Plague Doctor

Click, click, click, the carriage drove on the swampy road for a long time, far away from this already remote town, and arrived at the more desolate suburbs of the town.

It was already evening, and the sunset dyed the sky red. Night would soon come, and the returning birds were chirping and flying back to the woods.

As the old man shouted stop, the brown horse pulling the cart stopped, and some fodder fell to the ground on the pallet. "Mr. Gu, you can come out now." The old man said, "Welcome to my farm. I am the only one here, and there are some cows, chickens and dogs." The dogs had already surrounded him enthusiastically.

"Thank you, Mr. Joyce." Gu Jun emerged from the grass, took out his backpack, and glanced around.

This is not a large farm. It is a large farm in front of a two-story house, with some fenced-off land for growing crops. There are also wooden warehouses and livestock sheds next to it. Mr. Joyce raises cows and chickens. Being trapped there also gave the air a peculiar smell of animal feces.

However, this place is not small, and it is not an easy job to take care of it alone.

"I wasn't the only one before." Mr. Joyce seemed to be able to see his doubts, and he said in a cheerful tone: "My mother-in-law and my son are all dead, just in the past few years. .My son had an accident; my mother-in-law couldn't bear the blow and died of illness."

Gu Jun frowned, "I'm sorry." Under the old man's hearty tone, there must be hidden sadness.

The old man moved the fodder down and worked for a while before walking into the house, "I'm going to make dinner. How about fried eggs and fried bread?"

"Okay." Gu Jun was actually very hungry, and his stomach was growling. He only had one breakfast "today". He went from the base of Dongzhou Medical Department to the oak forest, then to the wasteland, and then to here. The lack of physical strength also caused his spirit to decline.

He followed the old man into the house. Although cities like New York City in 1929 were already very developed, in a remote place like Chicktown, in a poor family like the old man, the interior decoration of the house was very simple and simple. There are no electrical appliances, not even a TV or telephone.

"My son," Mr. Joyce said to himself, "Jack, a wonderful young man, was only 26 years old when he died. He died over at Innsmouth. He wanted to go there and see what was there. There was no way to make money, so he met a frightened horse on the road in that town. The horse knocked over several people, and Jack was one of them. He was particularly unlucky. He was stepped on by the horse in the chest and died on the spot. "

Gu Jun was silent and followed the old man to the kitchen. There was a gas stove and other things.

"Horses are often frightened in Innsmouth," said Mr. Joyce. "There are too many strange things to describe. We are remote enough here, but Innsmouth is even more remote. Duo, that's an old seaport. I heard that it was once as prosperous as a city more than a hundred years ago, but now it's a complete wasteland. It was like this when I was a child. There was no railway passing by, no trains, you could just take a bus. We have to go to Arkham first.”

Mr. Joyce sighed, "My poor Jack, he always thought about getting rich and thought he could make use of the abandoned houses there, but he died unexpectedly."

"Aren't there many residents there?" Gu Jun asked.

"There are not many now." Mr. Joyce said while turning on the gas stove, taking out eggs and making omelettes: "They are all fishermen who go to sea, and there is also a gold refining factory. What is strange is that in a declining place, there are so many Those who get off are those old people who can't walk, but in Innsmouth, you can't see any old people, and it's hard to see even older people. There are only young people there. It’s like, at a certain age, they’re out of there.”

Gu Jun pondered, leave? Where have you gone?

"The people in Innsmouth are very weird and closed-minded." The sound of sizzling eggs rang out, and Mr. Joyce was busy with a spatula. "Those of us in the nearby towns and villages have never been familiar with Innsmouth. There are many legends. But sometimes you can't blame these rumors, because the people there have different beliefs...from us. Mr. Gu, I just want to ask you this question, maybe you can answer me."

"What?" Gu Jun asked doubtfully, "Please tell me."

Mr. Joyce turned to look at him, his old red face slightly pulled down, "There is a saying that the Innsmouth people worship devils, and they often hold many sacrificial rituals. I have always suspected that Jack's death It’s not that simple, I suspect he was sacrificed to the devil.”

Gu Jun felt that the old man's eyes were not entirely friendly...

"It is said that the people of Innsmouth believe in a demon called 'Dagon'." The old man said, "It is a pagan religion imported from the East."

Suddenly hearing the name "Dagon", Gu Jun had a headache again, but he understood a lot in his heart.

Dagon, of course, is one of the powers that the Seabird seeks. If the Innsmouth people believe in Dagon, they may transform into deep divers... This transformation does not seem to happen when they are young, but only occurs after a certain age, so there are no middle-aged or elderly people there...

Imported from the East?

This should be the reason why those men were excited to expel him when they saw him, shouting about devils and heretics, and wanted to kill them all...

"Mr. Gu, I want to ask you." Mr. Joyce's voice became a little deeper, "How much do you know about the Dagon Cult?"

Gu Jun didn't know how to answer for a while. He did have some understanding, but it was not because he was an Oriental.

However, if there is Innsmouth in this world that does not exist in his home world, then he really doesn't know what his homeland and the East have.

After all, the leader of the Raleye Order, "the Immortal Taoist," was also from there.

Facing the old man's eyes, Gu Jun knew that he couldn't just panic like that. He also needed to get more information.

And in this day and age, in a place that is especially hostile to Easterners, it is not easy to meet such an old man.

"Mr. Joyce, I don't believe in Dagon." He said first, seriously and sincerely, "In fact, Dagon's followers are my enemies."

"So you do know about Dagonism?" Mr. Joyce became excited, his white beard trembling.

"I once had a fight with several Dagon believers on the ship coming to this country." Gu Jun continued, "Sir, I can tell you that in my hometown, people also hate the Dagon religion. It is just a religion. This evil secret society is said to be a pagan religion imported from the West in our country. But now it seems that it comes from the abyss. Mr. Joyce, I'm sorry to say this, but I think your son's death is indeed true. Very suspicious."

"I know, I know..." Mr. Joyce suddenly gritted his teeth, his old face became even redder with anger, and his eyes were a little moist, "The coroner couldn't find Jack's heart and said it was trampled by a horse, but I don't agree with these Having dealt with animals all my life, I know that being trampled to death by a horse is not like that..."

Thinking of Tian Yiqing, Xie Yiman and others, Gu Jun sighed deeply. If they were really offering sacrifices, those evil believers could do anything.

"I knew..." the old man was still muttering, "and in the past two years in Innsmouth, many people were arrested by the federal police, and many old houses along the dock were burned down."

Love the Plague Doctor.