Hands On Solution

"Wait, what are you do-"  Evan began to advance to prevent the door from being unlocked but he had responded too late to stop Simon.  The latch keeping the doors shut slid open with a click and Simon took a step back from the glass doorway.  "No!  Keep the doors locked!"

The beaten zombie wailed as the sick scent of its blood and the chill air seeped through an open crack in the doorway.  Uneven on its footing and with the sudden shift in its handhold, there was still time to prevent it from coming inside.  Evan rushed forwards, intending to hold the door closed before the zombie regained its unstable footing and opened the door completely to come inside.

"Stay back, dumbass!"  Simon shouted at Evan and aggressively swung the length of pipe at him to prevent him from approaching the front doors.  "I'm fixing your idiot mistake."  Without turning to look, Simon tossed the door keys towards where George was frozen in the hallway.  "You, lock the doors again once it comes inside."

George had been staring at the proceedings with wide eyes, his shock mingled with nervous fear.  He fumbled the keys and nervously knelt to pick them up, keeping his eyes on the front door as he did so.

With a moment for the zombie in the grey suit to regain its footing, the front door was swung wider, a blast of chill air blowing through the lobby and the thing in the grey suit emitting a loud and long groan.  Without a weapon to use, Evan quickly moved to the back of the chamber.  There was no point engaging the zombie directly when Simon was also threatening him with a pipe.  It rapidly lurched into the building as Simon lured it away from the front doorway.

"Come closer, you bastard."  Simon whispered as he readied the heavy length of pipe in a heavy, two handed grip.  The large man quickly retreated as the zombie rapidly advanced towards him with it uneven gait.  Each foot forward tracked old blood into the lobby of the building.  With a heavy swing, Simon hit the zombie in its side, unbalancing it, but not quite knocking it over.  Simon moved into the center of the lobby as it tried to grab for him, while preparing himself for another swing.

This time Evan watched as the swing hit higher up, knocking the smaller figure to the hard linoleum surface of the front lobby.  The zombie immediately began to push itself up again, but Simon stepped forwards and swung again, bringing the far end of the pipe heavily against its skull with a loud crack.

"Watch how I do it, asshole."  Simon called out as he looked up to meet Evan's eyes.  "This is how you handle these things!"  The zombie tried grabbing at Simon's leg in a sudden diving lunge, but Simon hopped back just in time and brought the pipe down again upon its skull.  The strike landed heavily, battering the jawbone against the ground with a wet crack and splitting open the flesh over its left eye with a deep cut.

George carefully ran past them for the door and held it closed, fiddling with the locking mechanism in a haste to get out of there as soon as it was done.  Evan stared as Simon began to slam the pipe again and again upon the undead ghoul's skull.  Repeatedly slamming the pipe down, the sound of the violence grew more intense as swing after swing produced increasingly sick cracks and wet rending as flesh tore.

Strike after strike continued producing heavy cracks, each blow coming as the zombie shifted its legs and lifted its head, still edging closer towards its attacker despite its head being consistently struck each time.  Thick blood oozed from tears in the flesh as heavy snaps echoed through the air.  Hammering against the ground again, blood and bone fragments spattered against the ground, the wail of the zombie continuing as teeth ripped from its jaw skidded across the floor.

The zombie's skull still stubbornly resisted each blow as Simon brought the pipe down again and again, taking a step backwards or to the side as it still attempted to reach him despite the battering it took.  Dead blood began to splatter from the force of each new impact, a tiny droplet as cold as ice landing on Evan's hand.  He wiped it off quickly onto a piece of paper pinned to a corkboard hung on the wall.

Still, Simon hammered into it with all his strength, pausing only when the thing tried lunging for his ankle or was crawling a bit too close.  When there was a pause as Simon stepped away, it attempted to stand.  Depite the heavy injuries to its head, it still moved as if its broken jaw and face were not an issue.  It still pushed itself to its feet in an attempt to rise up.  Each time, Simon used all his strength to brutally knock it to the floor before it could fully rise up.

Having finished securing the door, George watched the attack while holding his own steel bar up before him.  Evan had moved to the side as Simon and the zombie had proceeded towards the back of the lobby area, an unsettling, small streak of blood leading from the door to where the two fought now.

Evan stared nervously as Simon's brutal attacks finally began leaving small deformations in the shape of the skull, yet the zombie still moved.  Evan moved towards George, as Simon and the zombie were now near the back corner.  Despite the efforts of his attacks and the earlier injuries it had acquired, the zombie was still advancing, forcing Simon to pull back or circle around and keep his wits about him so he would not be cornered.  Perhaps noticing the deformation in the skull and sensing looming success, Simon yelled as he delivered another hard blow and another.

