The Plague Doctor Chapter 1 (A deal)

(Author's note): To anyone who reads this I just want to say this is the first story I've posted here, so I hope you enjoy it and if you have some constructive criticisms about the story or anything else then you are welcome to help me become a better writer. And also please tell me if you want more of this story.

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"Dr. Nielsen."

“Dr. Nielsen.”

“Dr. Kenneth Nielsen.”

The doctor that was sitting in the lab looked away from his work to see the one who was calling.

It was a woman. One of the nurses working at the hospital. She was about 168cm tall, and the uniform and mask obscured almost every other detail about her other than her brown eyes. "Dr. Nielsen, you can't work anymore," said the nurse sounding tired as hell.

"Leave me to my work," came the response from Dr. Nielsen, who turned back to his work studying the virus under the microscope and testing.

"I know these are not the best of times, and the more that are working, the better, but the hospital does have rules about how long someone is allowed to work without taking the minimum amount of time to rest even in these times with the pandemic." The doctor then turned his attention to the nurse, and now she got a clear look at his eyes and the two massive bags that were under them.

"Nurse Kim," the doctor said while squinting his eyes to look at her name tack even though she was standing less than a meter away from him. "Is there a problem, or can I continue working," he said, sounding more tired than one should be.

"Dr. Nielsen, you need to take a break. The logs say that you have worked for over 48 hours, and if you do not stop working now, you will get escorted out of the hospital, and if you refuse, then you might be fired," Said nurse Kim im an angry tone.

The doctor chuckled at that. "Do you really think the hospital will care the im working harder than I should? We have M.E.D students that haven't passed yet working and helping around. The pandemic is overwhelming everyone. Im more certain that I would get fired for talking the break im supposed to rather than them im not taking." He said, completely ignoring her now.

"Fine," nurse Kim sighed, knowing she'd lost this battle. "By the way, your wife is here, and she seems pretty angry, so if you want to meet her, she is in room 206 with your son."

This got Dr. Nielsen's attention as he got out of the chair and began to walk out of the lab, but not before turning his attention to nurse Kim as he spoke in a low and tired tone, "she's my ex-wife." With that, he walked out of the room and began walking down the corridor towards the elevator.

As the door opened and he walked in, finding room among the many people that came in and out as he waited for the elevator to get to the right floor. It was taking some time as the elevator had to stop at almost every floor. Kenneth couldn't but think of how in the last month, the virus had seemed like nothing, and now it was not only spreading all over Denmark but most likely the whole world. It made him angry, knowing the world leaders didn't take the virus seriously enough, and now everyone was dealing with the bullshit they created.

As the elevator door opened and Kenneth walked out, he walked slowly, trying to avoid the chaos of people that were moving around until he arrived at room 206. He took a deep breath and put on a somewhat fake smile.

The sight that greeted him was his ex-wife June and son Connor talking.

"And then-" said Connor, whose attention became one of pure joy as he saw his father.

"Am I interrupting something," he said, extremely tired and putting on a fake smile even though he wasn't happy. Not at the sight of his son and the machines he was hooked up to.

"No, no," answered Connor, more cheerful than ever. "I was just talking to mom about that time I climbed the big tree at home." Kenneth then grabbed a chair and sat down beside his son's bed, ready to listen.

And as Connor went on about how he had climbed the tree, Kenneth noticed June staring daggers at him. She never let it show when Connor momentarily turned his attention to her, but he knew she was angry at him again.

It had been about an hour or so when Connor had begun to tire, and he could barely keep his eyes open, and as he began to sleep, June gave him a little kiss on the forehead. Kenneth was about to stop her knowing the dangers of infection, but he knew that it was already a lost battle before he attempted it.

Once Connor was fully asleep, June stared at Kenneth, seemingly waiting for a response. "It was stupid to kiss him. You know he's infected," Kenneth said as low a possible as not to wake Connor.

