormal creatures either had anti-scanning defence or they did not emit heat, both possibilities boggled one’s mind. The gunfire continued, there were bullets and small missiles. With another shriek, the signal was interrupted. The small missiles continued their bombarding. There were about hundreds of hydroids that appeared but none of them was hit. Thankfully, there was no injury from the frontline either, it was the same on both Mysterium and Phecda’s side. These hydroids appeared like they were unable to break through the dimensional border, they could only move within the desert wasteland.

For now, it could be confirmed that other than the Phecda World and Mysterium World, the desert wasteland was connected to at least one other dimension. Perhaps it was the world where the nuclear explosion occurred. Even though the enemies were still trapped, Deng Ximei and the rest were at their breaking point. The light of the Ancient Seal Net dimmed. Their mental power drained.

“We mustn’t let them break through our defence…” Deng Ximei had a very bad feeling. Their failure would not only affect the immediate frontline but perhaps the whole Earth. At that moment, the command central issued another order. The troop of fighter jets took flight into the desert wasteland. They were pilotless military jets with high artillery damage. One was enough to turn an area into a ruin. However, just as they crossed the border, several hydroids materialized around them. The tentacles of the creatures wrapped around the jets easily. They tore off the metals with surprising ease. A series of explosions later, the drones all careened to the ground.

“Prepare to retreat!” Mysterium’s drones hadn’t been destroyed and they announced staticky, “The energy of the cleansing net is not enough to stop the ritualistic area’s imminent expansion. Members of Phecda, please retreat within the next 1 minute. We will try to hold on for another 5 minutes. 10 minutes later, we will initiate indiscriminate carpet bombing.”

At the command central, Elder Tong and the frontline agents swiftly agreed with this decision. Yes, indiscriminate and saturated bombings. That would mean an endless parade of missiles to besiege the isolated target, which in this case was the desert wasteland. The main point here was firepower, so much firepower that the target would be buried underneath it. The earlier small missiles were made null by the hydroids’ shrieks but Elder Tong believed it exhausted them to use those shrieks as well. Perhaps once they were fully exhausted, the missiles could finally hit their target…

If they could lay waste to the desert wasteland, perhaps the land would be too barren for more abnormal creatures to emerge.

“Ah…” When Lou Xiaoning heard the order to retreat, as unwilling as she was, she knew she was not mentally stable enough to carry on. Plus time was of the essence. She yanked her hands off the cleansing stone and severed the connection to the net. Her entire person collapsed before she gritted her teeth and stood up again, “Come on, let’s go!”

Malachite, Helen Claire and the rest shared in her frustration but they were soldiers who listened to orders. The enemies were too powerful, much more powerful than zombies, Deep Ones and subterrain worms. As she retreated, Deng Ximei turned back to look. Her expression was lost. They could retreat for now, but could they retreat forever?

The frontline materials including the cleansing stones were abandoned. All the frontline agents hurried into helicopters and trucks. They departed. Back at the desert wasteland, more hydroids crawled out from the ground. There were now more than 300 of them.

After 1 minute, the Phecda members had fully evacuated and the Mysterium members started their retreat. After 10 minutes, both sides were already some distance away from the border. All kinds of missiles were fired from both Phecda and Mysterium’s sides. Loud explosions echoed in the command central. Some of the missiles malfunctioned in mid air and exploded while others dropped to the ground in a fiery death.

No one knew whether the abnormal creatures were killed or not. The signal to the border and to the Mysterium World was lost. The satellite only managed to pick up unclear images. But based on the retreating agents’ report, the strange shrieks could still be heard. 15 minutes later, without any warning, the desert wasteland expanded. The cameras which were posted 3 km away from the original border caught the gliding trace of a hydroid.

At the command central, people looked on nervously. They had no idea how much bigger the area had expanded. The vehicles carrying the agents kept on moving. The drones went the other way to stop the enemy and gauged the border…

Were the missiles effective? Was that the last resort available to the command central? Did these creatures have weakness and what was it?

At the quarantine base, Wang Ruoxiang and the rest watched closely. These thoughts bounced in her brain. They were wrapped in confusion. Human understanding of biology could not explain these flying polypus hydroids, how they did gain the ability of fly and invisibility?

At least zombies could be understood to a certain extent, they were a kind of mutated human beings, same with the Deep Ones. But these creatures, they once again shattered human belief.

To make matters worse, a new symptom suddenly ravaged the patients at the quarantine base. The livefeed from the patient’s room was fed into the communication room. Wang Ruoxiang, Si Kouxian and the others looked on in shock.

On screen were the second batch of patients, the staff and students from Gao Ji High School. Some of them had been given induced coma due to extreme pain and hallucinations; others were strapped to the bed to protect themselves. Just moments earlier, all 100 plus of them started to shake. Their muscles tensed. The waking ones had their pupils rolled back in their heads and their facial muscle twitched. However, this symptom did not last for long, only for 30 seconds. Then they all calmed down, not to their sickened state but their pre-sickened state.

The patients who were supposed to be in induced coma opened their eyes. Due to their lack of constraint, they walked down from beds; while the restraint patients sat up in bed. They all turned to the camera in the corner. They looked just like normal persons, trying to attempt communication.

Wang Ruoxiang could recognize some of them. There were the math teacher, Fan Jianguo as well as students, Hou Xingxing, Zhang Zihao, Lin Xintong, Xu Yan…

Suddenly the patients all uttered at the camera. “Human friends, hello. We are the Yith, we come from the future.”