Talia appreciated the reassurance, but she didn’t particularly feel like she needed to continue the conversation, so she just nodded her head briefly in agreement with Zach’s words and moved on, focusing her attention on her tasks for a few long seconds. It wasn’t a way to shut down the conversation by any means, but it felt counter-productive and a little self-pitying to keep talking about it, neither of which were healthy things to focus her attention on.
“Smart man,” she murmured with a smile as he acquiesced to her statement. “You don’t even have the slightest bit of curiosity about it?” she asked idly, though she was thankful that he didn’t want to do that, it felt like her project and she would admit she sometimes had a problem sharing her projects. It happened very rarely, but it still happened.
If Zach was a little wigged out, then Talia was on the opposite side of the spectrum. She was completely at home digging around in the decaying creature. Admittedly, she had pulled a surgical mask up over her face to defend her nose from the smell just a little. The zombie was worse than some other that she’d experienced before; something she would have expected from the summer months, given the heat, but it was just another thing to file away.
“Yes, please,” she confirmed with a nod and a smile, though it couldn’t really be seen with the mask. “I’d carry it over there, but then I’d end up having to mop the floor. Plus, I actually like these shoes.” It was hard to gauge exactly what Zach thought of the proceedings, but at least he was being helpful, and when he brought he first container over she promptly set what was once the zombies stomach into it. “I don’t think this one had eaten anything recently,” she noted out loud, laughing when Zach asked her to admit that she was enjoying telling him what to do.
She didn’t give him the satisfaction of immediately replying though, choosing instead to sift through the zombie parts for a couple more minutes before she opened her mouth. “Can you blame me? Wouldn’t you enjoy bossing someone around just a little?” she retorted. “In fairness, I don’t think I’m abusing the power, mister.” She waved her head absently and laughed when zombie goo splotched onto the front of her apron.
“And I’m not making you clean up my mess either,” she added and grabbed a rag to wipe the apron clean.