Evan sat alone in a comfortable chair within the small central lobby of the Mansfield building, staring down the long corridor beyond the sturdy glass entryway. With the flashlight laid along the right arm of the chair, he could view most of the length along the outside walkway. At the far edge of vision, dimly lit figures writhed against clanking metal. Fortunately, the sound of their struggles and moans were partly obscured by distance and gusting wind, but served as a steady reminder of their close proximity.
Cold seeped in through the tiny spaces between the glass doors and the surrounding glass frame composing the building's sole exit. The heavy coat Evan wore had been partially removed and draped over
his shoulders, offering more than enough warmth to make up the
difference for the leeching outside air. Now and then a faint, barely audible whistle came through the tiny cracks as a strong gust of wind overcame the mitigating impact of the surrounding structure.
Now that his skin had time to recover from the numbing chill, Evan could feel the lingering sting of the scraped skin upon his forehead. The wound had been wiped clean with disinfectant and covered with a bandage, but the sharp pain would likely remain for the rest of the night. Mild aches shot through the remainder of his body due to the tumble across pavement taken during the scuffle, but the bruised soreness had been alleviated somewhat after the first few minutes of relaxation.
Since Evan's return to the building, quite a few people had entered the lobby to investigate the noises they had heard coming from outside. Beyond initial alarm upon learning that the zombies had reached their front gate, each person soon returned to their rooms. Many indicated they would inform others of the updated information.
With an aura of light preceeding her, Jennifer emerged from the hallway to the left. Once she was nearby, she clicked the light off, using the ambient glow created by the already present source to navigate. "Robert and Minoko are set up in one-oh-nine. It's the room by the stairs over there." Approaching, she held out a clear bottle with a blue label.
"Thank you." Evan replied as he accepted the offerred item. "So they're doing okay?" He twisted the cap, unsealing the container and taking a deep drink of the refreshing liquid.
"Yeah, Minoko had the key for Robert's cuffs and they're making sure he can be safely locked up. Zack and Ryan also went to get them something to eat." Jennifer walked quickly but cautiously around, navigating with ease through the mostly empty chamber. She made her way to the back corner of the lobby near the elevator doors, retrieving a metal folding chair from a small cluster of them. Pulling it forwards with a gentle scrape of rubber on hard tile, she aligned it beside Evan and sat. "Anyway, how are you feeling?"
"A little sore." Evan briefly glanced towards Jennifer as she placed her right hand upon his left forearm. "But okay."
"You sure you don't want anything else?" Her dark eyes regarded Evan with concern. The heavy coat had been unzipped and parted, revealing considerable cleavage from her low cut shirt underneath. She pressed her warmth against him.
"Not right now." Evan still felt a little queasy from witnessing a skull broken open with direct blunt force trauma. He was trained for personal defense, but had only ever used it in very limited circumstances before today. On top of that, people would stop attacking once they had taken a certain level of injurious pain. The sort of strikes required to inconvenience, let alone incapacitate the undead were considerably greater than what a human could tolerate.
"Okay. Just let me know when you feel like talking." Jennifer fell silent, leaning against Evan and breathing softly. The natural sounds of the building's echoes, the zombies and the windstorm mingled into an uneven background murmur, creating an almost normal white noise for a city. Appreciating the transient calm with someone was itself the sort of pleasant moment Evan had not had a chance at feeling for most of the day.
In the relative quiet, Evan's mind returned to the memories of agonizing meaty cracks produced by a human figure driven forcefully into the brick facade of the building. Or the reverberating forces of bone shattered between heavy blows and the hard ground. Even worse, every time he had witnessed such painfully incapacitating things, it barely served as an inconvenience to the infected.
Evan struggled to place such thoughts out of his mind. Instead, he tried to focus his energies on what else could be done about the cluster of figures rattling the gates. Even if he could not manage the destruction of each individual zombie, concocting any method to mitigate the danger they posed together would clearly be better than doing nothing.
Unfortunately, with his distracted and weary condition, Evan could not think of any plan which would be safe enough to justify enacting. It wasn't as if they had a lot of resources in the dormitory to use in such an attempt.
Eventually, there was the nearby sound of a door opening, not too uncommon an occurence during the wait. This time, murmuring speech spilled out before the subdued thump of a closing door. Familiar tones of low speaking mingled with approaching footfalls, signalling the end of the period of calm. Soon, Zack and Ryan appeared together within the hallway corner and proceeded into lobby with the illumination provided by a shared light source.
Zack waved to Evan and Jennifer as he entered. "Well, they're all set up now. Thanks for taking over our watch out here. Did we miss anything?"
"A few people came down to see what was going on, but not really." Evan replied as he rose from the chair, setting the flashlight upon the seat. He draped his coat over his shoulders, allowing the long, bulky sleeves to dangle at his sides. "I was just trying to think of what else we might be able to do about those zombies."
"Not sure we can do much, honestly." Zack shrugged as he neared the glass entrance and stared down the shadowy walkway to the gate.
"As long as they're outside here, they're not attacking someone else." Jennifer contributed with a slight tone of optimism. She had risen from her chair at the same time Evan did, standing at his side.
"That's a good point. And we're going to have someone down here keeping watch all night long." Zack nodded as he looked to Evan inquisitively. "As long as they see us in here, they won't wander off, will they?"
Evan sighed as he considered the question. "I don't think so. But I'd rather we did something to guarantee that won't happen instead of just hoping that it doesn't. If that's at all possible."
