Group Survival

In the aftermath of the horrific expulsion, the tightly packed lobby grew into a furious maelstrom of shouting with erratic bursts of light.  Together with the stench of drying gore nearby, the experience was one in which Lucas desperately wished to extricate himself.  With few avenues of travel through the crowd, and more people coming down the steps, he couldn't retreat upstairs.  Darting into the openings as they became available, he somehow navigated his way to the side hallway leading to the common area and down the hall.

Soon standing near the glass door to the common room, Lucas turned to look down the hallway from where he had retreated.  Attempting to discern order or action from the activity, he strained to make out individual voices.  Some people in the hallway were updating the late arrivals to the events, even as they were still ongoing.  There were enough flashlights present to provide adequate lighting, so Lucas casually let his beam of light shine at the floor.

"What is going on out there?"  A familiar feminine voice asked from nearby.

Lucas glanced over to his right.  Chloe stood nearby in the open doorway, her dark clothing concealing her atheltic frame rather effectively in the shadows.  Staring down the hallway with interest; one arm held the door open as if she was about to dart back inside.  Nobody appeared to be in the dark room behind her and nobody else was really close enough to have obviously been the speaker, so he replied to her.  "They forced that guy who was bitten to go outside."

"Huh, he was bitten?  I thought it was just a scratch."

"I thought so too, but it was apparently a bite."  After a couple seconds, he added another possibility he hadn't originally considered with a shrug.  "I guess it could just be the flu or something, but apparently he got very sick very fast so everyone thinks it's a bite."

"Jesus.  What would have happened if he was still inside when he turned?"  Chloe spoke with a faint tint of fear on the edge of her voice as if the situation had only now been suddenly visited upon her.  He didn't know Chloe all that well, but the urgency of the situation was apparently enough to crack her usual cool, logical demeanor.

"Nothing."  Lucas flatly responded.

Sudden, piercing yells echoed down the hallway.  Although Lucas couldn't make out anything more than scattered words, he could tell the women who came in with Robert were pleading for him to be let back inside.  Although the result was difficult to discern, the prospect was doubtful.  Still, the screaming ended after an inestimable interval, although it seemd as if the commotion was finally beginning to wind down.

"What did you mean by that?"  Chloe turned her brown eyes to Lucas.  She was about five and a half feet tall, just a bit shorter than Lucas, so she had to look up at him slightly.  "When you said nothing, I mean."

"I know the guy who was handling it.  I don't know what's going on with him right now, but Evan would make sure it was safe to keep him inside."

"Maybe there wasn't a way to do that."  Chloe casually considered.  "As long as one infected is inside and around people, it could still bite someone.  From what I've read, the virus could spread through the whole building in a matter of minutes.  So your friend could have decided it was just too risky to keep him in here with us."

"Yeah, it can spread fast..."  Lucas trailed off.  The thought of his friend making that decision genuinely never occurred to him.  It would explain at the very least why Evan did not stop the events that just took place.  After only the slightest consideration, he replied confidently.  "Well, I don't think I could do it, but he'd never do that to someone.  He'd lose his paladin abilities if he did."  Lucas added the old joke among his circle of friends to his answer with a smile.

Chloe's face was stony and unimpressed as she replied.  "Well, either way, we need to do what is best for our survival.  And right now, that means keeping the sick people away from everyone else."

"If that really worries you, you could always lock yourself in your room and just wait until we're rescued.  It's probably what I'd do if I didn't know Evan was around."  Apparently, until this ended, it would be best not to get sick.  The flu could potentially cost someone their safe harbor.  Briefly, he wondered if anyone with a fever who had not been bitten were being similarly turned outside.  He was at least glad the shouting proved the decision was apparently a controversial one.

"This isn't about me, you or your friend.  It's about making the choices that are best for everyone.  To make sure we're all as safe as we can be."

"I'm not sure we can be safe."  Lucas countered.  The possible implications of the outbreak's origins still lingering in his mind.  "Not until we know a whole lot more than we do now."  And that- Lucas added in his mind- the event which originated the zombies wouldn't just happen again without warning.

Stubborn

"You should really stay here."  Evan adjusted his coat as he spoke to Jennifer in the small, dark chamber.  The flashlight laid on the dresser beside the coat rack, casting a glowing oval against the nearby bare wall.  "It's not safe out there."

"I know the risks."  Jennifer responded with a weary, scared smile and a flutter of her eyelashes.  She was fairly slender and fit despite her ample chest, and her dark hair came down just a little past her shoulders.  With her eyes looking only slightly up at him, she was quite tall, just marginally shorter than Evan.  The skirt, blouse and heavy stockings visible under her heavy coat were a very pure white.

"It's not that.  Jen, you know it's really dangerous just being outside right now.  Nobody should be running around out there.  I don't want to worry about you while I'm out there doing what I need to do."

"You're a person too, you know."  Jennifer quickly retrieved the flashlight and proceeded to the room's solitary door.  "And I know you're not going to like hearing this, but I am just as scared of what could happen to you while you're out there.  So if you're allowed to make me scared, then I can make you scared."

Evan frowned at that and transferred the medicine bottle from his jeans pocket to one of the large coat pockets with a secure zipper.  "You know someone is depending on this medicine.  I can't stay here."

"I'm not trying to keep you here."  Jennifer casually opened the door as Evan approached and quickly entered into the empty hall ahead of him.  She waited for him to follow, shining the flashlight at the nearby wall to let the light reflect through the immediate environment.  "I just need to know that someone will be around to make sure you're taking care of yourself while you're trying to help everyone else."

"I'll be fine on my own."

"Oh hush, you were shivering just a couple minutes ago.  You think you can do everything and someone needs to be there to remind you that even you have limits to what you can accomplish.  Besides, you can't just go running off into danger by yourself and expect nobody else will follow your bad example."

With that, the debate lapsed into silence, Evan proceeded through the hallway alongside Jennifer.  As they traveled together in casual company, he thought to take the flashlight from her or argue the point further, but could only reason that the stubborn girl would only get angry at him instead of be deterred from her foolish decision.  She could be exhausting at times; unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of time at the moment he would need to change her mind.

She might possibly be okay going with him.  After all, he hadn't seen any other zombies in the area.  Still, by the last reports he had been aware about, there were quite a lot of the undead only a mile or so away.  Circumstances could change very quickly if they dispersed from where they were congregated.  And if they ran across a crowd of them outside, Evan knew he wouldn't be able to protect her.  Evan didn't enjoy the thought of taking unnecessary risks, but unfortunately, this one seemed impossible to avoid.

The lingering silence combined with the worries Evan felt made the journey to the front door seem longer than the outset.  Upon arriving at the ground floor, vaguely familiar voices echoed throughout the otherwise formless void given form by the beam of the flashlight.

Upon returning to the front room, Zach and Ryan were standing near the glass doorway, staring down the empty walkway to the front gate.  They stopped speaking as they noticed the approaching light.  As Evan arrived with Jennifer, Zach turned and looked back towards them both, more than a little alarm showing on his face.

"Bad news."  Zach said as he lifted the beam of his own flashlight to shine down the tight corridor.  "I think you might be stuck here now."

Standing at the end of the corridor, a single haggard figure was visible and moving around at the heavy, barred gate.  Through the glass at this distance, he could just barely sense the lingering groan of its call and the abrasive rattle of the heavy hinges.  Evan couldn't help but notice that Jennifer was staring down there with her beautiful dark eyes wide with alarm.

"Well, let's see what we can do about it."  Evan replied thoughtfully.  Maybe they could incapacitate the solitary wandering figure in some way so he could pass by it.  And perhaps once Jennifer was more viscerally aware of what was really ready to spring out at them from the pitch darkness, he could convince her to wait here safely for him.

Bystander

While waiting in the landing of the stair well, Lucas strained to listen to the argument occurring in the hallway above.  Several loud voices contributed to the cacophany, but from what Lucas could hear the clear majority were demanding the exodus of the infectious sick to a place where he could not risk exposing any others to his malady.  There was little else possible to make out amidst the noise.

Lucas had assumed Evan would handle things before it got to this point- or at least calm things down once it did.  But oddly enough, it didn't seem like Evan was doing so right now.  At least, Lucas couldn't make out his voice among those contributing to the clamor.  With the shouting, he would no doubt be drawn to appear soon.  And definitely would put a stop to this mess.

Lucas tentatively proceeded a few steps further, straining to make out individual voices.  Jorge casually aimed his flashlight down the hallway, scratching just at the edge of his moustache with his left hand.  When Jorge casually made notice of his ascent, Lucas shouted out so he could be heard.  "Are they really going to put him outside with a zombie nearby?"

"Didn't you hear?  That zombie's dead."  Jorge cocked his head down the hallway.  "Simon took care of it."

"Oh."  Lucas hadn't expected that.  But given that his swarming theory had agitated Simon so severely, that outcome made a bit of sense.  "What about Robert?  What's wrong with leaving him where he was?"

"In the building?  Everyone was getting nervous after they heard he was really sick."  Jorge tucked his left thumb into the band of his thick brown belt.  Being closer, Lucas could see Jorge had a length of metal resting nearby him against the wall.  "I think that kind of freaked everyone out that he got so sick in only a few hours.  Hard to believe it can happen so fast."

