Translator: Lonelytree
[ Welcome To
Geikie — Windjana Way
LENGTH – 155km ]
Gu Jun glanced at the road sign next to the highway and his heart was shaking. It was this road sign, this was the place. There was a petrol station about 200 metres away and further from it were some low houses. There were people using the pumps in the station. He could see other human beings, and not chimpanzees, so he probably had returned to the correct timeline.
Malachite, Gold, Amberlite and Aquamarine were as bewildered as they could be. They were talking over each other, asking questions. Kathlyn had long noticed the issue of language barrier. “Perhaps I have a solution.” She offered, “I believe I share my consciousness with Peacock, maybe I can try working together with her?” Perhaps it was her years of psychiatric problems, Kathlyn accepted this situation quite easily. At the very least this answered the problem that had troubled her for years.
“It’s worth a try.” Gu Jun nodded. Even he could not tell for sure what was the nature of this relationship between Kathlyn and Peacock. Instantly Kathlyn’s expression changed, her brows locked, her eyes closed and opened with a painful grimace...
Suddenly, her eyes burned with different light. It was Peacock who first spoke. “Mr. Nightmare,” but then it was Kathlyn who continued, “Hey, I’m still here! This can definitely work!” The two personalities occupied the same body at the same time, acting as an intermediary.
“Let us go over there then.” Gu Jun headed towards the petrol station. He had Katlyn/Peacock remind the rest to just follow along and not do anything stupid. These land’s travellers were like a child at a candy store, they were impressed by everything. They had been to so many places at Dreamlands but they had not seen a ‘car’ before.
This was a medium-sized petrol station, it came with a convenience store attached. It served mostly holidayers and truckers. The Caucasian, rotund security guard saw them heading this way and his eyes were fixed on them.
“Hi~” Kathlyn greeted him and said casually, “We’re on a fantasy-themed hiking trip.”
“I think I remember you.” The fatty said, “Your vehicle has been parked there for almost 2 weeks already, we’re about to call the cops.” This came as a surprise. So Kathlyn and Tom drove here in a red Ford which was now parked at a free parking lot not far from the petrol station. When the group walked over, they realized they did not have the key. Gu Jun grabbed the rock with the Ancient Seal and made quick work of the car window. That immediately set the alarm off. Kathlyn shouted back at the security guard who turned their way, “I lost the key!”
The guard frowned. ‘That’s them right?’ To be fair, he mixed Asian faces up too easily. But it was indeed Kathlyn’s ride because her purse was lying in the passenger seat. Inside it was her phone, id and some cash. When the security came over with another guard, Kathlyn showed them her id to prove that they were not breaking into a car. Tom’s phone was also there but both phones were dead. They thus headed towards the convenience store. The store was quite big, it provided all kinds of on the road services. There was a small market, a dining area, Atm machines, vending machines and even a small children playing pen. When they walked through the door, everyone, including the shoppers, and diners turned to look at them.
“Can you like remove the mask?” Kathlyn whispered to the nightmare man. “You look too much like Michael Meyers, you do know that right?” In their cotton suit, they already stood out quite a bit but with the nightmare man’s white mask, they were practically a walking signboard. It was little wonder people were staring guardedly at them.
“I know.” Gu Jun replied, “But believe me, it’s even scarier should they see what’s underneath the mask.” In any case, he had more urgent things to deal with. He walked towards the socket to plug in the charger and switched on the phones. The phone showed that it was 5.21 pm Australian time.
“I’m really back...” Gu Jun gave a long sigh. Only half a year had passed, thankfully.
“Why are there people inside that box?” At the same time, Peacock asked openly as she stared at the tv at the corner. Aquamarine answered, “perhaps their souls are trapped inside it?” Malachite stared with disgust at the barrel-shaped diners, gulping on handfuls of French fries, fried chickens and coke. He said darkly, “How could these be our kin? How will they even fight during the Ossarian assault?” They were conversing in their own language but for the customers, they could be speaking Chinese for all they knew.
Gu Jun did not have time to be their guide. He connected to the shop’s wifi and hopped online. The world did not change that much. During January this year, the ‘flu’ at Eastern State had ended. There was no follow up news and clearly the people wanted to put that part of history behind them as well. None of the countries had openly made any statement about any secret organization or supernatural events...
