Chapter 74: Nuclear Winter
For a while, Yuan thought he had returned to the Nowhere again. That his half-life had come to an end in a flood of nuclear light and returned to nothingness.
But he had already tasted death once from the barrel of his own gun. He did not recall a core pounding in his head when the darkness beckoned him to reincarnate, nor the sore numbness of a body too heavy for his soul to escape.
Yuan Guang had survived against all odds.
His telescopic eyes slowly opened to face the familiar ceiling of the Metal Wagon, and the tearful face of Holster looking down on him with relief. He sensed her arms crush his windpipe into a hug a second later, warm water falling on his face.
“H… Holster?” Yuan growled, gunsmoke flowing out of his throat. He could sense his jaw again, though his ammo teeth had yet to regrow. “I’m… alive?”
“Sir!” Yuan heard Bucket’s voice, though his eyes hadn’t yet acclimated enough to see him. “We feared ourselves bereft of your guidance!”
Yuan was too groggy to think straight. He tried to rise up until a sharp surge of pain stopped him. He sensed kind hands move under the back of his head and help lift him. Yuan recognized Orient’s touch long before his eyes saw her smiling at him.
“Do not stress yourself, Honored Conductor Yuan,” Orient advised. “You haven’t managed to fully regenerate yet.”
She helped Yuan look around him. His allies surrounded him, except for Mel, Hardy… and Arc. They had put him atop a clinical bed to support his body, since he was missing his arms and everything below the lungs. He must have regenerated the rest over the course of… the Wayfinders knew how long.