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.
