Hello to all of you! I sincerely thank you for all your kind comments I received either on this site or on the other one. I personally didn't expect so many people to like my story, it's a total (and rather welcome) surprise for me. One of you has offered his services as a Beta reader (you'll recognize yourself) to help me with my linguistic difficulties, thank you. And finally, thank you to you anonymous people who certainly didn't leave me any message or anything else, but who are there, appreciating my work. Again, a big thank you to all of you and on this I leave you with Chapter 2 of my story. Have a good reading.
My eyes opened again, the darkness was gone. I was not dead, at least not yet... I slowly regained consciousness. My head hurt, not from the shock, but like after a heavy night of drinking. A taste of marble went up in my mouth; I coughed strongly, spitting on the ground a bit of gastric reflux, triggering at the same time a huge pain in my back. I groaned, cursing my weak situation, as my whole body was shivering from the pain. I slowly, and with great difficulty, got up, the intense pain reminding me that I shouldn't force myself too much on my very bruised body. I ran my hands over my face to wipe the rest of the snot from my mouth. I breathed in and out slowly through my hands, a very fine mist escaping from them, feeling my wound at the same time, making each of my breaths a sign that I was alive and well. My mind escaped to the last events I could remember, this mess, this tragedy worthy of Shakespearean playwrights. But one name! A name came back to my mind...
"DUBOIS!"
Why had he done that? Why did he shoot me? Why did he do it? Why?
This word echoed in my head, over and over again. Then, coming back to a semblance of reality, I finally started to observe my surroundings. The air was cool, but mostly very humid. The only sound I could make out was the sound of my breathing, but if I listened carefully, I could hear the sound of water falling on the ground. I could hardly see, as my eyes were not yet used to the darkness, everything was rather dark, except to my left where a faint light appeared giving me the opportunity to get better visibility. The walls were made of rough stones, the ground also, so nothing artificial. I was no longer in the institute. But where? That's when I realized where I was.
"A cave? I am in a cave! But... how?" I exclaimed.
Maybe one of the cracks that opened up made me fall down here? But that idea was wrong. If I had really fallen into the bowels of the earth, then why wasn't I hurt more than that? No broken leg, no broken head, just a little shaken up. The only injury is the one Dubois gave me, and there is no hole above me, so where am I?
But my mind was far too tired to think concretely and logically about anything. So I decided I had to get out of this place. So I moved around as best I could, trying to find the way out of this damned cave. It was not as difficult as I had planned, the daylight helped me a lot for this one, creating a luminous halo in the upper part of the cave, ironically as a kind of emergency exit sign. Moving slowly, I started my way to the exit, using the wall from time to time as a support. Suddenly the pain came back without warning, reminding me that I was in an extremely weak position... I screamed in pain, swearing at the same time.
"Shit! It hurts!"
My head began to spin, I had lost a lot of blood, but my improvised tourniquet had done its job properly. Thanks to this guard who probably saved my life, I would be able to regain my strength in the next few days. I couldn't even thank him, he's probably... My mind replayed the horror scene I had partly forgotten, I heard his desperate screams again and again, seeing him sliding through that strange portal. I was again horrified by the sight, a tear began to run down my face.
"Dubois... What have you done?" How many people died today? How many were my friends?" A deep sadness crept into me, what should I do? I had been lucky enough to get out of it, but he hadn't, nor his colleague for that matter. I had to pull myself together, a positive thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"He may have survived, just like me!" This soothed me at the time, I had to concentrate! I was not out of the woods yet. My wound would not be so easily fixed, I still had to remove the bullet, then disinfect and suture the wound. Things I couldn't do myself. So I had to find a place to live quickly, because an infection could declare itself and kill me in the next few days if I didn't act quickly. Starting to move again, I tried to maintain myself upright as well as possible, trying not to collapse on the ground. Because I was sure that if that happened, I would really meet death this time. To help myself, I leaned even more on the cool wall of the cave, my hand slowly passing and caressing the wet surface as if it were a pet. I began to murmur.
"At least the disaster doesn't seem to have affected this part of the world." That thought somehow comforted me, even though part of me wanted to see something concrete with my own eyes! I don't know... a city, for example. Gradually regaining my strength, I continued my journey out of the cave, the daylight getting brighter and brighter, so white that it almost blinded me when I got out. Putting my hand in front of my eyes to protect them, I continued to move forward, finally exiting the cave. I could finally see the outside world, however I was greeted by a breeze, a terribly cold breeze. It caressed my hair and the rest of my body, and a chill ran down my body, from my back to my pelvis.
