Necessary Action

Despite a pervasive twinge of unease, Lucas knew the hard task which laid before him.  He just had to keep his wits about him and seize the opportunity when it came.  He just had to make sure to do it right.  He'd only have one chance.

With his thoughts coming into focus, Lucas examined his surroundings with new awareness of his situation.  The others were speaking to Evan as they loaded bags into the car.  Still lounging in the vehicle, Lucas took in a deep breath of air and adjusted the positon of his glasses.  Although they were exposed here, he knew Evan would be well alert.

The others finished loading the trunk, sending the carts clattering to a noisy rest in the entryway of the store.  They then piled inside the car, continuing a conversation which had been going on briefly away from Lucas's attention.  The doors were locked, windows raised until only a slim crack of air was allowed through.

"So if this whole area is under some kind of quarantine, what's the new plan?"  Leon asked after he locked his front passenger's door.  "We can't fit very many people in here."

"Everyone who can walk, gets out on foot."  Evan replied from the driver's seat, turning so he could look at the others.  "Use the car to make sure the path ahead is clear, and everyone follows behind with something to defend themselves."

"You can't be serious."  Minoko replied with a hint of emotion in her voice.

"I am."  Evan regarded Lucas with a solemn look.  "If we can't rely on outside help, that's the only option we have."

"I don't like that idea."  Leon shook his head.  "How many of us even know how to defend ourselves?  One mistake and we're all in trouble."

Evan hesitated.  "Well, it's either that, or there's going to be a lot of people left behind.  They'd have to raid the nearby stores and malls for supplies.  With the hope to wait it out until this is all over."

"Maybe," Leon tentatively began, "We use the car to take a lot of shorter trips?  Find a relatively safe place five miles away and return.  Transport everyone a short distance in small groups, then go on from the new point."

"I think we've got about fifty people in total..."  Evan paused.  "And we don't know how far it is we have to travel.  We'd run out of gas before getting very far."

"When we run low on fuel, we should be able to salvage something from all these vehicles around, then continue."  Leon speculated.  "Make short hops like that in a secure car instead of having all of us outside in one big group."

"Um.."  Lucas didn't like where the conversation was going, but what could he say?  The plan seemed fundamentally sound as it was coming together.  Just too slow and indirect as far as a tolerable solution went.  Although, maybe Lucas could direct their focus.  "We could look for other cars to use."

There was a brief exchange of glances as those gathered were clearly confused by the proposition.  "You mean, like hotwiring?"  Evan asked.  "Do you know someone who can do that?"

"Uh-  Someone might, but I wasn't thinking of that."  Lucas pointed to the keys in the front seat.  "I mean, those..  Well, those don't have it, but you know those beeping things keys sometimes have on them?  So the car makes a sound?  Some of the zombies may have those..."

"So we go search the-"  Leon hesitated.  "Remains, then if we find keys with those, we bring them with us..."

"And try using them to find other cars."  Evan added, but shook his head as he turned to look at Lucas in the back seat.  "But even if we do find keys with those remote chirpers, the car it goes to could be anywhere.  I don't think those have very good range."

"When I watched the news on that first day, there were a whole lot of people trapped in the convention center.  Some of the zombies we've seen may have come from there.  Probably a lot of them, even."

"Oh, so it's likely any keys we find would be for something parked close to the convention center."  Evan concluded.  "In one of the lots nearby..."

"Even if we just find one car, that would cut our time to escape in half."  Leon looked at Evan, clearly regarding him as the one in charge and his own thoughts as mere advice.  "It's worth a shot."

"Aren't there going to be a lot more of the- things there?"  Minoko had remained silent until now.

"They seem to walk around randomly if they don't see anyone."  Leon suggested.  "If we're lucky, there might not be many of them around."

"What about the aliens?  If we've been abandoned, isn't this their territory now?"  Minoko crossed her arms over herself, though not because of the freezing air.

Evan turned in his seat to address Minoko.  "We've seen no more signs of them since those black notes hit us.  But if we do see anything strange or hear something, we'll head back."  Evan paused a moment, then thoughtfully added.  "Since we don't know anything about them or what they want, we can't really know how to avoid them.  So, worrying about it won't help at all.  Right, Lucas?"

Lucas held his tongue, nodding silently.  Privately, his mind weighed the unknown threats against the possibility of escape.  The only certainty was that the black notes were last fired when there were a lot of people exploring the immediate area.  If his wormhole theory was accurate, by venturing elsewhere in the city, they might accidentally stumble across something and trigger another black note.  And with it, an uncertain fate.  But as far as he was concerned, any risk that would get him out of this zombie-infested zone was a required gamble.

