The Internet was awash with speculative conjecture, and Lucas skimmed over several websites to eagerly learn what he could. Many people proposed wild ideas to explain the epidemic, but none were very believable, from alien invasion to the wrath of petty gods. Not that it was believable in the first place. Doctors were already carefully studying the infected, but they had nothing to say about it so far except what the news had already stated. Only head injuries were effective on the infected.
According to other reports, emergency military action was going to be used to evacuate people in several regions, including the Portland area. There were websites for the emergency crisis, but they generally just contained warnings to stay inside and thoroughly boil water before use.
As he had first come into the room, Lucas searched for his cell phone and ignored the dozens of voice mails he had been left. He called up friends and family to tell them he was okay and wasn't thinking of going outside for a while. As he had talked to them he booted his computer and had begun looking for news.
Now alone, Lucas searched online for any evidence he could for what was happening. Obviously, nobody knew much yet, but there had to be some indication, somewhere. He had been perusing several sites, trying to find something more definite. It apparently wasn't a worldwide epidemic, though the western coast of the US were among the hardest hit. Lucas felt a growing tension as he learned more, but apparently all of his friends and family were okay.
Thinking to the only marginally injured, infected man downstairs trying to open the door, Lucas began
to wonder if these creatures were really something like a zombie, or people who were infected with some form of rabies. He found his answer before long in the form of a cell phone video shot by someone taking refuge in a car. Lucas felt a chill run through his blood as he watched.
In the video, a woman with one arm was pressing against the door of a car. Where the other arm had been, a broad trail of blood ran down her side and a good amount of it smeared the window. The
door handle rattled and shook as the creature labored and tugged in a futile effort to gain entry to
the locked vehicle. Its snarls were muted through the glass as a man
spoke with a heavy texan accent. "As you can see, the arm's off, but she's still moving. She's been doing that for about ten minutes now."
Lucas stared at it until he felt like he was going to throw up. There were several more minutes left of the video, but he couldn't stand the grotesque imagery for any longer. It was one thing to see gore in a movie, but knowing it was real was a whole other experience. It was at once less extreme, while being more visceral.
At one point in his search for information, Lucas came across a website claiming to have a cure for the zombie disease. "Same day delivery!" proclaimed a flashing banner at the top of the screen. Testimonials proclaiming the effectiveness of the cure were plastered all over the page. As Lucas read through the extraordinary claims, he broke up into a fit of hysterical laughter when he chanced upon another banner depicting someone grinning as they pushed a medicine capsule into their mouth. "Tastes great!"
"So you not only get to live, but you get a tasty treat as well!" Lucas laughed again at the ridiculous advertisement. A dead customer couldn't complain about a fraudulent product or a slow delivery. It was really the perfect kind of customer. As if anyone was really dumb enough to believe a deliveryman was going to run around delivering anti-zombification pills.
Lucas got up to pace back and forth a few times, trying to calm himself. When that didn't work, he gazed out of the window of his room. The walkway below was wide like a city street but this area of the university campus was away from the normal roads of Portland. Instead of sidewalks, the edges of the road were lined with grass and bushes and an occasional big tree. The paved area passing between the strips of greenery was for pedestrians, instead of vehicles. The building across from him had several skeletal trees around it, their leaves shed for the winter phase of their life.
Lucas didn't know what that nearby structure was for, but he thought it was an administration office or something like that. There was a sign in front of it pointed towards the park blocks, but he had never bothered to read it. It seemed just like a big, two story, old house with fancy looking windows, steps leading to a front porch and an angled, shingled rooftop. It was painted grey with beige trim and stood out very much compared to the bigger, obvious school buildings on the campus. Since his room was only on the second floor, Lucas couldn't see over the roof of that building.
Nobody was visible outside, not even a zombie, and the day was clear and sunny. To use his computer, Lucas had brushed the papers and the pizza boxes that had been balanced upon his computer onto the floor in a sloppy mess. This was a slow-motion apocalypse, and so far it was far cleaner than his own room. The zombies were fast but everyone he knew was still okay. Phones and electricity were working just fine, but nobody in the dorm evidently had a gun they could kill the zombie outside with. The appearance was suddenly in many places, but it wasn't worldwide. The situation was absurd.
In some places, people might not even know this was happening yet, or not even believe it. If someone was out in the ocean on a cruise they would probably survive for a while. Maybe for some people, today was just another routine day. It's just that the news got really strange. And constant.
A thought suddenly occurred to Lucas that somewhere out there, someone was inevitably complaining that their regular television shows were being pre-empted by more liberal media conspiracy nonsense. That brought him into uproarious laughter again, a fit that lasted for several more minutes before he recovered completely.
