The morning came, and Robert Smith's mind was still clear. He was conscious of his surrounding and he could feel ants crawling on his arms.
He tried to scratch where the ants had climbed, but he still couldn't move.
"How weird. Am I dying or am I not dying?" He asked his ghost friends.
"I don't know. We will find out." Tao said, representing other ghosts.
He also realized this was the second time he questioned himself if he had died.
Last time he didn't die. But was he supposed to die last time, only rescued by the magic snow? Or he was simply hurt and unconscious last time? And then, he just accidentally ate the snow so he recovered very quickly?
He believed he didn't die last time but was just injured. Because if he had died, he wouldn't be able to eat the snow. Yes. This makes sense.
The blind boy, Jian, was already blind before he ate the mushroom. The mushroom couldn't fix his eyes. But the mushroom made him stronger.
How about now? He already had the snow before this shooting and stabbing on him.
He still couldn't move. But he started to hear screaming and crying from far away. It was from the inland direction. He also smelled burning. It was from at least 8 miles away.
He now could hear shouting and people pleading.
God damn it. Retaliation. Just as he feared. There must be other crew members who landed that way. His co-pilot didn't get shot. Maybe his co-pilot ran towards inland and some Chinese farmer took him in. So now there began the retaliation.
He felt anger burning in him, and his energy came back to him. Suddenly he was able to move his fingers. And then, his arms, his legs.
So he sat up. And he cussed.
"Wow, wow, wow, Mr. Robert awake. Mr. Robert is fine now."
"I'm not fine. I'm mad as hell."
He started to run towards all the sounds he was hearing and the burning smell he was smelling. He was so fast. If he didn't look down at his legs, he would think he was riding on a motorcycle or something, because he was running at least 30 miles per hour. He was already a fast runner before eating the snow-- he was on a varsity track team and won a few gold medals for his college. He believed the special snow had made him even better at running.
He soon arrived at the area where he heard crying and pleading. And then, he saw a few farm houses burning and a few people kneeling, surrounded by a bunch of soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army uniforms.
Robert didn't know what had gotten into him, he just ran over to one of the soldiers and started chocking him.
Other soldiers were shocked at first, but finally got back to reacting to this blood-covered man. They couldn't even tell Robert was a Westerner at first. Robert's face and body was entirely covered either by dirt, fuel grease or his own blood. Robert was unrecognizable. He was a dark red presence. He came out of nowhere.
The soldiers thought that this might be a devil or some wild creature. They panicked and fired gunshots at Robert. But the bullets ended up killing the man that Robert was strangling.
Robert laughed and turned around. He then chased after the rest. All the soldiers were frightened by him, but one stayed and tried to stab Robert with the bayonet.
Robert caught the blade with his hand. The soldier then stuttered something in Japanese.
"What? Never seen a ghost before?" Robert then punched him in the face.
The solider fell down and then crawled away from Robert's feet. Then he got up, took off running.
All the farmers kneeling were shocked as well.
"Tao, how do I ask, have they seen my co-pilot?"
"Just asked them if they saw another Westerner."
"OK, how do I say that?"
Tao then taught Robert how to say it.
Robert repeated it but butchered the tones and some vowels. He repeated a few more times, finally, one farmer pointed at a shack.
"That man was hiding in the shack last night, but this morning, he was found and was already taken away."
Tao translated that back to Robert.
"OK. I got it."
Robert decided he would go find his co-pilot. He's not sure if he would succeed, but he wanted to try.
He didn't know what he just did already earned him a nickname in the Japanese Imperial Military, Bloody Devil.
He started to track after where those soldiers were running to— because that had to be where they took his co-pilot to. As he ran, he wondered how he just got back on his feet so quickly.
He touched his body. The wounds seem to be gone already. All there left was dried blood stain on his clothes.
The wounds have healed.
Oh. Wow. Really?
He realizes he can self heal.
And weirdly, he actually felt better than before. Like, all those injuries have given him better energy.
Maybe getting hurt actually helps him....
*** ***
He was now back in the military air base in China. He didn't find his co-pilot, unfortunately. But, he wanted to tell his captain how he survived.
Of course, he had no private thoughts these days. His plan was immediately detected by the ghosts.
"No, no, no. Mr. Robert, don't be stupid. You don't tell no one about how you can self-heal."
"But, how could I explain what happened if I don't tell them that?"
"Just don't tell them about that part. If you do, they will definitely ask you how you got the self-heal power. Then you'll have to tell them about the tree and the boy, Jian."
Robert admitted that Tao was right.
Robert then said, "Tao has a point. They will ask me. Then they will want to find where I got the snow. Then, they will see the blind boy. He says he can do everything to protect the tree, but he is all by himself. I can't possibly let other people go there."
"You must never tell anyone about your ability. Not even anyone close to you."
"Tao, don't worry about anyone close to him. He has no one close to him anyway. He is such a lonely man all the time. His friends on his flight all just died or captured." Another ghost interrupted. All the ghosts spoke so directly. No filter.
But this other ghost brought up something that Robert hadn't considered--
Why is that he is the only one survived, every time on every mission.
Would that raise suspicion?
Someone might come asking. Worse, someone might wonder if he sacrificed others to survive. He was always the one escaping everything.
Of course, Robert had no private thoughts anymore, so Tao could hear this thought.
"Ha," Tao mocked, "I knew you were not useful. You are scared now? You need to be secretive. Nothing to be scared of. Don't be so useless."
"Well, what am I supposed to do now? I don't want to be the only one surviving on a group mission every time."
"Find another job that you can be useful then." Tao said, as if it was an easy solution.
Another ghost said, "Well, Tao, why does he have to go find another job? If someone asks him why he never dies, just tell them it's just luck. People can be lucky. Why can't he just be lucky?"
"Yeah," Robert agreed. "Maybe I'll just say I'm lucky."
Why not? Just lucky and happen to have a streak of not dying and a streak of surviving.
Tao makes an impatient noise, "What I'm trying to say is, yes, you come back alive, but you cannot tell people how. But military people like to ask questions about how you survive. Another point is, if no one sees how you survive, then you can lie. What if one day someone sees how you survive? You were shot multiple times, and stabbed multiple times, but just don't die? First time, yes, you tell people you are lucky. Second time? Third time?"
"OK, OK." Robert waved at Tao's voice, even though that was not going to stop Tao. "I'll try to be careful, secretive. I'll see what I can do."