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.
