Easy on the eyes, not the brightest bulb. I sighed through my nose, watching Kit skate close to a conniption fit. Pressed against the wall, his chest heaving in quick pants, mouth opening and closing like a carp on land. His eyes flit over me, cycling over and over. Any second now his pupils will start spinning like tops. At least our jailers weren't barreling down on us. Either they hadn't heard the squeal of tearing metal or they were utterly confident this cell would continue to hold us.

"So," I said, grimacing at the audible crunch from my straightening fingers. "you're alive, I take it?"

Fish mouth snapped shut. By golly, I think he caught on to my discomfort. "What the hell are you?"

Scratch that idea. At least he looked more curious than terrified. The fact I wasn't launching through the wall trying to eat his brains probably helped. Though answering his question would be tricky.

"Uh, would you believe reformed zombie?"

The inquisitive arch of his brow crumpled into a squiggle of incredulity. "Pull the other one."

Brighter than I thought. To be honest, I wasn't terribly eloquent when I woke up like this either. It stands to reason an actual human would have a hard time comprehending a talking, thinking zombie. It took Fred laying down the verbal whammy to finally make me accept what I was. There was my solution.

I had to pull a Fred.

"I'm what happens when a common zombie nibbles on alien gray matter," I paused, waiting for it to sink it. "Okay, so it was really purple, but that's not the point."

"Wait, wait, stop, just hold on a sec." Kit peeled away from the way, nibbling on his thumb nail as he paced the short length of his cell, squinting at me through the hole. "You're like this because you ate alien brains?"

"Yes."

He turned toward me, crossing his arms over his chest. He was certainly fit. I shook my head. Well those thoughts were coming out of left field, which I absolutely didn't need.

"Are you feeling hungry?" He asked, his throat flexing as he swallowed.

"What? No! That's the trick, I don't do humans anymore. In fact I travel with one," I winced slightly at the mention of Wolf Girl. "Did you hear a young girl in here?"

Kit visibly relaxed, shaking his head. "Heard a female, but it was a woman judging by the mouth on her."

"Yeah, that would be Princess," I said, sidling up to our improvised window. "When did they nab you? How long have you been here?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, appearing a bit sheepish. "About a day. I was on a routine inspection run, looking for out of the ordinary activity. Got out of my truck to check a couple buildings when this ship materialized out of nowhere. I got out a partial distress call on my radio before they knocked me out."

"A day?" I asked, prodding the edges of the hole. Maybe I could make it bigger. My fingers crackled against one another. Maybe not. Kit's time line put him in Surwich either right before or right after our first trek into the town. If only we had seen him first. Was the fort that close or was this the missing occupant of the way station? "Were you in the cabin? The last initials in the log book were C. M."

"Well, yes, um," he made a half hearted salute. "Lt. Chris Marlowe, at your service, miss. Though everyone calls me Kit. Do you have a name?"

In all the hubbub I neglected to give the poor guy my damn name. "Li," I mumbled, testing the mobility of my broken fingers. The movement appeared normal but they made that alarming crackle sound and sent little darts of pain up my arm. Pain, I was feeling real pain. What spectacular timing. I could sense Kit studying me.

"How much do you remember?" He asked, with the absurdly calm tone people used to talk someone off a ledge. What kind of reaction was he expecting from me?

"At the moment, not much, though my-" I frowned, trying to think of a neutral term for Princess and Ginger, "colleagues say my memory will come back in time."

"From your life, or your time as a zombie?"

"Actually not sure on that bit," I shrugged. "So, when you aren't slumming it with mutant zombies in an alien brig, what do you do?"

Kit sprang a grin on me, the lovely, living kind, all clean teeth and pink gums, and far too pretty for a soldier. I averted my eyes, trying to look anywhere else without appearing to do so. Something had to be wrong with me. Nose bleeds, phantom screaming in my head, and now lusty thoughts of my living cell mate. Fred would never let me live it down.

"Well, Li, I'm afraid I can't say much about that. Why don't you ask me something else, darlin'?" He drawled at me, legitimately drawled at me. The look I gave him made him snort. He jerked his head toward the front of the cell. "The, ah, tripod douche buckets didn't come running when you busted the wall but they are definitely listening."

I eyeballed the opposite wall. "You already had a name slip there, lieutenant. How do you figure?"

"Unfortunately, they already knew about the Fort. They've apparently been observing us for some time. Something they made quite clear to me when they tried to pump me for information," he pointed to the line of bruises I missed crawling up the edge of his jaw line. "As how I know they are listening, the other woman tried to speak with me. They carted her away when she mentioned someone else, a ninja?" He looked fair perplexed. It was almost comical, except for what it meant.

A bad feeling squatted between my shoulders. "No, not a ninja," I said, keeping my eyes on the wall. Damn, they were after Ginger, but why? "What the hell are they looking for?"

"Was the other woman like you?" Kit tilted his head to look at me.

"To a point." Were my eyes going wonky or was the wall becoming transparent? "I take it you didn't give them any information."

Kit rolled his eyes. "Amateurs. They told me their intentions like comic book villains rejects. Don't even know how to throw a proper punch."

