Evan stood several feet away from the table occupied by the three newcomers, watching the doorway to the hall. When they had first entered the room, a bald black man in his thirties rushed to the newcomers and introduced himself as Leon. He quickly ran to the kitchen and retrieved a small medical kit. Since Leon seemed to know what he was doing, Evan let him work without interference. The man had quickly wiped a dab of blood from Robert's hand and sterilized the area before wrapping it in a bandage.
The room was briefly overtaken with agitated chatter as news of the zombie outside spread. One girl announced she would would call the number to report the sighting. Several others cautiously left the room, possibly to look at the thing grasping at the glass door and trying to get inside. A few more were agitated at the presence of the newcomers but kept to their corner of the room, chatting excitedly amongst themselves.
The Hispanic couple from before approached Evan after a momentary concerned look at the overweight, injured newcomer. "Is he going to be okay?" The man spoke with a mild accent. He had a thin, bony face with a smooth, clean shaven jawline. His dark hair was short and he wore a deep blue sweater and jeans. The slender, long haired girl with him watched Leon and Robert, but said nothing as she held his arm. She wore a simple pink dress and had her hair tied back in a ponytail.
"I think so." Evan thought that Rob's hand only had a small cut or scrape on it, but he knew what they were thinking. According to the news, the infection was spread by bites. All things considered though, Rob's face was less red than when he entered and his breathing had evened out since he sat down. At least for now, he seemed to be okay. The two girls with him looked shaken by their experience, but otherwise seemed to be doing fine. "Just give them a few minutes."
"You're not from the building, are you?" The man said. "Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Esteban." He offered his free hand in greeting. "And this is my girlfriend, Casilda." Casilda glanced at Evan when her name was spoken and offered a little smile, but said nothing. "Anyway, I don't think I've seen you around here before."
"Evan. And I'm not. I came here to check on a friend." Evan motioned over towards Lucas over on one of the couches who was still staring intently at the news broadcast. "He wasn't answering his phone, so we thought something might have happened to him. Turns out he was just asleep since right before this all started."
"You came out here just to check on someone?" Esteban shook his head and whistled. "Brave man."
"Not really, I just came over from the Mansfield building." The buildings were only a couple blocks apart. In fact, it probably took Evan less than a minute to run the distance one way. "I didn't see anyone outside at the time, either."
As Leon finished the bandaging and returned the first aid kit to a cabinet in the kitchen, the Asian girl stood up and turned towards Evan, drawing attention to herself. "Evan, was it?" She said, continuing as she noted the confirmation nod. "My name is Minoko. And this is Robert and Evelyn." Evelyn was still sniffing a little as she quietly talked with Robert. "I want to thank you again for your help." Minoko continued.
"It's no problem. What were you doing out there anyway? The news has been telling people to stay inside."
"We didn't see any of them nearby and we thought we could get to Robert's car so we could escape the city. When that zombie tried to bite Evelyn, Robert pulled it off her and we ran."
"Well, I think you shouldn't try that again." Evan noticed there was now very little noise in the room apart from the television broadcast and the small group of people talking around him. Lucas and someone else were still watching the television, but the other eight people still in the room were watching Robert and the others. One guy standing in the kitchen held a baseball bat firmly in both hands and stared at Robert.
There was a growing sense of tension in the room which Evan pretended to ignore. Leon began to return, but noticed everyone watching and diverted his path awkwardly to the table he was sitting at before. A red haired man at the table asked Leon if the injury he looked at was a bite, and Leon said he didn't know. After a moment, he approached them and demanded. "Were one of you bitten? You shouldn't be here with us if you were bitten."
There was a momentary murmur of agreement throughout the room and Robert looked up with alarm. He shook his head. "I'm fine." He breathed in deep between each word, still not quite recovered from his ordeal. "This is just a scrape."
Evan thought Robert's voice sounded unconvincing. Worse still, the people in the room didn't look like they believed him either. Simon entered the room with a couple others who left before and chatter began to pick up again. As the red haired guy retreated to talk with Simon, Evan approached the table and whispered. "I think we need to go somewhere else in the building. Are you well enough to walk, Robert?"
Robert nodded, and rose from his seat at the table. Evan led him, Evelyn and Minoko from the room, back into the hallway. Esteban followed, with Casilda still quietly holding onto his arm.
In the lobby, the chubby zombie still grasped and pushed at the glass door, rattling it inside its frame as it stared blankly. The skinny black guy holding the pipe from before stood nearby, turning to watch as the group entered the lobby and proceeded towards the stairs. Evan stood at the base of the stairs, letting Robert and Evelyn go up first.
Minoko paused for a moment to speak to Evan. "So where are we going?"
"Away from everyone else for a while. They're a little on edge, and we need to give them some time to calm down." Evan waved for Minoko to continue up the stairs with her companions.
Esteban and Casilda approached last and as they ascended the stairs with Evan, Esteban spoke in a whisper to him. "Let's go to 317. I have a few chairs and he can lay down on my bed if he needs to." Evan silently nodded at that and let Esteban take the lead.
The small group proceeded up two flights of stairs. They walked by doors with posters or printouts taped up. Small pictures or drawings, names placed with the things on the doors, all indicating something of the person who resided there. Finally, they came to a stop before Esteban's door, with a small printout of a cross and his name taped up. Beside it there was a poster of a dinosaur.
In the hallway as they waited for the door to be opened, Evan felt uncomfortable as he addressed the group. "By the way, if one of you were bitten instead of just getting a scrape, it is something that we really should know about. It could be very important."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before the door was opened, but in that moment the look of worry among the three told Evan what he wanted to know.
