Anxiously resting against the wall beside the doorway, Evan listened to the sound of voices drifting from the lobby. The conversation was just faded enough by distance in order to make it hard to understand. The locked door stood nearby, Evan's angle of view was just enough to survey the walkway between the library and Blackwood dorm, and a section of the park blocks beyond.
Evan glanced back when he heard the calm, quiet sound of a page turning. After Victor and the others had left and the door was locked up once
more, George had slouched against the wall. He was calmly reading his paperback book as if nothing had happened. A length of a steel bar he had as a defensive weapon rested upright against the leg of his jeans and the wall. George didn't even seem to realize that Evan had remained nearby.
If the group outside were to come back, alertness might make a big difference. They should be ready for that, but it had been a while now since the group had departed. Evan began to wonder if it might be a better idea to have some people watch from the rooftop and use a cell phone to call down if they saw something important. Now he sort of wished he had arranged to do that, since he would have been able to see the side of the Sanders building from up there.
"So are you going to let them in if they return?" Evan inquired as he still focused on the view outside.
George looked up, almost with an expression of alarm and spoke hesitantly after a moment. "If it's safe, sure. I don't see why not. But why would they come back?"
"They might if they realize how dangerous it is out there."
"I don't know if they will. If they really wanted to leave, they probably should have left sooner when there wasn't a zombie right outside." George clasped the book closed around a blue marker and folded it under his arm. "It makes no sense to leave only when you know for sure you'd be in danger."
"If you know that, then why did you let them go outside?" Evan frowned. "Or at least try to stop them?"
George scratched at the side of his smoothly shaved chin and shrugged. Just as Evan thought that was going to be the full extent of the reply, he spoke. "I told them it was a bad idea. Besides, if they really wanted to get out of here, it's not like I could really force them to stay."
"Yeah, I guess that's right." Evan sighed, staring out at what he could see of the park blocks. He caught a momentary glimpse of a black bird flying through the air.
There was a brief period of calm stillness in the hall as the faint echoes of conversation took place around the corner and down the hallway. Evan figured he should probably check up on Robert and the others as well before too long. Give them the news that the task was done and Robert would be allowed to stay. Esteban seemed sensible enough that it seemed like his judgement of Robert's health would suffice for now.
Evan realized the most important thing would be to see what he could do to organize everyone a little better. That would be the most useful thing that he could do right now. This place needed some kind of leadership, instead of the haphazard, random stewardship that seemed to be taking place right now. Currently, Simon seemed to be the one most in charge, but he had seemed to do little more than to ensure the doors to the building were securely locked.
There were plenty of other things that still needed to be done. They should check through all
the rooms to figure out their supplies and count how many people were in
the building. Plus it couldn't hurt to have more people watching the doors in groups of two or three. Additionally they ought to exchange numbers and put some people in a watching position on the roof.
Since Blackwood dorm and its occupants were entirely unorganized compared to the one from which Evan left, there was no shortage of things he could do next. But it also made him feel like he was needed here.
"Well, I ought to get going. Keep an eye out for the people who left, okay?" Evan said as he proceeded beyond George.
"I will." George said as he retrieved the book from under his arm.
