Lucas stepped away from the door, thinking about what he actually did know about the gruesome figure active on the other side. The zombie had become infected by something which had seemingly transformed his basic physiology. It was only after several seconds of smelling and breathing the sick, coppery scent of its blood that it dawned on him that might be unsafe. After all, they didn't know if it was only transmitted via bite, or if there were some other infectious vector.
"Everyone should keep away from the door." Lucas announced as he approached Simon and Jorge beside the stairs. "It's possible that whatever is causing this is in the air."
"If it's in the air, then we're really screwed." Simon lamented as Erin and Jorge retreated further upon hearing the voiced warning.
"Maybe so. Maybe not. It could travel all over, or just a couple of feet." Left unvoiced, Lucas thought that if he came down with the beginning stages of the illness, he would at least be able to tell them that the smell of its blood was dangerous. That wasn't something he enjoyed thinking about, but a helpful factoid gained through a grievous error was better than nothing, at least. It would be better if only he was exposed to it, if that turned out to be the case. "But we should definitely be very careful until we know more."
"I don't plan on going out there until they've sorted this thing out." Jorge shook his head and stroked his fingers over his mustache. "And I don't think anyone else is eager to get close to those things."
"I think he's referring to that infected guy. Robert, I think his name was." Simon shook his head, eying the figure at the door, still firmly holding the pipe in his right hand.
"We don't even know for certain that he's infected." Erin reminded them.
"Hey, we all agreed it would be okay if he stays here for now." Jorge added, watching Simon. "The news said it takes a while to come down with the illness anyway. It takes a few hours after showing symptoms. Plenty of warning time for us to do something about it if he is infected."
"I wasn't thinking about that." Lucas said as he paced from side to side beside the bottom of the stairs. "I meant we should be extra careful. It's not behaving like a normal disease so we can't know whether boiling infected water really will make it safe to drink. So we should stockpile as much as we can while we know it's still safe."
There was a momentary period of relative silence before Erin spoke. "We've already been doing that. And besides, I already drank some of the water and I'm okay."
"I did too, this morning." Jorge shook his head. "And I feel fine."
Lucas looked at the two, Jorge standing close to the stairs while Erin still lingered in the hallway. "The water we have right now might not have been infected, so that doesn't prove anything. We won't know if boiling really works to make the water okay until we know we've got bad water in the first place."
"Yeah, so that doesn't help us at all." Simon motioned to the zombie at the doorway with his makeshift weapon. "Unless someone wants to volunteer to put some of that infected blood into their own water, boil it, and drink it." He laughed and added after a brief pause, looking at Lucas. "Nobody? Yeah, I thought so."
"It's still good to know in case someone starts getting sick. If that happens, that will probably be the reason why." Lucas wondered if the building's power would eventually go out. If that happened, he didn't know how they would continue boiling water. "Anyway, we should at least try to figure out how these zombies work."
"They're zombies. Everyone already knows how they work." Simon scoffed. "Don't get bitten and shoot it in the head. That's what the news has been saying too."
"But we might be able to figure out more than that." Lucas stared out at the figure, still at the door, tugging and pushing. The broken bones in its arm and leg did seem to hinder its movement a little, almost as if it instinctively knew to favor the injured limbs. Even with blood, if Lucas had been that active, he would have long tired out by now. "We have to be very careful, though and think about this scientifically."
"You just tried to use science, and it didn't work." Jorge motioned outside with his arm. "He's still there. Still moving around without blood. Even though you said the science says that shouldn't happen."
"That's right." Erin added with her eyes still nervously watching the doorway. "You proved this is supernatural. It can't be explained scientifically."
"Don't be ridiculous. Science isn't about every prediction being right. Sometimes it's about finding out that you're wrong. We just did science by figuring out these things don't need blood in order to survive. It proved that its muscles are working differently than they should be. And that's more than we knew before."
"Well, that sure sounds supernatural to me." Jorge spoke with mild agitation in his voice. "Like you said, they don't need blood."
"Supernatural isn't an explanation!" Lucas protested.
"Well, then what's your explanation, then?" Jorge shook his head in frustration and glanced to Erin.
"I can't explain that guy out there right now, but that's exactly why we need to think about this scientifically!" Lucas raised his voice. "We need to figure out what is going on so we'll know how to deal with it!"
"It could be nanomachines." Simon contributed, then shrugged. "But all that doesn't matter. All we need to do is keep ourselves safe until the army comes by to deal with this tomorrow."
The zombie groaned angrily at the door during the natural end to the argument. The door rattled, and a period of uncomfortable silence lingered for a few seconds. Somewhere down the hallway, the echoes of other voices were faintly audible.
Lucas was still a little annoyed, and considered for a moment between going into the common room to check out the news or return to his room to look up more information. He began to climb the stairs, then turned back to address the few people still tensely watching the glass entryway. "It's not like there's anything better to do while we wait. So we might as well try to do something, at least."
Ascending the stairs to return to his room, Lucas began to wonder what could explain the observed outcome. Of course, he could be wrong about the blood, but at this point, it seemed extremely unlikely.