"It could go a lot faster than that."  Lucas commented as he halted at the final step and leaned around the corner to peer down the hallway curiously.  A swarm of crowding bodies and rare shining lights were obscuring sight of whatever events were going on, but not the noise.  "If you're bitten several times it can be almost instant."

"Jesus."  Jorge paused for a moment of contemplation at the thought.  "Did you see him earlier?  He barely had a scratch.  But this thing is so deadly that's all it needs.  Just one little mistake and you're dead."

"Actually, that might not be true."

"What?"

"Well, it can kill that quick from just one bite.  But before the power went out I read that there's a few people bitten yesterday that are still alive."  Lucas shrugged.  "They're still sick, but they're not dead yet.  Maybe some of them will naturally recover."

Their conversation petered out then as the shouting intensified, soon reaching a clamorous crescendo.  It sounded like a fight had just started or was in progress.  Unfortunately, Lucas couldn't get a good look down the hallway to determine which it was and didn't want to approach any closer.

Without warning the crowd backed away or parted as Simon passed through the chaos, using his strength to force Robert to walk in front of him.  Despite what he had learned, Lucas was still shocked to see how pale and weary Robert appeared.  The man's left arm was held behind him, and Robert stumbled a bit as a length of something metal trailed behind one leg.  Robert's heavy coat was only half on.

"Coming through!"  Simon shouted as he approached them, urgently shoving Robert ahead of him.  Simon had changed his clothes, now wearing a heavy black sweater.  A vanguard of uneven lights proceeded with him and lit up the path with flickering infrequency.

Retreating partway down the steps, Lucas watched Simon approaching, then began to descend until he reached the main lobby space ahead of the grim procession.

An acrid, sick smell preceeded sight of the unlit lobby.  Quick strokes of Lucas's flashlight beam revealed the area was dotted with blood, a huge mess of it at the back left corner of the room and a puddle of unidentifiable ooze in front of the double doors.  Leon stood by the glass doors with his cell phone out casting barely any light, his wide eyes staring towards Lucas as he descended the final steps and brought light with him.

"What's going on?"  Leon shouted at Lucas as he proceeded down the steps.  But there was no chance to respond before the rising volume in the small space made hearing anything- much less responding- difficult.  Simon and Robert were descending the steps quickly behind him as Lucas scurried forwards.

People indistiguishable amid the noise and shadow swarmed into the space from the halls as lights danced amid the chaos.  Pressing himself up against the wall under the stairs, he witnessed as a mass of people, probably everyone in the building, began to congregate here.

"Simon, you can't do this!  It's not right!"  Came an urgent protest that may have been Erin, but it could have been another woman.  It was hard to tell.

Lucas could barely make out any words against the thumping clatter as people quickly scurried about.  But he did hear one direct response that came from Simon.  "I killed the zombie.  The others can stay if they want to,  but he has to go somewhere else."

There was more shouting and noise, and with an unceremonious abruptness, the glass doors were thrown open wide, bringing a surge of cold air into the room.  Even though bodies obscured sight of what had just transpired, he knew that when the air grew still, Robert was now outside.

Lucas glanced about the lobby with his back against the far wall, wondering for a moment why Evan didn't do anything to try and stop what had just transpired.  Robert wasn't going to be able to survive in the cold.

Temporary Delay

Evan came to an abrupt stop.  The stars were gone, wiped from the sky by a vast carpet of flowing shadow.  Without even the moon's reflected light above to provide relief, the surrounding city streets had been torn away from sight.  For one creepy moment, there was nothing but the sound of his own light breathing and the rustling whistle of bare tree branches accompanying the blowing of the wind.  Cold seeped into muscle, weakening it.

Standing there in frozen silence with his heart pumping in his chest, Evan became aware of indecipherable whispers coming from the darkness.  Jennifer and Zach were attempting to cajole his return and without better lighting, there was little other immediate option available to him.  He turned to face them, noting a couple of glowing screens not too far away and quietly spoke out.  "I'm still here.  I'm okay."

Evan had lingered for a moment, hoping he could continue his return once he had acclimated to the absence of light, but now he began to realize that it would not help.  Only the barest wisps of texture overhead provided some contextual clue to make out partial silhouettes of some surrounding buildings against the sky.  He could probably use his cell phone light to provide rudimentary illumination, but without a stronger light source it wouldn't be wise to attempt a run.  In the meantime, the tiny pinprick of light would also serve as a beacon for any stray zombie attacker.  Who would likely have no similar qualms about charging blindly in his direction.

Gingerly pocketing the bottle he had come to claim, Evan retrieved his cell phone and held it facing outwards to let it cast its paltry sum of light into the environment.  As he moved across the narrow road and stepped back onto the opposite curb, the two waiting for him opened the sturdy barred gate, swinging the metal bars wide with a plaintive squeaking from the hinges.  Evan rushed inside, and they swung the bars of the iron gate closed together with a resounding metallic clatter.  Swiftly, the heavy chain on the gate was locked again.

"Flashlight, we have a spare flashlight around here, right?"  Evan spoke now that the gate had been quickly resecured.  The surrounding structure's high walls kept the wind's biting embrace from being quite as bad within the corridor.

"Yeah."  Zach led the way to the building's sole entrance, retrieving his own cell phone in order to shed more light for the walk.  Moving through the passageway, a couple more light sources came on.  One shone out from the small lobby space at the end of the path.

"You're shivering."  Jennifer observed as her warm fingers touched Evan's hand.  "I know I can't stop you, but you should at least take your coat before you leave again."

"I'm fine, but okay."

"You know, you could have brought that sick man here with you."  Jennifer speculated out loud.  "So you wouldn't have to go out there again so soon."

"Robert was resting when I saw him last.  I don't know if he's in good enough condition to run if we had to.  But I'll keep that in mind."

Entering the doors of Mansfield, Evan enjoyed the pleasantly warm air spilling over his body.  Exhaling in temporary relief at the sensation, he smiled and cordially nodded as Zach retrieved one of the flashlights to give to him.  A couple other dormitory residents were down here chatting but since this place had no common room, most occupants were waiting elsewhere for the following day's promised events.

As Evan worked his way up the stairs towards his room, Jennifer remained at his side.  Finally, just as Evan retrieved his coat and slipped it on, Jennifer breathed out in a heavy sigh.  "I want to go with you."

Nothing Better To Do

Pacing back and forth through the small room, Lucas had the time he needed to clear his mind.  He was used to spending long periods in isolation when the mood struck him or when he needed to do so.  Whether it was studying for his school work, gaming or reading something that caught his attention, it was rare he would be distracted by something once he really focused on it.

However, the unsettling frustration with the incomprehensible set of facts that had been established about these zombies made him feel rather antsy.  With all the misinformation spreading around, no additional reading was helping the overall situation make any more sense.  And what could be told from direct observation was unfortunately rather limited and perplexingly unhelpful.  His normally eager curiosity had led to him repeatedly hitting against a brick wall of obfuscation that plainly contradicted human knowledge.

As he paced from one side of the room to the other, Lucas came to the unfortunate conclusion that he had no choice but to wait for better answers to his lingering questions.  Simon's ignorant fear and stubborn demeanor wouldn't allow for direct experimentation on the one zombie Lucas did have limited access to.  And the vast resources of the world via the Internet seemed to be mostly dedicated to nonsense and panic.  Once he had finished clearing his mind, Lucas decided he would at least throw his own observations into the larger world.

At the very least, maybe his observations would help someone else piece together more information.  In the end, he didn't have much to offer but questions, but he did spend some time typing up what he had managed to observe and the evidence for his reasoning he could easily reference on the Internet.  His efforts ended abruptly when the Internet connection went down unexpectedly.

Checking again after a few seconds, Lucas figured that his connection might be down for a while, then lifted his head to idly glance out the window.  There was nothing outside.

Lucas had been so absorbed in his activity that he didn't notice the overhead light had cut out at about the same time the connection dropped.  But now that he thought about it, the level of light registered in his mind, he just didn't immediately realize what that meant right away.  The only light he had to see by now was his laptop screen.  It bathed the room in a soft glow.

The power had gone out.  Standing up to look out the window, it appeared the entire city had gone dark.  Not even moonlight provided illumination through the thick clouds.  In the hall outside his room, Lucas heard the noises of people shouting at each other.  It didn't concern him much since his door was locked.

Looking at what he had gathered in his post, Lucas decided to save the work and shut the computer down.  However long this power outage lasted, he would post this once it ended.  Until that point, it was probably better to save the laptop's power until he needed it.  Just in case.

Leaning back in his chair, Lucas tapped his fingers upon the desk before him.  He had nothing to do now and he wasn't sleepy.  He could play a game on the laptop, but still didn't feel much like it at the moment.  Sitting there in the dark, Lucas heard the shouting growing louder and more intrusive in the hallway.  He wasn't sure what that was about, but didn't much care.

But there was little else he could really do right now.  He could read in the dark, but he didn't feel like doing that, either.

Blindly feeling around the simple wooden desk for the correct drawer, Lucas fished out the emergency flashlight his mother had placed in there for him.  Flicking it on, he walked over to the door and unlocked and opened it casually, shining the light into the corridor and witnessed a couple of people blindly feeling their way along the hallway walls.  They stopped a moment as Lucas shone his light in their direction and looked back at him, then continued on.