"That’s all you have to say… not how are you doing, long time no see, or my favorite im sorry I forgot about our sick son in the hospital you are working in and only coming around for about 10 minutes over the past two days,” She said in an angry yet quiet tone.

“How is Eva,” Kenneth asked.

“Seriously, our son is right here, and you ask about our daughter.”

“Yes, because I don’t know her condition if she is sick, sad, or scared,” Kenneth said, his expression going more natural than anything else, as well as his eyes hanging lower.

“She is with my brother while im here, and she seems happy, all things considered. I didn’t want her to be here now,” June said, her expression becoming more sorrowful.

“I see,” he said, becoming completely quiet.

“I know this isn’t the easiest of times for someone in your profession, but you should spend more time with him. He misses you, you know.”

Before Kenneth even had time to answer, one of the nurses came into the room and said that visiting time was over. Both of them left the room, and before June left, she looked at Kenneth and said in a sad tone, “don’t ignore him as you ignored me.” She then left, and Kenneth was left alone in the hospital as he walked through the crowd of people back to a room he could sleep. As he found one that was empty, he looked into one of the mirrors, and he saw just how sleep-deprived he was.

He had never seen such big bags under his eyes before, but as a doctor, he knew sleep would fix that. Before he went to bed, he made sure to take a bath; first, washing all the sweat and layers of grease that had built for some time in his brown hair and skin. Once that was over, and he had become more relaxed than he had been in weeks, he got ready for bed, and he fell asleep rather quickly.

The second his eyes closed, they were also open, but it was not the hospital room he was in but a forest, and he was fully clothed even in his lab coat. As he looked around, he could see it was very beautiful, but there was something wrong with it. There were tracks from what looked like it came from some kind of dog everywhere, and there was some blood on some of the trees and ground as well as some arrows.

Kenneth didn’t even have time to ponder what was happening before he heard a battle cry coming from his left, and as he looked to see what had made the sound, he saw many giant beasts running towards him. He barely had ti^me to put his hands up defensively or more away when one of the beasts ran right through him.

It took the doctor a moment to collect himself from what had just happened, and he was stunned. The beasts that had run through him was now gone, but there were other standing all around Kenneth, but none of them looked at him or even seemed to notice his existence at all.

As he moved closer and got a closer look at the tall beast, he couldn't help but see the similarities too, that of a fox, but one that was 2 meters tall and standing on two legs.

As Kenneth began to move around and inspect them from different angles, he was quite intrigued by their physiology. Or thought all of them were much taller than himself, their arms and legs were thin, much thinner.

Something else that Kenneth noticed was their clothing. It seemed to mostly leather with the odd piece of metal here and there to sort of keep it together. Even though Kenneth wanted to inspect the strange fox-like creaturs more, a feeling of something or someone watching him made him uneasy and forced him to look around.

As he looked around his eyes, fell upon one of the fox-creatures, but it was different. Unlike the others, which had either some kind of red or white fur color, this one's fur color was completely black, and to add on; it looked right at Kenneth.

It was unnerving. Unlike the others, it was looking right at him, but it couldn’t be, could it? To make sure, Kenneth began to walk around, keeping his eyes on it, and as he moved, he saw its eyes were following him as well.

Kenneth was unsure of what to do now. If it could see him, then could it also touch him? But if that was the case, wouldn’t it have done it to start with, or was it waiting for me to let down my guard.

If it wasn’t clear that the fox-like thing was not like the others, now the other fox-like things moved away, leaving only the two of us in a staredown.

What should I do? Kenneth thought. Should I run? No, that probably won’t work. In endurance, humans were one of the best species on earth, but we always laked explosive speed that he guessed this creature had.

As Kenneth was weighing his options, the creature spoke. “Human, I mean you no harm, and I would like to talk with you,” the feminine voice said in a kind tone.

Kenneth was shocked. This creature not only saw him but could speak his language. In his profession, he often had to deal with some stressful situations, but this was not something he had ever trained for. “Okay, what is it you want and is this a dream.”

