Natural Experiment

Lucas sat in near pitch darkness, occasionally listening idly to brief snippets of discussion taking place within the lobby below.  He had taken a seated position on the final step to the second floor.  His laughing outbursts had been subdued, but only because he tried to ignore the statements of blind terror people were using to justify egregiously idiotic ideas.  Despite his earlier contributions, he wasn't terribly interested in the emerging coalition of whom was deciding to leave and remain.

He only didn't return to his room for the slight possibility he might be able to glean additional information about the blackout anomaly.  While people were quite freaked out by the event, nobody seemed to have any further data about it than their initial observations; some of those inside buildings were not hit and everyone outside was hit.  Like the z-rays before, only minimal details of its effects were known.  Other descriptive qualities seemed difficult if not impossible to intuit.

Just as he was about to abandon that idea, Lucas's spine turned to jelly, limbs drooping as the muscles lost tension.  Coinciding with it came that vaguely eerie tone, again permeating all the universe as he could feel it pressing into him like a vice.  The unreal noise had an intangible weight about it, impossible to describe or even memorize, it was a sensation that should not be possible.  And then it was just as suddenly absent.

No flash arrived.  No echo lingered.  Spasming with surprise, Lucas was just able to catch himself on his forearms before falling backwards and hitting his head on the floor.  At the same time, he kicked his legs, almost dislodging himself from the stairs and sliding down but narrowly preventing the clumsy accident.  A scream tearing through darkness confirmed Lucas was not the only one still conscious.

Shouts of alarm or cries of pain rang out, many of those nearby startled or aching from the temporary collapse.  Rising to his feet, Lucas descended the stairs slowly to examine the chamber for others who remained awake.

"That was it again, wasn't it?"  Erin's voice was familiar and close enough to make out clearly amidst the initial bursts of shouting.

"Yes."  Chloe glanced momentarily at Lucas as he descended into view in the trace lighting available through the broad windows.  "That was it.  Just like the last time."

There were fewer people here than prior, but quickly inspecting those remaining in the chamber with great curiosity, nobody had fainted.  Although some were now sitting in dry spaces on the floor.  Curiously, Leon and Simon were standing immediately adjacent to the glass doors.  Lucas quickly reached the bottom steps and peered around with wide eyes to reaffirm the initial observation.  "Hey, Leon!"  Lucas cautiously approached, keeping clear of Simon.

Leon was rubbing at his left forearm with his other hand and shakily standing against the glass wall beside the door.  "Oh.  Hi again."  He regarded Lucas with a friendly nod; it looked like he had gained a minor cut and bruises on his arm.  Many of those present were clearly still rather disoriented and perturbed by the event.

"Were you guys standing right there just now?"  Lucas asked with thoughts of Jorge's testimony fresh in his mind.  If nobody in the building was knocked out this time, it could mean the phenomenon causing the knockout was further away.  Or weaker.  Either situation would be good to alleviate peoples' mindless terror, but better than that, it meant the event wasn't a singularly unique one like the z-rays had been.  It might even be possible to learn more about this phenomenon via deliberate experimentation.

"Hold on a second."  Leon stated passively, failing to give any attention to Lucas.  Leon carefully leaned into the door, pushing it open slowly while peering around cautiously.  "Yeah, it got them."  He tentatively proceeded a couple steps while holding the door, examining the surroundings with frenetic worry before looking back into the lobby.  "Come on, someone help me with this."  Leon motioned to someone maybe a dozen feet away.

Lucas followed Leon outside and at his direction, feebly assisted in lifting the nearest woman.  She was a somewhat chubby blond woman that seemed vaguely familiar to Lucas.  Carrying her legs as Leon lifted just under her arms, they slowly walked back, Erin approaching to help them by holding one door ajar.  A man Lucas didn't recognize had joined their efforts with obvious trepidation, peering around for signs of danger.

Just as they were about to step outside again, Erin froze and spoke just loud enough to be heard over the patter of the rain.  "Someone else is out here."  Nervous energy spilling over the edges of her voice.  "She's-"

"Oh shit!  Inside!"  Called out the man while dashing into the opening.  Erin retreated an instant behind him as the doors were hastily closed forcibly.  A lone figure rushed towards them, rattling the door as it strained to barge inside.

Stepping forwards, Lucas helped the many other bodies and hands bracing against and holding the doors firmly shut.  Leon rattled the key in the deadbolt mechanism as the undead assailant produced its unfortunately familiar distinctive wailing tone.  Finally, the lock slid into place with a welcome click, barring the undead from breaching the barrier.

Those gathered exhaled a sigh of relief as they stared at the undead abomination outside.  The woman was about middle aged with a heavy sweater and jeans and looked quite pale and sick, but she appeared to be otherwise free of injurious harm.  Up close there was obviously something wrong with her, but at a distance, it was difficult to tell.

"Well, I guess they're screwed now."  Simon exhaled deeply, still braced against the door, but relaxed slightly.  "Damn it.  That was way too close."

"She just walked right around the corner and started running once she saw us."  Erin blurted, an anxious edge to her tone.  "I thought she might have been alive."

There were a few seconds of agonizing tension.  Lucas paced along the broad, heavy windows taking up most of the wall and gazed outside.  "Wait a minute, she didn't attack any of the blackout people."  Lucas expressed the unexpected observation with a low voice, then stepped away to check on the status of the woman they had brought inside and laid down.  She was still breathing.

"They weren't attacked by the zombie?"  Came a reply from Erin, who was close enough to overhear his mumbling thought process.  "She didn't notice them!  They're still alive!"

"Oh, wow."  Leon added.  "Maybe it won't notice them while we're here providing a distraction."

Lucas passively slinked away from the front door as the others debated what they could do.  It seemed quite peculiar, but he knew the zombie had to have moved past the motionless bodies of those blackout victims.  There was no possible way the undead couldn't have seen so many people laying right in its path, it had to either step over or around them.  An insane possibility coalesced in his mind, synthesized out of the tidbits of information he possessed.

"What if she does notice them?"  Erin watched the thing scraping its teeth against the smooth glass.  "If she notices them they're going to die!"

"Too bad there's nothing we can do about it."  Chloe clenched her hands.

"They knew the risks they were taking when they went out there."  Simon stood impassively before the doors with his bulky frame.  "But if anyone wants to go out there and try to bash its brains in with a pipe, you could use the other exit."

"Don't look at me."  Chloe replied immediately.

"Maybe we could open the doors just a tiny bit and hit it through the crack."  Leon offered, motioning to one of the blunt implements propped on the nearby wall.  "Or let it reach inside and trap its arm in the door."