The others made plans without his input, and began to go about their heroism.  Lucas had nothing to contribute to their ideas for proceeding, nor the execution of their ideas.  He merely had to tag along, helping, while remaining vigilant.  Evan would keep them safe, so he merely had to concentrate on not seeing the things passing in front of his eyes.

With clarity of purpose, Lucas saw the actions being taken as if he were even watching himself.  The group brought supplies to the Blackwood dormitory.  Weapons and food were given, although Simon still regarded Evan with a dark gaze.  Plans were discussed both with the people in Blackwood dorm and the few remaining in the Mansfield building.  If there was any objection, the arguments from others were seemingly minor and brief.

Finally, bloodied remains were examined for keys.  That last step before the crucial plan was laborious, eating up a great deal of daylight.  Numerous bodies in front of each dormitory were searched with gloved hands while their safe haven was parked nearby.  Knowing he would be useless on lookout Lucas forced himself to search, frequently gagging or vomiting when he accidentally saw too much.  Then they drove to a few other locations with a number of downed figures and searched through those.

Keeping his mind singularly focused upon imminent escape, Lucas worked through every unsettling sight and rancid odor.  Eventually the others decided they had what they needed to make the attempt and indicated it was time to proceed.  Lucas discarded the grimy gloves he had been using and returned to the car.  Leon offered him a squirt from a bottle of hand sanitizer as Lucas finally allowed himself to see.

The size of their collection of keys with the remote beepers was really quite surprising.  As Evan drove the vehicle down the street and began their journey to the convention center, Lucas felt a gnawing discomfort of internal tension.  Considering the shock of greater success than he anticipated, niggling doubts coalesced.  Thoughts whirled around for brief moments before Lucas arrived at a renewed, resolved confidence that this could only be a good thing.  Considering his friend's capabilities, this meant his envisioned ultimate outcome was only more certain.

When Lucas returned to his senses, they were already over the river and in the midst of crossing a smaller bridge over a highway, the sprawling convention center ahead on their left.  The sounds of keys jingling filled the vehicle as the others handled multiple sets.  Leon's voice was coming from behind.  "...until then."  Lucas realized with a momentary sense of bewilderment that he had been sitting in the front passenger seat.  He grasped a couple of the keys and held them up, finding the beeper buttons with clumsy fingers.

The car slowed to a crawl upon nearing the adjacent intersection, windows lowering just slightly to allow sound to pierce inside.  Evan gazed intensely down the streets and along the sidewalks.  "No zombies yet.  Everyone stay alert."

"No sounds, either.  Moaning, anything."  Leon added, over continued activity with various keys.

Lucas exhaled tensely, gazing about with something else in mind as the vehicle edged forwards.  The convention center was surrounded on the edges with well cultivated greenery.  Though out of leaf now, at other times trees would color the streets and shade the pedestrian traffic.  Other than the convention center itself, the buildings around here were smaller in scale with some service business and several tiny lots, dotted with cars.  Parking areas were around the larger structure, but the population of cars currently present all were distressingly sparse.

Although the city was still eerily empty, rare signs of the peculiar malady and the resultant abnormality of their locale seemed slightly more common in this area.  One vehicle had crashed into another vehicle on the road; neither contained bodies.  Personal items such as purses, umbrellas and bags of collectable junk were dropped in abnormal locations.  Of particular distracting focus Lucas saw what appeared to be a sword stuck in a bush.  Not far from one motionless body slumped against the building there was a single severed arm.

Without any sounds other than their engine, Lucas felt a hitching moment of dread and excitement as he spied what was necessary.  He pointed off to the right, a short distance down a side street.  "There!"  He motioned to Evan, who drew the vehicle to a slow stop.  "Back that way!"

Evan glanced back to Lucas peering in the indicated direction down the street.  "What is it?"

"Parking garage."  Lucas paused briefly, then added.  "There's going to be a denser population of cars inside.  So we're more likely to get a good response there."

"Good thinking."  Evan turned the car around easily and guided them towards the three story structure in silence.  The others appeared to have no qualms over that particular tactic.

Lucas maintained fumbling with his share of keys as the car circled back around the block to arrive at the sturdy, square structure.  Strong wired rails lined the broad, open faces of the structure, occasional stony pillars of beige standing strong.  Although the deeper interior of the structure was difficult to make out in the evening light, a casual look suggested that Lucas's prediction was accurate.

