Mist

Chapter 14: Ouroboros

“Advisor Ji, how do you feel? You don’t look well today.”
Tang Le, a new teammate, one of the round-faced twins.
He looked a little shy. Upon hearing his answer, his reaction was much like that of a straight man.
“I see.” He said awkwardly, “Advisor Ji, don’t be too nervous. The transition this time is the same as your previous missions and the mission is also very simple. We should be back by tomorrow.”
…….
The next second, Tang Le’s neck was bloody, splattering all over his body and flowing down his black combat uniform. The ‘7’ symbol on his chest was stained crimson red.
His eyes were dull, and it gradually turned grey and turbid. Behind him were zombies gnawing at him as well as the seemingly endless black wall: “Advisor Ji……We can’t go back——-”

The scene shook. Blinding white light suddenly appeared.
The sky and ground cracked, shattered and collapsed.
There was a harsh siren.

【Illegal transition detected!】
【Illegal transition detected!】

Amidst the violent shaking, someone grabbed his shoulders: “Jian Jian, calm down!”
A blank piece of paper and a pencil was tossed in front of him. That person squatted down beside him and said to him, “Here, do as teacher said, okay?”
The room was eerily quiet. Sun shone through the window, falling onto the table. A small hand held the pencil and started to write the first number in the centre of the white piece of paper.
“Look.” The teacher spoke gently, “We start at 1 and slowly write until we can’t write anymore on this paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong, you don’t need to think and you don’t need to remember. That’s right don’t be afraid. Keep writing…. keep writing until you feel better…….”

“Bang, bang, bang!”
Gunshots rang.
Someone fiercely pushed him out the window while blowing off the heads of an oncoming tide of zombies with Shen Mian. When that person looked back, his eyes were furious: “Don’t speak nonsense and leave now!! I’ll hold up the fort!”
…….
In the speeding car, dust scattered up behind it.
“Sacrificing yourself is a foolish act and shouldn’t be done again. There is nothing more important than surviving. There are still many other things our team needs to do, no need to rush to your death.”
“Do you understand?!”
……..
The car rolled over. A large hand reached over.
The palm was pieced with glass shards and still dripping with blood.

He reached out towards that hand.
The moment he held it, the other party’s dark eyes narrowed, “Advisor Ji, I think you have a lot of things you haven’t told me the truth about……How many times have you experienced our current situation?”

……
“Looks like we’re both not crazy.”

Everything was still.
Before Ji Yushi’s eyes was the flawless and white interior of a capsule. The transparent panel in front of him was showing garbled characters and outside the glass window was a dense forest and a dark grey sky.

“Bzz.”
With a soft sound, a robotic arm grabbed a bag of nutrient solution and foolishly handed it over.

Badump badump.
Badump badump.

When swallowed by the darkness, what did he think about just before his death?
He couldn’t remember.
All that remained was the heart still beating violently in his chest.

Disregarding the dizziness and weightlessness he was feeling, Ji Yushi pressed open the safety lock almost without a second thought and weakly climbed out of the capsule.

Cold early morning wind blew past.
Seven capsule compartments glowed faintly in the middle of the quiet forest.
Three or four teammates stood not far away. They seemed to be talking about something and were a little agitated, as if they were complaining about the wrong time coordinates.