The zombie in the business suit moaned again, rattling the glass doors as its eyes focused on Lucas. Staring up from his clipboard, Lucas pondered whether the moaning really was why the zombies clustered together. From watching the news and other videos, he knew they exhibited a swarming behavior. Their moaning wails could be the underlying mechanism that could explain how they all seemed to group together. Moving around in random patterns, then moaning and attracting the group once a discovery had been made by a member.
Lucas set the clipboard against his pack and stood tall, turning to look at George. "Hey, we might be able to use that."
Simon emerged the security office he had entered not long before. He jostled with some keys, securely locking the door behind him. George glanced over briefly, then replied with a modest shrug. "Use it for what? We don't want more of them here."
"No, no. To make it go somewhere else. Try recording that sound and playing it on the other side of the building." Lucas speculated, wondering if it would follow its own sounds or only respond to another's. If that was even something they did, which he had no way to be certain about until they tested it. "If it can't see any of us in here, then it should follow the noise."
"The military is coming tomorrow to kill those things." George regarded Lucas with a strange look and sighed. "And it's already barely able to walk. I don't think we're going to need to do that." Simon turned around and replaced the key ring on its belt, clearly listening to the conversation.
"What if there's more of them out there before the military comes? We might have to figure out some way to escape on our own. If we did know how to make a whole ton of them move at the same time, it might matter." Lucas insisted using everything he could think of to justify his desire. Really, he was mostly excited with having stumbled upon something else to do. The concept made so much sense to him he thought it was a pretty sure bet. Still, on the remote chance that they might need to rely on it, things would be best if they knew it would work for sure. "I don't think anyone else has tried this yet. I don't think I read anything about it on the Internet. Not on any of the news sites at least."
"The sound could attract more of them." Simon shook his head, his arms crossed over his broad chest. The long sleeves of his thick wool sweater had bunched up around his elbows. There was a chill breeze in seeping between the frame and door each time a gust blew outside. It brought the iron smell of dried blood with it.
"If there were more of them around here to attract, it already would have happened." Lucas pointed to the thing outside. "It's been making that noise for hours now."
"Listen. If I catch you trying to do anything like that, I'll beat the shit out of you." Simon flatly declared, stomping towards Lucas with an angry stare. Lucas instinctively stepped back, almost tripping over his pack and knocking the clipboard to the ground with a clatter. "There's already one of those god damn things in the building. I'm not going to have any more of those things around here for any reason. Understand?"
Lucas was pressed up against the glass doorway and Simon. Simon was almost a foot taller than him and had around twice his weight. Enough of it was muscle to matter. "Y-Yes. Okay." Lucas whispered, looking away. A wave of relief washed over him once he felt the warmth from the man's body heat diminish. Simon proceeded to stomp away.
"Hey." George's voice sounded a little nervous.
"What?" Simon glared at the skinny black man angrily.
George replied hesitantly. "Uh, Lucas actually said something interesting. He thinks it won't make any noise if it can't see us."
"Well then why the fuck are you even down here at all? Get out of here so it can't see you!"
Still not looking at Simon, Lucas spoke hesitantly. "But we don't know-"
"NOW!" Simon angrily pointed up the stairs.
In a rush to pick up his things, Lucas retreated. Running up the stairs he heard a sharp command for George to stay behind.