My vision was getting used to the daylight again, and at that moment I was extremely confused. I saw snow as far as the horizon, and huge mountains in front of me, their tops touching the clouds, the sky of an azure blue. I continued to contemplate the scene to see that some trees appeared here and there, giving touches of pink to the white painting. However, one thing bothered me, observing the trees more carefully, it jumped out at me.
"Cherry trees? Where am I then?" I was not a botanist, but I could tell the difference between a tree with green foliage and a pink tree. I was totally confused. How was this possible?
Then I remembered something. Something that my mind had blocked out, for some reason. Just before I passed out, something happened. I was sucked through a kind of... portal, if you can call it that. Was this what had brought me here? Hundreds of questions came to mind.
How does such a thing work? Is it some kind of teleporter? What region am I in? Have others had the same experience as me? And did the guard have the same experience as me?
"STOP! Calm down Julian. You will answer all your questions later," I told myself. Finally, I have regained control of my thoughts. The most important thing now is to find help and warn them of the disaster that has occurred, and to hell with the secrecy! Anyway, I don't think my contract is still valid. I started to move in the snow with leather city shoes that are not technically designed to do a road-trip in the mountains and of course clothes that do not retain my body heat. Moving with difficulty through the snow, water began to enter my shoes, freezing my feet. Luckily for me, the route was surprisingly not very steep, the hardest part was enduring the intense cold that ran through my body. After a few minutes of walking, my head started to spin again. If I didn't stop immediately, I was going to pass out and freeze to death in the snow, however I couldn't stop for long, or I would still die of hypothermia. As I looked around, I noticed a tree, or the ground beneath it, was free of snow.
"It's perfect ! I'll be able to sit down without getting wet anymore."
I walked over to the tree, placing a right hand on top of it for support, then slowly slumping down before touching the ground. I quickly removed my shoes with my able-bodied arm, then my socks, which were completely soaked with frozen water. My now naked feet could dry quietly in the sun, although the cold might bring me frostbite if I left them exposed for too long. I thought for a moment about an alternative solution, before taking the decision to tear a part of my blouse to make some makeshift socks. My arm was hurting terribly, but I had to do it! After a few long minutes of suffering where the only sensation I could feel was pain, I finally had my "socks". I put the piece of fabric around my foot and tied a knot to keep it on. I did the same for my right foot. I breathed with satisfaction, contemplating my accomplished work.
"Not bad, for a beginner."
I had finally succeeded, I put on my shoes which had partly dried although still a little wet in some places, but I think it will be enough for the journey. I could finally rest! I took the time to regain my strength, and I thought about the next steps of my survival.
"Well now we have to go down the mountain, and find a town or village!"
Easier said than done! I was lost in the middle of nowhere, with no place to live, miles away from my position. I turned my gaze to my left to observe the place, everything seemed very steep, a large fault falling into the depths of the Earth preventing me from passing through this direction without equipment. As for my right, it continued to be passable and seemed rather simple in view of my injuries.
"Good! I'll have to go that way. I could at least get off this mountain. We'll figure out the rest later." I breathed in and out again, deeply in frustration. Suddenly, an intense rumbling brought me out of my thinking, and I felt it pass through my entire body... Hunger! I hadn't eaten in a while, and I didn't even know how long I had been unconscious in the cave, my stomach was bending in all directions to show its displeasure. My hand slipped inside my blouse to find a pocket containing sweet snacks. These were used when I was working late and didn't have time to eat a proper meal. So my hand came out of the blouse with the treat in it. I began to carefully remove the wrapper before bringing it to my mouth, crunching on it. I began to savor it, taking my time to eat it. Usually I devour it in thirty seconds. But for now, it was my moment, the only positive of the day that had become a nightmare. As I continued to eat the treat, I felt a discomfort, something was wrong! I began to look around. I felt the presence of someone or something watching me! I sat up as best I could to get a better look, before a voice broke the silence.
"No! Don't do that. Sit still my friend, don't be afraid."
It was the voice of a rather old man and surprisingly, he spoke my language. My confusion was total, was he watching me all along? Did he want to help me?
"Where are you?" I asked, hoping that the stranger would finally appear so that I could see him. But he answered me enigmatically.
"I'm coming, I'm going, I'm here, but I can be there. And you, where are you from?"
I continued to scan the surroundings for the source of the voice, but the echoes prevented me from identifying where it came from . My mind worked to the best of its ability to tell him something. Should I trust him? After all, I know nothing about him! But didn't he tell me to be quiet? Was he really worried about my health? After a brief moment of reflection, I decided to ask him for help, no matter who he was or where he was from.
"I... I had an accident and I need help! Please help me!"
