"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.