"Well, let's see if we have anything that would be useful." Carrying his flashlight, Zack circled around to the back corner with the folding chairs and retrieved a clipboard with several sheets of paper upon it.
"Would a sword help?" Ryan asked, as the others looked in his direction. An almost smug grin was the only feature of his face easily visible due to the brown, shaggy hair draped over his eyes and the poor lighting conditions.
"A sword? What are you talking about?" Jennifer replied before anyone could respond to the unexpected question.
"When we searched the building to check our supplies. I remember someone talking about how one of the rooms had this totally awesome sword hanging on the wall."
"Why didn't you mention that before?" Jennifer asked, obvious irritation in her tone.
"I don't think it would have been very useful to us before. A sword would get blood all over and probably increase the wielder's chances of infection." Evan suggested as he touched Jennifer tenderly upon the shoulder in a subtle effort to soothe her agitation.
"I just remembered it now." Ryan shook his head. "Anyway, whoever found it basically said the same thing. He said a dude would have to be pretty suicidal to go fight a zombie out in the open with a sword and end up getting blood all over him. But everyone knows these are just bite zombies. So a sword should be totally safe."
"That's crazy." Jennifer huffed. "You don't know that."
"Yeah. There's no way we're going to gamble that the blood isn't infectious." Evan waved his arms in a dismissive gesture before taking another drink of water.
"Hey, chill out. Even if that's true, there's still no risk." Ryan made a point of gazing through the glass at the cluster of wailing dead beyond. "They're just standing right there at the gate so you should be able to chop them up through the bars and still remain protected the whole time." Ryan waved his forearm as if to demonstrate such a strike. "Just wear a rain coat or something if you don't want to get the blood on you."
"That might work, actually." Evan affirmed with a sigh, thinking about his earlier careful disposal of the bloodied corpse with Leon's aid. "If we had a poncho, gloves, goggles and a mask, someone could probably do it while being careful enough to keep all the blood off themselves."
There was a faint ruffling of papers as Zack flipped through the pages. "Yeah, I don't see any sort of awesome sword listed here. But we do have a fire axe in the utility room. And we should be able to find the other stuff okay, I'd think."
"That'll work." Ryan declared as he turned back with the same grin he had before. He scratched at a bit of not-quite stubble on his chin.
"It's worth considering in case there's nothing better we can figure out." Evan accepted with a sigh. He didn't relish the thought of hacking off bits of outstretched human
arms, gradually whittling away the limbs. But he knew such an approach
would be necessary to safely deliver a killing blow to the brain
through the iron bars.
After a short deliberation, no other plan became apparent. Replacing the list where he had retrieved it, Zack departed to retrieve the fire axe. Jennifer likewise departed to retrieve some of the gear needed for an improvised protective suit.
Upon Zack's return, he carefully presented the tool in his palms, handing it to Evan. "So, here it is."
"This might work out." Evan observed as he took the implement in both hands. Carefully, he skeptically tested the weight and examined its sharp edge. If it was truly the only option available, he would grudgingly do it to spare the others from the gruesome experience. And ensure the effort had its maximal chance of success. "Too bad the handle isn't longer. I'd like to be as far away as possible while it's done."
"I guess we could find that sword that supposedly is around here." Zack quizzically glanced at Ryan. "It might have a longer reach."
"That's probably a decent idea." Evan nodded as he cautiously set the implement against the front doors. Zack and Ryan left shortly afterwards to begin a search for the sword.
Once again, Evan sat alone in the lobby, idly staring at the figures outside. Listening to the sounds, he could feel himself drifting into a temporary lapse of focus. Despite his weariness he couldn't leave a matter like this while he slept, so he waited for the plan to fully come together. Uneasy at the thoughts of the grim actions to which he had already dedicated himself, he tried not to linger too much on what the near future held. Breathing deep, Evan instead relaxed his nerves to allow himself some measure of serenity before the violence upon the horizon.
He was drawn out of his personal reverie by Minoko's sudden appearance inside the hallway. She wiped at her eyes with a distraught look on her face. Without needing to exchange so much as a word, Evan approached to offer a comforting embrace. A long moment of silence followed before she finally broke away. Soon afterwards Jennifer returned with the gear needed for their improvised protective suit.
With spirits low, Jennifer left again to escort Minoko to a private room to grieve with few words spoken between them. Once Zack and Ryan finally returned with a flimsy looking, absurdly ornate fantasy sword replica, Evan had become quite anxious to bring the day's events to a close. Securely draping himself in the protective gear, he strode outside with the axe in a firm two-handed grip. Dampened awareness told him that someone followed at a good distance with a flashlight to provide sight.
The following hour or so passed in a horrific blur of tearing flesh and splitting bone. Within his cobbled together protection, a clammy heat rapidly grew and refused to abate, despite the
aggravating cold drawn inside with every puff of air. A few times the head of the axe got lodged in place, but wrenching and tugging eventually freed it with a sickening squelch. Deliberately aimed swings followed after one another, flesh ripping and bone snapping until the wailing, gnashing figures lurking beyond the gates were all finally disposed and haphazardly strewn about. Eerie silence once again dominated the city's streets.
Depositing the axe against the brick wall and shedding the suit afterwards was a wonderful relief. With great exultation at finding he had no trace of blood on him, a sweaty, exhausted Evan finally retired to his room to collapse on his bed in peace.
