Lucas savored the sensation of empty isolation the broad shadowy chamber provided, idly watching the outside storm and listening to the soothing, muted patter of the rainfall's variation. It was a rather welcome relief after being a helpless witness to abject stupidity and panic.
Terror of the unknown curtailed the dormitory population's usual clamor,
for the time being. Those few who entered the common chamber mostly
arrived to momentarily peer out the windows or collect some tap water from the
faucet. Lucas ignored most everyone who arrived, thinking, mostly idly
staring out the windows while others were near.
Now and then someone would enter and be shocked the curtains were drawn
wide. Without asking, they would spend some time securing the drapes,
but apparently still agitated would leave only minutes after the
completion of their task. Once they departed, Lucas would rise from his
seat and proceed to undo the efforts.
Once Lucas returned to his place on the couch from such a visit, Chloe spoke again. "So what do you think of that warning we got about the whistling and snapping?"
"The thing Evan was talking about?" Lucas turned to face Chloe nearby, but soon gazed out the window beyond her. "None of the zombies have made any sounds like that and so far they haven't been very different from one another. So apparently there is something else out there besides the zombies. And Evan thinks it would also be interested in us if it could see us in here."
"Aren't you worried, then?" Chloe projected a rather relaxed attitude on her surface. Yet occasional wide-eyed surveys of the scenery through the big windows betrayed a rather obvious apprehension at being openly visible. As much as they were visible from outside with the miniscule presence of light.
"It's more interesting than it is scary. Besides, we haven't heard any sounds like that so far." Lucas casually mentioned. "Plus, we already basically knew something like that was going on. Since the blackout event originated from the sky, the zombies couldn't have been the source of that bursting radiation. At least now we have a better idea of what may be behind this."
"So you're thinking the same force created both the blackout radiation and the z-rays, then."
"Aliens." Lucas grinned as he gestured with his hands. Chloe had little reaction to the declaration other than a disapproving glare. "Though I guess technically the zombies are alien life too. So these would be different aliens, besides the zombies."
"The zombies are aliens now?" Chloe produced an exasperated sigh but responded to her own statement after a moment's consideration. "Well, I guess superficially, zombies reproduce similarly to how a virus does. So if you were feeling generous, that would at least make them as much a form a life as a virus is."
"Sure. Only a virus hijacks one cell at a time to create new copies of itself so it can enter more cells. These things hijack entire brains so they can infect more brains." Lucas pondered how best to present his more absurd ruminations. "How that process actually works is a mystery, but if you think of them as a form of life that would make some ability to detect conscious brains make a sort of sense. Such an ability would be immensely useful to spread and survive in the wild. Not that we really have the evidence yet to verify that. But like I said before, it makes a sort of sense."
"So if something out there did create the zombies, what would be the purpose for it? Are they trying to kill us?"
"Maybe. We don't know how the z-rays were formed, but if they were difficult enough to create, they might not be able to fire enough of them at our planet to kill all of us. But there's another possible motivation." Lucas drew in a steady breath of air before continuing. "Besides the brain thing, we know the zombies operate by some unknown physics we have no prior knowledge about. They are so completely alien to us they don't even rely on the same physical forces we do."
Chloe shifted in the big armchair, leisurely crossing one leg over the other. "You're referring to how they are able to move around even with major blood loss."
"Exactly. Movement without access to oxygen shouldn't be possible according to modern knowledge. But since they are moving, we know something we don't quite understand must be happening inside a zombie's body. After all, the energy to move still has to come from somewhere. It can't just appear out of nothing."
"Maybe it can. I mean, if it were coming from nowhere, that would explain it too." Chloe offered before giving another wide-eyed peer to the outside world.
"Sure that's possible- I guess- but it's possible in the same way that it's possible the Earth is flat and we've just been very wrong thinking it's a spheroid this entire time. It's way more likely that the energy is just coming from somewhere we aren't noticing." Lucas paused as a man and woman arrived to collect a quantity of water from the tap in empty jugs. After it became apparent what they were doing, Lucas ignored them and resumed his reasoning in a quiet voice. "Anyway, we can't really run the tests necessary to eliminate all the other possibilities, but consider this. What if they were pulling the energy from some other place entirely?"
"You mean like a wormhole?"
"Exactly. Whatever the zombie effect actually does with a conscious brain, we still don't know. But if the z-rays were somehow interacting with the machinery of consciousness to open a tiny wormhole network, maybe they could siphon energy from those wormholes directly into the muscles of their bodies, so they no longer require oxygen to move. Then when the brain becomes damaged, that linkage is destroyed. Hence the zombie just goes back to being a regular dead body after that."
"So, you think the zombies were created- or seeded here by these other aliens in order to create wormholes?" Chloe arched her eyebrows skeptically as she finished the line of reasoning Lucas was about to deliver. "That's even crazier than what you said before."
"It is. But zombies existing at all are pretty crazy to begin with." Lucas nudged at the frame of his glasses and brushed his hair with one hand. "But if you could discover some method to increase the size of these
wormholes, it might be possible to use this form of life as a basis of
space travel. So this could also explain why there appears to be a new type of entity out there that produces clicks and whistles. And why that sound seems associated with another new phenomenon."
"If someone threatened to destroy your gateway, you'd defend it." Chloe leaned forwards and rubbed her temples. "So the thing that knocked us out may have been part of this second alien's strategy of defending the gateway it had constructed for itself. Sort of like a flare or firework shot into the sky so it would spread the radiation over as broad an area as possible."
"Right. So there could be an open wormhole somewhere inside the city." Lucas exhaled and slouched on the couch, looking away from outside for a bit to stare at the ceiling tiles. Although it was certainly possible there were other explanations, none as elegantly concise were readily apparent to him.
Another expanse of watery silence suffused the cavernous chamber. Ears strained to listen to the conditions outside for a moment, but still no strange noises became apparent. Lucas knew what he had proposed was quite strange, but he couldn't get the implications of the concept out of his mind.
Sighing with resigned boredom, Lucas wished he had some direct investigative route to pursue
with the ample time available. Waiting around was intolerable when the limitless possibilities of interstellar exploration loomed on the horizon. But with the Internet gone, there was little he could do to
discern plausible theory from wild shot in the dark.
Even if another zombie arrived,
everyone else in the building would likely be too scared to perform any sort of
experiments with it. And if something strange was visible from the rooftop, he hadn't noticed it before when he was there. Not that he even knew what he would be looking for. Beyond that, it was
certainly a bad idea to go outside looking for the theoretical wormhole.
"It's been a while since one of those blackout flares." Chloe observed flatly.
"Yeah." After a momentary delay, Lucas shot bolt upright to look into Chloe's eyes. "Hey, wait a minute!"
"Do you hear something?" Chloe's white eyes stood out starkly against her slate skin, a startled look draping the sharp features of her face.
"We have a way to measure that blackout radiation! If we find out where everyone was standing in the building during each burst of radiation and whether they passed out or remained conscious, we might be able to learn something." The data was already around to collect and examine. Doing such a thing seemed pretty unlikely to be protested by the residents. And best of all, it would give Lucas something to do with the plodding stretches of time while waiting.
With little convincing needed to attain assistance, Chloe was quickly recruited to help gather the available data.