"We should have brought flashlights with us."  Minoko commented.

"We might have to come back tomorrow."  The headlights came on as Evan drove carefully inside.

Evan drove within, bringing them deeper to some arbitrary point in the middle and idling the car in park.  Lucas breathed in deep to ease his nerves, listening and watching their surroundings as the others attempted triggering various beepers in safety.  From what reflected from outside and their headlights, vehicles were in maybe slightly less than half the spaces.  Better than outside lots, but not as much as it first appeared.

After securing a few keys in one hand, Lucas chanced to unlock his door and swing it open in one swift motion.  With alarm, Evan placed his hand upon Lucas's shoulder and hesitated.

"What are you doing?"  Leon asked from the back in alarm as Lucas threw open the door and swung his leg out.

Striding out a few steps into the dark garage, Lucas turned to face the others before replying, trying not to let his uncertainty come out in his voice.  "What?  If any zombies were nearby, they would have come to us by now.  Our car is the only thing that's making any noise in the whole city."  Lucas then held up a remote beeper and pushed at the button on it.  "Besides, I'll be able to hear anything better standing out here."

Disbelieving looks were exchanged as the others didn't seemingly know how to reply, but to Lucas's relief, Evan soon followed suit.  "Okay, but we still need to be super careful about this.  There's not much light to see by."

Leon and Minoko were more wary of such activity, but they seemed satisfied to let their oddball companions take the risk and be lookouts while handing off keys to be tested.  They tried each beeper in turn, keeping track of what had been used so far before entering the vehicle again and driving to the further end of the building, still on the first floor.

That time, with the slightly upward sloping street now cutting off the open walls, the only light they could see by was secondary; reflected shadowy dimness gleaming off of various surfaces.  Still, Lucas repeated his act, casually stepping into danger with a madman's confidence: only possible by knowing it was a required step in an important plan.

Nothing came of the second point, yet they all seemingly were marginally more at ease with what Lucas was doing.  But there were two other floors and rooftop to go to.  Lucas became silent again, waiting for the needed criteria as they proceeded to check the other locations.  Light was rapidly leaching from the sky as they came out onto the roof, providing a much clearer view of substantially fewer vehicles.  Success was least likely here of all, yet they began again.

Just as Lucas was beginning to despair that things would be inevitably postponed, everything fell into place.  While he had been searching through those mutilated, bloodied corpses, Lucas had numbed his mind and tried to become blind to his surroundings.  Activity became a deliberate and necessary awful thing he could not allow himself to linger upon.  If he had not done so earlier, he simply wouldn't have been able to function.

The moment right now was such a time, yet Lucas couldn't quite recapture the same sense of numb blindness to what he saw.  He was trapped in an inevitable flow with only one possible outcome and nothing could be done differently.  Yet he wasn't watching himself this time.  He was watching someone despicable betraying a close friend.

Lifting Up Others

The car door's slam echoed through the desolate streets.  Breath billowed out before him as Evan moved to the center of the nearby intersection.  Looking into the surrounding distances, he scanned for movement while straining to listen.  Whatever clues of activity which had been present before had since vacated.  A couple cars were visible which were in a crashed state, but nothing moved.  Except for the city's usual detritus, most of the visible streets were pristine.

"I think we're clear for the moment."  Evan called out as he relaxed his grip upon the pistol in his hand.  "I don't see anything out here."  He flicked at the safety and lowered the weapon into its holster.

"I see a couple of bodies.  Nothing moving, though."  Leon's voice became clearer as he emerged from the vehicle.  A rifle hung from his shoulder via a strap.

They had brought their vehicle a few scant blocks away; the distance to the nearest grocery store.  Parked along one corner, the engine was cut.  They had waited in silence like that for a while, slowly recovering from the ear-shattering gunshots fired within the enclosed space.  Nobody spoke to clarify why they were lingering.  Evan had been the first to be satisfied and emerge for a better examination of their surroundings.

Minoko tentatively exited from the vehicle, following the lead of her peers.  Pausing, she reached into the car and retrieved another of their scavenged rifles.  The sling was lifted and placed carefully upon her shoulder.  She did not speak or step far from the driver's door, instead keeping a watchful vigil on the streets.  Despite notable nerves, she held rigidly upon the weapon exactly as Leon had instructed.

The building had several stories, but they were only concerned with the immediate ground floor.  A heavy concrete pillar was positioned near the corner and on each side a few steps downwards led from the sidewalk into a small inset patio.  Along the left edge was placed a sloping ramp.  The sliding glass doors composing the store's front were closed.

