Lucas paced back and forth in the lobby mere feet from the glass door, anxiously waiting in silence. Beside him, the door rattled in its frame as he strode back and forth, but he only occasionally looked up to examine the figure challenging the thin, clear barrier. At its feet, a broad puddle of dark, wet blood had spread and its grey slacks were stained black around the lower legs. Its fine black shoes were drenched. The lip of the door frame kept blood from leaking into the building. A faint, coppery scent wafted through the air.
Retrieving the cell phone from his pocket, Lucas glanced at the time, reading 2:03 PM. That meant the ten minute mark had come and gone. And now, they were entering minute twelve. "Huh. It probably should have happened by now." Squatting down, Lucas inspected the ground outside, judging the size of the ochre pool. A roughly oval shape some four feet across and maybe seven wide, it certainly seemed like a lot of blood. Even so, it was still losing more and the thing still twisted its whole body as it strained, pushing and pulling at the door handle as if it wasn't impaired by the loss.
"Of course it didn't happen." Simon stated. "It's a zombie. Everyone knows that only headshots work on a zombie." He raised a couple of fingers from his left hand to his temple to indicate a gunshot. "Plus they've been saying it on the news since this started."
"Zombie or not, it should still need oxygen to move. And it needs blood to carry it around." Lucas thought of the imprecision of his own inadequate knowledge. Estimating how long the muscles could work without blood in the body was at best an educated guess. Although according to the articles he browsed, his estimate seemed- if anything- overly generous. "It's science."
"Well, it looks like your science is wrong." Jorge said.
"It's not wrong. For us at least." Lucas turned away from the door to look at the people still present. Simon and Jorge stood near the stairs on the other side of the lobby while Erin watched nervously from the hallway that led to the common room. Victor and Evan had apparently wandered off somewhere. "But it looks like it's probably wrong for him." Lucas gestured towards the glass door. "That means these zombies are getting energy to move in an entirely different way than we do. They must be."
"So we still don't know anything." Jorge shook his head, his long ponytail swinging against his shoulders as he crossed his arms over his red shirt.
"No, we do know one thing at least." Lucas paused as he considered his previous hypothesis. This meant something very strange was going on. New physical forces, or unusual chemical reactions. He was wary of jumping to wild conclusions, but unless their visitor collapsed very soon from blood loss, it was an inevitable conclusion to reach. "It means these people aren't just sick with some regular disease."
"Sick people don't usually run around biting other people." Simon shook his head. "We knew that before, genius."
"What about rabies?" Erin added. "It could be some type of rabies."
"I meant something more is happening to their bodies to allow them to still move around without oxygen." Lucas turned back to the doorway and skeptically examined the figure again with a frown. The blood still made him a little queasy, but he was also a little excited by the inevitable, almost absurd conclusions. "That's really weird. It doesn't work like a normal disease and it proves that we can't trust what we know about diseases to work for this one."
"Like what?" Jorge asked. There was a period of relative silence as everyone present exchanged glances towards each other. The metallic scent of blood was growing stronger in the air. Still, the zombie outside mashed itself up against the door.
"That's just it." Lucas looked back towards the others. "We don't know what we can trust anymore. We should be careful we don't assume things we have no reason to believe is actually true. Like how do we actually know that boiling water will make it safe?"
