"What is it?" Came a call from the other side of the door. Unlike a lot of the surrounding dorms, this entryway was unadorned with any sort of name or identifying markings. The plain, grey, concrete walls were scraped smooth, and a piece of old tape had fallen nearby on the floor. Evan almost considered picking it up.
"We're counting how many people are in the building with us." Evan called out so he could be heard. "We're looking for names so we'll know who to say is in here when they start rescuing people tomorrow."
The doorway opened a crack, the face of a slightly pudgy white man appearing in the gap as he peered into the hallway. A moment later he opened the door wider and leaned out to look down the hall. He had brown hair with a sparse, light beard and regarded Evan with a suspicious look before his appearance softened. "Brad."
Lifting the clipboard he had been given, Evan wrote the name under the others he had collected so far. "Thank you. And a last name?"
"Ogle. What's going on?"
"Nothing right now, but we're going to try to organize things a little so we can all know what is going on when something starts to happen. You might want to go to the common room and help out."
"Okay. I'll go down there later." Brad stepped back and closed the door, the lock clicking latched.
The sixth floor survey wasn't difficult for Evan, just time consuming. Waiting at each door for a reply to the knocking took some time, but if about a minute passed without any reply, he would move on. A couple of people seemed to think he knew what was going on and wanted to talk for a few minutes after Evan had explained what he was doing. One girl refused to open the door but provided her name through it.
Everyone Evan talked with at least agreed to give him a name, so writing it down on a sheet of paper he thanked them and moved on. Now and then someone heard talking in the hallway and poked their heads out to see what was going on. Explaining the situation of trying to see how many people were in the building ensured there was no trouble with getting cooperation. Everyone was just understandably a little freaked out at first.
By the time Evan visited every room on his assigned floor, he had a list of eight names. Five girls and three guys. That was a little more than he expected to be present, but it wasn't like the building was anywhere near full. After all, there were twenty eight rooms on this floor. Responses from only seven of the rooms wasn't that bad (one room was a refuge for two people).
Descending the stairs to the bottom floor, Evan rejoined the others in the lobby. Then trying to ignore the zombie, the group compared names to make sure there weren't any duplicates. Evan wasn't the last to finish, but according to Jorge and Erin, they had enough time to go through and get everyone's name from the first floor. It wasn't long to wait before Leon came down the nearby stairs and gave them the numbers for his floor.
By the end of their joint operation, it was starting to get darker outside and it was almost four o'clock. But they had a number which would be useful later on. Forty five. That was a pretty large number of people to keep track of.
Most of the people in Evan's dorm had ignored advice to stay inside and attempted to flee, but that may have had something to do with the fact that his dorm was also a little closer to the roads and parking garages of the city. Blackwood dorm was surrounded by park and university walkways. The prospect of being vulnerable for the few extra blocks to find a car must have deterred a few more people. Or maybe more people here had just realized that fleeing wouldn't make a difference if they didn't know where to run.
Glad that the task was finished, Evan spoke to those who had helped him. "Good work everyone. Now we'll know we're not leaving anyone behind when they come by to rescue people. Let's get these names into one list and keep a copy in the common room. If anyone turns up who's not on it, then we'll add them."
