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 name, sweetie?"
The girl's eyes were huge with fear and bewilderment in equal measure. 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 something 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 time, 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 same 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 chimed in on the chat.
Tess replied mentally. "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 time? It's a very dangerous place."
The girl gave a small shrug. "It wasn't scary most of the time. I was upstairs with my mom. She was letting me 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 sometimes. He's nice but sometimes his words sound mean."
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 seemed 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 came out from the desk I looked for my mom but she was gone. Everybody was gone. I looked everywhere, yelled her name, 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 - sometimes they were fun things, other times scary. It showed a lot of bad things outside, but also some 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 some 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 some big dogs. They were scary! I was super happy when I saw you make it inside! But then some flying things came out of everywhere and they made me go into an elevator. It brought me 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 come, 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 come for me 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 me!" 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 lifetime of experience with snot on her shirts.
The sniffling stopped and she looked at them with hopeful eyes. "Can I come with you? Can you help me 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 come with us! We're not leaving some 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 me, okay?"
She nodded and stared at him with hope-filled eyes.