Ellie nodded. "They always seemed straightforward... Before. In movies, all of that. Silly. It wasn't until I tried using one... Years ago, I think... That I realised they weren't. It's too easy to hurt someone you don't mean to."
Yes. Yes, it was.
Brennan mentioned his tendency to end up at the center of everything; it brought back memories of the day they'd met. She had thought of the lab several times since then, wondering what could have been done differently -- what she could have done to help, keep him from being injured. They were lucky they'd come out alive and relatively unharmed. It still worried Eloise to think of what would have happened if she'd gone by herself.
"Out there. Alone," she echoed. Brennan's change of tone took her out of her thoughts, out of her head. For a moment Ellie looked at him, nodding, brow furrowed; then she cleared her throat.
People had to do things alone, sometimes. Sometimes that was what they were better at. This had been changing for Ellie, slowly but surely; she knew that her size and demeanor were useful for sneaking, and her stubborn desire to help others often made her a good partner out in the city. If there was something she could provide, it seemed only right that she provide it.
But -- of course -- Eloise didn't bother saying any of this.
"I know," she told him quietly instead. "It does look like we're wasting time. But there are... Millions of infected. Countless amounts. It's unrealistic to assume we can simply go on killing them and killing them and keeping them out forever. To improve our chances of long-term survival, this is... Necessary. I do hope that there are other people out there with similar ideas, or that the army will develop their own research."