The creature's libs seemed to give to a few sharp teeth in what might be a grin, “human, this place is so dull and boring, would you follow me someplace more beautiful.”

“Why the hell would I follow you anywhere, and you didn’t answer my question. Is this a dream or not?” Kenneth said in a harsh but calm tone.

“I would hate to answer any questions here, but if you follow me, we might be able to strike a deal, human,” the creature responded.

Kenneth hated when someone was playing games like this with him, his expression was, in most cases, always neutral, but inside he was angry. “Im not talking another step away from here until you answer my questions,” he said with a raised voice.

The creature sighed, “so you are going to make this difficult then. Well, what if I tell you that deal that im trying to strike with you would involve a cure to the plague that infests your world.”

Kenneth's eyes went wide. Could this creature be telling the truth, or was it just a lie? Kenneth thought, no, it didn’t matter what it wanted or what this place was. If it had a cure, then I needed it now. “Okay, creature ill follow you,” Kenneth said.

The creature then turned around and began walking, and Kenneth followed her further into the forest. The walk wasn’t that long, but the further into the forest they went, the more blood and weaponry were lying around.

Eventually, they arrived at the end of the forest, and a bit further away, Kenneth could see a lone tree with pink leaves instead of the normally green leaves that many other trees in the forest had. They walked until they were under the tree, and then the fox-like creature seemed to look around out onto the land and the nature around them. “It is beautiful, is it not human,” the creature said in a low voice.

“You said we could talk if I followed you, and now we are here, so let's talk,” kenneth snapped at her.

She sighed, “fine human, let's talk. You asked me some time ago if this was a dream, and the answer to that is yes-”

Kenneth then began to chuckle and then laugh, saying, “Of course. This is all a dream none of all of this is real, and my hope for finding a cure and saving my son is as fake as this place.” Tears now began to flow from his eyes, and he fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. “He is going to die, and I can do nothing but watch, and worst of all, my mind is so desperate that it wants to give the smallest amount of hope of saving him!” he screamed.

“Human, you should let me finish before you draw your conclusions. Yes, this is a dream, but im not a part of it, im another being that has come to seek your aid.” At that, Kenneth stopped sobbing and got up, looking her in the eyes.

The creature looked at Kenneth, seeing if he was ready to listen this time.” Now, if you will let me finish, then you can ask your questions. Is that fine with you?” He nodded, and she began. “while this conversation is happening in your subconscious and could be seen as a dream, it is not your per se; it's ours. I have chosen to communicate with you in your dreams via joining our subconsciouses and creating a place where we could talk and take a form to do so.”

Kenneth was stunned and a little skeptical about everything, but if she had a cure that could help, then he would do whatever she asked.

“This world is one I've simulated and the one I want you to go to.” At that, Kenneth had to speak. “What? You want me to go to another world. Why?”

The creature then looked away from Kenneth and out onto the field, and in a more sorrowful tone, she said, “I've watched this world for a long time, and those creatures that you saw in the forest was one of three sentient inhabits of this world, and I've watched them only fight and kill one another. And… and I want to change that in whatever way I can, but I can only do so much, and sending one healer is all that I can do to help, to teach them something more than death and violence.”

Kenneth’s expression was one of shook, and he processed the information, “So let me get what you are saying right, you want me to go to another world abanding my family for you to give my world the cure to the virus,” he said his voice somewhat uncertain but firm.

The creature sighed, “there are limits to what I can do, and curing your world is one of them, but if you accept my deal to travel to another world, then I will give you a small amount of a cure that makes it impossible to become sick or get infected by the decease or a variant.”

“And if I refuse,” Kenneth asked cautiously.

“Then I will erase your memory, and you will wake up in your current bed thinking this was all a dream.”