There was a commotion echoing through the halls from elsewhere in the building.  Advancing towards the nearby stair well, a visible light source came from somewhere around the top of the steps.  Lucas climbed up partway to investigate.  Jorge stood at the top of the steps, shining his flashlight down the hall where the source of the commotion was coming from.  Jorge turned as he saw the new source of light.

"What's going on?"  Lucas asked him as he stopped halfway up.

Jorge half paid attention to Lucas as he replied, only glancing over just barely.  "We're going to get that sick guy out of here before he bites anyone."

Supply Run

"Good."  Evan spoke into his cell phone.  He peered out of the glass door into the park blocks, breathing slowly in and out to acclimate himself for the exertion he was about to engage in.  He would have examined the surrounding area from the rooftop again, but with daylight gone it would be much more limited how useful that would be.  "So when I come by, you or whoever else just pass it to me through the bars and don't open the gate.  That's how we keep this as safe as possible."

Jennifer hesitated on the other end of the line, her voice uneasy and nervous.  "You really sure you want to do the hero thing?"

"I just can't wait around and do nothing when someone needs help."  Evan thought to mention the zombies were too clumsy to actually catch him, but considered it better not to mention that he had chosen to fight one.  It wasn't like he could only expect to encounter one zombie at a time.

"I understand, sweetie.  That's what I love about you.  But it still makes me scared having you out there like this.  Especially in the dark."  There was a brief pause, during which the sound of murmuring came through the line as she spoke to someone else close to her.  It made the silence in Blackwood's lobby all the more noticeable.  The only sound Evan heard coming from nearby was the faint babble likely produced by the television within the common room and Leon's quiet breathing.  Jennifer's voice came again.  "Okay.  Zach said it's clear at the gate and around the building.  We're ready for you."

"Don't worry.  I'll see you in a minute.  And when I get back here safe I'll give you a call.  See you in a bit."  Closing and replacing his cell phone within his jeans pocket, Evan took a moment to breathe a deep cleansing breath of air and calm his mind.  He had already committed himself to this action.  There would be no turning back now.  He stepped aside and nodded to Leon, indicating he was ready to proceed.

"I'll be waiting for you here."  Leon examined outside for possible movement before unlocking the front doors and moved aside.  "Call me if there's a change of plans."

Evan silently assented to the statement with a nod and opened the door ever so slightly to take a careful look around the blind edges of the building.

Although he didn't feel comfortable with venturing into the night, the sooner and faster this was finished, the better.  From moving the corpse under the bench just minutes before, it was evident there wasn't another zombie immediately nearby only a short time ago.  There was no guarantee that situation would last for long, so he ought to take advantage of the opportunity as soon as possible.

Evan rushed through the broad glass doors and dashed to the left, not waiting to ensure that Leon locked up afterwards.  With the initial step, the biting chill of the air immediately stung the exposed skin on his face and hands as he charged down the modest slope.  Accompanying that sensation was an uncomfortable stinging that would later turn to numbness if he spent too long outside.

When Evan had originally left for Blackwood, it had been a bit warmer than it was now and he hadn't anticipated venturing outside again.  The light tan jacket wasn't very warm, but he was glad to have brought it.  Although Evan had very warm blood, the temperature had taken a relatively big dip during the hours after he had arrived here.

The pedestrian walkways flitting throughout the university grounds were mostly adequately lit.  The entire length of the corridor of greenery was dotted with lamps that automatically lit once dusk approached.  Just like the lights of the city streets surrounding the university.  He had chosen his short route to stay in the well lit areas.  Still, Evan tried to remain focused and vigilant, keeping an eye on the nearby irregular shadows and the distant shapes for signs of movement.

Uncharacteristic, desolate silence echoed within the city environment, the only sounds the blowing of the wind through dead tree branches and his own slow, deep breathing and heavy footfalls with each motion.  Occasional lights or moving shapes in the tightly sealed chambers of living spaces reminded Evan that he was not truly alone but with the harsh shift in environment and aura of isolation, he may as well be in another world.

Slowing his run carefully at intervals to peer cautiously around the buildings or scattered trees, Evan continued downhill.  Passing by an administrative building that had been converted from an old two story house, he remained on the cement walkway where there was more space and the area was more adequately lit.

The next block contained a tall apartment building, set in the shape of a thick cross with its edges at the corners of the square.  An empty plaza filled the spaces around it, normally offering various fast food or meeting places for students studying.  But now stood empty, its metal benches and brick facade only populated with sparse litter.

A narrow, empty road ringed the tall apartment building's plaza, and Evan ran down the slope along the narrow path.  The pavement continued on for another block further than Evan was heading, where it met up with the normally busy city street defining the outer edge of the university grounds.

As he advanced to the second block, Evan snapped his head around when he heard the isolated sound of a car backfiring.  Or possibly, a gunshot.  He reassured himself that it sounded too distant to concern himself with immediately and moved on.  Turning left, he jogged between the apartment building he had just passed at his side and a low school building on his right.  The barren centerline of the road provided an easy, clear path.

Ahead, the road ran parallel to the green space.  A broad, pedestrian walkway cut between the two squat school buildings on the other side of the street.  Sitting beside the structure on the right stood the gated opening of the U-shaped dormitory of Mansfield.  A dozen or so parking spaces lined the far edge of the service road although only one car was currently parked there.

Jennifer and Zach stood next to each other in dark coats, obscured behind the metal bars of the locked gate.  Jennifer was a hauntingly beautiful girl with creamy smooth skin, dark hair, eyes and an ample chest notable even through her heavy coat.  Zach had short, dull blond hair and a stout build, with heavily toned well defined muscles and broad shoulders.  They stood beside one another quietly watching the street without getting too close to the gate.

As Evan arrived, Jennifer quietly moved forwards, reaching through the opening and holding out the bottle of medicine in the palm of her right hand.  She had a sad, almost moping look on her face, but smiled a little as Evan made reassuring but brief eye contact with her.

Snatching the bottle and turning back to make the return journey, Evan only took a dozen steps before the light wavered around him.  The city lights quickly winked out and vanished, leaving him in utter darkness.

Shaky Evidence

Voraciously perusing everything he could about the zombie plague, Lucas discovered another peculiar fact hiding within the specific details of this ongoing epidemic.  The apparently spontaneous outbreak had only been around for just a little bit longer than a day by now.  Yet according to the varying anecdotal records people were providing, it was already becoming apparent that the disease exhibited by a bite victim could progress at wildly different rates.

Of course, Lucas already knew that at least partly.  He had discovered fairly clear video evidence depicting victims who were bitten multiple times which had seemed to die or lose consciousness within a minute or so of the repeated, aggressive attacks.  Then mere seconds afterwards, those who had been attacked became mobile and transformed into- apparently- a fully symptomatic carrier of the infection themselves.

Although that seemed like it was far more rapid than should even be possible, it still at least made a sort of sense if the infectious agent was delivered by something present in the mouth.  More of the attacks simply meant more of whatever thing causing the disease was getting into the person's body.  Fewer attacks were an indicator that the person would last longer before falling to the epidemic.  Whether the bite of a newly created zombie was infectious immediately or how soon they became so was still a tiny lingering question that might complicate or invalidate the evidence for this theory, but that would be something to ponder over when there weren't so many other larger and far stranger things to occupy his mind.

In theory Lucas knew it should be extremely unlikely that anything could travel from a bite wound on the arms, legs, neck and body and be produced by some means within the mouth only a couple minutes later.  But whatever was responsible for this, it could apparently change the workings of the brain in that time frame and was also somehow altering the way the body's muscles worked.  These undead things were already seeming to break natural laws based on what little he knew about biology.  For the sake of simplicity and safety, he figured it would suffice for now to just tentatively assume the plague functioned that way until proven otherwise.

Besides, there probably was some video footage somewhere which could demonstrate that the new zombies were infectious.  If Lucas had nothing more interesting to do, he could try to find evidence for that later.  That is, if nobody else had done so first and reported it in the media by then.  In the meantime, that was a distraction.

There were many very clear warnings on every site Lucas visited that the disease had an extremely high mortality rate.  And an observed incubation period so quick it verged on the unbelievable, yet the evidence was very clear.  From what Lucas could discern, it seemed as if it was very uncommon for people to escape with just one or two bite injuries inflicted by an infected.  That was to be expected.  The attacks he witnessed on video were performed with a mindless, unrelenting fanaticism.

The bites were aggressive enough to puncture and tear at skin and sometimes muscle.  Enough of that sort of damage would definitely seriously injure someone.  But it didn't seem like it could cause direct incapacitation as suddenly as it seemed to do so in the videos.  There were isolated reports of people somehow escaping with a couple dozen bites succumbing to zombification moments later despite medical examinations indicating they should have remained in good health.  That could only indicate that they were succumbing to whatever mysterious thing was transmitted via the bite itself and not the actual wounds the attack created.  So it was clear that enough of the agent would impact someone far too quickly to intervene.

People who got away from an attack with only one or a couple bite injuries did seem to be fine for a time, but would eventually come down with a fever.  Then the fever would tend to grow worse fairly rapidly, producing fatigue and disorientation , delusions or unconsciousness before reanimation as another undead carrier of the plague.  The entire process could last for only a few hours in total for some unlucky people with a single small bite.