"No.  That's the dumbest plan ever."  Simon declared.

"I know what to do."  Lucas called out from the periphery.

"How can you not even consider it?"  Erin protested.

"Actually, I agree with Simon.  There's no way we're doing that."  Chloe crossed her arms.

To Lucas, it appeared as if those in the building were always yelling and arguing about something.  Nobody else even seemed to value learning more about the strange nature of what had been taking place around them.  It seemed like doing so should have been their first priority.

"Hey!  I know what will work."  Lucas yelled to interject over the impenetrable argument.  "Listen to me!  I know what we have to do!"

"What is it then?"  Erin asked as alarmed faces turned to Lucas.

"We all leave this room and go to the other door!"  Lucas had no idea how much time they had remaining.  His sense of urgency strained his ability to think of any concise explanation.

"Okay, that's an even more idiotic idea."  Simon turned away to study the zombie through the translucent barrier.

"Yeah.  It will just look around and notice them there once it can't see us."  Erin added.

"No it won't!  When it doesn't see us in here it will go around the building to the other door."  Lucas hastily added, without any idea of how to explain his reasoning quickly enough.  "They don't attack each other!  They aren't conscious and right now neither are the people outside!  That's why it didn't attack them!"

"Whatever."

Lucas was being ignored as the others resumed their own unproductive arguing.  Despite the wild nature of the assertion, he was almost certain of the conclusion.  It was simple, and it fit all the data he had.  The zombies were somehow capable of sensing human consciousness.

Rebounding

Evan stared out through the glass door, peering along the narrow exterior corridor as recent memories circled inside his mind.  Running alone through the streets trying to care for numerous paralyzed had been monumentally straining.  Once the sea of people had arisen, and begun to be confounded by direct- and obvious- evidence of the startling unknown, their organized shuffling decayed into mindless carnage.  Seconds of terror concluded with abrupt finality, and suddenly a voice of which he wasn't quite fully cognizant was barking orders.

There had been nothing he could imagine having done differently.  Even his drive to provide help may have ultimately led to the tragic flashpoint.  Walking alone in the aftermath through a rapidly emptying, dying world had been numbing.  Passively, his eyes had scanned around for something else to do, but everywhere he looked, everything had already been tried.  He could only trudge isolated and insensate through the aftermath.  As he had returned, he glimpsed faces he thought he recognized, but reflecting upon it now, he couldn't be sure.

With time, the overwhelming shock of the rapid experience had begun to gradually fade into a background disquiet.  Languishing in a state of disconnect, he gradually felt his sense of self returning.  At some point a towel had been draped over Evan's shoulders.  He sat in a folding metal chair in the Mansfield building's lobby, dripping water into a puddle at his feet.  Nearby, some people he knew were speaking to each other.

Realizing a fraction of his numbness was due to a watery chill, Evan stood to dry himself with the towel.  Those around him halted their conversation abruptly as they stared at him.  Zack and Jennifer stood not far to one side while Minoko sat solemnly in a chair at the corner beside the building's elevator.  Ryan sat in another chair beside Evan.

Jennifer was already at his side, gently touching at his shoulder.  "Evan?  Say something."

"I'm fine.  I'm okay."  Evan touched the towel to his damp clothing, noticing that there had already been considerable effort made to dry and warm him.  And clean off the blood he had on his hands.  In his disturbed state, he somehow hadn't noticed.  "Is anyone still out there?"

"They're all gone.  You were the only other one we know of who didn't get on a bus."  Jennifer embraced him despite the wet fabric.  Evan savored the intimate contact, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply as Jennifer's warmth pressed against him.  It helped immensely to soothe his frayed nerves.

"When everyone woke up things got real crazy out there."  Ryan added without rising from his seat.  "The others returned when the shooting started.  We thought you might have been shot."

The commentary was not addressed.  Silence dominated during an extended interlude, the familiar downpour of the storm providing a soothing white static.

Breaking away once he felt better, Evan gazed around at those around him and resumed attempts to remove excess moisture from his clothing.  It wasn't providing much relief.  "I'm okay.  I just need some dry clothes.  I'll be back in a few minutes."  He retrieved a nearby flashlight.

Jennifer hurried to keep pace with Evan as he journeyed into the shadowed stairwell.  When they had reached the third floor hallway, she spoke softly.  "Evan.  You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Yeah, I-"  Evan paused as his voice wavered, replaying in his mind how the attempted rescue had become a disaster in an instant.  "It just happened so fast.  I couldn't stop it."

"Shhh...  It's not your fault."  Jennifer embraced Evan once more, stroking his back with her hands.  "I'm sure you did everything possible.  But some things are beyond anyone's ability to control."

Firstly allowing himself some time to recover, Evan gently coaxed Jennifer to release and looked into her beautiful dark eyes.  "I'll be fine, really.  Thank you."  They resumed walking in peaceful silence, side by side.  Evan entered his room, emerging once he had dried with fresh clothing.  He came out wearing a thin raincoat.

Upon their return to the lobby, Ryan was pacing about the room slowly, something he had seemingly begun doing during Evan's absence.  Upon their return he looked to Evan.  "So dude, what happened out there?  Did the zombies attack while everyone was knocked out, or what?"

"No, I don't think so.  It-"  Silence dominated as Evan took a deep breath to steady himself again; he continued.  "I don't think I saw any zombies at all.  When everyone woke up, they just didn't know what had happened.  It was blind panic."

"One moment I was standing at the gate.  The next, I was just on the ground.  I've never had a blackout before."  Zack spoke idly as he passively watched the rain.  "Once I realized it had hit everybody, I felt this sudden urge to run.  Anyone could have been attacked by the zombies while we were out."

"I thought the same thing."  Minoko spoke for the first time in many minutes.

"At first, I thought you all became zombies."  Ryan added.  "Man, that was freaky to see you all suddenly get up at the same time."

Evan stared beyond the glass doorway and the gate into the street, recalling his discovery of twisted, peeled steel.  Thoughts of those barely audible, unearthly whistles and clacking snaps came rushing back to him.  The high pitched squeal of deforming metal.  The sight of discarded weapons strewn across the road as if their bearers had simply vanished.  Something else is out there and I heard it, whispered a compelling inner voice.

"So we're just waiting around here for them to come back, right?"  Ryan inquired.

"They said they would return when they could."  Zack stood beside the glass doorway, where he would occasionally peer towards gate at the end of the corridor.  "But they were probably just as alarmed by the blackout as we were.  Maybe they're going to come back after someone figures out what it was."

