They stopped to catch their breath, all of them turning to Tess.
"Uh, honey - who is that?" Zavier pointed to the young girl cradled in Tess's arm.
Tess lowered the girl gently to the ground, her sobs hushed in fear of making any noise. The girl was young - around eight or nine years old, clothed in simple jeans and a t-shirt with an unknown cartoon character surrounded in exploding colors. Her long, blonde hair was tousled and dirty, her eyes swollen and red, and her face was covered in dried trails of tears and snot. She wiped her arm across her nose, adding to the stripes. Tess's voice was gentle.
"What's your na, sweetie?"
The girl's eyes were huge with fear and bewildernt in equal asure. She held her knees to her chest as she looked at each of their faces. Her nervous hesitation turned to uneasy trust and she replied in a whisper so soft they had to strain to hear her.
"Fara. I'm Fara and I'm eight."
"How did you get here, Fara?" Zavier kept his voice low and calm, working hard to keep any distrust or aggression out of his tone.
She sniffled again, mumbling sothing too low for even Tess to pick up.
"You can talk louder, Fara, those things can't get to you in here."
Her voice was louder this ti, but only just. "I was here visiting with my mom when everything went bad. Really bad."
"How did you survive this long here?" Fara flinched back at his question and Tess shot Zavier a look.
"Keep your voice calm," she sent over the group chat. "You're scaring her."
He replied in the sa way. "You don't find this a little suspicious? A young girl surviving here for god knows how long? How did she even get down to the cubicles, and how did she survive those things?"
"I think she's cute!" Luna chid in on the chat.
Tess replied ntally. "Let her answer."
"Fine," he sent. "But keep a close eye on her. I don't trust this."
"She's a child, Z," Tess sent before returning her attention to the girl.
"Fara, how did you survive here this whole ti? It's a very dangerous place."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The girl gave a small shrug. "It wasn't scary most of the ti. I was upstairs with my mom. She was letting play in her office while she worked. When… all the bad things happened," she shuddered, "my mom disappeared. Everyone was yelling and screaming and running so I hid under her desk. I hid until the noises stopped."
They could see she wanted to stop there, but Zavier pushed. "You need to tell us what happened. Where did everyone go? What happened to everyone? How did you avoid all the… things that were up there?"
The girl had pulled herself into a corner and was flinching at his words. Zavier couldn't see the effect he was having on her, but the others could. Tess put a hand on his shoulder and Cass stepped in front of him, blocking him from the girl's view. He sat down in front of her cross-legged, then reached out and took one of her small hands in each of his.
"Just ignore him," he said with a smile. "He does that sotis. He's nice but sotis his words sound an."
Zavier threw his hands up and spun away from them, then back, then away again. Finally he punched his hands into his pockets and leaned against the wall.
Cass's soft voice seed to be soothing the child. "We're just worried about you. We ran into a lot of dangerous things up there," he pointed to the ceiling. "We're just wondering how you are okay after all of this."
She only had eyes for Cass then, her fingers gripping his hands tightly. "There weren't any bad things when I was there. After I ca out from the desk I looked for my mom but she was gone. Everybody was gone. I looked everywhere, yelled her na, even tried to call her - but I don't know her number. My phone wasn't working and the phone on her desk doesn't have her number in it."
"I watched TV on the big walls - sotis they were fun things, other tis scary. It showed a lot of bad things outside, but also so people. They fought a lot and the people either ran away or…" she didn't finish the sentence, but they could guess what she'd seen. "The break room had lots of treats, so I just colored in so magazines, watched the TV, and ate snacks. I didn't see anything bad."
Tess squatted near the girl and ran her hand down the girl's head, straightening her hair. She leaned into Tess's hand, searching for comfort after having been alone for so long. "How did you end up down here, sweetie?"
"One of the days I was watching TV and I saw you guys. You were coming here and running from so big dogs. They were scary! I was super happy when I saw you make it inside! But then so flying things ca out of everywhere and they made go into an elevator. It brought down to the room with the bad things." Her shudder was more pronounced. "At first I said 'hello?' but then the sound made the bad things co, so I just hid under a desk until they all went to sleep. I was there for so long! I was getting hungry and I had to pee, but I didn't move or make any noise! Then I heard you guys! I was afraid they would co for if I made any noise, but I was even more scared to be there by myself, so I whispered for you."
She looked at Tess with shining eyes. "And you heard !" Her small arms wrapped Tess in a fierce hug, one she returned with equal gusto.
Luna stepped in close and rubbed the girl's back. "That must have been so, so scary. You are so brave!"
The girl was crying again, nodding her head between sniffles and wiping her face on Tess's shirt in the process. If Tess noticed she didn't react - being a mother had given her a lifeti of experience with snot on her shirts.
The sniffling stopped and she looked at them with hopeful eyes. "Can I co with you? Can you help find my mom?"
They shared looks full of knowing. There was no way this girl would be seeing her mother again.
"Sure, honey," Tess said.
Everyone looked at Zavier. His expression softened and he threw his hands in the air again. "Of course she can co with us! We're not leaving so girl here by herself." Even if I don't trust her.
"It's going to be hard to keep her safe," Luna said.
"I'll keep you safe." Cass's voice was laden with determination and promise as he helped the girl to her feet. "Just stay behind , okay?"
She nodded and stared at him with hope-filled eyes.
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