“Help…” Ma Feng’s face was covered in fresh blood that did not belong to him. It dripped down from some unknown creature stacked above him, miraculously, the man was still alive! Gu Jun studied the carcasses around Ma Feng and noted some gaps. He quickly told Lou Xiaoning, “Let’s try to nudge him out.”

“Okay.” Lou Xiaoning handed the pistol over to Peacock and then gripped Ma Feng’s shoulders alongside Gu Jun. They gave him a pull and felt Ma Feng shift slightly, it was working! The two continued to pull.

“Ah…” Ma Feng groaned in pain, his face scrunching up in agony. That caused everyone’s heart to quiver. They were afraid to leave Ma Feng inside the wall but at the same time, worried that the Ma Feng they pulled out would have only half of his body left. He was so deeply entrenched in the wall that they could not tell whether he still had his whole body intact or he had already become part of the wall. To their relief, when the two finally yanked Ma Feng out from the wall, Ma Feng’s body was still complete. However, the cotton shirt that he wore was completely soaked. Decomposition had settled in around his stomach and his small intestine hung out from the gaping wound.

“Be careful!” Gu Jun warned, “Do not touch his wound.” Lou Xiaoning and the rest hurried forward to help and laid Ma Feng down on the floor. It did not help that the floor itself was… made from carcasses. The team did bring along a med kit with them into Dreamlands and thankfully not all of the tools inside it had disappeared. Malachite was the one carrying it. Now that Uncle Dan was missing, Gu Jun was the only team doctor. He opened the med kit and put on a pair of gloves quickly. In this environment, sterile operation was impossible.

Once Gu Jun put on the rubber gloves that stuck tight to his skin, instantly something within him awakened, calming his agitated mind. Even though it had been some time since his last operation, Gu Jun never forgot that he was foremost a doctor. As he evened out his breathing, he picked up the surgical scissors. He made quick work of Ma Feng’s shirt to expose the wound around the stomach. The wound was large. With the navel as centre, it was around 10 cm in diameter. There was a cut that went down the whole length of his stomach.

“Oh God…” Kathlyn grumbled. Seeing the gore before her, a chill ran through her body and nausea assaulted her. The Zoog was trembling. Even though Gu Jun was no longer holding him, he did not dare to run away due to the fear of becoming part of the house.

“What the hell happened?!” Lou Xiaoning groused. As she remembered, there was no trace of fighting or blood where Uncle Dan’s team disappeared, “Ma Feng, what happened? Where are the rest?” Ma Feng’s face was pale, clearly the man had lost too much blood. He was going into hemorrhagic shock. He was mumbling but it was unclear whether he was answering Lou Xiaoning or just stringing along words incoherently, “Worms, so many worms… Don’t come any closer…”

“This is not a gun wound.” Gu Jun continued to inspect Ma Feng’s wound. The longer he did, the weightier the pressure on his shoulders. Things were not looking optimistic. There was a deep hole around the stomach but it was not a bullet wound, if anything, it felt more like something had forced its way into Ma Feng’s stomach and made a mess of it while inside. But what could it be… Worms? The more Gu Jun thought about it, the chillier he felt. He looked at the bleeding stomach and thought, ‘Will I find parasites inside there…’

“Ah Jun.” Lou Xiaoning asked, cutting into his thoughts. “Can he still be saved?”

“Hard to say.” Gu Jun turned to inject Ma Feng with a shot of morphine. “I can’t do anything more for him here. But if his bleeding can be stopped and we manage to hurry back to Earth in the next 3 to 4 hours, he can still be saved.” His diagnosis did not take into account the possibility of parasites in the stomach. Regardless, Gu Jun was not going to abandon Ma Feng so easily. If he could not save his own teammate, how was he supposed to save the public from the plague. With the current condition and environment, Gu Jun could not perform any surgery, so the only thing he could do was to conduct emergency pre-opt prep. After the shot of morphine, he grabbed the hemostatic clamp to clamp up the bigger wounds around the stomach and then used his hands to shove the intestines back into Ma Feng’s body. For cases of disembowelment, if only a small part had slipped out, normally, they would be left untouched to prevent further damage to the body. Instead the doctor would opt for open protective cladding; however, in Ma Feng’s case, too much of his intestine was outside of his body, they had to be put back in to prevent further infection.

“Ah, ah…” Even though he was already given a shot of morphine, the enormous pain from his stomach still caused the man to wail in mind-breaking pain. The rest who watched on had their skin crawl with goosebumps.

“This is why I am not a doctor…” Kathlyn whispered softly. Tom kept gasping for air. Gu Jun, who was doing the operation, did not sweat but the people around him were covered in cold sweat. They watched as the bloody intestines were nudged back through the wound. Gu Jun’s gloves were turning red… but his hands never shook and the pressure on the stomach wound was applied just right, ensuring no more damage on the delicate intestines. Phecda Hero was a real doctor. Peacock was reminded of some childhood legend, about how the Phecda Hero could bring people back to life… how fortunate she was to be able to witness it with her own eyes… Lou Xiaoning noticed that Gu Jun’s skill did not deteriorate even though it had been quite some time since her team leader performed actual surgery, if anything, he had gotten more masterful than she remembered.

“Respected Nightmare Man, you impress me with your medical skill.” The Zoog patted himself. “Even us Zoogs wouldn’t have handled that so perfectly.” Gu Jun ignored the praise. After the intestines were placed back into the body, he grabbed the gauze to start the bandage.

“Worms, so many worms…” Ma Feng still mumbled incoherently. The moment Gu Jun finished the bandaging, the condition around them shifted. Endless worms crawled out from the walls and ceiling. Gu Jun’s brows locked. ‘This is not an illusion!’ He replaced the tools back into the med kit and then said hurriedly, “Quick, we need to hurry ahead!”

There was a whole world waiting for them to return, they could not surrender now. Due to a lack of a stretcher, Gold was temporarily tasked with carrying Ma Feng in his two arms while the others guarded beside him. In only a few moments, the worms had overtaken the world around them. They ebbed like a wave. There was also a noisy buzzing from the flies. Some landed on their hair and clothes. The younger worms crawled on the walls… giving the impression that the walls were moving. Everywhere they turned, they were greeted by these ghastly images.

“Fuck…” Lou Xiaoning cursed. The Zoog suddenly patted his head in urgency, “The corridor is narrowing!”

Gu Jun and the rest quickly noticed the two walls closing in. The space that was originally 5 metres wide was narrowing into 4 metres and it was still moving. They raced down the corridor and each step that they took carried with it a squishy sound. Their footfalls stomped on the worms but more worms rose out from the flattened flesh of their brethren.

“Run!” Gu Jun hollered, incidentally mimicking the woman whom they had encountered earlier, “Faster!”

‘No, mother, death is inevitable.’ A wisp of a voice appeared to say.

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