"Does anybody have any idea what that was?"  Jennifer asked to an uneasy silence.

"I don't know."  Evan mumbled to himself, thinking.  It was too easy to imagine gargantuan, amorphous figures peeling open vehicles like wrapping paper and carrying limp bodies away to a grisly fate.  There was good reason for the crowd's terror after all, even if there was no immediately visible threat.  Whether or not he imagined the sounds, the evidence left behind seemed clear enough.  "Something to stun us.  So we can't fight back."

"What?"  Jennifer asked from beside him.  "Fight back against wha-"

A sickeningly familiar, overwhelming trumpeting tone sliced through universe.  A wave of disorientation blasted through the environment, tipping Evan with a fluttering paralysis in every joint.  That sound again, he thought as he felt that strange tone threatening to peel him away from his body.  Presently, a sensation of floating, then its inexplicable sudden absence allowed him to regain his sense of place and balance.

It isn't over, a thought bubbled into Evan's conscious mind.  It was only the briefest moment of perceptible time, but the sickening familiarity of the event produced within him an urgent impulse for action.  Darting towards the doorway, he found it tightly sealed.

"Evan?"  Jennifer pushed herself upright upon the nearby wall where she had stumbled.  "What is it?"  Minoko remained solemnly silent where she had been sitting, but looked up, eyes wide with alarm.  Zack stumbled against the floor with a solid crack.

"Whoa, dude.  That feels really weird, man."  Ryan slumped halfway into a chair before adding.  "That was the same thing as the last time, wasn't it?"

Looking back at those within the small chamber; Evan observed the others were shaken and still regaining their composure after the momentary experience, but they were all still conscious.  He couldn't hear anything audible through the glass, but the door and distance to the street dampened perception along with the splashing rain.  "I need to listen."  He spoke as he retrieved the keys nearby and returned to unbolt the lock.

"Where are you going?"  Jennifer chased after Evan as he passed through the entryway.

"Stay here.  If something happens to me, run and hide.  I need to check on something."  Passing the keys to Jennifer, he proceeded towards the minimally visible section of street, his heart racing as he thought of how easily the iron gate could be ripped away by whatever scrapped the vehicles.

Listening through the hammering rain, Evan strained his hearing for the same noises he heard previously.  Even right beside the gate, there was nothing he could detect but the drizzling, stormy weather.  Seconds passed in desolate silence, but there remained no trace of those eerie whistles or snaps that he could discern beneath the rain.  Not wishing to turn his back on the street for long, he ran to the front door.

Ryan helpfully opened the door as Evan drew closer.  He fidgeted as he spoke, nervous tension in his posture.  "Oh man, are you freaking out on us again?"

"I think we might be okay for a while."  Evan exhaled, nervously gazing down the corridor one last time before entering.

Jennifer was kneeling beside Zack near the glass dividing barrier.  She looked up very briefly to address Evan.  "He's really badly hurt."

Zack blew heavily through grit teeth as he sat motionless.  He had been the only one among the five to actually tumble onto the hard floor as a result of the most recent blackout event. "My arm.  It's broken."  He held his right arm steady, a stream of blood dripping down as Jennifer applied pressure to the grievous wound.

Minoko knelt beside Jennifer, rummaging through a box of first aid supplies those in the building had previously scrounged together.  "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."

"Just hand me that other bandage."  Jennifer the fresh bandage to the injury and tightened it.

"Crap, that hurts."  Zack exhaled forcefully, pain watering his eyes as he struggled to remain motionless.

To his knowledge, Jennifer had the same rudimentary knowledge of first aid he had, but the severity of this injury seemed too extensive to handle.  But he had an inkling of an idea.  "Jennifer, can you handle this on your own for a few minutes?"

"What?"  Jennifer expressed shock, but strained herself not to look away.  "I- I think so."

"Good."  Evan retrieved the keys to the iron gate.  "Ryan, come with me."

"What?  Evan, no don't-"  Strain lined Jennifer's voice.

"If anyone hears anything strange, don't investigate.  Just hide as fast as you can."  Evan departed prior to further protests could be heard.  He knew where he might find someone with sufficient medical training to handle the problem.  The possibility of finding the aid was all that mattered.

Ryan followed haphazardly, more mystified than anything as he pushed his ratty coat's hood over his head.  "Whoa, dude.  If you're going out there again, are you at least going to take the axe with you?"

Evan paused on his way to retrieve the weapon, then leaned it against the iron barrier as he unlocked and unthreaded the heavy chain.  "Okay.  But lock this up again once I leave and wait here for me to return.  But if you hear absolutely anything strange, run inside right away and get everyone into hiding away from the doors."

 "What would I hear?"  Ryan asked just before Evan ran out of range to respond.  There was no forthcoming answer.

Imperfect Information

While the majority of the building's stranded residents burst through the doors, Lucas withdrew to the back of the chamber.  Once Leon confirmed that the door had been firmly closed once again, the dormitory regained its formerly robust sound of life.  Numerous people had shed excess water from coats and umbrellas throughout the lobby upon their entry as they departed to other areas.  Such was not uncommon an event for the old cement flooring on rainy days, giving the place a very normal feel despite the lack of electricity.

Lucas watched the proceedings silently from beside the stairs along the back wall.  Unlike Jorge, he was not very concerned about being protected from another strange blackout event.  Instead, he desired to overhear additional information, while remaining on the periphery of the clamor- out of everyone's attention.  There was a brief period of noise as the various arriving residents vacated the front lobby in clusters, leaving behind a small contingent of people sharing their knowledge of the situation.

Simon loudly cursed the retreat of the rescue operation again.  Chloe related a horrified description of coming across a shot figure, presumably a dead body. The Hispanic person with the black eye Lucas didn't know conveyed distress at witnessing the expedient departure of a few densely packed city buses.  After a minute the turmoil abated and the room somewhat cleared; a single conversation had coalesced out of those remaining.

Lucas picked up on the proceedings as Leon finished a thought, "-sure they'll come back soon."

"The damn cowards have tanks!  They have machine guns!  Why the fuck are they running away at all?"  Simon replied.

"Probably because of the thing that just knocked almost everybody out.  If that happened again while everyone was out in the open, the zombies could kill a lot more people while everyone was unconscious."  Chloe shook off and folded an umbrella.  She had set a carrying case beside herself in a dry location.

"That's right.  If everyone can just pass out like that, it makes the situation different than anyone expected.  If that's possible, they need to figure out what they should do about it."  Leon added.

