Day Two. Percy's immune system finally gave its predictable response. The junior marketer tossed and turned all night in a delirious semi-conscious state. Fever brought his consciousness various images. Sometimes it seemed as if the blanket, like scales, was covered with a layer of stones and pinned him to the bed. Other times, it appeared that the air in the room had thickened into a liquid state and was difficult to breathe, so much so that one could drown in it. Waking up once again in stuffy darkness, Percy got up and, staggering, walked to the kitchen. The painfully sharp light from the switched-on lamp returned him to familiar reality.
It seemed like he'd even dreamed something during this delirium... Transparent, thin, jelly-like tentacles swayed around him like seaweed. Percy shook his head, trying to shake off the unpleasant visions, poured water into a glass, and dropped a tablet of effervescent aspirin inside. The nighttime silence filled with the crackling of carbon dioxide bubbles, and the air everywhere smelled of orange. A timid attempt by a human being to control the hundred-trillion-cell colony he calls his body. What did he know about the processes taking place inside right at this moment? Nothing. But the pill lowered his temperature, glucose slightly improved his mood, and the sweet-and-sour taste in his mouth gave him confidence that with each sip, some "benefit" was entering his body. Having reduced the fever, Percy finally calmed down and, wrapped in a blanket, slept until morning.
He spent the rest of the day feeling as though he was recovering. He warmed up and ate some food he considered dietary. He continued watching the TV series, which he found interesting. According to the plot, generously filled with various urban legends, a pair of enthusiastic government agents accidentally uncover a government conspiracy involving experiments on their own population. Such plots are especially popular among people of average intellectual ability who are curious, fascinated, and overly suspicious. Percy was exactly such a person. The cinematic agents revealed the sinister plans of the government by discovering an anomalous mass death of freshwater hydras. Catching onto the name, the junior marketer reached for his smartphone and immediately Googled an article about these microscopic creatures. Their possession of a nervous system consisting of five thousand neurons, amazing regenerative abilities, and practical immortality amazed the imagination. However, the enthusiasm for scientific research faded as quickly as it had arisen. Percy felt a sting in his eyes and could no longer concentrate on the text. Measuring his temperature, he took another antipyretic and a second dose of antibiotics, then lay down again to watch TV, hoping that "tomorrow morning everything would definitely be over." And so he fell asleep without waiting to see how the story ended. The mystery remained unsolved for him, as it was the last time he watched his TV series.