Group Survival

In the aftermath of the horrific expulsion, the tightly packed lobby grew into a furious maelstrom of shouting with erratic bursts of light.  Together with the stench of drying gore nearby, the experience was one in which Lucas desperately wished to extricate himself.  With few avenues of travel through the crowd, and more people coming down the steps, he couldn't retreat upstairs.  Darting into the openings as they became available, he somehow navigated his way to the side hallway leading to the common area and down the hall.

Soon standing near the glass door to the common room, Lucas turned to look down the hallway from where he had retreated.  Attempting to discern order or action from the activity, he strained to make out individual voices.  Some people in the hallway were updating the late arrivals to the events, even as they were still ongoing.  There were enough flashlights present to provide adequate lighting, so Lucas casually let his beam of light shine at the floor.

"What is going on out there?"  A familiar feminine voice asked from nearby.

Lucas glanced over to his right.  Chloe stood nearby in the open doorway, her dark clothing concealing her atheltic frame rather effectively in the shadows.  Staring down the hallway with interest; one arm held the door open as if she was about to dart back inside.  Nobody appeared to be in the dark room behind her and nobody else was really close enough to have obviously been the speaker, so he replied to her.  "They forced that guy who was bitten to go outside."

"Huh, he was bitten?  I thought it was just a scratch."

"I thought so too, but it was apparently a bite."  After a couple seconds, he added another possibility he hadn't originally considered with a shrug.  "I guess it could just be the flu or something, but apparently he got very sick very fast so everyone thinks it's a bite."

"Jesus.  What would have happened if he was still inside when he turned?"  Chloe spoke with a faint tint of fear on the edge of her voice as if the situation had only now been suddenly visited upon her.  He didn't know Chloe all that well, but the urgency of the situation was apparently enough to crack her usual cool, logical demeanor.

"Nothing."  Lucas flatly responded.

Sudden, piercing yells echoed down the hallway.  Although Lucas couldn't make out anything more than scattered words, he could tell the women who came in with Robert were pleading for him to be let back inside.  Although the result was difficult to discern, the prospect was doubtful.  Still, the screaming ended after an inestimable interval, although it seemd as if the commotion was finally beginning to wind down.

"What did you mean by that?"  Chloe turned her brown eyes to Lucas.  She was about five and a half feet tall, just a bit shorter than Lucas, so she had to look up at him slightly.  "When you said nothing, I mean."

"I know the guy who was handling it.  I don't know what's going on with him right now, but Evan would make sure it was safe to keep him inside."

"Maybe there wasn't a way to do that."  Chloe casually considered.  "As long as one infected is inside and around people, it could still bite someone.  From what I've read, the virus could spread through the whole building in a matter of minutes.  So your friend could have decided it was just too risky to keep him in here with us."

"Yeah, it can spread fast..."  Lucas trailed off.  The thought of his friend making that decision genuinely never occurred to him.  It would explain at the very least why Evan did not stop the events that just took place.  After only the slightest consideration, he replied confidently.  "Well, I don't think I could do it, but he'd never do that to someone.  He'd lose his paladin abilities if he did."  Lucas added the old joke among his circle of friends to his answer with a smile.

Chloe's face was stony and unimpressed as she replied.  "Well, either way, we need to do what is best for our survival.  And right now, that means keeping the sick people away from everyone else."

"If that really worries you, you could always lock yourself in your room and just wait until we're rescued.  It's probably what I'd do if I didn't know Evan was around."  Apparently, until this ended, it would be best not to get sick.  The flu could potentially cost someone their safe harbor.  Briefly, he wondered if anyone with a fever who had not been bitten were being similarly turned outside.  He was at least glad the shouting proved the decision was apparently a controversial one.

"This isn't about me, you or your friend.  It's about making the choices that are best for everyone.  To make sure we're all as safe as we can be."

