Cold sweat driped down her aching body sandwiched between cold sheets, with a dry, cotton filled mouth is how Li Jiefan woke up. The fever is what all Awakened people have to go through before they are able to access their mana and use their abilities. Most people awoke the dawn after the Red Night but it was possible for a person to awaken anytime in the after. Li Jiefan had awoken in her last life in the beginning of the end. She remebered the pain she was in, she thought it was a common fever so all she was worried about was her exams.
She remebered waking up at five in the morning as usual, realising she had a fever and getting her laptop out to continue writting the essay she had due in two week for one of her classes, unaware of the change in the world. In that time she was the only person in her dorm room who was sick.
She remebers the vague sense of uneasiness she felt, the goosebumps and the raised hairs, she remebers thinking that there was something off about that morning but she couldn't put her finger on it and then at eight o'clock she realised what was wrong. At eight she heard the first scream.
Li Jiefan layed back in the bed and downed the fever medicine she placed there yesterday. She checked her phone for the time and saw it was six in the morning so with some time to kill she checked the internet which was down ,as she expected, so she sighed and opened the book she had downloaded and waited for the medicine to kick in.
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After an hour and a half Li Jiefan heard some sounds coming from Chen Liechu's room. It was way too early for in the morning for Chen Liechu to wake up. In her past life Chen Liechu did not turn into a zombie and she did not awaken either so Li Jiefan hoped that she was just talking in her sleep but that felt unlikely.
Li Jiefan cautiously got up and left her room, as she passed the living room on the way to Chen Liechu's room she grabbed a book off the coffee table, just incase. As she got closer she heard more groans coming from behind the door so she she crossed her fingers in her head and hoped that her best- and only-friend in the world did not turn into a zombie.
The regressor breathed in and grabbed for the of the door handle in the dark and breathed out as she pushed the door. Li Jiefan stood at the entrance of the room in an attack position and looked over it but she saw no-one inside just a lump on the bed. She walked to the bed, after checking behind the door and the dressor. Li Jiefan gave the lump some investigational pokes, and when she got no reaction she put her hand on the duvet and pulled it off. Li Jiefan let out a breath, it was just some pillows but her relief quickly turned back to apprehension and then fear again when she heard the groans coming from the bathroom.
Li Jiefan quickly stood upright and walked to the bathroom door, yanking it open her eyes quickly landed on Chen Liechu in the bath looking sweaty and tired.
" Li Jiefan, thank God I have got such a high temperature, I think I have a fever." Chen Liechu said with an exaggerated groan.
Li Jiefan smiled back and walked to the tub," Maybe we caught something because I have got a fever too." Li Jiefan was glad that Chen Liechu looked normal, sweaty-but normal, and was talking because the signs of zombification was graying skin, the lose of the ability to speak and red eyes. A person can turn into a zombie from a bite or at the beginning of the apocolypse spontaneously.
Chen Liechu groaned again as the girl put her hand on the forehead and sat on the toilet, " This is just so disgusting!"
Li Jiefan smiled at her friend, in her last life Chen Liechu did not have any powers that she was aware of but maybe she did and just did not know how to use them, " I took some fever medicine let me get some for you."
" This is why everyone needs a responsible friend!" Li Jiefan laughed as she heard Chen Liechu's muffled voice.
As she filled up a glass with water she thought about her next steps, everything would be turning into a shit soon and they would need to start gathering materials before everybody else woke up from the shock and started gathering materials again. If Chen Liechu had awoken then that process would be easier.
The girl in the tub smiled and clapped when her friend walked in with the medication. Li Jiefan handed her friend the bottle of pills and sat back down on the toilet. The girls talked for a few minutes as Chen Liechu took her pills when they heard sirens. Chen Liechu jumped and asked," What's happening." Li Jiefan tensed and got up, it seems it had began.
Chen Liechu got out of the tub, covered herself with a towel and walked to the living room frantically. Li Jiefan followed her ,grabbed the TV remote off the coffe table and turn it on while Chen Liechu sat on the couch. Li Jiefan turned on the news and there was an emergency broadcast. The broadcast was short, it was just a looping video of a man in military uniform on a podium, he said," We are in a state of national emergency. Please stay in your homes and wait for military rescue, stay calm and we can get through this."
Both the girls phones beeped and when Li Jiefan check all it was same message as the man on the televison from what seemed to be a government number.
" What's going on" Chen Liechu said nervously.
"I don't know but I think you should change." Li Jiefan answered attempting to sound nervous too, she was trying to act like she did not know what was happening. She did not want to admit she had regressed, she did not want to be labeled crazy and she felt that if Chen Liechu thought they were going through the same thing, experiencing the same emotions it would be more comforting than going through it alone.
Chen Liechu took a deep breath and said," Yeah, I think we should both change." Li Jiefan noded and went to change too.
They meet back in the living room Chen Liechu in a pair of shorts and and long sleave top and Li Jiefan in a pair of jeans and a tank top.
" What do we do no." Chen Liechu said sitting on the couch and before Li Jiefan could answer a bang came from the front door.