Evelyn swung her hammer idly while the other three talked.
Well, "talked". At this point, Michael was basically lecturing the others. Not only that, but he was acting like a parent, trying to get them to stop fighting and start working together well.
"So, let's go through pros and cons. In a building, we have walls that are decently sturdy, and built-in choke points, though with so few of us that might actually be an issue. We also have a larger concentration of zombies due to the prior larger concentration of humans. Did I miss anything?" Michael looked to Zoe for confirmation.
Zoe shook her head.
"I don't think so," she said.
"Then let's consider the park," Michael continued. "In the park, we have a much lower risk of a lot of zombies, due to the generally lower concentration of people. We also have a decent amount of natural resources with which to build fortifications, but we would have to do all of that work ourselves. However, the material we would be using would be wood, because there isn't much metal around the park that we could use, and wooden barriers instead of metal is a serious downside."
Eve leaned against a light pole nearby, watching them listlessly. She didn't really care which place they went to, although if she got a vote she would choose the building because there would be more zombies, which meant more things to kill. Eve generally didn't bother with that sort of thing, though, because Luke and whoever else was around was so much better than her at the logic side of things. It was better for her to just go along with what he said, and since she didn't like to make big decisions anyway, it worked out well enough.
"So for the building, we have one and a half pros and one and a half cons, counting the walls and choke points as a half for each side," Luke said. "And that's being generous. Meanwhile, we have a solid two benefits to only one downside for the park. Sounds like a done deal to me."
Oh, well. It was what it was. The thing about these creatures was that they had been basically everywhere so far, so Eve wasn't really that worried about not getting to smash things. And if they were going back to the school eventually, she would definitely get some action there.
Michael nodded.
"This way, then," he said, turning down a different street and continuing that way. Eve followed him, trotting to keep up with her hammer over her shoulder.
She could feel something behind her. A prickling sensation, like she got just before an opponent showed up. To Evelyn, the zombies were not opponents. More like just a little fun. By the time she saw them, they were as good as blood spots on the ground.
This feeling was different.
"Luke," Eve said. "Something's coming."
Luke just nodded and kept walking. He wasn't concerned, so Eve wouldn't bother preparing herself. If she had needed to, he would have told her.
"What sort of something?" Michael asked sharply. Eve just shrugged.
He turned his head to look at her, waiting. Then Eve realized that he hadn't seen her, because he was in front of her.
"I don't know," she said.
Michael stopped walking, so Eve did too. With Luke's order not to hurt him and the level of intelligence he had demonstrated, which she could almost call approaching Luke's level, she trusted him enough to listen to what he said.
"What do you mean you don't know?" he demanded, turning fully towards her.
"I don't know," she repeated. "It just feels like something's coming."
Michael looked at her, stupefied, for a few seconds, then turned and looked at Luke questioningly. Luke just shrugged, and Eve nodded. As always, Luke was the smartest member of the group.
The rest of the way to the park was without incident, and unfortunately, only twelve zombies in total attacked them, five of which Zoe killed, so Eve was a little disappointed.
This apocalypse was supposed to be fun, and so far it had been, but she was still a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten to fight any massive hordes yet.
So when she saw what was beyond the large, wrought-iron gate into the park, her face lit up.