Interlude

The feeling hadn't gone away. She had hoped it would after the first few days, but her loneliness seemed only to extend with the passing weeks. The room they had put her in was nice, with everything she could ever want but nothing she would ever need. The doctors and scientists tried to make it seem like Christmas every day, giving her too many cookies and anything else they thought a kid would like. Still, she seemed to spend most of her time staring out the window at the surrounding woods, watching the leaves change color before dying altogether. The staff had brought her an expensive gaming system for her birthday a few days earlier, but she hardly felt any desire to play it. Hearing them sing "Happy Birthday to you" only saddened her more, reminding her of salty TV dinners and an empty house witha grimy housekey tucked under the welcome mat.

Sherry had never been a spoiled child. Sure, her parents' jobs had afforded her a comfortable life, but they were rarely there to comfort or scold her like regular parents should. She remembered looking enviously at some of the other kids in her class, parents coming to pick them up and rush them along. They had busy lives too, but at least they were there.

The doctor would often ask her about this. The pretty young woman tried her hardest not to appear to be a doctor; dressing casually and using completely outdated slang words, but still failing miserably. She never had a notebook, but Sherry could see her desire to jog down notes when they spoke, her fingers twitchy and anxious. She introduced herself as Linda, and Sherry could see she was very smart. Probably not as smart as her dad, but few people were. Linda never came at a scheduled time, sometimes showing up at breakfast just to say hi or at night to brush her hair and try to gossip. As easygoing and genuinely caring as the woman seemed, Sherry didn't trust her. But the little girl put on a tight smile, nodding and telling Linda what she wanted to hear. Sherry just couldn't find it in herself to trust anyone these days.

--

"No significant change at all?"

"No change at all, doctor."

"That's not possible. The subject was infected with an evolving stage two G-Virus from her biological father, and you're telling me she's had no affect on her physiology at all?"

"Don't call her 'the subject', her name is Sherry," piped in the voice of a young woman from the corner.

"Something to add, Dr. Perkins…or should I say 'Linda'?"

"Dr. Perkins, please," she said, flipping through her notes. "Sherry is exhibiting no physiological changes other than the early stages of puberty. In fact—"

"Lin—eh, Dr. Perkins, I believe child psychology to be your expertise. Why don't you keep your observations relevant to your field?"

"Perhaps, doctor. But I have also spent more time studying the sub—with Sherry, than the rest of you. I have also spent more time directly with her and monitored her in various stages of emotional stress—"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, doctor. Remember that you were selected for this assignment because your age and appearance would foster a bond of trust with the subject. No other reason."

"Maybe you should remember that I'm the one collecting DNA samples for your team to conduct their little tests, doctor. Without her hair strands, you'd be stuck drugging her food and jamming her with needles. Tell me, what affect would that have on her emotional state, and thusly, your research?"

"I don't let emotions get in the way of testing a subject; this is to ensure the safety of the country, not to cater to some little girls' feelings…or one's own guilt."

"And yet you led the chorus of her birthday song, Richard. Face it, you know her emotional state is key for this research. Studies for over five decades have supported—"

"Enough of that, you two," interjected another scientist, his eastern European accent heavy. "Our results are conclusive, Dr. Hall. There has been zero genetic alteration of Sherry since she was brought here seventy five days ago."

"You know I can't believe that any more than you can, Valentin. We've all seen the G-Virus' effects, from the early stages to the onset of the later evolutions."

"But we've never seen the ultimate stage, or even a stage closely resembling what Dr. Birkin attained," argued a gaunt faced researcher. "We have to consider the possibility that at that point, the embryos weakened enough for a large dosage of the vaccine to eliminate any trace of it."

"And we've also seen the G-Virus affect single cell organisms, and others, on an atomic level. We have to plan for the eventuality that even one cell of the girl's molecular structure is tainted. Because if that's the case…"

"What are you suggesting?"

"Removing her from quarantine and…disposing of her. Keeping her contained here could be a risk—"

"You can't be serious," cried Linda. "She's just a child!"

"And so was Alexia when she began her incubation of the T-Veronica virus. Had she reached her full potential, we'd all be dead now, or under her control. Do you want to take a risk like that with this 'child'?"

"No, I don't. But we've only monitored her for two and a half months. Ashford's incubation ran for well over a decade, and the virus was radically different in the sample we—"

"Again, Linda…do not postulate on a subject you're unfamiliar with. Drastically different viruses or not, they both can yield disastrous results for all of us. And yet…I can't see any benefit to our research to so quickly abandon all hope…"

"Is that a compromise...?"

"Very well. We'll continue on this path until a later time," he sighed. "As such, weekly scheduled meetings will be changed to every other week unless any change is detected…and God help us all if we're wrong."

--

Note: This was something I wrote as a warmup that I initially scrapped. I likedthe rhythm of the dialogue, and the scientists here are all based on actual people I know, so it was hard to just throw away. Especially considering how their little "experiment" is going to turn out, I thought this was a nice little slice of life from the laboratory. Foreshadowing...dontcha love it? Even though I usually use Interludes for a halfway point, I still have a lot of story to write out here. Expect other interludes in the future. Because honestly, I love writing them for the same reason I love writing fanfic: no limitations.