Just before leaving his room to make observations about the undead outside, Lucas checked one last time for more news. Unfortunately, there was still little publicly available about the unnatural plague. But then, people didn't really need to know much of anything about it other than how to keep safe; there would be a rescue effort the following day. They just had to wait until then and things would return to normal.
Lucas stepped into the empty hallway, his shoes producing echoing footfalls against the hard, cracked tile. Closing the door and locking it before moving on, Lucas could hear faint voices coming from somewhere in the building. A conversation here or there was muffled by the heavy cement of the walls or the sturdy doors. A chill wind could be heard blowing against the outside windows at the end of the hallway as red, evening light filtered in through the window.
Most of the time, such quiet isolation would be something of a relief. But being recently startled, Lucas began to notice just how much noise he was making in each of his normal movements. The eerie feeling of the empty hallway was accented by the faintly buzzing, flourescent lights overhead. Making a conscious effort to silence his movements, Lucas proceeded to the stairway and began to descend. An echoey, muffled conversation was happening somewhere upstairs.
Thinking about noise during his walk, Lucas rationalized it was unlikely the zombies could be a surprise. From what he could tell, they were careless about producing sounds. Despite the uneasy feeling of the eerie silence, he thought they would likely be unable to sneak up on someone aware of the environment around them. That just meant that if everyone was careful and aware of their surroundings, they would probably be okay. There shouldn't be anything to worry about.
While descending the final set of stairs in the front lobby, Lucas noticed the chamber was empty. Stopping halfway down with a clear view of the glass doors, he could see the zombie was no longer lingering there. Although the long shadows cast by the building were growing darker and making it more difficult to see, it had clearly wandered away. Lights from the park blocks illuminated the stain of dried blood on the ground just outside.
Or maybe, he had gotten inside somehow. Lucas couldn't tell from here if the door was still locked, but because of its injuries it would probably be unable to catch him. He continued down the stairs carefully, listening for any indication of the undead nearby. A couple feet from the bottom step, a hallway opened to the right, listening to the sound of muted activity from the common room down that direction.
Carefully proceeding, Lucas watched the door as he reached the bottom of the stairs. The door was still closed firmly, and the pool of blood had dried. From the hallway to the right at the bottom of the steps, he could make out the sound of activity in the common room. He gazed down the hallway at the other side of the lobby, then steeling his nerves, peeked around the corner to find nothing. At the end of the hall, he could see the lights were on in the common room, but nobody was visible from this angle.
Still not quite comfortable, Lucas carefully approached the glass doorway, wanting to ensure it was still locked tight. He took a few steps at a time, wary of his surroundings.
Reaching the glass doors, Lucas gripped one handle and pulled gently, as if worried he would break the locking mechanism. The door gingerly rattled in the frame. Lucas tried the other, relieved that it also refused to budge. Then, pressing himself against the cool glass, he looked around, trying to see where their visitor had gone.
The pool of blood had trickled to the left, down the slight slope alongside the building, but it had dried out a while ago. With the fading light it was a little difficult to tell if there was any indication which direction the blood trailed off towards. The zombie was neither in the distance, or to any side that Lucas could see. It was just gone.
A rustling sound from the the hallway behind Lucas snapped him back to attention and made him twist around. A second later George peered around and looked relieved. "I thought we had another one trying to get into the building." He nervously gripped a long steel bar in both his hands.
"No." Lucas began with a quiet voice. "The zombie left. I guess when it couldn't see anybody down here, he wandered away."
"He didn't wander away." George shrugged as he rested the steel bar against his leg. "He came over to the door I've been watching a little bit ago. Scared the hell out of me when I first saw him over there."
Lucas thought about coming down to find an empty room. Once it could no longer see them, it circled around the building to look for another way inside. Naturally, once it reached the other glass doorway, it saw George and lingered there instead. Lucas sighed, wondering what that could tell him about the zombies. "Well, if it was looking for a way in, I'm glad it didn't find one."