"I'm not sure we can be safe."  Lucas countered.  The possible implications of the outbreak's origins still lingering in his mind.  "Not until we know a whole lot more than we do now."  And that- Lucas added in his mind- the event which originated the zombies wouldn't just happen again without warning.

Stubborn

"You should really stay here."  Evan adjusted his coat as he spoke to Jennifer in the small, dark chamber.  The flashlight laid on the dresser beside the coat rack, casting a glowing oval against the nearby bare wall.  "It's not safe out there."

"I know the risks."  Jennifer responded with a weary, scared smile and a flutter of her eyelashes.  She was fairly slender and fit despite her ample chest, and her dark hair came down just a little past her shoulders.  With her eyes looking only slightly up at him, she was quite tall, just marginally shorter than Evan.  The skirt, blouse and heavy stockings visible under her heavy coat were a very pure white.

"It's not that.  Jen, you know it's really dangerous just being outside right now.  Nobody should be running around out there.  I don't want to worry about you while I'm out there doing what I need to do."

"You're a person too, you know."  Jennifer quickly retrieved the flashlight and proceeded to the room's solitary door.  "And I know you're not going to like hearing this, but I am just as scared of what could happen to you while you're out there.  So if you're allowed to make me scared, then I can make you scared."

Evan frowned at that and transferred the medicine bottle from his jeans pocket to one of the large coat pockets with a secure zipper.  "You know someone is depending on this medicine.  I can't stay here."

"I'm not trying to keep you here."  Jennifer casually opened the door as Evan approached and quickly entered into the empty hall ahead of him.  She waited for him to follow, shining the flashlight at the nearby wall to let the light reflect through the immediate environment.  "I just need to know that someone will be around to make sure you're taking care of yourself while you're trying to help everyone else."

"I'll be fine on my own."

"Oh hush, you were shivering just a couple minutes ago.  You think you can do everything and someone needs to be there to remind you that even you have limits to what you can accomplish.  Besides, you can't just go running off into danger by yourself and expect nobody else will follow your bad example."

With that, the debate lapsed into silence, Evan proceeded through the hallway alongside Jennifer.  As they traveled together in casual company, he thought to take the flashlight from her or argue the point further, but could only reason that the stubborn girl would only get angry at him instead of be deterred from her foolish decision.  She could be exhausting at times; unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of time at the moment he would need to change her mind.

She might possibly be okay going with him.  After all, he hadn't seen any other zombies in the area.  Still, by the last reports he had been aware about, there were quite a lot of the undead only a mile or so away.  Circumstances could change very quickly if they dispersed from where they were congregated.  And if they ran across a crowd of them outside, Evan knew he wouldn't be able to protect her.  Evan didn't enjoy the thought of taking unnecessary risks, but unfortunately, this one seemed impossible to avoid.

The lingering silence combined with the worries Evan felt made the journey to the front door seem longer than the outset.  Upon arriving at the ground floor, vaguely familiar voices echoed throughout the otherwise formless void given form by the beam of the flashlight.

Upon returning to the front room, Zach and Ryan were standing near the glass doorway, staring down the empty walkway to the front gate.  They stopped speaking as they noticed the approaching light.  As Evan arrived with Jennifer, Zach turned and looked back towards them both, more than a little alarm showing on his face.

"Bad news."  Zach said as he lifted the beam of his own flashlight to shine down the tight corridor.  "I think you might be stuck here now."

Standing at the end of the corridor, a single haggard figure was visible and moving around at the heavy, barred gate.  Through the glass at this distance, he could just barely sense the lingering groan of its call and the abrasive rattle of the heavy hinges.  Evan couldn't help but notice that Jennifer was staring down there with her beautiful dark eyes wide with alarm.

"Well, let's see what we can do about it."  Evan replied thoughtfully.  Maybe they could incapacitate the solitary wandering figure in some way so he could pass by it.  And perhaps once Jennifer was more viscerally aware of what was really ready to spring out at them from the pitch darkness, he could convince her to wait here safely for him.