Yet despite that, there were a few sparse claims that some of those attacked within the first few hours were still alive.  According to the sources, they were said not to be doing too well and had been flickering between periods of cogency and hallucination.  Knowing the stark efficiency with which the sickness killed, how quick it could be, Lucas doubted such claims when he saw them.

But Lucas found videos providing evidence with a timestamp which seemed to support such a case.  Someone which had been bitten twice, only a few hours after this crisis began was still alive as of only a half hour ago.  It wasn't indicative of a recovery,  but surviving for several times longer than people with more minor injuries had managed to seemed to indicate that there was a way to at least resist the impact of the disease.

Lucas sighed.  Without being certain that all bites were equally infectious, it was impossible to know whether this really was as good a sign as it seemed.  It looked like if he really wanted to think about this, he'd have to look for that video after all.  He really did think it was true, but he didn't want to leap to the kinds of unsupported conclusions that other people were doing right now.

While not quite giving up, he rose from his chair and decided to take a bit of a break from his reading.

The Plan

As Evan waited for George and Leon to wash off their hands ahead of him, he idly listened to the chatter within the large, mostly empty chamber.  Some of the other people lingering within the common room were still watching the news broadcast.  Most of the remaining people were discussing quietly what had just taken place in the front lobby.  Chloe sat in the back corner away from everyone else, quietly typing studiously on her laptop.  George finished washing quickly and silently departed to his room to get some rest.

Without much else to draw his attention, Evan listened to the announcements coming from the television.  There apparently had been local efforts to systematically evacuate the surrounding warning zones to clear out the suburbs of infected and prevent the disease from spreading further outside Portland.  Other than that, they were mostly providing the same warnings, details and advice they had been giving out since almost the beginning.  Among them, the usual cajoling to quarantine the bitten in their own isolated, secure areas and not to go outside or try to kill the zombies personally.

It didn't sound like Evan had missed much news in the last several hours he had been busy trying to get things in order around this place.  He also hadn't seen Lucas around in a while, but he knew Lucas wouldn't venture outside on his own.  Not that he could, considering people had been keeping the ground floor doors locked.  Evan figured that Lucas was probably just locked in his room, busy catching up with reading about everything that had been happening in the last day.

With that thought, Evan sighed.  He felt that with the distraction of Simon's stunt and then taking the corpse outside, he had already wasted enough precious time.  As Leon moved aside from the sink and tore a paper towel off a roll sitting on the countertop, Evan stepped up beside him and turned his head to speak in a discreet voice.  "So, I actually came down here to talk with you."

Leon replied in a conspiratorial tone as other people within the room ignored them.  "Oh!  Is it about Robert?  Is he still okay?"

"He's just trying to get some rest.  But I was wondering if there's anything more we could do to help him."  Evan ran the warm water over his hands and bare forearms, feeling quite good after the piercing cold wind outside had assaulted his exposed flesh.

"More like what?"

"Like if there's medicine that might help.  Antibiotics or something else like that, maybe?"  Evan lathered up thoroughly with the soap as he spoke.

"If this disease is caused by a virus, antibiotics won't help at all.  But I don't think it's known whether it's a virus or a bacteria causing this."  Leon shrugged before tossing the scrap of wet material into the nearby wastebasket.  "But since we don't know for sure it would fail, it would be worth trying at the very least.  Although that doesn't really matter because I don't have any antibiotics to give him.  If I did have some around here, I would have done so already."

"I was wondering if that might be the case."  Evan paused to rinse off his hands and arms.  "Over in the Mansfield building, we searched through all the rooms shortly after we found out we were probably going to be stranded for a while.  To see what resources we would have in case of trouble."

"That could take us a while to do."  Leon casually noted as he scratched at his nose idly.  "If that's what you're suggesting."

"I wasn't suggesting we do that right now, but I do think it's something we should eventually get around to doing.  After we finish cleaning up what's left by the front doors."  Evan quickly ripped out a paper towel and dried his hands.  "But I ask because when we did inventory over there, one of the things we found was a small stash of antibiotics.  I was wondering if that or anything else might help Robert."

"It could."  Leon fell silent for a few seconds until Evan threw the paper towel away.  "You're not thinking of having someone bring it over here, are you?"

"No.  I was going to go get it myself."  Evan retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and lifted it up.  "Before I went out there, I just wanted to ask if there was anything else that you can think of which might help.  I can call ahead and have them ready with anything else we might have.  Picking it up and coming back shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but I'd rather not do this more than once if we can avoid it."

Bad Answers

Alone in his room, Lucas paced slowly around the small space available in his dorm.  The pathway he took mostly consisted of a semi clean walking space between the dresser at the side of the room and the laptop at the desk beside the window.  The few papers or discarded plastic bottles were kicked out of the way or disregarded as Lucas traversed the area.

The laptop's screen displayed the latest news headlines that had been loaded before he had risen to walk back and forth pointlessly.  If this were a normal day, Lucas would have gone outside by now to either pick up food or meet with friends.  Since finals were over, Evan, Ryan and the others would have probably been hanging out somewhere and they would have probably gamed together on their computers.

Although Lucas wasn't usually prone to pacing, the events today had been producing a nearly continual anxiety within him.  Thinking about his own actions, Lucas knew it had nothing to do with the fact that there were real zombies out there; one even so close as to be right outside the building.  It had more to do with what he had been doing: reexamining his conclusions and his idle thoughts in an endless cycle of repetition with no satisfactory answers to his most basic questions.

Although Lucas had devised a few curious conclusions about the zombies, what he had carefully considered only raised more questions than it settled.  And even so, his most concrete observations barely rose above the status of tentative speculation.  Everything he had concluded in deduction so far seemed perfectly reasonable, but that just made the situation more galling.

These things simply should not be.  They defied natural explanation, and every tidbit of information only made their existence appear more impossible.  Although much of what he had been considering was lingering in a state of wild speculation, every deduction so far seemed perfectly reasonable.  That was part of what made it so problematic and uncomfortable to him.  Extraordinary conclusions demanded extra scrutiny and Lucas didn't feel he could justify those conclusions on his own tenuous reasoning and the few brief videos he could examine.

Lucas craved evidence of a more definitive sort.  And news sites hadn't provided anything suitable yet.  Reliable sources of information just expounded basic facts- which while potentially useful for survival- didn't satisfy any deeper curiosity.  Less reliable sources provided questionable assertions and vague evidence.

The only thing Lucas felt he knew for certain was that these infected were not functioning as normal life could.  Their bodies got energy from somewhere other than what should be biologically possible.  At least, as far as he knew about the subject.  And he was only fully convinced of that because he had seen for himself the massive blood loss, and the continued function for long after what should have theoretically incapacitated its victim.  While interesting by itself, that was one of those details that just raised more questions.  Nobody that he could find had any explanation for it.

Despite Lucas not finding any good evidence to satiate his biggest curiosities, he still held out hope that somewhere, someone else would eventually come up with something.  Or at least come to the same shaky conclusions about things that he had.  Despite his best efforts to search, a myriad of theories were prepared and offered without any good evidence in support.  The Internet was awash with information, but most of it was useless to him or contradicted one another.  Often, it appeared people attempting to provide evidence had no first hand observations of the undead.

Lucas considered for a moment that if he could record the zombie and create a video of sufficient length, he could at least provide evidence to other people about the singular aspect he had witnessed for himself.  Then people would be able to see for themselves that these things were not living in the traditional sense.  But somehow, Lucas doubted that Simon would allow it.  Besides, everyone except the mainstream news seemed to already recognize these things as zombies anyway.

However, the one thing many other people did seem to notice was the sudden appearance aspect.  Of course, Lucas had noticed the trend earlier when he first checked online, but he had initially dismissed such things as simple ignorant paranoia.  Nobody yet had a theory for the outbreak which made any sense.  People latched onto those explanations of divine retribution or alien invasion or the like no matter how much sense they made.  Those who did not were expounding upon stranger glorified guesses.   Although nothing he had read so far was very convincing or even fully rational, an awful lot of people seemed absolutely certain despite those significant flaws.

Of course there had to be an answer for this, Lucas thought to himself.  Every meaningful question that could be asked has an answer.  Unfortunately, even if one could ask a meaningful question, it didn't mean that one could expect to discover that answer.  But desiring an explanation very deeply didn't make accepting a bad answer okay.  And right now, there was an overabundance of awful answers and far too many people seemed to be uncritically accepting them.

Disposal

"I think that's about the best we can do for now."  Evan said, the unpleasant stink still lingering within the lit lobby and seeping into the nearby hallways.  The corpse had been wrapped up tightly in the tablecloth and with it, the bits of bone and stray lumps of soft, dull pink matter as well.  What they could wipe up using nearby stray sheets of paper and thick gloves, anyway.

"There's some more cleaning stuff in the other room for the RAs to use in case they're needed."  Leon pointed to the nearby closed door in the back of the lobby from where he had produced the heavy rubber gloves they were both wearing.  "It's around where the first aid kit was stored."

"Yeah, I saw it in there earlier."  Evan carefully swept his field of vision over the floor, visually inspecting to see if there were any more broken stray teeth or bits of bone to collect.  Apart from the blood and a few lumps of stray grey pink sludge, the floor seemed to be about as clean as they could manage to get at the moment.

"So, were you thinking of just leaving the body in the corner for now?"  Leon asked, looking at the brown tablecloth wrapped figure.  He stood passively near to where the skull had been cracked open.  "Or do you think we should move it somewhere before we start cleaning up in here?"

