Plague Doctor

The breeze at the end of the summer blew across the desert and lifted up the sand and dust. It also rustled the leaves of this poplar forest. The Phecda members who guarded this place looked around with alert, their focus was mainly on the path beside a poplar tree that connected the two worlds. It had been 3 days since the PM Unit entered Dreamlands. For the past 3 days, nothing happened on Earth but everyone was worried about the situation at Ulthar.

The situation at the poplar forest was shared via livefeed at the main command central. Compared to the other tragedies, this time, the work was much lighter. They even had time to sit down for tea and biscuits. But this peace was suddenly shattered by a big change. “Update, there’s something happening!”

The lights of the path shimmered like something was coming. Lou Xiaoning, Gold and the guards who were at the frontline and people at the command central tensed. Someone hurried to report this to Elder Tong. Suddenly they saw one figure walk out, followed by another. They were Gu Jun and Wu Siyu. Everyone sighed in relief, looks like everything was fine. One after another, all 12 members of the MP unit returned to Phecda World. Other than the change of clothes, they didn’t change much in terms of appearance, if anything, they looked rested. Then Gu Jun announced, “Mission completed with no injury!”

“Ha ha!” Lou Xiaoning laughed. The guards didn’t let their guard down because the protocol like questioning and isolation still needed to be done. But they couldn’t help but be happy, they too could tell what was real and what was fake. Joy suffused the command central. Elder Tong hurried online to check up on the frontline.

Suddenly, more changes happened. The guards all widened their eyes, the chattering sound gushed forward like a wave. More shadows surged out from the tunnel. They were small but muscular. They had grey fur and looked like giant rats. They were the Zoogs. Soon they filled up the path and then the whole poplar forest. They hung on the branches, hid behind bushes. Each tree was bearing an impossible number of Zoogs.

“It’s fine, it’s just Lucky bringing over the first batch of Zoogs.” Gu Jun quickly explained.

“How many Zoogs are coming in total?” Lou Xiaoning asked.

“100000 of them.”

Everyone was shocked by this number but Gu Jun was not kidding and what happened next verified that. The Zoog spread through the poplar forest, it was like an invasion. Their beady eyes looked around with greed. They tapped themselves and the ground, it felt like the earth was shaking. “Where’s the chicken thigh? Where’s the chicken thigh?” “There’s nothing here, only sand!” “Have we been cheated?”

Lucky looked at the rowdy crowd and he felt a headache. His kin were still fine at the Enchanted Woods but once they were here, they were a mess. He clapped loudly, “We will have the chicken thighs and chicken eggs. But now I need all of you to stand quietly!” That was something easier than done. Similarly difficult was the effort to move all of the Zoogs to a quarantine base.

Phecda actually had set up a barracks near the poplar forest for the MP unit and the Zoog’s quarantine but they didn’t expect there would be so many of them. The engineers immediately jumped into work. To reward these Zoog friends, a team even transported trucks of the best quality chicken from the nearby farms. Mo Bei desert was filled with the delicious smell of cooking that night. Under the desert sky, a party was well under way. The fat Zoogs all jumped right into it, their paws grabbing at the delicious meat. As they munched, they sighed. As they thought about their lives back at the Enchanted Woods, they’d cry. They had been berated for having an extra portion of chicken. And a cup of wine needed to be shared? They were big boned and definitely not fat! Was it their fault for having a big stomach? These prejudices didn’t follow them to earth! The Zoogs had a very satisfactory first night on Earth.

At the same time, Gu Jun and Lucky looked down at the celebration from a hill at the side. He was telling Lucky the later arrangement for the Zoogs. The Zoogs would first undergo half a month of training, which included sign language, earth geography and so on. Then they would officially start working. Some of them would join the various branches of Phecda, others would be sent to the Mysterium World. A small part would be assigned to do extremely sensitive scouting work where they would be responsible to scout the dangerous locales. Deep forest, isolated mountains, barren desert, places where there could be cultist activities.

They would also visit the lairs taken down by Phecda to see if the members had missed any clues. For example, Guang Ting City’s Xiong Lin Mountain was one of them. It was the place where Fire Phoenix and Elder Tong’s team was ambushed. It was a former base for the Ry’leh Cult. Even though the cult had been heavily injured recently, they didn’t disappear. Gu Jun’s parent’s family, the shaman, they were still in hiding.

When Lucky heard that, he paced around in panic, “You mean you’re going to send us Zoogs into the frontline?!”

“How do you expect to scout ahead otherwise?” Gu Jun said, “After you get the info, you can retreat and we’ll take over.”

“What if we’re captured by the cultists during the scouting?”

“Then tell them you were just passing by.” Lucky didn’t believe that himself.

Gu Jun didn’t wish death on the Zoogs but there was danger with every frontline job, it was the same for both humans and the Zoogs. Therefore, all Phecda could do was to compensate the Zoogs better for their possible sacrifice. They would be given more chicken thighs each meal.

Actually Lucky expected this. Humans were not charitable creatures, how much the Zoogs had eaten equaled how much they needed to work. Lucky turned to look at his kin who were still gorging themselves on the food. They had no idea about the tragedy awaiting them. These cultists were perfectly heartless, if they were captured, they’d be cooked like those chickens…

Gu Jun also looked at those Zoogs, only then he realized he had not dissected a Zoog before. A Zoog could be considered an abnormal creature and technically could increase his autopsy experience. Plus they were so small so it wouldn’t take long to finish the autopsy on one. Suddenly Lucky shivered. He glanced at the human beside him, wondering what kind of sinister plan was he cooking up this time. He decided to leave before the Nightmare man made his life more difficult.

“Lucky.” Gu Jun said, “The Zoogs have another mission, which is to look for abnormal creatures. Be it flying ones, swimming ones, living or dead. Find anything that you can. They can be dead bodies or even fossils. As you must know, my scalpel can’t ever stop.”

Hearing that, Lucky finally understood where the shiver came from.