J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

The door finally opened and she looked that way, seeing both doctors, who wore white lab coats, emerge from the door that led to the back.

Doctor Kavorski reached into his pocket, then he knelt down in front of her and held his hand out, asking, "How much do I have here?"

She looked down to his hand, seeing a quarter, two pennies and a nickel, and she turned her eyes back to him and replied, "Four."

He smiled and nodded to her. "Good. Do you know how much money that is?"

She looked again, considered, and finally replied, "Thirty-two cents."

With a nod, he commended, "Very good. That's just what I thought." He stood and shoved the change back into his pocket. "Okay, Princess. We have a few more tests and then we can get to lunch and those sprinkles you want."

Zoe looked down and vented a frustrated breath through her nose, mumbling, "Okay."

"Oh," he scoffed, "they'll be fun." He reached down and touched her shoulder, raising his chin as she cringed and shrank away from him. "So, how about we play a game first?"

She just stared at the floor for long seconds, and finally shrugged.

"Let's go back upstairs," he suggested.

"Where is William?" she asked, still staring at the floor.

Doctor Caswell answered, "He had some things he had to do this morning. He said he would try to be back in time to have lunch with you."

Zoe nodded again, then she glanced up at Rachel and asked, "When can I go home?"

"When we're sure it's safe," Doctor Kavorski answered for her. "You've been out there and you can see that it is very dangerous in places."

Huffing a breath, Zoe nodded still again, then she asked, "If it's so dangerous, why can't we bring my mommy and daddy and brother here where it's safe?"

The two doctors exchanged looks, then they looked to the girl again.

Rachel assured, "We have people out looking for them. That's part of what you were doing, looking for people who need our help. If we can find them of course we'll bring them here."

"What if you can't find them?" Zoe asked in a little girl's voice.

"We'll keep looking until we do," Doctor Kavorski insisted. "Now let's get upstairs and finish up so that you can have the rest of the day to yourself."

"I want to go with William again," Zoe insisted. She looked up to Doctor Caswell and continued, "I was able to be really helpful before and I can help find my family."

"I know you can," Rachel assured. "That's what we are here to do, make sure that you're ready for what you will face out there."

"But I am ready!" Zoe cried as she stood up. "I went before and I did okay!"

Doctor Kavorski strode to her and informed, "We know you did, but we want to see if you can do even better. We all think that you could do very well with the search teams and Sergeant Morris wanted to see what else you could do out there. Everyone has to be evaluated to see how they'll handle the stress of the missions before they can go out."

"You're just testing me for Asperger's," Zoe pointed out. "I've been tested lots of times and I know what you're doing. You think I'm stupid just like everyone else does!"

"I don't have stupid people on my team," Sergeant Morris informed from the doorway. When all looked to him, he was standing there with his weapon slung over his shoulder, staring at the zombie girl with eyes that betrayed strain. He glanced at the doctors and asked in a distant voice, "Can you two give us a minute?"

They both nodded and slowly turned toward the door they had entered through. Walking side by side with his colleague, Doctor Kavorski mumbled to her, "It doesn't look like good news."

Reaching the door, they both looked down to the report, but half turned and focused their attention to the girl as she sat back down, her eyes on Tex as he knelt down in front of her. Rachel was near tears as he took the girl's hand, keeping his eyes on hers as he spoke to her with a gentle and understanding voice. Zoe nodded to him, then her mouth curled down and her eyes glossed with tears. Breaths entered her deep and quick and she held her brow high over her eyes. She nodded again as he spoke, and finally she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and bowed her head as tears poured forth, and she leaned forward and fell into him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him as she slid from the chair, holding her arms to her chest as she wept in loud cries.

Kavorski's mouth tightened to a thin slit and he said, "This is one of those times when I sure don't envy him."

Time would be required to heal such wounds, but time was in short supply.

In Zoe's room, the blinds were closed and the curtains drawn and the only light that came into the room was what filtered in around the curtain and the bathroom door, which was open just slightly to allow that one sliver of light to glow along the floor and ceiling.

Dressed in hospital scrubs again, Zoe lay in the middle of her bed, curled up on her side and facing the window. She hugged her teddy bear to her and just stared at the window with blank eyes that had cried all they could. Those around her were sure not to disturb her and she was left alone for most of the remaining day.

Sometime after noon her door finally, slowly opened and Rachel peered in, just watching the girl for a moment before she entered. Padding to her with gentle steps, the Doctor sat on the edge of the bed and slowly stroked the girl's hair. She did not know what to say, though she had thought about it for hours, and she knew there was no way the girl could be consoled.

So, she just sat there and stroked the girl's hair, just to offer her a little comfort.

A little while later, Zoe finally spoke, just over a whisper. "I hate those stupid zombies."

With a nod, Rachel assured, "You have every right to, Sweetie. You have every right to."

"Why do I have to be one of them?" the girl whined in a child's voice.

"You aren't one of them," Rachel corrected. "You may look a little like them, but you are still one of us."

"I've always been different," Zoe said with only a wisp of a voice. "I just always wanted to be like everyone else, but now I'm even more different than everyone."

"You're still a sweet, delightful girl, Zoe, and we're all glad you're here with us."

Zoe drew a deep breath and nodded slightly, then she informed, "You'll get tired of me. Everybody does."

"No, I won't. I can't imagine anybody getting tired of you."

"Everybody does," Zoe whispered.

The door closed and Doctor Caswell looked to see Colonel Halstead standing right inside the room with his arms folded. His eyes were on the zombie girl as he said, "Doctor, you're needed in the O.R." His eyes shifted to her and he added, "Right away."

Rachel loosed a hard breath, then she looked down to the girl and stroked her head once more, asking, "Do you need anything, Sweetie?" When Zoe shook her head, she assured, "I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"

"Okay," the girl responded in a whisper.

The Doctor slid from the bed and made her way slowly to the door, pausing at the Colonel's side before she looked back to the girl one more time.

Colonel Halstead waited for the door to close behind the Doctor, then he strode with purposeful steps to the window across the room. He swept the curtain aside, opened the blind, then folded his hands behind him as he stared outside. A breath growled out of him and he shook his head. "If you're going to try to make sense of all this, don't. There's no way you can. There's no way any of us can. We're stuck with what we have, and what we have is a war for survival." He shook his head. "I read the report on your folks, Princess, and I'm sorry. We've all lost family and friends, and unfortunately we just don't have the luxury of taking time to mourn." When he turned to her, he found her staring up at him. "My whole family's gone, now the only family I have is the people in this facility. I'm responsible for every damn one of you, every soul in this base, and I'm also responsible for making sure we win this war on a local level. I do not intend to let those we've lost go unavenged and it is my intention to take this war to our enemy. You know who our enemy is?"