"Would you like me to take you back to your dorm now?" Evan asked as Leon announced he was finished and stashed the remaining bandages in the medical kit. Zack had been propped up against the wall with his arm in a fabricated splint. The blood nearby had been carefully cleaned and disposed of in a nearby waste bin.
"One sanctuary is as good to me as any other." Leon emitted an exhausted sigh as he returned to inspect his patient.
"What if someone in your building needs help?" Zack posited, barely able to keep his head up.
"They'll be fine. It's not like I was the only one around with some experience in this sort of thing." Leon shrugged. "Besides, if whatever that thing was is going to strike again, I'd rather not risk being caught outside."
"I'd rather not risk standing." Ryan contributed from a sitting position just by the stairway. While Leon was busy tending to Zack's wounds, he had been jangling the set of keys for the building in his hands. But at some point he had apparently grown bored with the activity and set them in his lap instead. "You know, in case we hear that black note again soon."
Those few who weren't already in a seated position took one throughout the small chamber. Minoko had been sitting morosely by the elevator, her knees drawn up against her chest and arms folded around them. Jennifer sat with her in some meek attempt to raise her spirits. Leon had not directly exchanged words with the Japanese girl, but in an apologetic glance it was clearly evident he was aware of what must have transpired. Uneven silence reigned as the hiss of water surged against the building.
Recollections of those phantasmal sounds in a lifeless world gnawed at
Evan's mind as time trickled onwards. The spectacle of shredded vehicles and discarded possessions felt like a distant memory. Whether the malevolent entities generating the clicking whistles would return should that cascading chord once more shake the foundations of reality was his primary concern.
The paradoxical serenity was interrupted as Ryan's curiosity and boredom overcame him. "So dude, did you see aliens or something while you were running around out there?"
Evan was momentarily caught off guard by the blunt question. "What?"
"You told me I should get everyone to hide if I heard strange noises. So what did you find out there to make you say that?"
During the sedate interlude, Evan had been thinking about how best to inform the others of what he had discovered. They had a right to know remaining within the zone of that odd phenomenon might be dangerous. Perhaps it would even be best to attempt to flee rather than wait for whatever natural resolution would arrive to greet those choosing to hide. Either way, he didn't feel right making that decision for others. Yet he knew the kind of disorganized panic such knowledge created prior. Responsibility made him feel hesitant to put his thoughts to speech. "There's something else out there. Something besides just the zombies."
"Dude, just say what it is you saw." Ryan replied with rapt fascination.
The others present were too weary from the recent ordeal of their shared experiences to respond. Their faces revealed little terror or surprise at the declaration. Perhaps- Evan thought- his trepidation to speak to his current audience had been unnecessary. Nobody appeared energetic enough for a compulsive desire for escape to override good sense. So Evan explained his observations, from the unearthly sounds to the empty street laden with torn metal. As indirect as the evidence had been, everyone seemed convinced what they had to mean.
"So what do we do now?" Jennifer asked once Evan's explanation concluded.
"Dude!" Ryan seemed more excited than anything else. He had an awed look on what was visible of his face through his greasy hair. "Aliens are abducting people!"
"It seems so." Zack exhaled heavily and closed his eyes, as if speaking drained his reserves of energy.
Evan finally allowed himself a moment to breathe. He was glad to have the private burden of such knowledge lifted from his mind. "Yes. So now we have to decide what we're going to do."
"If they stun us while we're escaping, we would be helpless.
Plus the zombies are still around so they could also attack us while we're
out there." Leon spoke thoughtfully as he stroked his hand over his
shaved head. "But since whatever is out there can tear its way through metal, we probably aren't going to be safe inside if it comes this way and discovers that we're in here."
"Hey, you said you didn't hear those whistles after the second black note, right?" Ryan spoke, watching Evan nod thoughtfully. "Maybe that means they're heading away from us."
"Could be." Evan didn't much like the idea of betting upon such a notion, but he couldn't really critique it either. Without more knowledge, every decision would be a gamble. "We could stay here and hide if we hear those whistling noises approaching. It's kind of hard to describe. It sounds almost musical, actually."
"Then shouldn't we remain here?" Jennifer suggested. "If these aliens or whatever are heading in the other direction, we'll at least still be safe from any zombies still around."
"Yeah." Ryan shrugged. "Besides, even if we did have a way to escape on our own, we could still be knocked out by another black note. It's probably better just to wait for the army to return and rescue us."
"Maybe we should still try to figure out some kind of escape plan." Leon scratched at his chin, looking at the floor in front of himself as he thought aloud. "We have no idea how long it will take for all this to end. What if they end up not coming back for us?"
Nobody quite knew how to respond to that, so there was no immediate follow-up to the speculation.
Jennifer frowned as she finally sighed. "It's not like we have weapons to defend ourselves with or even a working vehicle. So what could we actually do to prepare for escape on our own?"
"There's a car a few blocks away." Minoko's small voice contributed as she produced a set of keys from her pocket. "We could maybe take a few people at a time out of the city."
"Bad idea, dude." Ryan commented. "If the black note happens while you're driving, you'll just end up wrecking the car."
"What if we wait until the tone hits us again?" Evan considered. "If a couple of us were to go outside just then, maybe we could be sure it wouldn't strike again for at least as long as the effect lasts. That would give us several minutes at the very least."
"If it happens again." Jennifer revised the unstated assumption.
"Then what? Drive out of the city?" Ryan shook his head. "It doesn't last long enough to really drive anywhere."
"It doesn't need to. Just park it outside so it wouldn't be so far away." Evan exhaled slowly, thinking about those lost weapons strewn along the desolate street. If he had been thinking at the time he could have retrieved some of them. Unfortunately, if any were still around, retrieving them during a ticking clock was probably a bad idea. "All we're doing is trying to come up with some kind of escape option in case we need one later on."
"As long as there aren't any zombies outside at the time, that sounds like a pretty decent plan." Leon glanced through the glass into the rainy corridor outside. Nothing yet waited for them at the gate.
Evan met Minoko's eyes with his own. "The next time that black note hits us, do you think you could lead the way to where that car is?"
Minoko drew in a deep breath, her voice hitching in her throat. Instead of speaking, she replied with a solemn nod. An expectant silence came afterwards, as the group waited in dreadful anticipation for a followup black note.
As the minutes turned to hours, uncomfortable chatter began to fill the void of uneasy solitude. A dry meal and water were shared out amongst the gathered supplies. Zack was carefully transported to a nearby room to recuperate in a soft bed, the window curtains bound shut in paranoia. The rainstorm outside faltered now and then and occasionally halted but never quite entirely ended as the day marched onwards in seclusion.
No third black note arrived before the early winter sunset blot out most available light. But thankfully the tones of that dreadful alien entity (or entities) did not return either.
