I pointed at JD. "Did you know about this?"

The big guy shrugged. "That she wanted to meet or that she could read lips?" He held up his hands when I squinted at him. "Hey, sometimes I need to make sure our  neighbors trust us enough not to set us on fire in our sleep."

Great, she'd spied for him before. Fan-freaking-tastic. Part of me wanted to lay into him for it but I saw the necessity of it. We'd been so gung ho to find the surviving humans, we never gave much thought to what living with them would be like. Fortunately, Princess saved me the trouble of sorting my feelings on the issue by dropping the bombshell on us.

"The aliens have so far, failed to pin point the exact location of the city, but a vessel has kept a holding pattern over Substation Apollo for weeks. It's a large model, one they haven't seen before, and while they've noted a few scout ships come and go, it gave the Substation little cause for concern until about a week ago."

We contemplated the significance of the situation for a moment. It certainly explained the delay in their answer to Kit's message.

"You got all that from their pow wow?" Fred sounded grudgingly impressed.

I steered the conversation to the more worrisome point. "What happened a week ago?"

"The ship landed a mile off from the Substation. There have been no recent scout ships but it's a mystery why they set down. The ship is too close to the city's concealed entrance for comfort so they risked sending a contingent here to learn about the Revived and what information, if any, we could provide them on the invasion." For all her goofing off, Princess delivered the report with methodical precision. This was Olivia Greaves talking. She even held herself differently, more upright and stiff in the shoulders. Her eyes slid in my direction.

"They are looking for volunteers to accompany them back to the Substation," she said. She held me gaze for a moment. There was something she was not saying, not in front of the others, though I couldn't guess why.

"None of that sounds so bad," sad Fred, "What they having a huge row about?"

Princess didn't say anything, giving me time to catch up. "Volunteers is a courtesy word for our benefit, Fred." I said. "They were probably ordered to bring us in."

"All of us?" JD didn't seem surprised. He understood the soldier mentality better than most of us.

Princess shook her head. "No more than ten or twelve by the sound of it. They didn't want to leave the Fort defenseless."

Fred snorted. "They defended themselves just fine before we got here."

"That's the problem though, isn't it?" Ginger scuffed her bare foot along the floor. "Before we got here, they didn't have an alien problem."

"Touche," said Fred. "Why the secret meeting though? Do they think we'll throw a hissy fit about being taken to the substation? Didn't we want to get closer to the city?"

"Well," said Princess, studying her polka dot painted nails, "Kit is a bit peeved they want to bring us there hog tied like wild animals."

A beat of incredulous silence passed between us.

"Is she serious?"

"She knows handcuffs are about as effective as masking tape on us, right?"

"The suggestion of shock collars was put forth," said Princess, "but our boy shot it down."

"I can't believe I am rooting for that doe eyed sap," muttered Fred.

JD interrupted the general grumbling, nodding to me. "What do you think, Li?"

I flinched at their collective attention. Between JD's training sessions and Princess's science chats, I believed the mantle of leadership would have shifted to one or the other. Both of them continued to defer to me, as if I was some great guru of wisdom, and therefore the rest of the Revived looked to me as well. I was starting to get used to it. Didn't mean I hated it any less. In this situation, however, I had some pretty clear feelings on where Petra could shove her shock collars. Aside from that, the real problem needed a bit of negotiation.

"The reason we weren't invited to their meeting is because they don't see us as human," I said. "I say we crash the party, give our side a voice."

Lannie raised a hand. "I go first."

"No!" The entire room answered at once.

Ginger nudged her. "Sorry, darling, you're too squishy."

"For sure," I said, actually agreeing with Ginger. What was the world coming to? "We'll send Fred in first, he'll distract the outer guards so we can slip in."

Fred sighed. "Why do your plans always have a chance of me getting shot?"

***

Fred got their attention by pantsing Davis, literally ripped the man's pants off. He rushed past us, torn pants held high like a victory flag as he trailed a bunch of pissed off burly man, including one in boxers.

"I love those t-rex boxers, Davis, wherever did you find them?" He yelled, leading them around the corner.

JD shook his head as we made our way toward the power circle. "It's a miracle he doesn't get shot more often."

"Can't argue his efficiency," I said, grinning as we approached the cluster of humans. I wiped it off my face the second Petra's dark gaze swung toward us. A flash of rage raced across her features, so fast I might have missed it if I blinked but the intensity of it gave me pause. Her face was turned enough to reveal the scar on her neck Princess mentioned, the one I missed during our first encounter. I knew I was real distracted to miss that beauty. It looked like the woman survived her throat being torn out. Was that why she had such a hard on hate for us?

Kit turned when he noticed her stare, looking both relieved and exasperated by our interruption. "Li, guys, we were almost finished here."

"Oh, don't mind us, we'll just sit pretty, waiting for the collars and chains," drawled Princess, mistress of tact. Kit flinched.

Petra's mouth shrank to a fine line.

Well, least the eavesdropping was out in the open. I stepped forward before my helpful companions dug a deeper hole. "Have the aliens on the ship made any attempts to threaten or even communicate with Substation Apollo?"

After an awkward stretch of silence, it became very clear Petra's opinion of us was on par with a smear of shit on her favorite cammo pants. Kit, poor guy, took over the conversation.

"No, complete silence. Apollo doesn't want to risk opening communication lines when all interaction has been hostile. The group -er, requests some of the Revived to accompany them back to base to gain intel on the aliens and possibly establish contact with them."

"Bull," said Princess, staring Petra down. She didn't elaborate beyond her monosyllabic statement. I laid my hand on her shoulder, determined to avoid a lady pissing contest.

"I'll go," I said, breaking their stalemate. Petra even deigned to raise an eyebrow at me. Shocker. I tucked Princess behind me, closing the gap between myself and Kit's brick-house of a sister. "I want it clear, we didn't appreciate being barred from this meeting." I held up my hand at Kit's murmur of protest. "If you want our help, start treating us like people. No shock collars, or handcuffs, or clandestine meetings with guard dog soldiers. We're in the thick of this same as you, our asses on the line, and," I got in real close to Petra for this, daring her to strike me. "This is our world too."

I stepped back, giving a one fingered salute to the lot of them. "Well, we've said our piece. I'll see who else wants to tag along and you let me know when you pull your heads out of your collective asses." I turned to go, listening to the sweet sound of Petra's defeated sigh.

"No more than twelve volunteers. Front gate, 0600, pack light."

"We'll be there," said JD, following my over confident march out of the area. I made sure we were good and clear of Petra's line of sight before I let my shoulders sag.

"That woman hates us," I said.

"I'm sure you'll win her over with your usual wit and charm," said Princess, sauntering toward her tool shed. Ginger had already performed a silent departure, likely to track down Fred from whatever tree he was hiding in. I glanced up at JD's frowning face.

"You should probably stay at the Fort, big guy, keep training the newbs."

He didn't answer for a moment, looking back at the cluster of tents. "I'm going. I don't trust them, Li."

I didn't either. The humans of Fort Braydon had their hang ups but none of them looked at us like Petra and her crew. Kit's sister was the most worrisome, so polar opposite of her sibling I wondered at the relation. It wasn't until I got up in her face I got a real good look at the scar marring her neck. That close I could see the individual faded grooves of teeth marks where some zombie must have been real intent to take a chunk out of her but the size was off.

The bites were too small for an adult.