After waiting for almost half an hour and seeing nothing but more zombies, who were dispatched by the sword-wielding black haired girl and the short one with the hammer, Michael followed the rest of the group as they began to move into the city.
As they went, the black haired girl talked.
"There are other students who would have survived. We should try to go back in to trace their steps as soon as possible. We should also keep a watch. The most likely thing is that they holed up somewhere safe and decided to wait it out for a while," she said. She spoke imperiously, like a leader.
Like someone who hadn't just been all but begging to leave, and who hadn't griped about staying more than once per minute, and who definitely hadn't been disgusted by killing the zombies.
"No, the most likely thing is that they left while we were still inside, so we didn't see them," Luke said, his tone slightly amused. He was mocking her.
The black haired girl glared at him, then she pointedly and primly turned her head away, sniffing as she did, her pony tail flicking in the air before settling back down.
"So," Michael broke in, attempting to bypass the tension and refocus them. "Where are we going to set up?"
"Set up what?" the black haired girl snapped. "Do you have a tent?"
"I mea-"
"He meant set up camp," Luke said with the same mocking tone. The black haired girl scowled at him again. That seemed to be her second favorite expression, just behind her "I'm the boss here, so listen to me" one.
"Yes, that," Michael said blandly. He didn't want them to get into another fight over this. "After all, we likely won't get far for long if we can only use what we can carry with us. That's not even mentioning the lack of actual good portable defenses against zombies that exist. Even carrying a gun or two wouldn't be as much of a help as you'd think. If we had a tank that'd be a different story, but we don't. So our best course of action is to get some fortifications in place somewhere near here so we can launch-"
Michael cut himself off. He had been about to say "launch excursions back into the school" as though they were the military. To be fair, they might be the closest thing this area had right now, but they didn't have the manpower to be thinking like that.
Michael took a breath, then smiled slightly.
"Sorry. What I meant to say is, we should find someplace near so that we don't have to go too far from home when we eventually go back for those people you mentioned," he explained.
Luke nodded, and so did the girl after another few seconds of scowling. The older guy and the short girl didn't say anything, as usual.
"Well, we should go up a building," The black haired girl said. "That way we're off the ground, and there's already walls around us."
Luke interjected before Michael could respond.
"That just might be the worst idea I've ever heard," he said. "Buildings always have plenty of free access between rooms and floors, so the walls would be practically useless. Besides, heading for the park and into the forest would be a much better idea. And we can swing by the rangers' quarters to get some stuff we might need. There's even less zombies, because there's less people outside in a park than in an office building."
"Well, it wouldn't have to be an office building!" the black haired girl scoffed. "There are plenty of other types of buildings."
"Name a type of building that isn't full of humans," Luke said, deadpanning.
The black haired girl went silent, glaring at him again.
"Okay," Michael said, once more trying to break up their conflict. "So, let's think this through."
He had said that to redirect their attention, and it worked. But he didn't know exactly what he wanted to say. How did one choose a campground in the zombie apocalypse? It was different in every game he had played, in every movie he had watched. It depended on the zombies themselves. Whether they were fast, whether they grew stronger or weaker when converted from humans, whether they could collapse on top of each other and make ramps from their own bodies or just stood there dumbly.
There were too many factors for him to make the perfect choice here. So he just had to go on what he knew.
"Right, here goes," he said. "Let's make a decision."