Bystander

While waiting in the landing of the stair well, Lucas strained to listen to the argument occurring in the hallway above.  Several loud voices contributed to the cacophany, but from what Lucas could hear the clear majority were demanding the exodus of the infectious sick to a place where he could not risk exposing any others to his malady.  There was little else possible to make out amidst the noise.

Lucas had assumed Evan would handle things before it got to this point- or at least calm things down once it did.  But oddly enough, it didn't seem like Evan was doing so right now.  At least, Lucas couldn't make out his voice among those contributing to the clamor.  With the shouting, he would no doubt be drawn to appear soon.  And definitely would put a stop to this mess.

Lucas tentatively proceeded a few steps further, straining to make out individual voices.  Jorge casually aimed his flashlight down the hallway, scratching just at the edge of his moustache with his left hand.  When Jorge casually made notice of his ascent, Lucas shouted out so he could be heard.  "Are they really going to put him outside with a zombie nearby?"

"Didn't you hear?  That zombie's dead."  Jorge cocked his head down the hallway.  "Simon took care of it."

"Oh."  Lucas hadn't expected that.  But given that his swarming theory had agitated Simon so severely, that outcome made a bit of sense.  "What about Robert?  What's wrong with leaving him where he was?"

"In the building?  Everyone was getting nervous after they heard he was really sick."  Jorge tucked his left thumb into the band of his thick brown belt.  Being closer, Lucas could see Jorge had a length of metal resting nearby him against the wall.  "I think that kind of freaked everyone out that he got so sick in only a few hours.  Hard to believe it can happen so fast."

"It could go a lot faster than that."  Lucas commented as he halted at the final step and leaned around the corner to peer down the hallway curiously.  A swarm of crowding bodies and rare shining lights were obscuring sight of whatever events were going on, but not the noise.  "If you're bitten several times it can be almost instant."

"Jesus."  Jorge paused for a moment of contemplation at the thought.  "Did you see him earlier?  He barely had a scratch.  But this thing is so deadly that's all it needs.  Just one little mistake and you're dead."

"Actually, that might not be true."

"What?"

"Well, it can kill that quick from just one bite.  But before the power went out I read that there's a few people bitten yesterday that are still alive."  Lucas shrugged.  "They're still sick, but they're not dead yet.  Maybe some of them will naturally recover."

Their conversation petered out then as the shouting intensified, soon reaching a clamorous crescendo.  It sounded like a fight had just started or was in progress.  Unfortunately, Lucas couldn't get a good look down the hallway to determine which it was and didn't want to approach any closer.

Without warning the crowd backed away or parted as Simon passed through the chaos, using his strength to force Robert to walk in front of him.  Despite what he had learned, Lucas was still shocked to see how pale and weary Robert appeared.  The man's left arm was held behind him, and Robert stumbled a bit as a length of something metal trailed behind one leg.  Robert's heavy coat was only half on.

"Coming through!"  Simon shouted as he approached them, urgently shoving Robert ahead of him.  Simon had changed his clothes, now wearing a heavy black sweater.  A vanguard of uneven lights proceeded with him and lit up the path with flickering infrequency.

Retreating partway down the steps, Lucas watched Simon approaching, then began to descend until he reached the main lobby space ahead of the grim procession.

An acrid, sick smell preceeded sight of the unlit lobby.  Quick strokes of Lucas's flashlight beam revealed the area was dotted with blood, a huge mess of it at the back left corner of the room and a puddle of unidentifiable ooze in front of the double doors.  Leon stood by the glass doors with his cell phone out casting barely any light, his wide eyes staring towards Lucas as he descended the final steps and brought light with him.

"What's going on?"  Leon shouted at Lucas as he proceeded down the steps.  But there was no chance to respond before the rising volume in the small space made hearing anything- much less responding- difficult.  Simon and Robert were descending the steps quickly behind him as Lucas scurried forwards.