"My friend, nothing happens by accident! Unfortunately, I couldn't help you personally, because the universe won't allow me to. But if you continue down the mountain, you will come across a village that can help you.
Huh! What! I didn't understand! Not an accident? The universe?
"The universe? What do you mean?" But no answer came.
"Are you still there?" Nothing again, except the wind howling through the mountain walls. So he was gone! Why didn't he help me or decide to call for help? Is the loss of blood making me completely delirious? Yes... yes, that's probably it, I'm just in the middle of a delirium! I decided to finish my chocolate bar. My mind was on edge, my eyes were looking all around me in the hope of seeing the stranger. What should I call him anyway? He didn't tell me his name! Thinking intensely about a name that made sense. Several crossed my mind, but none really satisfied me. So I'll call him the voice, it'll be easier, and then after all it's just me in the middle of a dementia crisis, so it doesn't matter what I call him as long as he doesn't come back to persecute me. My mind returned to normal, when I realized that I had finished my snack. So I got up as best as I could stand it, taking advantage again to observe around me, this time discreetly, but to my great dismay there was nobody. I was alone in the mountain.
"But how could he come down the mountain without me seeing him?"
My mind was getting more and more confused and befuddled. I had to find a place to rest and fast! The voice or whatever it was called told me about a village down the mountain. And if I went... no, no Julian let's be serious you are a scientist you are not going to believe your hallucinatory ramblings after all! You are better than that! I was trying to think, to think in a rational and Cartesian way. But something deep inside me was pushing me to believe the voice that had spoken to me. Sighing with exasperation, I made a decision.
Well, all right! Anyway, I have to go down this damned mountain, so there's nothing to stop me from going down in the same direction as I am by pure chance! No? And anyway, I had decided to go down that way.
I was a bit of a hypocrite, I admit, but I was going to listen to the voice of a person who didn't exist and that... that terrified me. I began to walk slowly through the snow. The cold and wetness penetrated my shoes again, freezing my feet.
"If I don't end up with frostbite, it will be beautiful!" I exclaimed inwardly. With some luck, the mountain continued to be passable, so I didn't have to monkey around with a missing arm and no equipment. I looked up to see that, about two kilometers from my position, the end of the mountain and the beginning of a large forest of cedar and bamboo appeared. I suddenly realized where I was.
"So I am in Asia! Wow...That's quite a journey from where I was standing." I looked up to see the sky, which was once azure blue, slowly turning a brilliant fiery red color. I had never before observed such a sunset, it had such an intensity of red that one would think the sky itself was burning. My fascination with this grandiose spectacle made me forget my problems for a moment. Until I realized that I was in serious danger.
"Damn it! It's going to be dark soon and if I don't get to the village before then, I'm doomed! "
Taking advantage of my height, I decided to observe the surrounding area in the hope of seeing something that could tell me the location of the supposed village. It didn't take me long to find fine white smoke coming out of the middle of the forest.
So my voice was right! But how is this possible? I didn't know what to think.
It must be a stroke of luck! I couldn't accept that a hallucination was right, it was irrelevant. I prepared myself to go down, my eyes reluctantly left this magnificent spectacle, hoping in my heart that I would live long enough to experience it again. My feet started to move again, slightly numb from the cold, but I was making my way through the mountain as best I could.
After nearly an hour of horrible and painful walking, which seemed like an eternity, I had finally reached the bottom. My body was shaking from the cold and my feet were soaked, but I had made it! Proud of what I had just accomplished, I turned around to look at my route, I could see a line sort of bleeding from the top of the mountain, down to where I was currently standing. A proud smile appeared on my face.
"A good thing done! The hardest part is now over."
I turned around to face the forest again. It was dense and bushy, a mixture of large cedars and bamboo. The foliage was mostly dense up high, but the ground was amazingly 'open'. There were several paths in front of me, one going left the other right, surely used not by men, but by wild animals. But I had to make a decision! To the right? Turning my head to the right path, or to the left? This time turning my head to the left. If I remember correctly, the smoke I had seen was about left of my position. So by following this path I would surely come across it.
It seemed easy, too easy! Something inside me told me to be careful. But after all, this is survival, right? I wasn't going to complain about surviving easily, knowing that my chances were close to absolute zero.
The twilight was slowly starting to intensify and the darkness of the night was gradually growing. In order not to be trapped in this unknown forest in the middle of the night, I decided to take the left path, hoping to arrive before nightfall in the village. Moving slowly, I could finally hope.
"Wonderful! As soon as I reach the village, I will contact the authorities to let them know what happened. They will surely find a solution. Unless the press and reporters have already covered it, then the whole world knows about our dismal failure."
