Chapter 97. Awakening Makes You Taller
When Alicia arrived inside the canteen, there were already two or three hundred people inside. Yet, there was a lot of room inside for more people.
Most of the people inside the canteen are students, with only less than 10 teachers inside. All of the teachers are currently gathered together.
Alicia went and joined the teacher's gathering. Currently, they're discussing the sudden zombification.
When Alicia arrived at the group, she heard Glenn, the teacher in charge of teaching physics, speak. "Do any of you know what's going on? While I was teaching, several students from another class suddenly broke into my class and shouted about zombies. If I hadn't come out and saw Andrew in the class next door had turned into a zombie, I would've beat that student silly."
"Same here. I still couldn't believe we are suddenly in a zombie apocalypse. This feels a tad bit too sudden." Another teacher replied. Alicia remembered his name as Edward, he was the one in charge of teaching geography. He is a normal guy with blonde hair and wearing eyeglasses. If there is a special trait of his, it is how he always speaks rapidly and at high speed as if he is rapping.
A different teacher replied, this time a woman called Berth. "Let's stop talking nonsense. We must check whether or not every student has arrived at the canteen."
Including Alicia, the teachers who survived counted the amount of students inside and checked whether there were any other classes that still hadn't arrived at the canteen.
Just when they prepared to leave and separate, one of the students arrived at their location. "There's no need for the teacher to bother about it. I've asked everyone on the student council to list the classes that have arrived."
While pushing his eyeglass, the student continued. "There are 15 classrooms with 5 classes in each grade in our school, and every class contains around 27 students. Currently, 3 classes have almost been zombified entirely with only 2 survivors, which is the twin miss Alicia has brought here. As for the other class, on average there are 2 to 3 people that have been zombified in each class. That means there are around a hundred zombies inside the school grounds."
Alicia remembered this boy as the student council president. But she can't remember his name. So, although Alicia wanted to praise the guy, she waited for others to call the boy's name first.
"Good job, student council president!" Berth spoke and patted the young man's shoulder.
"As expected of the student council president." Another teacher smiled as he praised the student council president.
This might be her gut feeling, but Alicia feels everyone also forgot about the student council president's name.
After they finished praising the student. Alicia warned about the animals she saw. "When I arrived at the biology lab before, I found a few frogs that had also been zombified. We need to block small exits where animals could crawl."
Everyone agreed and went to ask the students to help do it.
Alicia then remembered something and spoke once again. "During zombie apocalypse movies, the internet and electricity usually fail. So, while there is still electricity and internet, everyone should browse the internet and record useful things."
Berth followed suit. "Also, ask everyone to fill all of the power banks available. It will definitely be useful. We also need to fill as many containers with clean water and check our food storage."
The student council president chimed in. "I've tasked the student council member to check the amount of food stored in the canteen. There should be enough for everyone to eat for 3 days as long as we use it sparingly."
After some discussion, the teachers finally decided to separate into two groups. The first one will be in charge of taking care of the students who went to block every opening and filling water containers, while the other will go to the teacher's office. Alicia being included among the group that went to the office.
Upon arriving at the teacher's office, the group found five zombified teachers. After they beat those zombies and locked them inside several metal cabinets placed in the teacher's office, everyone quickly opened the computer and browsed the internet.
All of them found out that except for some social media, most websites are still alive and kicking. So, some teachers quickly went to print and copy information for how to create a fire, tent and other things. While another group went to print the map for the surrounding areas, the city, the country, and the world.
Linda, the teacher in charge of music class spoke."Seriously, this school's equipment is just too convenient during a zombie apocalypse."
"Also, Miss Alicia seems to be so used to this situation. Are you perhaps a regressor? Have you experienced this before? How about you give us some spoilers for the future." Edward spoke while raising his glasses. His thoughts are quite jumpy.
The student council president who joined the group of teachers followed suit and raised his eyeglasses."That's right. Miss Alicia, will we awaken some superpower? I wish I could awaken a space manipulation ability."
Alicia rolled her eyes. "Both of you should stop reading fantasy novels. I quickly adapted to this situation because every time I am bored, I think of what to do in apocalyptic events like zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, massive flood, and others."
Berth glared as she spoke. "You three weirdos, please stop spewing nonsense. We don't know how much time we still have left before the electricity and internet fail. Although the school has a generator, the amount of fuel we have is limited."
While everyone is busy printing things, the TV inside the teacher's office is currently broadcasting a news channel.
From the TV, the news anchor's voice can be heard as he calmly spoke. "For every civilian, please stay at your house and keep calm. Our country has been attacked by a crimson meteor-like biological weapon from an unknown place. Currently there are more than a thousand sightings of this meteor throughout the world. Please store just enough food to survive and don't add to the chaos. The military will be dispatched to assist the affected city. For those who stay nearby the place where the crimson meteor fell, please stay as far away from it."
Once he finished speaking, the news anchor paused for a moment to show the scene of a crimson meteor falling from the sky. Just like the one Alicia saw, the sky also seems to be split open as the crimson meteor fell from the middle of a thunder cloud and pierced through it.