“I have to ask one question,” Kenneth said, his voice becoming more uncertain. Wait, should I ask this? Kenneth thought. What if I anger her in some way. He then looked at her and realized he might anger her more if it seemed like he was playing with her in some way. “Why me?” Kenneth asked.

She seemed to think for a moment placing a finger on her chin. “Not to scare you or freak you out, but I did not choose you at random. I’ve researched you and looked through your memories to know if you might be the right person for this mission, Kenneth.”

At that, Kenneth froze, he never told her his name, and he didn’t have his nametag on, so how did she know. Had she really looked through his memories?

As she spoke, her voice became more optimistic and hopeful. “The reason I chose you was that your memories showed me a person who is strong but knew even from a young age that he was bigger and stronger than any other kid in his school. But even so, you knew that the strength you possed could hurt others, and so even though they bullied you and tried to overpower needing at least five other children to hold you in place, you never struck or hurt them or let anger take control of you.”

When she stopped, Kenneth let out a little chuckle, “Is that all. The reason you chose me was that I knew better than to hurt those little brats that bullied me most of my middle school life.”

The creature herself then gained a little smile and said in a less sad tone than before, “no, not completely. Although that was what made me have this meeting with you, it was not the only thing. You are also a person who can actually think further ahead and think of the consequences there might be, unlike many others in your world.”

“Is that all,” Kenneth asked.

“Yes, now all that remains is the choice. Are you answer yes or no to my request.”

Kenneth didn’t need any time to think he had already decided that we would do it the second a talk of a cure was involved, even if it meant selling his soul, which he might actually be doing now with his answer. “YES!.”

After that loud display of his answer, the creature adopted a more relaxed pose. “Good, now all that is left is your equipment.”

“Equipment?” Kenneth asked, seeming a little surprised by her statement.

“Yes, Kenneth equipment. What did you think I would just dump you in another world full of war and chaos without giving you a chance to survive,” she said in an amused tone, almost like an adult that had just said something obvious to a kid.

“Since you will be a healer in this new world, I decided to make you some clothing from yours that might help you survive for longer than a year,” the creature said as she spun her arm around, and suddenly, some cloth appeared on one of the tree branches. It was an internally black suit of sorts with a hat and har bird mask, and right beside that was a black bag.

“Wait!” said Kenneth, completely surprised by the choice of clothing,” you want to dress me up as a plague doctor?”

“Well, of course,” she said with a little chuckle. “During a time of need on this world, these figures would help people that were sick, and even today, I see the tradition is still being upheld by some of you people, and I so loved the design of the current that I would gift this to you now.” Her face showed no signs of it being a trick or joke.

“And the bag,” he asked, clearly not interested in the clothing the creature had prepared.

“Well, it is a magical tool that I will grant you the ability to use.”

“Magical,” Kenneth asked with a raised eyebrow. “You expect me to believe that bag is magical?”

“Yes, human,” the creature said, her voice showing signs of annoyance. “This item is able to create many things within itself that are not bigger than its own size. For example, you wouldn’t be able to create a surgical knife that was longer than the size of the bag.” And then, as to demonstrate her point, she took the bag off the tree and stuck her hand into it, and pulled out the longest scalpel Kenneth had ever seen.

“Furthermore, you can also pull out other things such as drugs, medicine, and tools, but I should warn you that it can’t get you things that don’t exist within the world you are going to. But I should also tell you that there are things you can get from the bag that are on your world's level of medicine, but not these ones as long as it has the potential to become the same later down the line.” The creature said.

Kenneth’s face at sight remained a stone mask as he did find it amazing he didn’t want to show it. “Okay, im impressed, but can we talk about the clothes because I really don’t want to wear a costume that only gets used on all hallows eve.”

The creature then seemed to take offends to this as her expression and demeanor became one of anger. “Listen here, human; I chose these clothes in honor of the doctors who whore then in the elder days as well as now, so I thought that you would be honored, but clearly not. And besides,” She said, her voice becoming much calmer. “ The mask is one of the pieces I think you would want to have since I will protect you from any unknown bacteria and viruses in this world.”