And the name came back to my memory, a name I had forgotten a few hours ago and which I must admit I had not missed. Anger rose in me.
"Dubois... I hope he is still alive."
Not that I hoped he was alive because I had forgiven him of his faults, but I hoped he would answer for his actions. My anger grew and grew, and I was boiling inside.
"Dubois, poor fool. I hope that justice will strike you! And that you will suffer as I have suffered! "
I stopped and thought about what I had just said. Anger gave way to sadness, a part of me was ashamed of what I had said, of insulting Dubois in this way. He was my mentor, my role model... I hadn't told anyone about him, but I considered him my father! A father I never had. He was too busy playing cards and drinking to care for his family. As for my mother. She died when I was five years old. Due to my father's irresponsible actions, I was placed in a children's home, a sort of orphanage, at the age of nine. Life there wasn't too bad for me, well I admit that the other kids teased me a bit because I loved science, but it was much better to be there than at home where sometimes my father would...I...I don't remember. A heavy feeling of sadness and anger grows inside me. It awakens feelings and memories that I thought had disappeared long ago. Anyway, I left the orphanage when I was old enough and went to university, and it was during my second year that I first met Dubois. He was giving a lecture on particles. At the time, he was a professor for a local research institute. I worked occasionally for him to pay for my university studies. He was extremely popular, every university in the country wanted him. During the short time I worked for him, about two years, he didn't hesitate to show me everything, to teach me everything in detail, from the functioning of the machines to the explanation of calculation theorems that I didn't understand. He could have ignored me and continued to work on these projects. But no! He wanted to help me with my studies. He was taking his precious time for me. I suddenly realized one thing, I had never really thanked him for everything he did for me, my anger and hatred towards my real family, towards my father had taken over. In fact, it was only yesterday that I really thanked him for everything he did for me. During my second year of work in his laboratory, he was poached by the government, to be in H.K institute. You have to admit that when the government department knocks on your door, well, I think it's impossible to refuse them anything, or you end up in jail. I continued to walk through the forest, navigating the path I had started walking about fifteen minutes ago. The village shouldn't be too far away, but my body was exhausted and every move I made was a test. But I had to succeed! I didn't manage to come all this way just to collapse now! The darkness increased, so I decided to force as much as I could endure. My face tightened with pain. Come on! One more effort. Moving very fast, I had to reach the village before it got dark, or I would be in trouble with the wild animals. Besides, what kind of animals are there in Asia? My mind went in search of potentially dangerous animals.
Snake, well that's fine if you don't step on it... Panda, from what I know they are a kind of bear. Rather cute by the way! A smile came to my lips as I remembered a video I had seen where a panda had been afraid of its cub sneezing. I pulled myself together for a moment and kept trying to find other animals. Wolves maybe, but I don't know if there are any. I went to Asia and more particularly to China three times, to give lectures on "the physics of space and the infinitely small", a long name to say that we were doing physics at the atomic level. Moreover, I only visited Beijing. I didn't even visit the city. Fortunately for me, I had learned Mandarin Chinese during my university days, so lectures and TV shows in Chinese were not a problem for me, at least these scientific lectures fascinated me. Unlike my colleague Matthew, who couldn't understand a word. I remember that my colleagues and I joked about ordering a meal for him that he hadn't planned. He spent hours trying to talk to the delivery man who didn't speak a word of English that he hadn't ordered anything. Again, a smile came over my face.
Oh my God! My mind had been wandering again, I really needed to rest. I remembered the college professors who kept telling me all the time-
"You're over the moon, Cooper!"
"Come back down to earth, Cooper! "
I had never gone to a doctor to find out if this was normal or a disease. But they were right, I needed to keep my mind focused on the goal and in this case, if I didn't stay focused I might get caught by...
Tiger... my body froze and nothing came to mind except the image of a tiger pouncing on its prey and tearing it to small little pieces. Some people were afraid of snakes, spiders, even fish. I was afraid of tigers, why? I don't know, maybe I was traumatized by Shere Khan the Tiger from the Disney cartoon. But one question was on my mind. Are there tigers in Asia? My head said no. But my mind said yes. Aren't tigers an extinct species? Or one that no longer has much of a natural habitat?
I agreed with this, but a few long blank minutes passed. I was thinking of a solution for "just in case", but I couldn't help it. After a brief moment of unconsciousness, I got back on track, having come to the conclusion that the odds of such an encounter were very low. Darkness took the place of light, night had completely fallen, and only the light of the moon continued to illuminate my road, but an orange glow was slowly beginning to pierce the forest.