People indistiguishable amid the noise and shadow swarmed into the space from the halls as lights danced amid the chaos.  Pressing himself up against the wall under the stairs, he witnessed as a mass of people, probably everyone in the building, began to congregate here.

"Simon, you can't do this!  It's not right!"  Came an urgent protest that may have been Erin, but it could have been another woman.  It was hard to tell.

Lucas could barely make out any words against the thumping clatter as people quickly scurried about.  But he did hear one direct response that came from Simon.  "I killed the zombie.  The others can stay if they want to,  but he has to go somewhere else."

There was more shouting and noise, and with an unceremonious abruptness, the glass doors were thrown open wide, bringing a surge of cold air into the room.  Even though bodies obscured sight of what had just transpired, he knew that when the air grew still, Robert was now outside.

Lucas glanced about the lobby with his back against the far wall, wondering for a moment why Evan didn't do anything to try and stop what had just transpired.  Robert wasn't going to be able to survive in the cold.

Temporary Delay

Evan came to an abrupt stop.  The stars were gone, wiped from the sky by a vast carpet of flowing shadow.  Without even the moon's reflected light above to provide relief, the surrounding city streets had been torn away from sight.  For one creepy moment, there was nothing but the sound of his own light breathing and the rustling whistle of bare tree branches accompanying the blowing of the wind.  Cold seeped into muscle, weakening it.

Standing there in frozen silence with his heart pumping in his chest, Evan became aware of indecipherable whispers coming from the darkness.  Jennifer and Zach were attempting to cajole his return and without better lighting, there was little other immediate option available to him.  He turned to face them, noting a couple of glowing screens not too far away and quietly spoke out.  "I'm still here.  I'm okay."

Evan had lingered for a moment, hoping he could continue his return once he had acclimated to the absence of light, but now he began to realize that it would not help.  Only the barest wisps of texture overhead provided some contextual clue to make out partial silhouettes of some surrounding buildings against the sky.  He could probably use his cell phone light to provide rudimentary illumination, but without a stronger light source it wouldn't be wise to attempt a run.  In the meantime, the tiny pinprick of light would also serve as a beacon for any stray zombie attacker.  Who would likely have no similar qualms about charging blindly in his direction.

Gingerly pocketing the bottle he had come to claim, Evan retrieved his cell phone and held it facing outwards to let it cast its paltry sum of light into the environment.  As he moved across the narrow road and stepped back onto the opposite curb, the two waiting for him opened the sturdy barred gate, swinging the metal bars wide with a plaintive squeaking from the hinges.  Evan rushed inside, and they swung the bars of the iron gate closed together with a resounding metallic clatter.  Swiftly, the heavy chain on the gate was locked again.

"Flashlight, we have a spare flashlight around here, right?"  Evan spoke now that the gate had been quickly resecured.  The surrounding structure's high walls kept the wind's biting embrace from being quite as bad within the corridor.

"Yeah."  Zach led the way to the building's sole entrance, retrieving his own cell phone in order to shed more light for the walk.  Moving through the passageway, a couple more light sources came on.  One shone out from the small lobby space at the end of the path.

"You're shivering."  Jennifer observed as her warm fingers touched Evan's hand.  "I know I can't stop you, but you should at least take your coat before you leave again."

"I'm fine, but okay."

"You know, you could have brought that sick man here with you."  Jennifer speculated out loud.  "So you wouldn't have to go out there again so soon."

"Robert was resting when I saw him last.  I don't know if he's in good enough condition to run if we had to.  But I'll keep that in mind."

Entering the doors of Mansfield, Evan enjoyed the pleasantly warm air spilling over his body.  Exhaling in temporary relief at the sensation, he smiled and cordially nodded as Zach retrieved one of the flashlights to give to him.  A couple other dormitory residents were down here chatting but since this place had no common room, most occupants were waiting elsewhere for the following day's promised events.

