To the Start of a New World

3.1 - Rebirth

Now that the clock had wound back, Lu Hao was no longer the 27-year-old man he had once been. He was only 18, a fresh-faced youth out of high school, baby fat still clinging to his cheeks. He should have been preparing to start his first year of university, with Spring Semester around the corner in March.

But now the soul of an older man, battle-weary, with countless tragedies worn on his shoulders, sat on the soft plush couch. The grime and dirt in his heart made him feel like a sharp edge about to tear through the softly knit world of his parents' home.

His parents, seated across from him, had changed from the people who protected him to people who needed to be kept safe. They were completely defenseless. His mother was a thin and beautiful woman who had aged gracefully in her 40s, and his father was a handsome, broad-shouldered man who looked similar to Lu Hao, but with more wrinkles. They had the peaceful aura of people who had never seen combat, and Lu Hao wished so much that they could stay that way.

This was a warm and safe world where people could go outside without a second thought. Teenagers filmed stupid videos on the streets to share on the internet; elderly neighbors went to the park to exercise to the radio; people walked to the grocery store and wondered what brand of the dozens of varieties they should pick... it was a fantasy otherworld. These people didn't belong in his reality. His reality was the fine line between survival and death, the struggle against starvation, the responsibility of thousands of lives that he had failed haunting his back.

But in front of his parents, he was a child. He was the 18-year-old Lu Hao who had only just last week excitedly moved out to his own apartment, ready to go to university and start his new life.

"Five months from now, a global epidemic is going to strike. The symptoms of the disease cause people to go rabid, and it's highly infectious. There won't be a cure for a long time. In my memory, I lived to 26 before everyone around me was infected. I died at 27."

The sudden declaration of his death made his parents look at him in stunned concern. "Little Hao, is this... a dream you had?" his father ventured, hesitation clear through the concerned hunch of his body. Lu Hao gave a small smile.

"It might be an extremely vivid hallucination. I won't know for sure until the time limit has passed. If the day the epidemic in my memory comes and goes without anything happening, I'll accept that that I'll need mental counseling. There are five months to that day. Can you humor me for these five months, and prepare in advance with me?" He didn't hesitate to stab in a knife: "In my memory, dad was infected. He wasn't able to control himself and hurt mom. By the time I got there, mom... you said your last words to me. I had to bury you both myself."

These were ruthless words. Hearing that their child had to bury them was enough to drive any parent into a panic. Mother Liu tightened her grip on his father's hand. She might have been getting ready to try and coax him into counseling, take a vacation. Maybe they'd thought that preparing for university had made him snap. But when she opened her mouth, sudden loud thud struck the window.

His mother and father flinched at the startling sound, and all three of them looked to the side. A bird slid down the pane. Lu Hao had barely given a visible reaction, just a slight shift to his eyes to assess the threat. Seeing this bird, he stood without a word to open the window and check the bird's condition.

Luckily, the bird seemed fine, just stunned. After Lu Hao gave it a light assessment for injury, the bird hopped a few times before flying off on its own.

With a bit of a laugh, Lu Hao said, "How many times does this happen? The windows are too clear; they still think they're flying through the sky." He sat back down, casually crossing a leg. His body language shifted to a mature, languid steadiness that looked strange against his young form.