"Couldn't some zombies have gotten past them somewhere and are running around where people think it's still safe?"  George leaned against the wall on one side.

"Isn't that what happened?"  Erin spoke tentatively.  "Just a bit after we woke up there was shooting.  People were running and screaming."

"That's right."  George said.  "The zombies must have come forward while everyone was unconscious and got a few people who were behind the front line.  When the soldiers woke up they noticed and took care of them."

"I don't think all of those were infected."  Chloe motioned to her head.  "Some of them weren't killed correctly for that."

"Oh, I didn't notice..."  George trailed off, a sick look on his face.

"God damn cowards just panicked."  Simon asserted.  "They killed all the nearby ones before the whatever the fuck that blackout was.  And now they're all terrified just because we were all knocked out for a few minutes."

"It's not like a mass blackout is normal."  Erin countered.

"We should get the hell out of here too."  Jorge called from the back of the room.  "While it's still safe out there."

"It's not safe out there.  If that blackout event happens again while we're outside it could be a disaster."  Chloe set her umbrella against the wall.  "At least if it happens again while we're inside, we won't have to worry about the zombies."

"Plus we don't even know what direction would be safe."  Erin added.

"Don't you get it?  There's something else out there!"  Jorge breathed heavily as he approached the doors.  "That's why they're running!  We should get out there and try to follow them before they get too far ahead of us."

There was a brief moment of uneasy silence as the wild assertion sank in.  Simon spoke next.  "What the fuck are you talking about?  They're in cars, we can't catch up with them."

"Nobody we saw out there mentioned seeing anything."  Chloe crossed her arms in front of herself.

"Come on, the thing that created the blackout!"  Jorge spoke with a tremble in his voice.  "It destroyed the helicopters and knocked everyone out.  We need to leave before it heads this way!"

Lucas couldn't help himself and broke out into laughter again.  Everyone present turned to look at him with either irritation or anxiety.

"What the hell's your problem?"  Simon scowled.

After a few seconds, Lucas calmed down enough to form words.  "He's terrified of something he doesn't know anything about, but the zombies that we do know are out there somewhere are not a problem."  Lucas snickered.  Wasn't the existence of z-rays and zombies scary enough?

"Tell them."  Jorge pointed to Lucas.  "Explain to them how something out there did this!"

Lucas resisted the urge to laugh out loud again.  "Uh-  I only meant that the source of that blackout event was relatively close.  I didn't mean whatever caused it to happen was right around here somewhere.  Or that it could have been caused deliberately by something."

"But that has to be it!"  Jorge nervously glanced outside.  "Something else is out there!  The army attacked it and it fought back!"

"It's definitely possible.  Could be an alien invasion."  Lucas smirked, resisting the urge to break out laughing again.  "It could just be something natural.  We don't know what really caused the blackout.  So your guess is as good as mine."

"We know it's close, and that people with training and heavy weaponry are freaked out by it.  That's reason enough to get the hell out of here too."  Jorge motioned for Leon to open the doors.  Leon looked back in awkward silence, as if unsure of whether to let him out or not.

"Running away might not help."  Lucas shook his head.  "Since it seems like it was partly blocked by the building, the effect probably didn't occur on the other side of the planet.  But I don't think we can really know anything more than that."

"What do you mean probably?"  Chloe approached Lucas as the surrounding group broke up into a separate, spontaneous argument on the merits of leaving or staying.

"Well, it could still be really far away.  Without knowing the range of the effect and how it works, we can't really estimate how far away it is or even where it is.  But if we travelled about a mile or so and found people who weren't knocked out by it that would tell us something we could use."  Lucas shrugged as he edged slowly towards the stairs in the room.  "It seems reasonable to assume for now that it came from one source and was evenly spread out over the area, but we don't even know that's true."

"But it's somewhere above us, right?"  Chloe suggested a guess while walking beside Lucas to the stairs.

Pausing for a moment to consider the suggestion, Lucas nodded.  "Actually, yeah.  The blackout thing probably came from somewhere overhead. Otherwise the buildings might have blocked the effect for some of the people outside just like it did for people inside."  Lucas stood at the edge of the stairs and looked into the lobby.  Simon seemed to be convincing Jorge to stay even as others now seemed rather uneasy.  "But until we know more than that, I don't think I want to just blindly try to run."

"Yeah.  The infected are dangerous, but as far as we know right now, that mass blackout wasn't any more dangerous than they are."  Chloe agreed.

"Just what I was thinking."  Lucas shrugged, wondering if it might be a good idea for someone to go outside and take a look around.  He still ached from his tumble, but didn't exactly think it was an awful idea.  After all, they might be able to learn something interesting.  Or useful.

Inordinate Events

Water drenched the city as numerous limp forms littered the street.  An isolated figure dashed amidst the disarray.  Paralyzed mobs had naturally produced erratic piles while many of the luckier were slumped inside idling vehicles.  Dashing amidst the sea of immobile forms, Evan paused to roll individuals from their backs and onto their sides.  In one case, he pulled a soldier who had been face down out of a puddle and worked to drain the water from his lungs.  A couple of times he saved someone from a drowning fate who bore an obviously broken bone or a bleeding injury.

Fortunately for Evan's sake as much as anyone else's, it appeared that the vast majority of the populace stricken by the peculiar malady had fallen forwards or to one side.  But even with that fortunate happenstance, there were still far too many in need of aid he was not capable of helping.  Puddles dotted the city streets and his eyes were inexorably drawn to someone new that required aid.  Further into the downtown region, a wispy haze of smoke was battered by rain, clear evidence of flames that were being rapidly expunged by the precipitous rainfall.

As time urgently pressed onwards into minutes, Evan had been drawn increasingly further from his safe origin.  Among the locus of idling buses and military transport, there were thankfully very few crashed vehicles, the product of drivers rendered unconscious during motion.  Very few had collided with a building or one another vehicle, but it did happen.  Sometimes with unpleasant, gory outcomes for those caught in their path.  Luckily for the passengers, it appeared as if the collisions were mostly low speed, non-fatal and the vehicle damage had been mostly superficial.

The downpour filled the air with a steady hushed static; the faint noises of which Evan had barely been cognizant had subsided after a short interval.  The agonized squealing of twisting metal or the snapping, sharp whistles had felt like products of anxiety or temporary derangement.  In his harried impulse to help, Evan's lingering thoughts dismissed the perception as a confabulation spurred by anxiety and imagination.  Yet upon passing beyond the edge of one building corner, he spied something that brought that perception rushing to the forefront of his conscious mind.