As Evan worked his way up the stairs towards his room, Jennifer remained at his side.  Finally, just as Evan retrieved his coat and slipped it on, Jennifer breathed out in a heavy sigh.  "I want to go with you."

Nothing Better To Do

Pacing back and forth through the small room, Lucas had the time he needed to clear his mind.  He was used to spending long periods in isolation when the mood struck him or when he needed to do so.  Whether it was studying for his school work, gaming or reading something that caught his attention, it was rare he would be distracted by something once he really focused on it.

However, the unsettling frustration with the incomprehensible set of facts that had been established about these zombies made him feel rather antsy.  With all the misinformation spreading around, no additional reading was helping the overall situation make any more sense.  And what could be told from direct observation was unfortunately rather limited and perplexingly unhelpful.  His normally eager curiosity had led to him repeatedly hitting against a brick wall of obfuscation that plainly contradicted human knowledge.

As he paced from one side of the room to the other, Lucas came to the unfortunate conclusion that he had no choice but to wait for better answers to his lingering questions.  Simon's ignorant fear and stubborn demeanor wouldn't allow for direct experimentation on the one zombie Lucas did have limited access to.  And the vast resources of the world via the Internet seemed to be mostly dedicated to nonsense and panic.  Once he had finished clearing his mind, Lucas decided he would at least throw his own observations into the larger world.

At the very least, maybe his observations would help someone else piece together more information.  In the end, he didn't have much to offer but questions, but he did spend some time typing up what he had managed to observe and the evidence for his reasoning he could easily reference on the Internet.  His efforts ended abruptly when the Internet connection went down unexpectedly.

Checking again after a few seconds, Lucas figured that his connection might be down for a while, then lifted his head to idly glance out the window.  There was nothing outside.

Lucas had been so absorbed in his activity that he didn't notice the overhead light had cut out at about the same time the connection dropped.  But now that he thought about it, the level of light registered in his mind, he just didn't immediately realize what that meant right away.  The only light he had to see by now was his laptop screen.  It bathed the room in a soft glow.

The power had gone out.  Standing up to look out the window, it appeared the entire city had gone dark.  Not even moonlight provided illumination through the thick clouds.  In the hall outside his room, Lucas heard the noises of people shouting at each other.  It didn't concern him much since his door was locked.

Looking at what he had gathered in his post, Lucas decided to save the work and shut the computer down.  However long this power outage lasted, he would post this once it ended.  Until that point, it was probably better to save the laptop's power until he needed it.  Just in case.

Leaning back in his chair, Lucas tapped his fingers upon the desk before him.  He had nothing to do now and he wasn't sleepy.  He could play a game on the laptop, but still didn't feel much like it at the moment.  Sitting there in the dark, Lucas heard the shouting growing louder and more intrusive in the hallway.  He wasn't sure what that was about, but didn't much care.

But there was little else he could really do right now.  He could read in the dark, but he didn't feel like doing that, either.

Blindly feeling around the simple wooden desk for the correct drawer, Lucas fished out the emergency flashlight his mother had placed in there for him.  Flicking it on, he walked over to the door and unlocked and opened it casually, shining the light into the corridor and witnessed a couple of people blindly feeling their way along the hallway walls.  They stopped a moment as Lucas shone his light in their direction and looked back at him, then continued on.

There was a commotion echoing through the halls from elsewhere in the building.  Advancing towards the nearby stair well, a visible light source came from somewhere around the top of the steps.  Lucas climbed up partway to investigate.  Jorge stood at the top of the steps, shining his flashlight down the hall where the source of the commotion was coming from.  Jorge turned as he saw the new source of light.

"What's going on?"  Lucas asked him as he stopped halfway up.

Jorge half paid attention to Lucas as he replied, only glancing over just barely.  "We're going to get that sick guy out of here before he bites anyone."