“Okay fine, I won’t argue about the cloth, but do you expect me to wear the mask at all times?” he asked, maybe wanting a better option.

“It should be fine, Kenneth; though you are not able to see it now, there are two zippers in the mask, making it possible for some fresh air and eating, and if you absolutely have to, you can take it off, but only for short periods of time, so you don’t die from an illness.”

“Okay,” the creature said, clapping her hands together. “even though I like talking with you, our time is limited, so I do want you to choose your gift now.”

“gift,” Kenneth said, sounding as clueless as possible.

“Well, it is not as much as a gift as a lift on one of the two restrictions on the bag.” She said, keeping her interlocked with Kenneths.

“And those would be?” he asked.

“Either you can lift the restriction on you being the only person who can take something out of the bag or the restriction on it only being able to produce the things from the world you are going to. Making it possible to use any medicine you know of.” The creature said in a tone that was neutral and cold.

What should he choose, Kenneth thought. Either could be good to where he was going, but which one or could it be. ”Em fox-creature-thing,” Kenneth asked, but he was quickly cut off.

“Just call me Jasha,” she said, her tone hinting at annoyance at what he called her.

“Are there any other restrictions I could lift instead of the two you said,” kenneth asked?

At this, Jasha raised an eyebrow. “The two I gave you are the ones you can choose from.”

“Okay, them,” Kenneth said, his voice very calm. “Then I choose neither of the two.”

Jasha seemed surprised by the statement and asked, “why? What is your reason?”

“It is simple, Jasha. You said it yourself. You choose to come to me because I could think of the consequences,” Kenneth said with a sly smile.

“I would not choose the first option to allow anyone to take anything out of the bag, or at least what I could. It could result in there being more chaos, not less. I can’t be certain, but I did see some of the foxes-things using some form of metal, so I would guess they can forge using metal, and if so, the bag could then allow them to make more weapons using the infinite amount; of metal, they could get.” Kenneth then stopped for a moment to take a breath.

“And as for the second restriction, that should stay on as well. The reason is that if I start to heal and cure everyone I meet using a drug or medicine that isn’t on the planet, then once I die for whatever reason, there would be no more of it, meaning that people would start to die; the same way again.”

Once Kenneth was done talking, Jasha's expression changed from an emotionless one into a smile of pure happiness, “well-done human, you passed.” Kenneth just stood there, not understanding. Was she testing him?

“Mind elaboration,” he asked.

“Well, of course,” she said in a happy tone. “You see, the gift was actually a test to see if you truly possed the quality you would need most when you got to the other world. The ability to think of consequences,” she said, her tone becoming more serious. “You see, I only have the power to send one person from your world, and so I needed to make sure they were perfect or as perfect as they could be.”

“To be completely honest, you are not the first human I have approached with this offer. Some resued others failed this test, but you are the first to pass, so congrats,” Jasha said while looking into my eyes.

“So what now?” Kenneth asked.

Jasha looked at Kenneth with a warm smile, “now, Kenneth, there is nothing more I need to say, and so this dream of ours will come to an end, and once you wake, you will find what you see on the tree as well as the cure in your bed, one of which is empty. But do not worry, it has been used on you, and once you are awake, you have one day to say goodbye to anyone you want and give or inject the cure to anyone as well.”

As if on cue, the world that the two of them stood in began to fall apart, replaced with nothing but a black void. I was somewhat affied of what I was seeing, but the smile on Jasha's face put me a little more at ease. Eventually, even the landscape that Jasha had to look at for most of our conversation fell apart, and it wasn’t long before the darkness consumed us both.

As I woke up from my sleep, a part of me hoped that it had only been a dream, but as I sat up and looked around, the small amount of pain in my shoulder, the bag, and clothes, as well as syringe and veils of a clear liquid, proved otherwise. I guess I got one more day before it happens, better make the best of it.

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