Awkwardly leaning against the wall with his flashlight aimed up, Lucas remained otherwise silent as the two newcomers continued their sullen approach. Among those present, the only person Lucas knew by name- Erin- gave him a brief nod of recognition as she edged beyond him. The chubbier blond girl sniffled and sobbed again as Erin ineffectively attempted to console her. There were a few seconds of relative silence before they halted beside the Hispanic couple sitting on the hallway floor; pressed up against the wall.
They were all gathered just close enough to Lucas that the notion of quietly sneaking away somehow felt a little too awkward. Instead, uncertain of what else he ought to be doing, Lucas remained there as the others spoke, idly inspecting the walls, doors or ceiling of the drab, concrete passage. Unfortunately, none of his available options for examination were terribly interesting.
"I still can't believe Simon did that." Said the Hispanic woman sitting upon the floor. She wore an expression of hurt shock upon her face as she held her unconscious boyfriend tenderly. She mostly still didn't look up at the others so her long hair partly draped in front of her face, concealing her own bruises.
"Oh, I can believe it. Simon and his friends are a bunch of assholes." Erin's voice was fringed with her frustration and anger. "Right now they're all still down there guarding the doors. So nobody could let Robert back inside."
"I should have goh- goh-" The crying woman's speech quickly broke down as her voice hitched over a syllable repeatedly. Soon, she broke into a fresh bout of uncontrolled weeping.
"Shhh..." Erin cajoled, giving her a comforting hug and pulling her close to her blue blouse. The ambient light shifting as the arm holding the light moved into the embrace. "It's going to be okay. Robert wanted you to stay and he still has Minoko looking out for him. Nobody would ever blame you for staying."
Occasional noises radiated through the sightless halls, but it was of a rather subdued nature- characteristic of the typical sounds Lucas was long familiar with within the dormitory. The disquieting outburst of sobbing lasted for about a minute before it was eventually brought to an uncomfortable end of sniffling and short gasps of breathing.
"They're not still waiting around out there, are they?" The Hispanic woman ventured to speak once the emotional outburst had been brought under a temporary restraint. "In the cold?"
"I don't think so. They left to go find shelter after they were forced outside. After a bit, we couldn't see where they had gone." Erin replied as she still embraced the distraught person she had brought with her.
"S-some people found them and they went with them." The curvy girl responded, her voice wavering as she evidently expended great effort to speak clearly.
"Oh." Erin brushed some of her curly hair back with her hand as the person she consoled had momentarily pulled away. "I guess I didn't see that happen."
The distraught woman momentarily drew her breath in short spasms, then breathed deep before adding. "I think one of them might have been Evan."
"Evan?" Lucas looked over suddenly at the distressed woman. "Are you sure?"
"I don't know." There was an audible sniff before she continued. "It looked like it could have been, but I couldn't really tell. It was too dark to see much."
"When I last saw Evan, he said he was going to find some medicine for Robert." The Hispanic girl repeated her earlier statement to the new arrivals as she cradled her still unconscious boyfriend. The bundled up fabric of her pink dress rustled against the hard floor as she adjusted her legs.
"That was Evan, then." Lucas declared. "If there wasn't any medicine around here, he'd leave to find some as long as he thought it would be safe to do so." Suddenly the events of Robert's exodus made a lot more sense. Evan didn't stop the expulsion because he simply wasn't here to prevent it. In retrospect, it really should have been more obvious. What Lucas was witnessing- the wounded and the melancholy- was an outcome of unfortunate coincidence.
"So, he's..." The grieving woman's eyes were still red and puffy as she looked at Lucas with an expression of injured hope. Erin continued to stroke at her shoulder in a soothing gesture.
"They're probably just over at the Mansfield building. It's only a couple blocks away." Lucas offered uneasily with a shrug, then added as he thought of the accounts of bitten survivors lasting for a day with the feverish infection. "I'm sure Evan will keep Robert alive as long as possible." Smiling uneasily, Lucas saw the distressed woman was tearing up again. "He might still be alive when we're rescued in the morning."
"Don't say that." Erin hissed under her breath, scowling at Lucas.
"What? I didn't say he was going to die. It's possible to surv-"
"Stop it. Just stop it!" Erin tersely commanded while drawing the woman into another comforting embrace.
An awkward semi-silence among those in the hallway resumed its unwelcome pressure. With the shift in focus more squarely upon him, Lucas felt so unnerved that it was clearly more uncomfortable staying around than awkwardly departing would be. It wasn't his fault that his statements were taken the wrong way; eventually the others would come to realize that.
As he slinked away, Lucas breathed a sigh of relief once he was out of sight. Unfortunately, without Evan there wasn't much he could think to do, so he just opted to return to the solitude of his own room. Keeping the light low and his focus on his path, Lucas passed by someone else on the stairs and gave them no more recognition than a cordial nod and a mumbled greeting.
Unlocking the door and entering swiftly, he slammed the entryway behind him, then scanned the flashlight over the length of his room. Everything was just as he had left it before. At least within the safety offered by isolation, he could maybe even return to idly pondering the anomalous details of the bizarre epidemic. Beyond that, there wasn't much possible while trapped in isolation and without electricity or a good source of lighting. After securing the deadbolt he laid down on his bed, clicking off the flashlight to think in the dark.
Laying there for a few minutes, he ruminated upon the various things about the undead he had been able to observe so far or reason out. Lingering questions still tugged at his mind, but without any easy means of answering his curiosity, he hadn't really thought about what else to do about them. In part, he wanted to find Evan so that he would be able to have someone else to consider his ideas.
Chloe's observation about there being no zombie animals was just the sort of reason that Lucas craved someone to talk with. He hadn't thought of it himself, and at first it seemed like an odd thing to consider at all. But combined with other factoids it did perhaps make some degree of sense. After all, the zombies were shut down by destroying the brain. Were animal brains simply too small or simple for the effect of z-rays to trigger upon them? It seemed like a fairly reasonable explanation, even if Lucas could think of no way to easily test that particular notion.
But generally- on reflection- Chloe hadn't seemed terribly interested in the speculative things Lucas had suggested to her. Of course it was understandable to be rather skeptical of any statements or conclusions. Although at this point any theories which could provide testable predictions would only likely be possible once a number of brainstormed ideas were carefully considered using the available information. In the meantime, it would be worthwhile to keep as many of those new ideas on hand.
Rising from his bed, Lucas thought to take note of the animal idea. With how many different wild notions he had been considering throughout the day, it would be optimal to be certain. He might possibly forget something, but paper would not. Setting the flashlight beside him aimed at the wall provided just enough dim light to make his notes. Once completed, he flicked the switch again and returned to bed to lay on his back and resume his mental wanderings in pitch black.
Several times over the following hours, Lucas repeated the process, laying upon his bed, thinking about what he knew, what he thought was reasonable to guess and some of the questions he had. Then occasionally he would rise from his bed to make a few more notes of his thoughts. Just in case whatever had occurred to him today would not remain within his memory when he wanted it later.
Eventually, Lucas grew drowsy and fell asleep; dreaming about deep space, cosmic radiation and wormholes.