Evan descended the stairs and tested the automatic doors with his hands.  "Locked."  He inhaled deeply as Leon sidled closer with a flashlight, providing light as Evan made a futile attempt at force.

"Doesn't look like that will work."  Leon approached, swaying the beam of light around.  "Do you think someone could be hiding in there?"

"It would be a good place to hide."  Evan pounded on the glass and waited, watching for any hint of movement or shadow to stir inside.  Calm silence persisted, nothing but the unreliable, low whistle of air sliding through lanes of brick, cement and asphalt.  "Seems no.  We'll have to break in."

"Step back."  Leon used the butt of the rifle to hammer repeatedly at the barrier.

Retreating to the sidewalk as Leon worked, Evan gazed along the intersecting streets.  Standing beside Minoko, she was still frantically gazing into the distances both up and down the slight incline as well as the transverse path.  She gripped her weapon in an agitated, nervous fashion.

Noticing that Lucas remained inside the vehicle, Evan retraced his steps.  He still wore the same startled, bewildered expression on his face from walking through the zombie slaughter.  Slowly, Evan waved his hand around in an attempt to draw his focus before rapping upon the partially lowered window.  "Are you coming?  Lucas?"

With his eyes wide, Lucas turned just enough to regard Evan.  "I- I.."  He forcefully exhaled.  "I can't-"

A nearby bang made Evan jump back with a start.  Frantically looking around, he calmed as he realized that Leon had fired at the door, and was continuing to pummel upon it.  After a moment, he resumed speaking to Lucas.  "Calm down, relax and tell me what's wrong."

"Before the power went out, I saw some videos online.  In one of them a zombie had its arm ripped off and it was still moving around.  It was- pretty bad, v- very bad, actually, but I could watch it.  I thought that meant I would be okay with...  But just now with the smell and stepping on..."  Lucas stared back at him so intently Evan thought something was behind him.  "Having to do this all...  I don't think I will survive..."

"You're not alone.  We are in this together."  Evan could sympathize with the lasting impact the carnage had upon Lucas.  After disposing of several zombies previously with an axe, what they had just done together was a lot less awful by comparison.  But even so, Evan could feel the visceral sensation of every strike clawing at his mind.  Stains lingered in memory, accumulating.

Lucas hadn't yet been directly exposed to such things, so it was likely even worse for him.  Leon and Minoko had quietly averted their eyes once their confrontation had ended.  Nobody seemed fully intact.  The others were simply too busy to let themselves feel it yet.  But once they were somewhere safe, all of them would likely witness those events again in their mind.

Perhaps once Lucas had other things to focus his mind upon, he would recover more quickly.  Evan rapped on the window again to maintain his friend's attention.  "Lucas, we need to help each other through this.  I know what just happened was very, very bad.  There's no way seeing things like this can't disturb someone.  But I came to get you because I know you are strong."

Lucas silently listened, watching Evan as he waited for a reply that did not come.  Warm breathing misted in the air as Evan contemplated his word choices.

"Lucas.  You're the smartest person I know.  And right now there's a lot of scared people who let their fear paralyze them.  People who are too scared to make sense of what they see happening around them.  But I know you.  You've been carefully examining everything you've seen so far and you've been thinking about it.  You will realize things other people won't, and right now that is the single most valuable thing anyone can contribute."

"I don't know anything."  Lucas replied in a monotone fashion.  "Not really."

Glass fell to the ground in a noisome crash.  Leon reached inside the hole to unlock the doors.  He stepped back and called out.  "It's open now.  If someone was in there I think they would have come out by now."

Evan replied.  "Give me a moment, I'll go in with you."

Minoko spoke nervously, moving incrementally towards the building.  "Actually, if nobody is inside, it might be better if you were the one out here."

"Yeah, I think I'd rather have you watching our back."  Called out Leon, before he addressed Minoko.  "No offense."  She indicated no objection as she entered with Leon.

Evan waved them on to begin their forage.  On their initial examination of the building, they had noted that the exterior facings of the structure were still intact.  He couldn't blame them for preferring the dark but presumably safe enclosure to uncertain daylight.  With the others on their task, he circled around the vehicle and entered it to sit beside his friend.

"Lucas, we've got a car now.  We're getting out of this."

"Good.  I can't-"  Lucas paused to inhale deeply a few times, easing his nerves.  "I- I don't want to be here.  I need to go."

