A rich, iron smell wafted heavily through the chamber after the final wet crack brought the fight to a close. The battered corpse lay motionless upon the ground, its skull cracked open with its contents oozing; arms laying spread forwards as its final grasping attempts were ended with violent finality. A growing but small puddle of dark, cold blood spread upon the hard linoleum floor. The mass of brain matter had been splattered upon the floor around the broken skull in a disgusting faded pink heap. Fragments of bone and teeth had been scattered over the floor, and with it, small dark stains.
Evan felt a woozy sensation in the pit of his stomach as he forced his attention away from the carnage. Still frozen beside the front door, George cringed, his head turned towards the glass, producing a retching sound, then vomiting onto the red streaks leading away from the entrance. Evan swallowed back an acidic taste, trying not to follow suit. It was the most horrible thing he had ever seen; he hadn't even imagined he could see something that would have this kind of effect on him.
Standing before his slain target, Simon breathed heavily as the effort of the confrontation had obviously taken longer than he had expected. The large man casually tossed the bloodied length of pipe into the back left corner of the room only a few feet away. It landed with a resounding metallic clatter and rolled around on the floor. Simon looked rattled by what he had done; a few spatters of dark blood were sprinkled on his heavy blue sweater and pants. He repeated his earlier statement as he returned his attention to Evan. "That is how you handle them. Do you get it now?"
Evan did not reply. He tried not to look at the result of the violence, yet he couldn't close his eyes without seeing it again.
Simon looked down at his handiwork and took a step back to lean against the nearby wall, still breathing heavily. After a few seconds frozen in place, Simon wiped his hands off on his sweater. There was the heavy, rapid sound of running footfalls and shouting as people elsewhere in the building reacted to the commotion now that it was done.
Standing along the right edge of the lobby, Evan could hear someone approaching from the nearby hallway leading to the common room. They were speaking, but in the shock of the moment, Evan did not recognize the words. George was still retching, leaning against the glass doorway and turned away from the scene.
From where Evan stood, he could see a small cluster of nervous people he didn't recognize peering at him from the stairs. Luckily for them, Simon and the slain zombie were close to the back left corner of the lobby and the stairs began at the back right corner. The angle they had occluded their view of the situation. Evan regained his senses enough to wave them away before they came down and spoke few words indicating that they wouldn't want to see what had happened. From the way they looked at him before retreating, they must have believed him.
Evan turned his head slightly, not sure when it had happened, but noticed an athletic black girl had emerged from the passage leading to the common room. She had short hair are wore dark blue clothing. A look of shocked horror was upon her face for a moment before she turned back down the entryway and disappeared. Across the lobby another person was peeking out of a doorway down the far hall and reacted to the situation by ducking back inside. He was also lucky enough not to be in a position to see what was left.
Despite the heavy scent a constant reminder with each breath, Evan managed to beat back his own disgust and regain his senses. Every witness had been rattled and George had finally emptied his stomach. A newer acidic scent mingled in the air as George moved along the edge of the wall, unwilling to look at the remains.
"Hey. Both of you." Simon spoke after the brief respite to catch his breath. He looked between Evan and George as he spoke. "Do you get it now? Look at me!"
George shook his head, not looking at the larger man as he moved along the wall. "I- I feel faint." He dropped the keys to the front door as if to prove the point.
Simon spoke again, terse and confrontational. "Well, George if you want to survive you're going to have to toughen up or you will die. Do you want to die?"
"Leave him alone." Evan exhaled slowly to settle his stomach. "You didn't have to do that. The military is coming tomorrow. They would have killed it, and you know it."
"Wrong!" Simon shook his head. "The only thing I know for certain is that when you can take out a threat, you do it immediately. You don't wait, you don't give it a chance to become a bigger problem."
"It was outside." Evan stated. "You didn't need to bring it in here to do that."
"Like you care, asshole. The only reason this happened in the first place is because you didn't kill it outside when you had the chance." Simon retorted with an angry scowl. "I only finished what you were too much of a coward to do."
Evan had nothing else to say, but at least Simon wasn't picking on George anymore. With the opportunity presented by the distraction, George had retreated into the hallway nearby and away from the lobby.
After a brief period of silence Simon announced he needed to clean himself off and change his clothing. He retrieved the keys to the front doors and went upstairs with a final glare at Evan, leaving the gruesome mess behind.
