Plague Doctor

Chapter 258: The Choice

In the afternoon, after the news of the legionella pneumonia outbreak at San Hai City was released online, the internet exploded. Initially, while shocked, most of the discussion was about how lucky they were for being physically far away from San Hai City but the horrible development caught everyone by surprise. News of lockdown came for many cities, the outbreak was happening all at once at different cities across the globe...

Terror swept across the globe and the world wide web. What was happening in San Hai City? Who was the first to report the outbreak?

“Mr. He.” Inside Jiang Xin Hospital, Gu Jun’s heart quivered as He Feng pleaded with him. All parents would put their children first. The decision made by He Feng might be common to those as parents but it was still quite admirable. The four anti-inflammation pills were not a cure-all by any means. If the biological similarity between homo sapiens and the people of the foreign civilization was to be believed, one pill would not be enough to cure the illness, it could only suppress the bacterial growth, one would need to ingest them for several days before the illness could be cured. One or two pills would probably only prolong the patient’s death for another 50 hours. But perhaps this borrowed time could buy enough time for the pills to be replicated. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps... No one could tell what would happen now.

“Please take this pill for yourself first.” Gu Jun advised. Seeing the argument rising on He Feng’s face, he quickly added, “Mr. He, listen to me. Someone has to be the test subject to check the effect of the pills. Furthermore, in your condition, I worry you might not be able to make the journey home. You need to get better first.”

He Feng’s face lit up with hope. “Doctor Gu, you mean you will give me more pills after I take this one?’

“I will give you 2 more.” Gu Jun nodded. For all he had done, He Feng deserved this chance. “Hopefully your daughter will be able to pull through.”

“Thank you, thank you...” He Feng was so touched that he could barely speak, “Doctor Gu, cough, thank you so much...” To tell the truth, He Feng wanted to bring all 3 pills home, and give them all to his daughter or at least 1 to his wife, because Niu Niu would need her mom. But now he had no other choice. He knew how lucky he was to be given a chance like this. Before they moved to the next room, He Feng accepted the pill from Gu Jun and swallowed one down with a gulp of water. He resisted the urge to vomit. He Feng, Gu Jun and Uncle Dan hoped for a miracle, praying that the pill would have an instantaneous effect like a spell.

However, He Feng continued to cough and there was no recordable change to his body temperature and heart rate. The man himself felt no change either. This basically confirmed for Gu Jun that while this pill might be able to suppress the growth of the bacterial strain, it would require more than one pill to kill it.

“Aiz.” Uncle Dan sighed. With the bacteria’s startling life force, a single pill was not going to take it down. However, to look on the bright side, if He Feng’s conditions slowed down and he survived longer than the average, then the pill would be considered effective already.

“Damn it...” Kathlyn grumbled. There was still no recorded case at the Australian city where her family was staying yet but she shared in their frustration. She wondered if humanity had enough time.

“Mr. He, we’ll send you out now.” Gu Jun said, “Follow the evacuation team and go before the traffic system collapses. Do not take any pitstop along the way. Once you reach home, we will call you to give you instruction on how to leave the city.” Once the Phecda members evacuated from the hospital, the patients would instantly go on a riot. Once the news broke, people would fight to escape and it would paralyze the public transport system.

“Thank you, really, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” He Feng choked on his feelings. “Doctor Gu, I thank you on my daughter’s behalf...”

Gu Jun nodded wordlessly as he walked He Feng out with Peacock and the rest. Suddenly, the sounds of rotors echoed outside the hospital and then the voice came from the walkie-talkie, “Problematic Team, please be prepared for retreat now!”

The patients had no idea they had been abandoned. As Gu Jun’s team walked through them, some of them tried to stop Gu Jun, while others just pleaded with their eyes. At the hospital entrance, with Peacock’s accompaniment, He Feng walked out from the hospital gates. However, Gu Jun stopped. He turned to take in the faces of the patients in the hospital.

“Ah Jun, it’s time to go.” Uncle Dan sighed.

‘Go?’ Gu Jun’s heart wrenched, ‘And abandon these patients as well as the first responders like Lee Wen and the other hospital staff?’ They were all infected and waiting for death. Gu Jun gritted his teeth so much that his facial muscle twitched. He could not make himself take the first step out. His agitation caused the darkness in his heart to awaken. He saw bleeding faces, some with human features, others with the features of the foreign civilization...

He really wanted to save everyone. The bunch of crazies who wanted to herald in a new era, those were the ones who deserved to die... Visitation of pestilence as the turning point of history, he did not understand such crap but he knew that what was happening now was not right. These tragedies and pain should not arrive, they were not good for humanity.

“Ah Jun.” Uncle Dan said again, “We’ve tried our best, sometimes, as doctors we need to recognize that.” Gu Jun responded with silence. ‘Evacuate to the ships? All I know is clinical medicine and spell, I am of no help in terms of pharmaceutical studies, I’ll be a wastrel there. There are more than enough people there, with experts from all over the globe, I’m sure they’ll come up with the result soon.’ Furthermore Gu Jun had a feeling the anti-inflammation pills alone would not be enough to end this epidemic. There had to be something special about Jiang Xin Municipal for it to be the source of the epidemic...

“No,” Gu Jun mumbled softly, “Our battlefield is here, I don’t want to evacuate.” The headquarters was stunned. Uncle Dan wanted to persuade Gu Jun when something caught his eyes. He gasped, “Ah Jun, look! What’s that! The strain has caused genetic mutation?!”

Gu Jun whipped his head around. Under the bush outside the hospital entrance, lit up by the dim street light, there was a brown shadow. It was as large as a possum but looked like a rat. It had a silky fur coat and beady eyes... A surge of electricity coursed through Gu Jun’s body, ‘It’s a Zoog! It would not have appeared here for no reason.’ Based on what the Elder Zoog said, normally they would not stray too far away from inter-dimensional channels. They would stroll for a little bit before returning to Dreamlands. This meant that somewhere around Jiang Xin Municipal there was a channel that led to Dreamlands. This could not be a coincidence.

“Zoog!” Gu Jun screamed as he made a run for it. “Stop right there!” The Zoog slipped away in a hurry. Under the night sky, he slithered away faster than a rat.