"That's what we're doing.  We're leaving to get help, just as soon as we get food for everyone."

"Bring Jessica and Ryan.  They need to be with us."

"They're going to hide out and wait for the rescue."

"No."  Lucas spoke slowly, forcefully taking deep breaths of air between words.  "We all need t- To stay together."

Evan started to reply, but words failed him as he had a thought.  The focus with which Lucas was speaking was intentional.  If only a few would escape, he wanted to make sure they were the people he cared about.  "We're going to get help.  For everyone."

"We can't get help.  Nothing we d-"  Lucas hesitated, easing himself back with a deep breath before continuing to speak.  "As long as there is a single zombie remaining, there is reason to come here.  But they haven't come back.  Not since the- the mass knockout event."

"You mean the- uh- black note?"

"Black note?"

"Yeah.  Uh, Ryan sort of came up with that."  Evan admitted.

"Like a brown..."  Lucas broke into a chuckle, then a robust laugh.  A mad display of sudden, unnerving emotion that kept spilling out for far longer than it should have.  When Lucas finally settled down enough to be capable of speech, he seemed a bit more himself.  "Sounds like Ryan...  Anyway, after the blackou-  Err, those black notes- all those people, they're...  Keeping away.  Maybe some of them also heard the sounds you talked about.  Or saw something more..."  Lucas trailed off, an inquisitive look on his face.

Evan had no good idea how to talk about what he knew.  At the time, the sounds were just one additional surreal sensation during an avalanche of hazy experience.  Harried as he had felt at the time, he had almost neglected the noises for their duration.  "Whatever that thing was, it sort of...  Made a whistling and clicking which sort of partially overlapped.  Almost like wind chimes, or a pipe organ with loud snapping."  Evan briefly thought back to the street littered with metallic debris and the whine of squealing metal.  "I also saw a place where people should have been, but were just missing.  There was torn metal and things were left."

"Interesting..."  There was a moment of silence before Lucas continued.  "See, before the- the black note and anything else they may have learned, our rescuers were treating this like an ongoing natural disaster.  That made sense, because a natural disaster is random and undirected.  So once you understand the dangers, you have some idea of how to keep yourself safe while resolving the issue.  But now we know the real situation is fundamentally different.  This isn't just some random event."

"What difference does that make?"  Evan spent the effort to look around as he spoke.  The streets were still clear.  "Either way, we're still here."

"Because, what is really behind the zombie event is another civilization.  So the choices for how to respond to it need to happen on a broader scale.  From a scale where we, as individual people simply do not matter."

"So, you're saying we're not important enough to rescue?  That the zombies here aren't worth killing?"

"Right now, yes.  As long as they're around, it's the aliens that matter."  Pausing for a moment, Lucas inhaled deeply to ease his nerves.  "And there's only two responses I can think of for this kind of thing.  The first is to attack any footholds as hard and quickly as you can to prevent encroachment from the invading civilization.  And the second is to abandon anywhere you think is a lost cause so you might be able to defend yourself.  So you don't pointlessly waste resources.  Like what happened when the- uh, black note hit."

They sat in contemplative silence for a moment as Evan considered his friend's logic.  It felt like something had to be wrong with it, but he couldn't figure out what it could be.  "What if they wanted to establish contact?  Try to communicate instead of fighting?"

"That's- sort of covered by the second thing.  It would probably look the same to us, at least."

"So, you really don't think we could get help?"

"I think if we could, we would have already seen someone from outside come through here by now.  Someone's family would be motivated enough to try."  Lucas stared off through the windshield, still not seemingly focusing his attention on anything.

Evan frowned as he focused his thoughts.  If they really could not get outside assistance, what other options did they have?  "Is it dangerous to stay here for a while?"

"I- I don't know.  It's impossible to know.  Maybe if they're lucky, someone like you could survive here for a while, fighting the zombies and hiding until all this is over.  But I- I can't."  As Lucas's voice trailed off, Minoko and Leon appeared from the store with carts full of supplies.

Evan partially emerged from the vehicle, waving to indicate the area was clear.  As Leon and Minoko began to approach, Evan returned his attention to Lucas.  "It's going to be okay, we're going to get you out of here."

"All of us should leave..."  Lucas whispered as the others were hurriedly tossing things into the trunk.

"We'll do what we can."  Evan replied, thinking of Zack, weak with a broken arm back at the building.  Maybe if they had weapons and the distance to safety wasn't too far, they could get everyone out on foot.  Evan wondered if there was anyone else that would be better transported in the car.