"Actually, I was thinking we should put this outside as soon as possible."  Evan spoke as he approached the glass door and broad windows facing the park blocks.  "While we still have the chance to do it."

"Do you really want to risk going outside when we know there's zombies in the area?"  Leon's voiced concerns came as Evan carefully peered through the glass windows.  "It's only going to be a problem until we leave.  And once we clean up the blood and puke it's going to be a lot better in here."  It sounded to Evan like Leon wasn't fully convinced of what he was saying, but he clearly wanted to be.

"I can't move him out there without help from someone, so if you don't want to take that risk, it's probably going to stay in here with us whether or not that's a good idea."  Evan was meticulously focused on not touching the glass windows or the doors with his gloves, and exercised caution not to step in the pool of vomit beside the door.  He leaned from side to side, checking for any movement within the shadows outside.  What the widely placed street lamps in the open space made clear was an empty park space and an uncomfortable array of shadows.  "But I think right now is going to be our best chance of doing this with minimal risk."

"Well, let's do it, then."  Leon exhaled sharply, as if he already regret the commitment.  He tentatively began to remove his gloves as he stepped around the body, approaching the door.  "I guess I'll get the door."

"Actually, if we had a third person to get the door for us things would go a lot faster.  And be safer for everyone, not just us."  Moving to the side of the lobby Evan looked down the hallway leading to the common room.  Peering in that direction, he couldn't see anyone down that way.  "George?  Are you still there?  We could use your help with something over here."

George came out from around the corner close to door at the end of the hall and reluctantly approached despite looking ill.  Without much cajoling, he was quickly recruited into their operation.  He was given Leon's keys and assigned to handle the front door for them.  While keeping an eye out for anything that might suddenly charge at them from the darkness.

Quickly working out their plan ahead, Evan lifted the lifeless figure's legs while Leon gripped the shoulders.  Together, they trod into the icy air outside as George held the door wide.  Walking together in silence a few dozen feet away from the front door, they set the mass down beside one of the long wooden benches.  They then both stripped off the gore covered gloves and dropped them beside the body.  Hurrying back wordlessly, they darted inside and George locked up after them again.

The task complete for now, George impulsively examined the lock several times over before offering the keys in return.  He was the first to speak again.  "It's been a long day.  I think I'm going to go lay down in my room for a while if that's okay with everyone."

"Thank you George."  Evan replied.  "You've been a big help."

"Just to be careful, we should all wash up again before doing anything else."  Leon helpfully suggested.  "According to the news, they say you can only get the zombie infection from a bite.  But either way, that was still a dead body.  It could just as easily give us a regular disease if we're not careful."

Question Without An Answer

The soft glow coming from the laptop screen held steady as a momentary flickering of the overhead bulb spread darkness elsewhere in the room like an eyeblink.  Lucas broke his focus, leaning away from the desk in his chair.  Peering out the nearby window beside the desk at the low, adjacent building he exhaled a slow breath of air.  Adjusting the chair so he could idly look out, Lucas stared out into the dark, empty world.

Scant light from the lamps in the park blocks made the bare branches of nearby trees visible as they shifted within the icy breeze.  A very faint, sustained whistling noise was barely audible as an occasional heavier gust brushed over the window.  From the buildings of the city that could be seen, there were lights on.  Things elsewhere in Portland were chaotic and strange, but in the immediate environment, the scenery was mostly eerily serene.

Thinking about the ongoing situation, Lucas speculated over what it could mean.  Past that initial moment where the zombies had first appeared, there was no evidence that whatever had taken place to create them had happened again.  There wasn't any evidence to indicate it couldn't happen again either.  While both assertions had little support, it seemed more reasonable to consider at the moment that the instigating event- whatever it might be- had been confined to a particular moment in time.

There was simply no reason to assume otherwise yet.  If the creation of these zombies were caused by something ongoing, then that would eventually lead to evidence that should become clear over time.  Specifically more single, uncaused cases in areas without any nearby cases.  In addition, if he assumed they were being consistently created by an ongoing phenomenon, there wouldn't be any evidence possible to show that assumption was incorrect.

Why it only seemed to have happened once so far was still a mystery, and an important one.  Despite his efforts, there was nothing immediately obvious about the first zombies in either their identities or their locations in the world.  As far as locations went, the places impacted or unimpacted so far appeared to be completely random.  And if the first people infected had anything in common, it wasn't something Lucas could tell from what he had read so far.

But it wasn't worth worrying about what he had no reasonable way of knowing.  Without an explanation for the overall cause, there were still plenty of things so far to know about the evident plague.

It wasn't like not knowing everything about the situation made what they did know worthless.  What was important, head injuries being the only effective means of killing the undead, staying safe inside and keeping those with bites isolated were repeatedly propogated by every news source.  Guessing and speculation about deeper causes was mostly secondary to those primary concerns.  For now, at least.

Once the immediate matter of the zombie outbreak had been managed, there would be time to answer those questions.  Until then, they only had to deal with the immediate facts.  And despite not making a whole lot of sense, the facts didn't have to make total sense in order to be useful.

Regardless, Lucas just couldn't drop the thoughts completely from his mind.  It was as if in a peculiar instant, the usual laws of reality had been suspended and something uniquely strange had intruded itself upon the normal universe.  Something that broke the usual expectations for the natural order.  An infectious disease that could take hold upon its victim in seconds.  Infected that did not need blood to operate.  The potential that these things were able to sense the moment someone had died and move on.  These traits had a surreal quality to them he couldn't quite ignore.

And lastly, more than any other mystery so far, the source of that instigating event, either intelligent or an unguided accident.  As much as he didn't like leaving such a thing unanswered, there was little choice but to do so.

Remains

Although he had come down here to speak with Leon, Evan didn't want to leave the scene in this unseemly state for others to stumble upon.  Peering around the lobby for a suitable cover once George and Simon departed, nothing suitable for that immediate purpose caught his attention.  The front lobby bore no spare sheets to drape over the unmoving corpse and its associated remains.  But he did recall there were curtains and tablecloths in the common room that would probably be suitable for covering the body.

Already there were some people talking within the hallways, asking each other what had taken place.  A girl Evan didn't recognize tentatively appeared at the top of the stairs, slowly looking around what she could see of the lobby as she called out hesitantly.  An uneasy tone was in the small voice as she locked frightened eyes on the vacant glass doors.  No doubt also noticing the vomit and small trail of blood upon the floor.  Then she shifted her attention to regard Evan with suspicion.  "I heard something a minute ago.  Is everything okay?"

"Yes, everything is fine.  But you probably don't want to come down here."  Evan replied as he hastily moved out of view from the stairs.  He skirted the edge of the inert zombie's remains as he made his way towards the nearby light switch and flicked it off.  "Things are a little unpleasant down here right now."

"What happened?  Did it get inside?"  Came the same frightened voice, the person to which it belonged now out of sight but stepping down to get a slightly better vantage point.

"Nothing.  Just ah-"  Evan hesitated to speak, reluctant to really say much about what had just happened.  While the confrontation was resolved without any bites, the idea someone purposefully let a zombie inside was a little unnerving.  It was more than that, it was stupid to even take such a risk when others were in the building.  "It was an accident, but it's been taken care of.  And he didn't bite anyone."

"Oh."  Came the response.  The figure paused upon the stairs, then retreated back the way she had come, speaking to someone else.

The battered figure was now a lumpy shadow in the scant lighting provided by the nearby corridors, upstairs and the eerie lighting in the park blocks outside.  Carefully hurrying around the body and the blood, Evan felt an uneven step he later realized was due to stepping upon a stray tooth.

Running to go to the common room, Evan stopped before the door and saw George in the hallway leading to the left.  He was sitting partway down the hall and leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.  The same exit Evan had used when he ventured outside.  George still looked rather shaken and breathed heavily, the thick stench of blood and vomit within the lobby had not reached here yet.

Inside the glass doorway to the common room, the black girl who was out there just moments before saw Evan and began to approach to let him inside.  She had been speaking to a couple others, Erin and Jorge, probably about what she had just seen.  With his initial shock faded, Evan now recalled her name was Chloe.  She along with the others she was speaking to she had helped with the building census.

Evan called to George as he waited for the door.  "Hey, George.  Are you going to be okay?"

George nodded his head as if he were uncertain and spoke without opening his eyes.  "I watched a video like that once.  Someone got their head cut right off.  Shit, that was much worse."

"Well, try not to think about it.  I've got this."  Evan entered the common room with a nod to the girl that let him inside and ran to the nearest table.

Hastily removing the tablecloth, he ignored the voices of the few people in the room speaking to each other and the low sound of the television still playing the news broadcast at the far end of the large room.

Although Evan was too busy to count how many people were here, he recognized Leon's voice from close by as he was about to rush off with the bundled, thick fabric.  "Need any help?"

"That would be good."  Evan sighed.  "But aren't you afraid?"

"If you're sure it's really dead, then I don't see the harm."  Leon spoke plainly, his slightly older age showing in his gruff voice.  He scratched idly at his bald head.  "Besides, I've probably seen worse before.  I was a combat medic."

Evan paused a moment, skeptical, but glad for the assistance.  Together, they returned to the lobby and the two of them set to work doing what they could to cover and remove the remains, then clean up what was possible.