Only a few hundred feet away Evan witnessed numerous twisted, torn hulks of metal which littered the soaked pavement and sidewalks.  Where once had presumably been an armored vehicle, only torn and dysfunctional scraps remained.  Zombies could not do that, whispered a chillingly compulsive, instantaneous mental voice.  Adding to the alarm, within the proximity of those remains- indeed anywhere nearby- there were absolutely no unconscious figures.  Firearms had been strewn about as if their bearers had dropped them in a wild panic as they had fled.

A murmur of shuffling activity diverted attention before the sight had time to fully impress itself upon Evan.  Startling movement spurred honed reflexes to leap away.  The human horde around him had finally stirred, and now rose to their feet with startled, bare comprehension of what had taken place.  Voices and murmuring speech filled the air as individuals checked on companions, retrieved fallen objects and tended to injuries sustained.

A few on the outer edge witnessed the evidence of wreckage and missing that Evan had spied and began shouting in alarm.  Others came to with serious injuries or within sight of mangled bodies and shrieked.  A sudden wave of urgency swept through the crowd as a disorganized terror swept over civilian and soldier alike.  Amplified voices bellowed for calm and order as officers attempted to alleviate the fearful and impose discipline over the dense clusters.

Evan attempted to assist the efforts to reassert order, but his actions to subdue what was coming merely added to the growing maelstrom.  Gradually people became horrified upon spreading realizations of their exposure spread.  With the front line of their organized rescue shattered and its accompanying soldiers vanished without a trace, there was a growing mood of unease.  Eyes darted nervously throughout the multitudes, as people neurotically regarded anyone within vision as a possible undead attacker.  They were increasingly susceptible to zombie attack from anywhere and the thought compelled everyone to terrified distraction.

Evan watched in shock as a nearby bolting individual- very much still living- prompted a pop of gunfire into the edge of the assembled clusters, and that was all it took to dash any hope that order would be restored.  A stampede broke out as nearby people naturally reacted to the gunfire with an impulse to flee.  With no clear criteria to distinguish zombie from living, that initial spark created a cascading effect that swept through the street.  More isolated gunfire broke out in spurts as chaos soon reigned.

Throngs bolted in random directions, a ripple of motion pressed against the enveloping human sea.  Some assailed the idling vehicles in a desperate bid to acquire a space which did not exist; still others were trampled within the furor or crushed as alarmed drivers accelerated away.  Babbled warnings of zombies filled the air as Evan wove his way through the tides, halting beside a building's heavy wall and remaining there until the throttling currents had dissipated.

Within a minute the gunfire and screams had retreated into the distance and the induced madness nearby had waned.  The increasingly distant roar revealed that the havok within the local area had spread through the surrounding blocks.  Carefully gazing in every direction for signs of the abnormal, Evan ventured carefully to where he had been standing just prior to the outburst.

Attention was momentarily drawn to Evan as the nervous soldiers regarded him as a possible hostile.  Holding his hands up and walking slowly, he gained the uneasy trust of the minority of those who had remained in the vicinity.  Those still present were actively attending to the wounded or in some cases, requesting urgent aid for the rapidly dying.

Rushing to assist where he could, Evan could barely hear the sounds of the world as the senselessness of it all overtook him.  There were few zombies in the area and Evan was not sure he had actually witnessed any out here.  Yet he had seen perhaps dozens die or receive fatal wounds due to an aimless spurt of paranoia.

With his adrenaline wearing off and without any protection from the rain, Evan could feel cold numbness seeping into his flesh and mind.  With his ability to change the circumstances around him severely diminished, the reality of the situation had begun to impact him.

"Civilian!  Stop at once!  Return to your shelter!"  Dull comprehension of the echoing commands came to Evan gradually as his attention was forcefully drawn away from a dying gunshot victim.

Few other living remained nearby who were not overloaded onto a military jeep.  Most of the vehicles had vanished while Evan had not been looking.  Those few others on foot were moving quickly away.  How much time had passed was unknown, but those providing emergency medical care were withdrawing and numerous refugees had simply vanished.  A medic came forwards to staunch the wound of the person Evan had been trying to help.

Reluctantly, Evan turned his attention away from the dying, walking through the streets splashed with blood.  Sporadic gunfire still fired nearby and along the surrounding avenues as he proceeded to his dorm.  Before much longer, the loud cracks halted and the last of the vehicles disappeared from sight soon afterwards.  Evan was left alone, walking through familiar avenues rendered nightmarish.

It was almost as if the city had been a battlefield.  Evan barely had enough presence of mind to check around himself for his own safety.  A few times he almost stumbled over an immobile body.  Eventually, he returned to the wrought iron gate of the Mansfield dormitory and approached as a familiar face gazed out at him from the other side.

"Evan!  Evan!"  The single figure waved, close to the bars and partly hidden under an umbrella.  In the nearby street, one of the dormitory's residents laid in a pool of vermillion.

Still in his rattled, numbed condition, Evan approached without immediately recognizing or acknowledging the individual.

"Say something!"  Zack had a look of surprise on his face.  "Were you bitten?  What happened?  Evan!"

"I wasn't bitten."  Evan exhaled with great effort to speak.  "I am fine."

As he neared the gate, Zack allowed him entry.  He said other things, but Evan could barely hear them as he was escorted into the building.

"What happened?"  Jennifer asked from somewhere within the lobby.

"It's okay."  Evan replied as he sat on the floor next to the closed elevator door.  While doing so, he became aware of the blood on his own hands and clothing, adding.  "This isn't my blood.  I'm okay."

There were more voices, but Evan only focused on the one thing he had been able to see running through his mind ever since the first shot of the massacre had stung his ears.  Despite only a hazy recollection of identifying traits, he was almost certain the human catalyst for the event- the first person who had bolted- had been one of those he had saved from drowning.

Anomaly

Lucas found no burn markings anywhere on his clothing or skin.  Even tracing his hands over those parts he could not directly see, he did not detect any serious injuries; only the aching stinging of sensitivity that would normally be expected from an inelegant tumble upon an unyielding surface.  Once he had changed out of his soggy clothing and acclimated himself (drying off to warm up and wearing new clothing), he actually didn't feel any serious lasting discomfort.  Only a niggling irritation of the lingering bruises produced by the mysterious impact of which he had no recollection.