"I don't think they were trying to hurt you, Kit, probably just love tapped you" I said. No, I could definitely see the opposite wall through my cell now. I waddled toward it on my knees, extending my broken hand. No need to damage my good one.

"I wouldn't," remarked Kit, "You think they weren't trying to hurt me?"

My fingers barely brushed the wall, but the jolt shot me back on my ass. I yelped at the fresh spike of pain. Yeah, Hell of a time for my pain receptors to snap back online. "I can punch through metal and these guys kick my butt sideways. No, I don't think they were trying to hurt you. Why didn't they just work you over with those stupid stun sticks they have?"

Kit shrugged. "They tried. Didn't work on me."

"What?" I spun on him.

"Don't look at me like that. I was as surprised as they were." He glanced at the now invisible wall. "Looks like they bringing your friend back in."

Now I knew why the walls were transparent. Kit might not be impressed by their tactics but this seemed like a good psychological tool. The aliens wanted us to see their handiwork.

Princess's feet dragged behind her. The open wounds on her knees left a glistening smears of blood in her wake. Her head lolled to the side, revealing her battered face. They'd worked her over good, split lip, clearly broken nose. A bit of bone jutted through the thin skin by her left eye socket, the area so puffy and crusted with blood her eye was swollen shut. The angles of her right arm were all wrong, but they carried her by the broken limb. I didn't like Princess, I didn't trust her. I was fairly certain if push came to shove, she would sell us out without batting an eye but when they threw her at my feet, so hard her blood flecked on my shoes, I blanked.

The next thing I knew I slammed against the impenetrable wall, screaming obscenities at the completely unimpressed trio from before. Her blood dripped off their creepy spindly fingers. I am going to braid their legs together, into a bloody Celtic knot.

While the trio looked on, I carefully rolled Princess onto her back, wincing at the awful mess of her eye. Her other one is cracked open, distantly tracking my features. Recognition flared.

"Is she-" She rasped. I covered her mouth before she could ruin her defiant silence. Noticing the aliens hovering over my shoulder she fell silent, glaring at them.

The lead alien emitted a choked hissing sound. Bastard was laughing at us. "We shall return for the other soon." He said in a tone that promised pain. So it was my turn to drop my pants and grab my ankles. The trio made perfectly synchronized about face and left the room. Why not take me now?

"They are hoping we let something slip," said Kit, reading the question on my face. His face filled the hole, taking stock of Princess's numerous injuries. "She's not bleeding anymore."

No, she wasn't, in fact the splits down her shin were so puckered they almost looked closed.

"Son of a-"

"What?" Kit looked confused.

I pursed my lips, wanting to throttle her. Why did we have to be in this kind of a situation for me to discover her secrets? "That sneaky bitch," I snarled.

Princess gave a wet cough, rolling her good eye. "Why Li, I didn't know you cared," she said, her voice still raw through her bruised throat. She reached up to push the splintered bone of her eye socket back beneath her skin, the wound drying up as she did. The wound was still there, but faint, slowly closing as I watched. It wasn't on par with Ginger's freaky healing but it was noticeable.

Princess propped herself up with her elbows, letting her head fall back to look at Kit. "Well, aren't you adorable. They rough you up too sweetie?"

Kit blinked at her, his light brown eyes owlishly wide in his face. "You look a lot different than you sound."

She winked at him. "That's the idea sugar."

The walls rocked, the metal vibrating with a low tone ringing beneath us. Princess blinked at me. "Please tell me you didn't bring those idiots here." The outer rippled, filling the air with a gong-like sound.

"I didn't bring those idiots here," I said, keeping my voice flat, dragging my nail along the soft metal of the floor. The scraping sound was lost amid the noise.

Princess snorted. "Yeah right, that was probably your boy head butting the damn ship." I grabbed her hand, waiting for her to meet my eyes before I glanced down at the message I'd scrawled in the floor.

Do they think you're alone?

Her good eye widened. She gave the slightest nod. They didn't know Wolf Girl or Ernie was on the ship. Where the hell were they?

Princess leaned over, resting her head on my shoulder. It was an oddly familiar gesture, until she turned her face to my ear. "Do you think you can boost me up?"

Up? I glanced up without moving my head, trying not to squint at the too bright light. It was so bright I hadn't really looked up before, believing the walls to go all the way up. It really was like the cut off top of an egg. That was one heck of a design flaw.

"We won't have a large window," I whispered back, "not once they figure out what you're doing."

"Leave that to me," she said, shifting us around so her feet rested in my hands. I moved into a crouch.

"Sure you can climb with the bum arm?"

"Leave that to me!" she snapped.

"Guys?" Kit wisely backed away from the hole.

"One."

I felt a trickle of moisture drip down across my lips. A flash of blue flickered at the edge of my vision as screams echoed through my head. This timing sucked.

"Two."

The screaming grew louder as my senses fizzed out. "Wait," I tried to say, but my tongue was thick, dead in my mouth. They were so loud.

I didn't hear three, I didn't hear anything as the screams filled my head, swallowing me up.