As Evan approached the glass doorway to the common room, the bald black man who had tended to Robert's injury noticed him and let him into the room. "Thanks, Leon." Evan glanced around, noticing immediately that fewer people were around than before Victor had left with his group. "Where did everyone go?"
"Back to their rooms." Leon shrugged. "I don't think everyone is okay knowing that there might be an infected in the building."
"Ah, I see." Evan couldn't really blame them, but that probably meant he would have fewer people available to search through the building. Still, it helped things if everyone was staying in one place. Curiously looking around the room, he performed a quick count of the people still here.
The television was still on the news with the volume at a respectable level to not drown out conversation elsewhere in the room. Only a couple guys were still watching the broadcast from the nearby couches. A slender black girl was in the far corner typing on a laptop. She had glanced up for just a moment when Evan had first returned to the room. Within the kitchen space near the entryway, three people were using the area to either prepare food or boil water. One of the three was perusing the contents of the refrigerator.
At a table near the door, three more people were speaking hypothetically about what would happen when the military arrived. Leon returned to them, contributed something Evan didn't hear, then added. "That's what we would have done."
While Evan counted, the curly haired blond girl entered the room from the hallway and walked over to join Leon's group. Including her, there were eleven people present, all of them unfamiliar. He only knew Leon's name because of the assistance he had generously offered to Robert not that long ago. It was unfortunate, but until this was over, he would have to accept being a stranger to most of the people in the building.
Walking to the center of the room, Evan spoke out loudly enough to be heard. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but I please need your attention for a little while. My name is Evan and we need to go through every room in the building and count how many people are here with us. I need some volunteers willing to help me do that. And we should have someone who can get the keys to each room."
"Sounds like a good idea." Leon got up from table he had just rejoined. "I can get us the keys if we go to the office. It's near the front lobby."
The blond girl who had just arrived came over as well, but the majority of people around were quietly neglecting to volunteer. She didn't say anything, but she did smile and nod.
"We should try to have at least one person per floor." Evan cajoled the passive crowd.
While waiting for a few more seconds, the girl using the laptop in the back corner apparently finished whatever she was doing, closed it and approached. "Well, let's get this over with." She proceeded past him and into the hall. The others following soon after.
"Nobody else?" Glancing around at the three who had volunteered, Evan caught up with and joined the others in the hallway. If Jorge and Lucas were still in the front lobby, maybe he could get their help as well. They were heading in that direction anyway.
"Okay, so are we going to get peoples' names and write them down?" The black girl suggested.
"That's a good idea." Evan affirmed.
"Does Simon know we're doing this?" Leon asked as they proceeded down the hallway.
"Doing what?" Simon appeared at the end of the hallway as they approached. He crossed his arms over his chest. Jorge was standing nearby somewhere behind him.
Evan weaved to the front of the small group to respond. "We're going to go to every room. See how many people are in here with us."
"Go ahead if you like, but you're not getting the keys to the rooms." Simon shook his head as he stepped to one side.
"We need to check every room. Even the ones that we don't get an answer from." Evan replied. "Someone might not hear us knocking or be scared and not answer."
"Only the RAs are trusted with access to the rooms." Simon shook his head indignantly. "You're not even a resident of the building. You aren't getting any room keys."
"It should be fine." Leon ventured. "I think we can trust him and Erin."
"And if one of them steals something from a room, are you going to be responsible?" Simon asked in a judgemental tone. There was an uncomfortable silence, barring the noise made by the undead at the door. "If someone needs a key you can come back down and get it then."
"Let's just knock on the doors and ask for names." The black girl said. "Write down each person's name who answers their door, then come back down and compare lists."
Evan sighed. "Fine. But we could still use a couple more people helping us."
Jorge shrugged. "Yeah, I'll help."
Simon, keeping his attention on Evan, shook his head. "I'm watching the door in case of trouble."
Progress at establishing order was a little less smooth in Blackwood than it was in Mansfield, but Evan felt good that they were at least taking steps towards progress. Their method could potentially undercount, but it would at least be better than no number. With the one girl's suggestion of getting names, at least then it would be easy to tell later on whether or not a new person had to be added to the list.
"Okay, first of all, we should get some paper and write down all of our names." Evan began. "Then each of us takes a floor and checks every door. When we finish on our floor, we come back here to check on this floor and meet up with everyone else."