The village! So I made it! I breathed a sigh of relief and kept moving.
"I did it! I did it!" An immense happiness radiated from my face.
The further I went, the more details I could see of the village. It looked like a traditional Chinese village, with several small houses whose walls were made of dark wood, their roofs of tiles of a material I could not identify, their corners raised towards the sky was the characteristic of the particular Asian style. It seems that none of the houses had a floor, so the height of the buildings did not exceed... one meter sixty? That's weird! Why make houses so small? A kind of small people, maybe. Anyway, each of the houses had a small outside courtyard delimited by a fence made of wooden sticks linked by thin ropes. Inside was a vegetable garden where different vegetables were growing. I managed to identify some of them, there were big green balls outside the ground, a kind of cabbage surely, small leaves of rhomboidal shape which escaped from the ground was the characteristic of carrots. Other vegetables were present, but I could not identify them due to the cruel lack of luminosity. I continued to approach the center of the village, there was no outside lighting, but I could count about ten dwellings at the moment, maybe more by exploring the rest of the village, so maybe twenty or thirty dwellings. Speaking of the inhabitants, there was surprisingly no one. Was it that late? After all, I could see lights through some houses, so they hadn't all gone to bed. I looked at my watch to check the time, lifting my left arm mechanically, my arm aching terribly. I grunted in pain, if they hadn't heard me coming, then they had now! I searched around in the hope that someone would come out, but no villager came towards me. Strange... so I decided to knock on the first door I saw. Walking painfully towards the house on the left, I came to the door. The door was small, maybe four feet tall. I stooped slightly and lightly knocked on the door. I heard furniture inside moving, accompanied by whispers. So there was someone! I decided to knock on the door again, but this time a little louder.
"Please! I need help!"
But no answer came, I could barely hear the sound of someone, it sounded like he was crying? Damn, I am stupid! A stranger just shows up in the middle of nowhere and knocks on your door without speaking a word of your language! Of course, you're terrified!
Well, if I'm lucky he speaks Mandarin, if not... Well, let's hope they understand, I have no other options anyway.
So I decided to step back and stand in the middle of the village to avoid scaring them too much, I started to formulate what I was going to say.
"Hello! I'm so sorry to bother you in the middle of the night, but I need some care! I've had an accident. "
I waited for a moment, hoping that by now they had understood my intentions, and to my delight I heard one of the doors on the right side open. I was filled with happiness, I was finally going to survive this hell. My body swiveled towards the sound of the door opening. A smile unconsciously appeared on my face.
"Thank you! Thank you for..."
A sheep poked its head through the door and stared at me, it was wearing red clothes with embroidered shapes on it, it represented some kind of flowers. My body, my mind froze.
A sheep with clothes! What? Am I still dreaming! But before I could do anything else, the creature spoke up
"What are you? "
He had spoken to me... this animal had spoken to me! My survival instinct overrode my rationality, as soon as he or she finished his or her words I started to scream in terror as I ran towards the forest at full speed.
"It's not true! Tell me it's not true!" I continued to scream and shout through the forest like a madman. My pain was gone, I felt nothing, I was on autopilot. I sprinted and jumped as fast as I could to get away from the village. The tree branches whipped and scraped my whole body leaving lacerations, especially on my hands and face. Several minutes of running passed until I stopped dead in my tracks. My head started spinning again, and everything became blurry. I had pushed too hard, and my body was letting me know. My knees would collapse to the ground. My eyes could see nothing but the shadows of the night. My breathing was becoming more and more difficult, I was suffocating. The rest of my body crashed to the ground. I had no more thought, no more will, I let myself go. The darkness enveloped me again. This time I... I think it's the end.
So what did you think? Let me know in comments and I'll be happy to read and answer them. Concerning some details of this chapter, you don't think that I was going to make Julian appear in the middle of the Jade Palace without any problem, do you? Let's torture him some more... As for the size of the houses I asked myself the following question "Do small animals need big houses?" For me the answer is no and it's pretty logical, plus I find it adds some logical interest on the one hand, but mostly comical, especially when I'm going to bring large animals or Julian inside small houses. Well after, I wouldn't exaggerate too much, I would never make a mouse hole, mmmh though thinking about it... And finally, concerning Julian's fear of tigers, I must admit that I didn't foresee it at the beginning, it came to me by pure chance when I thought of a scene from the Jungle Book (the cartoon), more particularly when Shere Khan hits Balou ass, I don't remember if it had marked me when I was younger, but when I saw it again, I found the scene comical at the beginning, but rather rough towards the end. That's it! That's all for today, see you next week for the next chapter.