Uncomfortable Conclusion

The unsettling question, the one with bigger implications than all others Lucas had thought to consider so far, had few possible answers.  But before such answers would be entirely appropriate to consider, establishing the details of a basic timeline mattered.  With rising trepidation as each new tidbit gathered seemed to support the uncomfortable notion, Lucas could feel each sensible alternative becoming less and less likely.

Careful study of multiple news sources verified what had up until now only been an unexamined and implicit assumption.  As far as Lucas could verify, the absolutely earliest report of what the media dubbed infected was in San Francisco, California at 4:54 PM local time the previous day.  According to the local media, a zombie attack in Portland was first reported at 4:57 PM.

Within a short window of time of only a few minutes, a total of twenty four places in eight different countries had isolated reports of the characteristic spreading attacks which were undoubtedly confirmed.  While not every initial account had been in only big population centers, twenty one were in large cities where there were lots of potential eyewitnesses to see the first attacks by the infected.  The final early sighting was- according to the reporting- within a small town in northern Montana.

While attacks in those first places continued to spread out and the infected swarms grew over the next several hours within many of those initial places, in others they were completely beaten back and quickly eliminated as individuals fought against the attacks.  Many terrified people hid indoors, which kept the number of new infected to a minimum.  Those early attempts to flee or fight had mixed success, but reports indicated that bravado often added to the tides of undead.  There was no obvious pattern to who survived the ongoing regional outbreaks, but the initial panic had clearly led to confusion which did not help matters.

But beside the ongoing initial confrontation, the major characteristic of later verified cases came from smaller towns, within rural areas and suburban neightborhoods.  Not everywhere in the world, but in more places than where those first attacks had been reported, new confirmations trickled in.  Some small communities had mysteriously been cut off from outside communication and when someone checked up on the area, they were discovered to be plagued with the diseased.  As if the whole town had been caught unprepared for what was being actively reported on in the media and displayed all over the Internet.  Perhaps their calls for help were unnoticed in the panic.

Many more places were completely untouched by the zombies than seemed to have them, but those attempting to flee blighted zones for a safe area unintentionally brought the spreading disease with them.  Some traffic jams were credited to car crashes caused by attacks from infected passengers riding in cars.  Lucas curiously noticed that Portland was supposedly cut off due to a couple such wreckages.  Perhaps that was what made the coming military response delayed until tomorrow.

In either case, it did not look like it was a good idea to flee.  Given what he had read, it made sense for the CDC and the government to ask everyone to stay inside for now.

And finally, there was another wave of new reports, coming from only a few places so far and only beginning a few hours or so ago.  A few places were starting to report infected moving in huge swarms.  These weren't from the already known ongoing outbreaks, but totally new and uncomfirmed sources.  Supposedly, one zombie had caused a large outbreak somewhere that had simply not been reported until the mob had reached that size.  There were only a few of those.  That implied that in some areas of the world, the phenomenon had been overlooked for some time before it was noticed.

Lucas gathered these notes as he had made them on his computer.  It was not a trivial task to accomplish this, although several other people had done similar things.  Since there was a great deal of misinformation caused by understandable terror, it also wasn't likely he had a complete record.  But Lucas had enough for his own purposes.

Given the basic timeline Lucas now had, whatever caused these zombies, there was reason to think it had begun in individual, isolated pockets.  Then as attacks spread the infection from person to person and the hordes of undead grew, it began to be reported in more places because some zombies had been initially overlooked.  Otherwise, the appearance was sudden.  With nothing like it known prior.

That only led to two possible conclusions Lucas could envision and both made his skin crawl.  Something had created those initial zombies at a precise moment in time.  That meant this was potentially deliberately caused by something intelligent.  Or it had to be something natural that was so vast, so far beyond the scale of an ordinary person, as to be indistinguishable from a planned planetary event.

And so far, this appeared to be far too random and chaotic to indicate there was any kind of planning involved.

Shock

A rich, iron smell wafted heavily through the chamber after the final wet crack brought the fight to a close.  The battered corpse lay motionless upon the ground, its skull cracked open with its contents oozing; arms laying spread forwards as its final grasping attempts were ended with violent finality.  A growing but small puddle of dark, cold blood spread upon the hard linoleum floor.  The mass of brain matter had been splattered upon the floor around the broken skull in a disgusting faded pink heap.  Fragments of bone and teeth had been scattered over the floor, and with it, small dark stains.

Evan felt a woozy sensation in the pit of his stomach as he forced his attention away from the carnage.  Still frozen beside the front door, George cringed, his head turned towards the glass, producing a retching sound, then vomiting onto the red streaks leading away from the entrance.  Evan swallowed back an acidic taste, trying not to follow suit.  It was the most horrible thing he had ever seen; he hadn't even imagined he could see something that would have this kind of effect on him.

Standing before his slain target, Simon breathed heavily as the effort of the confrontation had obviously taken longer than he had expected.  The large man casually tossed the bloodied length of pipe into the back left corner of the room only a few feet away.  It landed with a resounding metallic clatter and rolled around on the floor.  Simon looked rattled by what he had done; a few spatters of dark blood were sprinkled on his heavy blue sweater and pants.  He repeated his earlier statement as he returned his attention to Evan.  "That is how you handle them.  Do you get it now?"

Evan did not reply.  He tried not to look at the result of the violence, yet he couldn't close his eyes without seeing it again.

Simon looked down at his handiwork and took a step back to lean against the nearby wall, still breathing heavily.  After a few seconds frozen in place, Simon wiped his hands off on his sweater.  There was the heavy, rapid sound of running footfalls and shouting as people elsewhere in the building reacted to the commotion now that it was done.

Standing along the right edge of the lobby, Evan could hear someone approaching from the nearby hallway leading to the common room.  They were speaking, but in the shock of the moment, Evan did not recognize the words.  George was still retching, leaning against the glass doorway and turned away from the scene.

From where Evan stood, he could see a small cluster of nervous people he didn't recognize peering at him from the stairs.  Luckily for them, Simon and the slain zombie were close to the back left corner of the lobby and the stairs began at the back right corner.  The angle they had occluded their view of the situation.  Evan regained his senses enough to wave them away before they came down and spoke few words indicating that they wouldn't want to see what had happened.  From the way they looked at him before retreating, they must have believed him.

Evan turned his head slightly, not sure when it had happened, but noticed an athletic black girl had emerged from the passage leading to the common room.  She had short hair are wore dark blue clothing.  A look of shocked horror was upon her face for a moment before she turned back down the entryway and disappeared.  Across the lobby another person was peeking out of a doorway down the far hall and reacted to the situation by ducking back inside.  He was also lucky enough not to be in a position to see what was left.

Despite the heavy scent a constant reminder with each breath, Evan managed to beat back his own disgust and regain his senses.  Every witness had been rattled and George had finally emptied his stomach.  A newer acidic scent mingled in the air as George moved along the edge of the wall, unwilling to look at the remains.

"Hey.  Both of you."  Simon spoke after the brief respite to catch his breath.  He looked between Evan and George as he spoke.  "Do you get it now?  Look at me!"

George shook his head, not looking at the larger man as he moved along the wall.  "I- I feel faint."  He dropped the keys to the front door as if to prove the point.

Simon spoke again, terse and confrontational.  "Well, George if you want to survive you're going to have to toughen up or you will die.  Do you want to die?"

"Leave him alone."  Evan exhaled slowly to settle his stomach.  "You didn't have to do that.  The military is coming tomorrow.  They would have killed it, and you know it."

"Wrong!"  Simon shook his head.  "The only thing I know for certain is that when you can take out a threat, you do it immediately.  You don't wait, you don't give it a chance to become a bigger problem."

"It was outside."  Evan stated.  "You didn't need to bring it in here to do that."

"Like you care, asshole.  The only reason this happened in the first place is because you didn't kill it outside when you had the chance."  Simon retorted with an angry scowl.  "I only finished what you were too much of a coward to do."

Evan had nothing else to say, but at least Simon wasn't picking on George anymore.  With the opportunity presented by the distraction, George had retreated into the hallway nearby and away from the lobby.

After a brief period of silence Simon announced he needed to clean himself off and change his clothing.  He retrieved the keys to the front doors and went upstairs with a final glare at Evan, leaving the gruesome mess behind.

Distractions

Online gaming just didn't have its usual relaxing appeal today, in fact it was only making Lucas feel more anxious.  Whether it was mostly due to the distraction provided by over excited people within the game world or the recent call Lucas had recieved, he did not know.  There was just nothing much he could do to enjoy himself and felt restless with how other people were behaving in the game.  On top of that, every few minutes there was another unwelcome intrusion or minor reminder of the outside world.  Uncomfortable thoughts kept inexorably returning to the otherworldly phenomenon taking place right outside the front door and within the world at large.

By the time the second can of soda was empty, Lucas drew himself away from the computer and got up to pace about his room with a mild agitation.  There was more than enough light to see.  The single overhead bulb for the room cast shadows radially outwards from the center of the room.  A colorful glow came from the idling game set on the computer screen.  With no light coming in from the nearby window, this was the typical level of lighting Lucas had grown accustomed to during many late nights of study or gaming.