The discarded wet clothing had been set up on a coat hanger with a towel beneath to absorb excess water.  The light rain jacket had sustained negligible damage on one sleeve, but on closer inspection it just appeared to be regular tearing and wear from abuse.  Minor scuffs marked the jeans, but Lucas wasn't entirely sure those markings were new.  In either case, they did not seem to exhibit any damage other than scrapes sustained from the tumble.  On reflection, Lucas was at least glad the sturdy material of his clothing evidently mostly shielded his skin from scraping against the hard rooftop surface.

Lucas did not know all that much about the effect of lightning strikes on humans but was hard pressed for what else could have been responsible for his blackout.  A lightning strike, despite the rarity didn't seem that unreasonable for an initial guess, but he had passively expected to find- if not scorching on his flesh- anything to verify the hypothesis.  Since returning to his room to change, he couldn't even recall hearing any thunder or witnessing a spark of electrical discharge.  While he could not be certain any of this was abnormal, the percieved oddity still tantalized Lucas's natural curiosity.

Lucas stared into space through the window at the outside scenery, the current situation forgotten as he puzzled over his strange experience.  There still wasn't anyone or anything interesting to see in the slim slice of walkway between this dorm and the house-like building across from him.  Shortly upon first entering the room, Lucas had cracked the window open just slightly so he could monitor the roiling cacophony of the refugees.  With a sudden awareness he noticed the characteristic roar of the mob had diminished without his noticing.  Whereas it began as a disorganized furor, it had now only consisted of a few disconnected shouts.  Few but distinct engines fired somewhere.

That suggested there was a risk of being left behind.  Quickly retrieving the flashlight and his heavier coat, Lucas departed precipitously from his room.  While winding through the dark to the main entrance, he couldn't help but notice there was very little noise actually inside the building.

The front lobby had been cleaned since the last time Lucas was down here; the air smelled faintly of ammonia.  Several people were clustered along the broad glass front facing the park blocks.  A couple of them had blunt implements close at hand.  Upon hearing his footfalls upon the steps the man whose name Lucas had trouble recalling turned to him with momentary surprise then relief.

"Oh- good to see I'm not the only one left."  Lucas spoke as he clicked off the flashlight and pushed it into a zippered pocket of his coat.  "I thought I might have been abandoned."

"There's some others gathered in the common room."  The man whose name Lucas had trouble recalling- Leon- spoke.  "But yeah, some people ran outside when they realized the soldiers were starting to head back."

"Heading back?"  Lucas blinked.  "You mean leaving?  Why?"

Jorge turned to face Lucas, his long ponytail whipping around.  "Probably got freaked out by the- uh, whatever the hell just happened."  He brushed nervously at the edge of his large mustache with his fingers.

"Huh?  What happened?"  Lucas approached an available area near the others to stare out the glass.  He didn't see whatever they might have been talking about but he did notice a lump of something rolled tightly in a tablecloth under one of the park benches.

"That flash?  The one that knocked everybody out?"  Erin said from beside him.  She swept some of her curly blond hair away from her eyes.  "Did it not get you?"

Momentarily stunned into silence, Lucas regarded Erin and the other two with bewilderment.  There wasn't anything to see outside but rain, clouds and the empty park blocks.  "What?  The blackout?  It hit you too?"

"It hit almost everybody.  Just like that."  Leon snapped his fingers and spoke.  His attention was seemingly drawn for a moment to Lucas's still damp hair.  "Were you outside?"

"I was on the roof.  I thought I had been struck by lightning."  Lucas shook his head as he could scarcely believe what the others were saying.  "But yeah, I saw a flash and then I was just suddenly on the ground."

"Yeah, almost everyone got knocked out."  Leon added.

"Almost everyone?  Did someone not pass out?"

"I didn't."  Jorge spoke.  "The other people out here passed out, though and I couldn't wake them up.  A few others ran out here and were also awake the whole time.  We all heard that strange sound like a musical whistle and felt really close to passing out.  I almost fell down, actually."

"Huh.  I heard that sound too, I thought I hallucinated it because I was hit by lightning."  Lucas was wondering what the odd event could indicate.  Whatever transpired, it appeared to have been another new phenomenon.  Was it possible that it was unlinked to the zombies?  Lucas doubted it was entirely disassociated, but other than minor dings and scrapes everyone impacted appeared to be fine as far as he could tell.  Whatever it was, it didn't appear to be deadly.

"After that we heard something crashing," Jorge continued, "then Chloe started babbling something about z-rays.  I thought we were screwed until everyone started waking up like nothing had even happened."

"Yeah, and then we told them about the flash we had seen."  Leon added.

"How long was everybody unconscious?"  Lucas thought about how thoroughly drenched he had been during the interval they had casually alluded to.

"It might have been about five minutes but I can't be sure."  Jorge replied as he momentarily glanced outside.  "Everyone seemed to wake up at the exact same time.  I think it got everyone who was outside because it suddenly became real quiet out there.  When they woke up it made everyone even more freaked out than they already were.  And then I think a riot broke out and there was some shooting."

"After that we noticed that the vehicles started leaving and things started to get quiet again."  Erin added with a vigorous nod, shaking her long unbound hair and ponytail.  "Some people ran out there to see what was going on, and we've been waiting here for them to come back with news."

"Huh.  That's weird."  Lucas was fascinated primarily with learning more about the mass blackout.  The natural test of so many individuals subjected to the same mysterious event had allowed people to make a solidly reliable, yet very simple observation.  "So are you sure that everyone outside was knocked out?"

"I think so."  Jorge replied.  "I didn't want to go out and check around out there, though.  Not with the zombies still potentially around."

"So whatever that anomaly was, it seems it can be blocked by the building.  And it hit everyone nearby."  Lucas tentatively declared.  "That's pretty weird."

"If you didn't see the light."  Leon agreed dispassionately as he waited beside the door.

"I'm not sure that's something we can conclude."  Lucas stared through the window at the sky as he thought carefully about the direct evidence they had.  "In fact, that might actually be backwards.  Based on what Jorge said, it seems more likely that people saw the light because they were knocked out."

"Hey, that could be right."  Leon appeared to be quite surprised but rather intrigued by that suggestion.

"What are you two talking about?"  Jorge looked between Lucas and Leon.

Before Lucas knew how best to reply, Leon responded for him.  "It's actually kind of clever.  The only thing we actually know is that the light was seen by people who blacked out, right?"  Leon paused just briefly before continuing.  "The light I saw was this super intense flash, so bright that everyone who wasn't locked in a closet or the bathroom probably should have seen something.  Where exactly were you standing when it happened, Jorge?"

