"Great," he snarled, looking to the floor.
With a smile, the Lieutenant said, "You could do worse, Sergeant. She's a little young for you and she's a zombie, but she's a hot little number."
"Down, Lieutenant," the Colonel warned. Looking back to Doctor Caswell, he raised his chin and informed, "You need to come to grips with something, Doctor. She's an advantage, and I intend to use that advantage against our enemy. Get your assessments done, but she's going back out into the field as soon as she's ready."
Rachel forced a breath through her nose and just stared across the room, then she finally looked to the Colonel and said, "I want her here tomorrow so that we can test her properly. It will take some time and I'd rather not have her pulled away in the middle of it."
Colonel Halstead looked to the Sergeant, only getting a shrug from him. "Okay, Doctor," he conceded. "We don't have any operations planned for tomorrow, we've resupplied with ammo and food and it looks like we've rescued nearly two hundred people. I guess the rest can wait."
"She's asking about her family," Doctor Caswell informed. "We'll need to tell her something soon one way or another."
"I'll take a strike force out that way in the morning while you do what you need to with her," Sergeant Morris said. "She doesn't live too terribly far from here and we can recon the area and be back in a couple of hours." He turned his eyes to Rachel and continued, "No matter what we find, that's one mission she definitely does not need to go on, just in case."
She responded with a slight nod.
Doctor Kavorski finally arrived, closing the door gently behind him as he held a palm to them and offered, "Sorry I'm late, people. Had a little issue with our girl."
Raising her chin, Doctor Caswell barked, "What issue?"
"Something you can talk to her about," he answered. "Apparently she's not fond of the idea of wearing certain undergarments, and the white tee shirt we found for her fits a little… Well, snug."
Closing her eyes, Rachel shook her head and assured, "I'll have a talk with her."
Kavorski looked to Sergeant Morris and informed, "She's in the cafeteria, and she's been asking about you."
He rolled his eyes and nodded.
CHAPTER 7
Zoe had never liked hospital gowns and found herself sitting cross legged in one of the waiting room chairs in Radiology wearing one. The doctors were both in the lab looking at the results of her MRI. She still had the ear plugs in and was still a little unnerved about all of the noise in the confinement of that tube she had been in. MRI's were nothing new to her, but she did not like them, and only participated as she had with the promise of sprinkles with her ice cream after lunch. That would surely make the whole ordeal worth it! She was also accustomed to being bribed for her cooperation and knew exactly how to negotiate to get what she really wanted, and a pouty lip and a few tears were not beneath her.
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.