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.