Wincing with a final blow, the head finally caved in, splattering gore within the nearest few feet and leaving a big mess of it on the floor at Simon's feet.  Simon hit it in the skull a couple more times to be sure, fully splitting the plates of the skull apart into a gory mess.  The lower part of Simon's legs were splattered in dark splotches and Simon looked up to meet Evan's eyes.  "That is how you handle them.  You have to be willing to go all the way."

Message From Home

Despite his best efforts to relax, Lucas still felt a little unsettled by the earlier confrontation with Simon.  Online gaming was usually a nice distraction when he felt anxious, but too much of the public chatter he was now seeing was mentioning the strange events taking place in the outside world.  Some people were still playing as normal, but far too many people seemed to be distracted by the zombies to just play the game.  It made the normally vibrant world feel hollow.

It didn't help things either that every few minutes someone he knew online would send him messages asking him what things were like where he was.  Being drawn into those conversations was a little uncomfortable as he reluctantly admitted he had seen one of the zombies but it was safely kept outside.  He was coaxed into telling a couple of curious people about his observations of function without blood.  And did think to mention that they sometimes seemed quiet.  Other than that, Lucas didn't really have much to say.

Despite wishing he could just play the game without the distractions, Lucas had soon eaten half the bag of chips and finished off the can of soda.  Licking the sticky cheese powder from his fingers to get another can, he started to get up when his cell phone rang.

Drying off his hands hastily on a napkin, Lucas picked up the phone and quickly checked the ID to see it was from his parents.  "Hello?"

"Lucas!"  Came the voice of his mother.  "You didn't go outside did you?"

"No.  I'm still in my dorm with everyone else."  Lucas said, mildly annoyed.  He wasn't an idiot.

"Good!  Stay indoors until someone comes to get you.  The army says they're going to be in downtown Portland by tomorrow morning."

"Yes, I saw the news."  Lucas got up and retrieved another can of soda before returning to his computer desk.

"They don't want anybody running around outside where it's not safe, so don't go anywhere either.  Just stay inside so when they come by, they can rescue you."

"Yes, they're saying that on the news too.  Besides, there's a lot of other people with me.  It doesn't make much sense to go off alone by myself."

"Your father, sister and I are being taken somewhere safer.  So we won't be able to talk for a while."  Lucas could make out some noise on the other end of the line that he couldn't quite place.

That was the first bit of surprising news Lucas had heard.  His family lived dozens of miles away, in Hillsboro.  It took about an hour of travel to get from here to there by the train line that ran through Portland.  "What?  But you're nowhere near where the zombies are, are you?"

"Not yet, but they said some of the infected are running out in all different directions.  They don't want anybody too close to Portland until this is all over.  And they won't let anyone go down there to get you out either."

"Oh."  Lucas wondered at that for a moment.  He had thought it was strange that the military was going so slow.  But now it made sense.  They wanted to make sure nothing slipped outside of the main infected zone.  So that meant clearing out who they could as they traveled closer to the impacted area.  "I guess that makes sense, now that I think of it."

There was a brief commotion through the phone line for a moment.  "We have to leave now, Lucas.  We all love you Lucas, stay safe.  We'll call your cell phone when we can."

"Love you too mom."  Lucas said just before the line cut out.  Waiting there for a few seconds, he realized that his mother's voice had been wavering a little as she spoke to him.

Replacing his cell phone on the desktop next to the keyboard, Lucas opened the next can of soda and returned to his game.

Executive Decision

With the remnants of evening twilight departed, the building hallway took on an eerie quality.  A sputtering light in the hallway produced a soft buzz.  Although there were a few muffled voices audible within the hall, it felt abnormally quiet for what he felt should be the normal level of noise inside the building.  The faint, chill breeze that occasionally trickled through the air didn't help either.

Evan quickly proceeded through the hall to approach the nearby stairs, making his way to the staircase leading to the front lobby and walking down the steps in a rapid pace.  Circling the drafty well with his hand loosely gliding along the rail, Evan heard a couple of distinct voices speaking quietly to one another in the lobby below.  Oddly, there was no sound indicating the zombie was still outside.

Moving halfway down the stairs, Evan paused, listening to the conversation below.  George and Simon were speaking to one another in what sounded like an argument.  He could see their large and skinny shadows within the hallway between the lobby and the common room.  Suddenly realizing he hadn't heard the zombie's persistent moans, Evan paused a moment to crouch upon the steps and looked through the large glass front for the building's main opening,

There was a low wail just as Evan saw the figure outside lit by reflected light from the chamber below.  Its eyes were latched onto his and it pushed its arms at the broad glass doors in a futile attempt to enter.  Dark stains colored the bottom of his suit, shoes and the ground beneath them.  Simon growled from the nearby hallway.  "I said get the-"  After a couple steps to the edge of the lobby, Simon halted as he recognized Evan and scowled.  "What the hell do you want?"