While listening to the news for further information, everyone continued to silently print more information until they ran out of paper and decided to call it a day. At this time, evening has already arrived as the sky turned orange. Luckily, neither the internet nor the electricity has fallen yet.
The group returned to the canteen with the paper they had just printed. Luckily they don't meet any dangerous zombies along the way. The most they met were some small zombified critters that were easily killed.
They also met with a few birds that hadn't turned into zombies. It seems just like the humans, not all animals got zombified.
Midway through the journey, the group saw the infirmary and decided to take all of the first aid kit inside.
Alicia also took some antipyretic and antiseptic as she felt her body turned weak and her face felt warm due to a fever. As for the cause, Alicia guessed it might come from the zombified frog that bit her before.
Upon arriving at the canteen, the teachers discussed with each other for a moment before deciding it was time to sleep.
Before everyone left to sleep, Alicia asked the other teachers. Currently her face has turned red due to a fever. "I feel a bit sick. Are there any empty rooms nearby where I could rest? I don't want to start a plague during this apocalypse."
"Did you get bitten?" One of them asked in suspicion.
Alicia shrugged. "Perhaps. That's why I wish to sleep in another room. By the way, you guys should check each other and the other students for any fresh wounds. Who knows, they might hide the fact they've been bitten."
Alicia then continued. "Although every person I've met before immediately turned into zombies upon being scratched or bitten by a zombie instead of slowly turning into one. But it is better to be safe than sorry."
Edward nodded. "That's true. I also saw the student that got bitten by a zombie turned into a zombie immediately instead of slowly. But it is better to be safe than sorry."
And so, except for Alicia who left the classroom and went to a classroom nearby the canteen to sleep. The other teachers went to check every student for fresh wounds.
Before sleeping, Alicia locked the classroom with a key she got and blocked it with a few tables. Then, she ate the antipyretic medicine she took from the infirmary and checked the wound on her ankle. It is exactly the wound caused by the zombie frog.
She pulled the antiseptic she got and applied it to her wound. Then, she took some bandages and wrapped them. "Now all I can do is wish for the best."
With the excitement from her adrenaline disappearing, Alicia got hit by a massive exhaustion and quickly went to sleep.
***
When she woke up on the day, Alicia found her fever had receded and she currently feels extremely strong like never before, her body feels like it is full of energy. "I never knew fever medicine was this effective."
Still half awake, Alicia slowly stood up and felt there was something wrong with her view, it seemed to be higher than normal. "Did I forget to remove my high heels before sleeping?"
She suddenly got jolted awake. "Wait a minute, I never wore high heels before!"
Alicia quickly ran toward the window and faintly saw her reflection on it. Just like usual, what comes into her view is a short haired blonde woman with an oval face. Her chest is still flat as usual, just like the surface of water. The only difference is her height.
Yesterday, she was approximately 6 feet 3 inches, or around 160 centimeters tall. But by comparing her body to the window, Alicia feels she is at least 10 centimeters taller.
She quickly went to the canteen to tell the others. While running, Alicia found her body had turned lighter. The strength she feels after waking up is actually not an illusion as she has indeed turned stronger. Even with a fire axe at hand, she still feels her body is lighter than yesterday.
When she arrived inside the canteen, the teachers had already gathered. She overheard them talking about how some students secretly left the canteen last night to check on their family.
"Last night, there were still slightly less than 300 people inside the canteen. But this morning the student council president counted at least 30 students secretly leaving the school grounds, which leaves the total number of people inside to slightly more than 250. Although we don't know how the situation in the city is, it is probably much worse compared to inside the school gro-"
Halfway through her speech, Berth saw Alicia slowly coming towards them. She quickly paused and stared at her with wide eyes. The other teachers who got curious also turned their head toward Alicia and stared in disbelief.
To be honest, anyone who saw someone that gained 10 centimeters in a single night would definitely get shocked.
"This is too unscientific." Glenn stared at Alicia in disbelief.
Berth asked after some thought. "Except for your height, are there any other changes?"
"I also feel much stronger." While she spoke, Alicia went to a nearby table and easily lifted it. The tables inside the school's canteen are made using solid woods with metals on some parts. It is around four to five meters long and a meter wide. The strength required to lift such a table
Seeing Alicia's sudden strength, the student council president spoke rapidly. "Miss Alicia, how about you meditate and feel the inside of your body and activate your power. You might've awakened some supernatural power!"
Alicia nodded and followed along, after all everyone would be excited to awaken a power. So, she closed her eyes and tried to meditate. But after some time, she failed to sense any sort of power within her.
Opening her eyes, she shook her head. The student council president looked extremely disappointed upon seeing it.
Meanwhile, Edward raised his glasses and said. "Didn't you say your body felt like it was full of energy this morning? How about trying to push those energy outwards?"
Alicia followed Edward's words and pushed the energy inside her. To be honest, she isn't sure how to push her energy, so she just screamed while gritting her teeth. She pushed her body just like the time when she took a massive dump.
"Harghhh!!!" With that, her clothes begin to flutter as if blown by winds. The people surrounding her stumbled backward as if they're being pushed by an unseen force.
*Ape noises*
Just like the ancestors of humans that found fire for the first time. The surrounding people screamed in amazement.