Jorge stepped away from the glass to point towards the hallway opening leading to the common room.  "Over there.  I was the only one out here that didn't pass out."

"Then were you able to see outside?"  Lucas spurred him on.  Leon had come up with a very good approach.

"Sort of."  Jorge affirmed.  "But I was kind of looking down the hall at the time."

"But you didn't see anything at all?  No flash or change in brightness at all?  Nothing?"

Jorge paused for a long while before shaking his head.  "No.  I don't think so."

"Then maybe there wasn't any burst of light."  Lucas declared hesitantly.  "That might be true for the sound we all heard, too.  Some of us just got a less severe exposure so we didn't all pass out, but you still got part of the full effects."

"Well, then what did we see and hear, then?"  Erin asked with a bewildered expression plastered on her face.

"Afterimages or illusions produced by whatever caused us to go unconscious like that.  Errors in our brain or senses."

"Yeah, Lucas might be right about that."  Leon agreed.

Erin regarded Lucas and Leon with a mild sense of awe.  "That's pretty strange.  But I don't know if that all really makes any difference to us."

"Yeah.  Even if that is true, how does any of this stuff help us at all?"  Jorge frowned.

"Well, I'm not sure if that part tells us anything useful.  It's just interesting."  Lucas admitted.  "If there were a camera running it might show us there wasn't any flash of light though.  That would be something."

"Then what's the point of all this?"  Jorge exhaled an exasperated puff of air.  "Why are you even wasting time on this?"

"Well, whatever caused this has to be pretty different than the z-rays."  Lucas began under the assumption that Jorge had at least some passing familiarity with his z-ray explanation.  "Z-rays are extremely precise and don't seem to be blocked by anything.  Whatever we just experienced has the opposite properties."

"Oh no, not you too."  Jorge rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, consider this.  Whatever caused most of us to pass out was sudden and hit everywhere in a big open area.  So the event seems to have been untargeted and just bursting out all over the place sort of like a bomb.  But we also know that if this thing doesn't hit us intensely enough- like if it's blocked by something or maybe it's too far away- someone won't actually pass out from it.  So the ultimate source that caused the blackout event- whatever it is- can't be too far away from where we are right now."

Jorge widened his eyes and took a tentative step away from the door.  "That's why they're all getting the hell out of here.  Something else is out there that caused that and the army must have seen whatever it was!"

Lucas snickered and then broke into laughter as he watched the sudden horrified retreat.  He couldn't really blame Jorge for that suddenly fearful response; he hadn't quite fully considered what the simple deduction could really mean until he had given voice to the simple yet almost unbelievable chain of logic.  Now that he had done so, and Jorge had drawn the connection with the sudden departure of the soldiers outside, Lucas couldn't really help himself but to laugh at the natural reaction of startled terror.

A nervous hush swept across the room as movement through the glass caught their attention.  A mob bearing umbrellas and coats were stampeding towards the building, residents out of luck who had not managed to hitch a ride on one of the escaping vehicles.  Moving away from the doors to stand at the corner of the translucent facade, Lucas watched as Leon unlocked the door to permit entry.

Several dozen people marched back into the dorm in a noisy rush, most immediately taking the stairs while few others trickled down the hall to the common area.  Simon lingered by the door as many more people vacated the area.  "They're gone!  The bastards just all drove away!"  He declared angrily.  "They're leaving us here!"

Unsettling

Fitful slumber visited Evan throughout the night as troubling phantasms refused to abate.  Each time the hazy visages were quickly forgotten, but not before refreshing the memories of what had been done just before his weary rest.  Nothing was quite so bad enough to prompt a vocal outburst, but Evan was not normally so restless.  Each time he awoke in the night, Evan reminded himself with the thought that the actions he had taken were the responsible choice for his situation.

Yet the minor possibility that those infected people could have been redeemed with a cure or just recovered if they had more time refused to leave him.  He had no idea if the disease would prove to be eventually curable in some way, but he knew for certain that the actions he chose were permanent.  Speculative conjectures that they would have been eliminated by any rescue party in the morning or that their early extermination could have potentially saved lives was of minor consolation, but they did help.

A burst of loud excitement in the building roused Evan, bringing him to a weary, but alert state of wakefulness.  Natural light filtered into his room from the curtains, grey with the obscuring heavy clouds and rain but bright enough to indicate it had been day for maybe an hour.  Despite a problematic rest, he had apparently slept more peacefully that last time than previously.  Rising from his bed and drawing open the curtains to let in the light, he briefly spied the rain slicked and empty streets several dozen feet below.

Before heading out to check out the commotion, he noticed the previous day's clothing smelled faintly of dried sweat.   Quickly swapping it for fresh clothing, he tossed the old clothes in the nearby hamper.  During the quick exchange a distinctive loud crack came from outside.  It was muffled by the building, but likely had been produced by a nearby gunshot.  Retrieving the flashlight from his desk, he departed the room and made his way through the halls to the front doors.  During the short travel, other sounds came to his ears amidst the sound of heavy rainfall, continued excited chatter and distant gunfire.

Several of the building's residents were gathered in the small area by the front doors.  Other residents were standing outside, crowded into the tight alleyway and holding umbrellas.  There was an excited discussion taking place as Jennifer weaved through the crowds.  "I was just about to come get you!"

"What's going on?"  Evan spoke with a loud voice to be heard over the excited chatter; keeping to the back wall of the lobby to stay out of the way of people who eagerly crowded the area.

"They're here!  They're wiping out the zombies and they're heading this way!  They're coming to take us out of here soon!"  Jennifer exclaimed as she embraced Evan.

Holding Jennifer was a greatly pleasant experience after such a miserable night.  Exhaling gently, Evan was glad they were nearing the end of their troubles.  Somehow, he almost didn't expect the moment to arrive.  "So, we need to start rounding everyone up."

"I think everyone is already here.  They drove by the building a few minutes ago using a loudspeaker.  I think it woke a lot of people up."

"So that's what that was.  But we should probably still check."

Jennifer retrieved the list of names from the flimsy desk nearby, scanning it quickly.  "Twenty seven.  So I guess we should do a count."

Through the open doors came a distant echo of an amplified voice and the regular chopping hum of a rotor.  Both sounds were hard to make out over the excitement, but once the crowd noticed, their clamor faded to a murmur so they could attentively listen.

"Then let's count heads."  Evan whispered.  "Remember, it's twenty eight now because of Minoko."