While the black windows were sealed with only the tiniest of drafts felt around the edges, Lucas could already tell it was going to be a fairly cold night.  He normally didn't grow cold very easily, but noticing that it was cooling down he licked his sticky fingers clean again and wiped them off on his pants.  Moving to the nearby closet to retrieve a hoodie he kept within, Lucas slipped it on.  Pacing around the room while listening to the music from the computer, he slowly grew aware of a mix of shouting and other noise coming from somewhere in the building.

Beyond hearing the cacophony while checking to ensure the deadbolt to his room was slid shut, Lucas made no effort to investigate.  Whatever was happening, it was none of his concern.  Whatever argument had broken out among the residents of the dormitory was their business.  However, it did serve to make his mind up for the time being.  If people were going to be shouting like that in the building- combined with the general unhelpful nature of the online community right now- there was little chance that Lucas would find much to enjoy in this activity tonight.

He was almost finished with his bag of chips anyway.  Giving goodbyes to a few people still online, he logged out.  There were some single player games available, but with the frequent interruptions the mood for gaming had been undermined and had long since passed.  There were too many annoying little details about the situation that made no sense and many people he talked to had a lot of the same questions he did.

Every question had to have an answer.  But despite all reason, all sense, there were far too many things about the zombies which defied any sort of sensible explanation.  How their muscles could function without blood.  The way they identified their targets inerrantly at a distance and did not attack each other.  And how they converted their victims so rapidly, far faster than Lucas thought a disease could operate.

Despite all those confounding mysteries having occurred to Lucas, someone had asked him a disturbing question that he hadn't considered before.  A question which, moreso than all the others he had speculated over so far, unsettled his nerves to a much greater degree.

Why did the zombies suddenly appear in so many different places all over the planet nearly simultaneously?

Hands On Solution

"Wait, what are you do-"  Evan began to advance to prevent the door from being unlocked but he had responded too late to stop Simon.  The latch keeping the doors shut slid open with a click and Simon took a step back from the glass doorway.  "No!  Keep the doors locked!"

The beaten zombie wailed as the sick scent of its blood and the chill air seeped through an open crack in the doorway.  Uneven on its footing and with the sudden shift in its handhold, there was still time to prevent it from coming inside.  Evan rushed forwards, intending to hold the door closed before the zombie regained its unstable footing and opened the door completely to come inside.

"Stay back, dumbass!"  Simon shouted at Evan and aggressively swung the length of pipe at him to prevent him from approaching the front doors.  "I'm fixing your idiot mistake."  Without turning to look, Simon tossed the door keys towards where George was frozen in the hallway.  "You, lock the doors again once it comes inside."

George had been staring at the proceedings with wide eyes, his shock mingled with nervous fear.  He fumbled the keys and nervously knelt to pick them up, keeping his eyes on the front door as he did so.

With a moment for the zombie in the grey suit to regain its footing, the front door was swung wider, a blast of chill air blowing through the lobby and the thing in the grey suit emitting a loud and long groan.  Without a weapon to use, Evan quickly moved to the back of the chamber.  There was no point engaging the zombie directly when Simon was also threatening him with a pipe.  It rapidly lurched into the building as Simon lured it away from the front doorway.

"Come closer, you bastard."  Simon whispered as he readied the heavy length of pipe in a heavy, two handed grip.  The large man quickly retreated as the zombie rapidly advanced towards him with it uneven gait.  Each foot forward tracked old blood into the lobby of the building.  With a heavy swing, Simon hit the zombie in its side, unbalancing it, but not quite knocking it over.  Simon moved into the center of the lobby as it tried to grab for him, while preparing himself for another swing.

This time Evan watched as the swing hit higher up, knocking the smaller figure to the hard linoleum surface of the front lobby.  The zombie immediately began to push itself up again, but Simon stepped forwards and swung again, bringing the far end of the pipe heavily against its skull with a loud crack.

"Watch how I do it, asshole."  Simon called out as he looked up to meet Evan's eyes.  "This is how you handle these things!"  The zombie tried grabbing at Simon's leg in a sudden diving lunge, but Simon hopped back just in time and brought the pipe down again upon its skull.  The strike landed heavily, battering the jawbone against the ground with a wet crack and splitting open the flesh over its left eye with a deep cut.

George carefully ran past them for the door and held it closed, fiddling with the locking mechanism in a haste to get out of there as soon as it was done.  Evan stared as Simon began to slam the pipe again and again upon the undead ghoul's skull.  Repeatedly slamming the pipe down, the sound of the violence grew more intense as swing after swing produced increasingly sick cracks and wet rending as flesh tore.

Strike after strike continued producing heavy cracks, each blow coming as the zombie shifted its legs and lifted its head, still edging closer towards its attacker despite its head being consistently struck each time.  Thick blood oozed from tears in the flesh as heavy snaps echoed through the air.  Hammering against the ground again, blood and bone fragments spattered against the ground, the wail of the zombie continuing as teeth ripped from its jaw skidded across the floor.

The zombie's skull still stubbornly resisted each blow as Simon brought the pipe down again and again, taking a step backwards or to the side as it still attempted to reach him despite the battering it took.  Dead blood began to splatter from the force of each new impact, a tiny droplet as cold as ice landing on Evan's hand.  He wiped it off quickly onto a piece of paper pinned to a corkboard hung on the wall.

Still, Simon hammered into it with all his strength, pausing only when the thing tried lunging for his ankle or was crawling a bit too close.  When there was a pause as Simon stepped away, it attempted to stand.  Depite the heavy injuries to its head, it still moved as if its broken jaw and face were not an issue.  It still pushed itself to its feet in an attempt to rise up.  Each time, Simon used all his strength to brutally knock it to the floor before it could fully rise up.

Having finished securing the door, George watched the attack while holding his own steel bar up before him.  Evan had moved to the side as Simon and the zombie had proceeded towards the back of the lobby area, an unsettling, small streak of blood leading from the door to where the two fought now.

Evan stared nervously as Simon's brutal attacks finally began leaving small deformations in the shape of the skull, yet the zombie still moved.  Evan moved towards George, as Simon and the zombie were now near the back corner.  Despite the efforts of his attacks and the earlier injuries it had acquired, the zombie was still advancing, forcing Simon to pull back or circle around and keep his wits about him so he would not be cornered.  Perhaps noticing the deformation in the skull and sensing looming success, Simon yelled as he delivered another hard blow and another.

Wincing with a final blow, the head finally caved in, splattering gore within the nearest few feet and leaving a big mess of it on the floor at Simon's feet.  Simon hit it in the skull a couple more times to be sure, fully splitting the plates of the skull apart into a gory mess.  The lower part of Simon's legs were splattered in dark splotches and Simon looked up to meet Evan's eyes.  "That is how you handle them.  You have to be willing to go all the way."

Message From Home

Despite his best efforts to relax, Lucas still felt a little unsettled by the earlier confrontation with Simon.  Online gaming was usually a nice distraction when he felt anxious, but too much of the public chatter he was now seeing was mentioning the strange events taking place in the outside world.  Some people were still playing as normal, but far too many people seemed to be distracted by the zombies to just play the game.  It made the normally vibrant world feel hollow.

It didn't help things either that every few minutes someone he knew online would send him messages asking him what things were like where he was.  Being drawn into those conversations was a little uncomfortable as he reluctantly admitted he had seen one of the zombies but it was safely kept outside.  He was coaxed into telling a couple of curious people about his observations of function without blood.  And did think to mention that they sometimes seemed quiet.  Other than that, Lucas didn't really have much to say.

Despite wishing he could just play the game without the distractions, Lucas had soon eaten half the bag of chips and finished off the can of soda.  Licking the sticky cheese powder from his fingers to get another can, he started to get up when his cell phone rang.

Drying off his hands hastily on a napkin, Lucas picked up the phone and quickly checked the ID to see it was from his parents.  "Hello?"

"Lucas!"  Came the voice of his mother.  "You didn't go outside did you?"

"No.  I'm still in my dorm with everyone else."  Lucas said, mildly annoyed.  He wasn't an idiot.

"Good!  Stay indoors until someone comes to get you.  The army says they're going to be in downtown Portland by tomorrow morning."

"Yes, I saw the news."  Lucas got up and retrieved another can of soda before returning to his computer desk.

"They don't want anybody running around outside where it's not safe, so don't go anywhere either.  Just stay inside so when they come by, they can rescue you."

"Yes, they're saying that on the news too.  Besides, there's a lot of other people with me.  It doesn't make much sense to go off alone by myself."

"Your father, sister and I are being taken somewhere safer.  So we won't be able to talk for a while."  Lucas could make out some noise on the other end of the line that he couldn't quite place.

That was the first bit of surprising news Lucas had heard.  His family lived dozens of miles away, in Hillsboro.  It took about an hour of travel to get from here to there by the train line that ran through Portland.  "What?  But you're nowhere near where the zombies are, are you?"

"Not yet, but they said some of the infected are running out in all different directions.  They don't want anybody too close to Portland until this is all over.  And they won't let anyone go down there to get you out either."

"Oh."  Lucas wondered at that for a moment.  He had thought it was strange that the military was going so slow.  But now it made sense.  They wanted to make sure nothing slipped outside of the main infected zone.  So that meant clearing out who they could as they traveled closer to the impacted area.  "I guess that makes sense, now that I think of it."

There was a brief commotion through the phone line for a moment.  "We have to leave now, Lucas.  We all love you Lucas, stay safe.  We'll call your cell phone when we can."

