Esteban's quarters were just like any other room in the building. There was enough space for a bed, a desk with a computer upon it and a couple chairs. After the group had entered and the door was locked, Robert and Minoko accepted the offer of a seat on Esteban's pristine bedsheets. Evelyn sniffled occasionally and turned the chair to sit beside them, next to the computer desk, and Casilda sat on the remaining chair, next to the small, tightly sealed window. The room was unusually tidy for a college dorm, decorated with a couple of posters and a simple wooden cross.
Evan remained beside the entrance, letting other people pass him and find a place to sit. Leaning against the wall beside the door, he listened for sounds of approach as Esteban invited the others to make themselves comfortable. "Sorry for the lack of seats." The man said to Evan.
"That's okay. I prefer to stand." Evan replied with a keen ear focused for the sounds of footfalls in the hallway. He didn't expect the group downstairs to wait for long before someone came to see where they had gone. Nor did he expect they would not know where to look. As far as Evan knew, Estaban and Casilda were the only two residents of this particular building in their little group.
"Okay, so what do we do now?" Minoko asked hesitantly.
"Nothing we can do but wait for the government to sort this all out, right?" Esteban looked around at the few people gathered with him, his voice uncertain.
"I meant about the people downstairs." Minoko leaned against Robert as they sat beside one another. "Are they going to let us stay?"
"They should. But first, we wait until they calm down a little." Evan said as he casually leaned against the door. "Like it or not, we're probably going to be stuck with each other for a little while, and that means we're going to have to learn to get along."
"Let's hope the others see it that way." Casilda spoke with a note of skepticism in her voice. Her english was not quite as good as Esteban's, but she was still easy to understand. Her left hand nervously played with her long ponytail, twirling it around along her shoulder.
There was a moment of awkward silence. After several seconds passed, Robert spoke up. "So, are these really zombies? Or is this some kind of rabies?"
"I don't know. The news isn't calling them zombies, but everyone else seems to be." Evan offered with a shrug. He glanced to the desktop computer, then catching Esteban's attention, motioned to it with one hand. "I've been busy since this started, maybe they know more about this virus now."
Taking the cue, Esteban nodded. "Go ahead and turn on the computer." Evelyn reluctantly turned in the chair and tentatively turned the computer on. The desktop device hummed and beeped as it began its booting process. "At least we still have power." Esteban added.
"For now." Robert said sullenly. The color of his skin did look a lot better than their initial meeting, but from the way he looked, Evan could tell his thoughts were lingering upon the bite injury. "But how long do you think it will stay working?"
"Probably as long as there's people to run it." Evan considered another point and shrugged. "It's not like just having those things outside will destroy the electrical wiring. Also, anyone figuring out how to deal with this probably would know keeping the power on is very important. So they would send help there first to make sure it keeps running."
"But if the wires get damaged or something shorts out, there won't be anyone to fix it." Robert sighed, hanging his head down, his voice flat as he touched the bandage on his hand. "Either way, if we lose power, I don't think we're going to be able to get help. I thought we could maybe get out of the city before that big mob headed over this way, but just one of those things came at us and chased us away."
"Maybe." Esteban looked down at the walkway between this building and the university library. Evan couldn't see it, but he knew the streets surrounding the sides of the building weren't so much a street as they were broad sidewalks between the two structures. Across the way, the university library stood, its window blinds drawn tightly shut. One window on the third floor stood open.
"Anyway, we're going to have to figure out the best way to deal with this situation on our own if we can." Evan hated to say it, but it was the responsible thing to do and someone needed to broach the subject. "That means, Robert, if you're starting to feel ill, even just a little, you're going to have to let us know about it."
Robert swallowed, and nodded nervously. He took a slow, steady breath of air. "Okay. What will you do if it..." He trailed off, unable to complete the thought.
"I don't really know how yet, but if you get really sick we'll have to work out a way to tie you down. Keep you restrained, so you won't be able to bite someone else. That way, everyone will be safe until you get better." Evan paused for a second, then added to his thought. "And as far as we know, this thing could just be something that goes away on its own after a day or two."
Robert appeared to not really buy into the idea, but Evan at least felt better having raised the possibility. The truth was, nobody really knew what was going on.