While each performed an independent count, the booming, echoing voice carried on, the reverent hush of the mingled crowd sufficing to bring its message into focus.  That soon they would all be rescued and not to depart from their safe havens prematurely.  From the fading voice after a moment it seemed as if the vehicle booming the message was driving away now.  Perhaps to carry its message to other places within the city.  As the sound faded, the crowd resumed its relieved chatter.

By the time Evan finished his counting, he had glimpsed Zach at the far end of the corridor, close to the gate and holding the residents at bay.  Someone had taken some sheets and covered the mangled body parts and corpses with them.  The sheets had been weighed down with random objects.  Water had swept away a great deal of the blood, but the sheets still bore large discolored splotches.  Minoko lingered by the door where Robert had been restrained the previous night.

Finished with his count and noting they were only short by one person, Evan approached Minoko with care, using the flashlight to get her attention.  She barely regarded his presence as she apprehensively stood at the door as if deliberating over whether to open it.  Someone had taped a warning to the door indicating that a zombie was inside the room, but there was no sound coming from within.

"How are you feeling?"  Evan awkwardly asked as he approached with his light.

"I want to be certain."  Minoko whispered almost too faintly to hear over the surrounding celebratory mood.  "Before we leave."

Evan tried to consider a measured response.  Ultimately, he had no idea what to say that would diminish her sorrow.  "If you'd like, I could check for you."

"I need to see."  Minoko said with her slight accent.  "I want to know it wasn't just a- a mistake."  Her voice hitched as she had trouble looking towards him.  She hung her head down and just stared numbly at the door.

"Okay, I'll be right back."  Knowing the door would be locked without needing to check, Evan returned to the main entryway.  He approached the corner with the folding chairs and a very flimsy portable desk.  A plastic bin with dividers contained labeled keys for every room in the building.

Jennifer sidled beside Evan.  "There you are.  I counted twenty seven.  Zack told me he was planning on counting everyone as they leave by the gate so we don't accidentally leave anyone behind."

"I see.  Any idea who we're missing then?"  Evan fished through the keys as he replied.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't see Ryan."

"I don't recall seeing him either."  Knowing Ryan, he was probably the only person Evan knew that could have concievably slept through such a commotion with ease.  "It's probably him.  You should go check on him so he won't be left behind."

"What are you looking for?"  Jennifer asked.

"Minoko wants to see Robert one last time."  Evan felt a weary exhaustion as he spoke, wary of being overheard despite the distance and other chatter.  "Since this is the last time she'll probably ever get to see him."

"I'll do it."  Jennifer exhaled carefully.  "I have the key to the room, anyway.  You go get Ryan."

"Are you sure?"

"Have you ever lost anyone very close to you before?"  Jennifer intoned to him, almost stern.

Evan hesitated before his admission.  "No."

"She's trying to be brave, but right now she needs someone who knows what that is like more than she needs a hero."

Reluctantly, yet with no small amount of relief Evan agreed to Jennifer's request.  While they had spoken, news of vehicles were seen traveling along the nearby street and soldiers were reportedly very close to the gate.  Someone with a rifle had approached the gate close enough to speak.  Zach relayed a message that quickly traveled through the refugees, who responded with growing excitement at their transportation coming within the next few minutes to bring them to a safe zone.

Turning to ascend the steps as soon as he found the appropriate key, Evan hurried through the darkened corridors with the flashlight.  He knocked forcefully on Ryan's door as he unlocked it.  "Ryan!  It's time to get out of here!"

"Whoa, dude."  Ryan sat up in his bed and wiped at his eyes as Evan barged inside.  "Calm down."

"It's time to go.  We're leaving."  Evan motioned his arms towards the exit.  He could already hear the sounds of the group fading as the front door had likely closed with people filing out of the gate.

"The military is here?"  Ryan slouched out of bed, throwing on some of his eternally wrinkled clothing.  "Relax, all that means is that we're safe now."

"Safe or not, we still don't want to risk getting mistaken for a zombie after everyone else is gone."

"Hey man, zombies don't talk and we do.  They'd have to be idiots to make a mistake like that."  Despite the dismissal, the suggestion did at least seem to hasten Ryan's preparations.  They proceeded together down the hall after a minute.

As they descended the pitch dark stairwell an unpleasant, muted sound like a hideous pipe organ chord struck.  The sound was sharp and uniform in an entirely inexplicable manner, yet it left absolutely no lingering echo as if it wasn't real.  Evan's knees weakened and he almost tumbled in that precise moment, a foggy dark cloud striking every sense and muscle at once before instantly dissipating.

In that fraction of a moment, Evan's grip slipped off the handrail as his knees weakened.  He stumbled a few steps in a desperate attempt to regain his footing.  The flashlight plummeted, bouncing hard down several steps before rolling to a stop on the next landing.  He luckily stopped his fall as Ryan collided into him from behind, and fortunately for both of them, resisted being knocked down further.

"What the hell was that?"  Ryan called out as he pushed himself upright.

"I don't know."  Evan descended the steps cautiously to retrieve the light.  "Are you okay?"

"My arm hurts, but I don't think it's broken."

"We can worry about that la-"

A distasteful crashing noise interrupted Evan, an unpleasant squeal of metal alloys grinding against each other with great energy.  The force of it was close enough to feel vibrations within the building.  An eerie silence containing only tense breathing and the rainstorm's forces lingered for a few seconds before another clatter broke out, remarkably similar in experience to the first, but fainter as if at a great distance.

Quietly motioning for Ryan to follow, Evan proceeded to the ground floor.  Nobody had remained inside and the door had been closed, but within the corridor in the rain several people were strewn about upon the ground in a crumpled heap.  Among them were Minoko and Jennifer.

"Holy shit!  They're all dead!"  Ryan stared outside in shock.

"Wait here."  Evan ran outside, running forwards to check on the few people who were collected around the open gate.  A quick check of pulses confirmed they were still alive and he could hear breathing.  They seemed to be asleep in the cold rain, although no effort to stir them awake had any notable impact.

Somewhere in the distance, Evan thought he could hear a sustained, faintly audible squeal of tearing metal.  Another period of the noise began after the first ended.  Somewhere concealed within the rainfall, Evan thought he could hear a snapping, almost whistling noise in addition to that distant screech.  All those sounds were distant, and could have just been a sign of his own stress.  But that was soon forgotten.

Yet another sound tore Evan's attention away from barely notable noises and he realized something quite horrible.  Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people were seemingly paralyzed in haphazard positions all over the ground around him.  Whether or not any zombies were still lingering in the area, some of the unconscious bodies were on their backs.  And it was raining rather heavily.

Evan frantically ran to where he heard the sounds of choking.