But what about other plague? Gu Jun continued his research. There was another outbreak of Ebola in Africa, 5200 people had been infected and 3800 lives had been lost. This pulled at Gu Jun’s heart but it was too early to tell if there was anyone behind the outbreak. But another string of news heightened his worry even further.
“Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in America, causing 15 death.”
“Legionnaires’ Disease broke out in Western Europe, 26 infected and 3 death.”
“Legionnaires’ Disease strikes before the Ebola wave is over, causing more distress in Africa.”
“Legionnaires’ Disease...” Gu Jun frowned. 3 different continents with all different countries but they had recorded the same outbreak in the past 2 months. Legionnaires’ Disease is a form of atypical pneumonia caused by a strain of the Legionella bacteria. The first known recorded outbreak happened in America in the year 1976 during a veteran’s meeting at Philadelphia, hence the name. The bacteria was airborne, it entered the human body through the pulmonary tract, causing lung troubles...
He looked up these information, the disease had 2 to 10 days of incubation period. Early symptoms included headache, listlessness and then a sudden fever that could reach up to 40 degree Celsius. Some patients might suffer from bloody sputum and bloody cough too... if left untreated, there would be hallucination, paralysis and chronic confusion...
“Legionnaires’ Disease.” Gu Jun said to himself. The similarity to the Bloody Lungs Illness was too obvious to ignore, but could the two be really related? The Legionella bacteria was in itself a super bacteria, if it was mutated, then... Could these outbreaks be some kind of experiment by a secret organization?
The more Gu Jun thought about it, the deeper his heart sank. He wanted to call Phecda to come and fetch him immediately but his knowledge of the future stopped him. ‘The mask-wearer is not evil,’ he still did not understand what that meant but the images that he saw when he was inside the channel... the different visions of his own death... he urged himself to not act too rashly, the possibility that the shadow was trying to warn him could not be ignored.
“Phecda Chaos.” For now, he was certain it would have nothing to do with Wu Siyu, she was not a traitor because in the future timeline, she was already dead. That meant she was the only person Gu Jun could trust. Even though he did not think Cai Zixuan or Wang Ruoxiang would be the traitors either, but he understood from personal experience how easily madness could take over one’s mind. In fact, their body could even be taken over by other souls, the examples were standing beside him... so no one was exempted from suspicion.
“Now how am I supposed to contact Dirty-minded Yu?” Gu Jun looked out the store window. It was almost night time. The time zone at Western Australia should be similar to China. Their phones had disappeared when they got on the white ship but she probably still used the same number—As the group leader, he had memorized all the phone numbers of his members. Even though he had no idea whether Phecda member’s phone line was monitored by the organization or not, he knew it unwise to call her directly.
“Unless....” Gu Jun frowned. “I call and say nothing, that’ll just be treated as harassment or prank.” With their ESP connection, and their success of telepathy in Dreamlands... Gu Jun hoped that she might be able to sense something through the call despite their physical distance...
‘What the hell, no harm in trying.’ He did not use Kathlyn’s phone but a service phone inside the store. Since this was an international call, he had Kathlyn pay the cashier before he picked up the speaker and typed in the number.
It connected! Gu Jun felt his heart pound. And then it was picked up. A lazy-sounding female voice came through, “Hello?”
He instantly gave out a sigh. A boulder dropped. It was Wu Siyu’s voice, she was still alive! He did not speak, he evened out his breathing but inside he was screaming. ‘Dirty-minded Yu, can you hear me? It’s me Gu Jun! I’m not dead! I’m back!’
“Hello?” Wu Siyu on the other end said again, “Who is this? Hmm... O well.” Just as Gu Jun thought she was about to hang up, she suddenly paused and said, “Someone once told me that in a scary movie, should you receive a call but the caller doesn’t say anything, then you’re in big trouble.”
‘That does sound like something I would say.’ Gu Jun thought. He believed he did say that in one of their chats during team training. But that was just half of what he said. The latter half was, ‘so normally to survive, what the receiver should do... is to hang up immediately.’
Du, du, du... and the call was hung up.
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