"I'm looking for Leon."  Evan stood up and took a couple steps down the stairs.  "Is he in the common room right now?"

George glanced down the hallway and replied hesitantly after a couple seconds as Simon just glared silently in reply.  "I think so.  Why?  Is that guy doing okay?"

"He's fine, he's just resting right now.  I wanted to ask Leon a couple of questions."  Evan came to the last step and approached the hallway.

Simon stood in the center of the entry to the hall, staring down Evan and blocking his way.  "You didn't kill the zombie."  He spoke neutrally as he held the length of pipe he had kept with him in one hand.  The sleeves on his thick wool sweater had been pushed up to expose his forearms.

"I made sure it won't be able to attack anyone."  Evan replied calmly.  He took a deep breath of air, tension in his muscles.  He was ready for an attack if it came.  The zombie rattled the door faintly as they stood within its sight.

"That wasn't the deal.  You were supposed to kill it."  Simon declared.  "Go now and finish the job."

George spoke with obvious discomfort.  "It can barely move anymore, Simon I-"

"Shut up!"  Simon tersely spoke without taking his gaze from Evan.  Evan could tell that Simon was holding the length of pipe with him very tensely as he tried to stare him down.  "Don't be a coward, go outside and finish what you started.  Bash its head in until it stops moving or the deal is off."

"I agreed to take care of the problem and I did.  I injured it so that it can't run after anyone."  Evan took a deep breath and shuddered as he thought about how casually Simon demanded something so horrific of him.  He doubted anyone else in the building would be able to confront Simon's bullheaded authority if they needed to.  Considering how he had been acting, Evan thought it would be unlikely that Simon would let him back inside if he went outside again.  "If you want it dead so badly, you do it."

"It's making noise you idiot."  Simon stepped forwards aggressively with the length of pipe in his hands.  "It needs to be killed before it attracts any more of them!"

Evan stepped back, ready to dodge a swing of the blunt implement and strike in return.  Simon unexpectedly turned away and moved towards the front of the room.  Confused for a moment at the sudden change, Evan didn't quite move into the hallway yet, watching for the purpose of the aggressive movement.

Simon took out the key to the front door from his belt, making his intentions to unlock the front door clear.

Relaxation

Lucas rushed up the stairs until he was safely out of Simon's sight and the speaking taking place below was now barely audible.  Keeping his attention on the stairs to determine if he was being followed, Lucas leaned against the cold cement wall and took a moment to relax.  After a few seconds passed with no approaching footfalls, he allowed himself to settle down.

The second floor hallway was empty and the sounds of a few muffled conversations besides Simon's increasingly distant, harsh voice were present.  One sounded as if it was coming from further upstairs.  Another pair of voices echoed down the hallway from what was probably an open doorway.  Lucas set down his bag and replaced the clipboard and pencil he had hurriedly carried with him.

Breathing in slow and steady, Lucas suddenly realized he was hungry and had been so for a while.  With the excitement of all that had been happening, he hadn't eaten since he woke up.  Thinking back on what food he had in his room, Lucas figured for now he had plenty of food for now.  He'd be fine for the day or so they would be here until help arrived to take them to safety.

Standing up, Lucas proceeded down the hall to the room.  With the voices in the building growing more distant, he felt better now.  The hallway, so familiar but eerily silent was a bit calming.  Up here, even the wails of the zombie outside were difficult to distinguish from the other voices present.  Arriving at his door, Lucas unlocked it, slipped inside and locked it behind him.

Lucas breathed deep and thought about what had just happened in the front lobby.  Simon's declaration was stupid and unfair.  There was obviously no danger to what he had suggested they attempt.  But maybe someone else had already tried to draw their attention with the sound they made.  It's possible he wouldn't have to do an experiment after all to be certain, but Simon's overreaction was still stupid.

Still, he hadn't read anything about that theory yet on the Internet.  Despite all the attention drawn to the zombies, it had only been about a day since they had first been noticed.  And it wasn't as if they were everywhere.  More places didn't have any of them than had them, it seemed.  So it was probably likely nobody had yet gotten the chance to run such an experiment.

Still, it was probably not going to be an issue for that long.  After all, they would all  be rescued tomorrow, so on reflection it was probably pretty unlikely they would have to use that information themselves.

Idly glancing over what food he had in his room, Lucas decided he didn't want to go into the common area with other people to cook anything in the small kitchen.  That left him with either cold chili in a bowl he couldn't wash out, or a bag of chips.  He opted for the bag and retrieved one of the sodas from his case.

While eating, Lucas decided to load up a game instead of doing more research.  It wasn't likely that there was much new to read in the few minutes he had been downstairs anyway.  He needed something to do to take his mind off of things for a while.