"Love you too mom."  Lucas said just before the line cut out.  Waiting there for a few seconds, he realized that his mother's voice had been wavering a little as she spoke to him.

Replacing his cell phone on the desktop next to the keyboard, Lucas opened the next can of soda and returned to his game.

Executive Decision

With the remnants of evening twilight departed, the building hallway took on an eerie quality.  A sputtering light in the hallway produced a soft buzz.  Although there were a few muffled voices audible within the hall, it felt abnormally quiet for what he felt should be the normal level of noise inside the building.  The faint, chill breeze that occasionally trickled through the air didn't help either.

Evan quickly proceeded through the hall to approach the nearby stairs, making his way to the staircase leading to the front lobby and walking down the steps in a rapid pace.  Circling the drafty well with his hand loosely gliding along the rail, Evan heard a couple of distinct voices speaking quietly to one another in the lobby below.  Oddly, there was no sound indicating the zombie was still outside.

Moving halfway down the stairs, Evan paused, listening to the conversation below.  George and Simon were speaking to one another in what sounded like an argument.  He could see their large and skinny shadows within the hallway between the lobby and the common room.  Suddenly realizing he hadn't heard the zombie's persistent moans, Evan paused a moment to crouch upon the steps and looked through the large glass front for the building's main opening,

There was a low wail just as Evan saw the figure outside lit by reflected light from the chamber below.  Its eyes were latched onto his and it pushed its arms at the broad glass doors in a futile attempt to enter.  Dark stains colored the bottom of his suit, shoes and the ground beneath them.  Simon growled from the nearby hallway.  "I said get the-"  After a couple steps to the edge of the lobby, Simon halted as he recognized Evan and scowled.  "What the hell do you want?"

"I'm looking for Leon."  Evan stood up and took a couple steps down the stairs.  "Is he in the common room right now?"

George glanced down the hallway and replied hesitantly after a couple seconds as Simon just glared silently in reply.  "I think so.  Why?  Is that guy doing okay?"

"He's fine, he's just resting right now.  I wanted to ask Leon a couple of questions."  Evan came to the last step and approached the hallway.

Simon stood in the center of the entry to the hall, staring down Evan and blocking his way.  "You didn't kill the zombie."  He spoke neutrally as he held the length of pipe he had kept with him in one hand.  The sleeves on his thick wool sweater had been pushed up to expose his forearms.

"I made sure it won't be able to attack anyone."  Evan replied calmly.  He took a deep breath of air, tension in his muscles.  He was ready for an attack if it came.  The zombie rattled the door faintly as they stood within its sight.

"That wasn't the deal.  You were supposed to kill it."  Simon declared.  "Go now and finish the job."

George spoke with obvious discomfort.  "It can barely move anymore, Simon I-"

"Shut up!"  Simon tersely spoke without taking his gaze from Evan.  Evan could tell that Simon was holding the length of pipe with him very tensely as he tried to stare him down.  "Don't be a coward, go outside and finish what you started.  Bash its head in until it stops moving or the deal is off."

"I agreed to take care of the problem and I did.  I injured it so that it can't run after anyone."  Evan took a deep breath and shuddered as he thought about how casually Simon demanded something so horrific of him.  He doubted anyone else in the building would be able to confront Simon's bullheaded authority if they needed to.  Considering how he had been acting, Evan thought it would be unlikely that Simon would let him back inside if he went outside again.  "If you want it dead so badly, you do it."

"It's making noise you idiot."  Simon stepped forwards aggressively with the length of pipe in his hands.  "It needs to be killed before it attracts any more of them!"

Evan stepped back, ready to dodge a swing of the blunt implement and strike in return.  Simon unexpectedly turned away and moved towards the front of the room.  Confused for a moment at the sudden change, Evan didn't quite move into the hallway yet, watching for the purpose of the aggressive movement.

Simon took out the key to the front door from his belt, making his intentions to unlock the front door clear.

Relaxation

Lucas rushed up the stairs until he was safely out of Simon's sight and the speaking taking place below was now barely audible.  Keeping his attention on the stairs to determine if he was being followed, Lucas leaned against the cold cement wall and took a moment to relax.  After a few seconds passed with no approaching footfalls, he allowed himself to settle down.

The second floor hallway was empty and the sounds of a few muffled conversations besides Simon's increasingly distant, harsh voice were present.  One sounded as if it was coming from further upstairs.  Another pair of voices echoed down the hallway from what was probably an open doorway.  Lucas set down his bag and replaced the clipboard and pencil he had hurriedly carried with him.

Breathing in slow and steady, Lucas suddenly realized he was hungry and had been so for a while.  With the excitement of all that had been happening, he hadn't eaten since he woke up.  Thinking back on what food he had in his room, Lucas figured for now he had plenty of food for now.  He'd be fine for the day or so they would be here until help arrived to take them to safety.

Standing up, Lucas proceeded down the hall to the room.  With the voices in the building growing more distant, he felt better now.  The hallway, so familiar but eerily silent was a bit calming.  Up here, even the wails of the zombie outside were difficult to distinguish from the other voices present.  Arriving at his door, Lucas unlocked it, slipped inside and locked it behind him.

Lucas breathed deep and thought about what had just happened in the front lobby.  Simon's declaration was stupid and unfair.  There was obviously no danger to what he had suggested they attempt.  But maybe someone else had already tried to draw their attention with the sound they made.  It's possible he wouldn't have to do an experiment after all to be certain, but Simon's overreaction was still stupid.

Still, he hadn't read anything about that theory yet on the Internet.  Despite all the attention drawn to the zombies, it had only been about a day since they had first been noticed.  And it wasn't as if they were everywhere.  More places didn't have any of them than had them, it seemed.  So it was probably likely nobody had yet gotten the chance to run such an experiment.

Still, it was probably not going to be an issue for that long.  After all, they would all  be rescued tomorrow, so on reflection it was probably pretty unlikely they would have to use that information themselves.

Idly glancing over what food he had in his room, Lucas decided he didn't want to go into the common area with other people to cook anything in the small kitchen.  That left him with either cold chili in a bowl he couldn't wash out, or a bag of chips.  He opted for the bag and retrieved one of the sodas from his case.

While eating, Lucas decided to load up a game instead of doing more research.  It wasn't likely that there was much new to read in the few minutes he had been downstairs anyway.  He needed something to do to take his mind off of things for a while.

Something More

The rough, grey concrete walls in the hallway were lit fairly evenly by the flourescent lighting overhead.  Plastered upon the nearby tan colored doors were various colorful printouts.  Somewhere within the corridor one tube giving light was producing a faint buzzing.  Evan thought he could even see a slight wavering in the level of light in that direction.  Voices from elsewhere echoed faintly with the slight breeze persisting in the building.

Esteban stood with Casilda to the right, a couple apartments down.  They were speaking quietly.  Not far behind them, the window was a gaping black void, the underside of a few slender tree branches just visible because of the automatic lights in the park blocks below.  Beside them was one of the stairways that led to the ground floor, the edges lined with a thin barrier railing.

"Are they going to be okay?"  Esteban asked, looking down the hallway as Evan approached.

"I think they'll be okay for a little while at least."  Evan lifted the key for the restraints in his hand.  "I thought it best for now that one of us out here keep this.  As a safety precaution."

"Seems reasonable."  Esteban frowned, concern on his face as he mulled over the thought.

"I told them that if Rob needs to have the restraints removed for any reason, they should come out and someone will be out here to help them."

"So one of us is going to need to stay out here at all times?"  Casilda asked, her face still a little flush from her earlier embarassment.  She averted her eyes from any direct contant with Evan's.  "All night?"

"Maybe we can ask some of the others to do this too."  Esteban ventured.  "So we don't have to do this by ourselves."

"I hope we can."  Evan said, thinking that Lucas at the very least would be willing to help.  "We're only going to need to worry about this until help arrives, though.  Tomorrow morning, according to the news.  But Rob might not make it that long."

Somewhere downstairs there was some excited chatter, diverting the group's attention to the stairwell.  The commotion quickly diminished, indicating that whatever had led to the noise, it was likely just a temporary flareup.  Esteban finally turned back to Evan.  "So what do we do now?  Get some people to wait out here all night?  Take turns?"

Looking out the window briefly before replying, Evan spoke tentatively.  "Well, one of us is going to need to stay here for now.  But one of us will need to get some more volunteers to stay out here until morning.  We should also see if there's anything else we can do to make sure that Rob makes it that long."

"He'll definitely have my prayers at the very least, but is there anything more we can do?"  Esteban replied.  "I can't think of anything."

"Leon probably did all he could, but if there's anything more that could be done, he might know."  Evan replied, thinking about how sudden the news of the outbreak came, and the likelihood that people would be adequately prepared in the first place.  Compared to the residents of the Mansfield building, the people in Blackwood dorm were significantly less organized.  They were just now getting a late start on all the things Evan's dorm handled as soon as this began.

"If he could do something more, wouldn't he have already done it?"  Casilda spoke as if she didn't really want to draw attention to herself, still peering down the stair well.  Evan had the impression she was doing it so that she didn't have to look directly at him.

"If he didn't have the right supplies, maybe there's something he couldn't do."  Evan replied.  "If he had something more, maybe he could.  We won't know about that for sure until we ask."