I didn't answer Princess, not out right. Instead, I pulled the flannel off my shoulder. Since my return, I've only looked in a mirror once. That was enough to conclude I didn't want to look all that often. I knew where the holes were, where skin didn't finish reforming, but I didn't search for scars. I ignored the biggest clues I had to my own death. There it was, a ridged patch of flesh, a deep lavender that looked dark against my ashen skin. To add insult to injury, there was an arrow drawn in black marker pointing to it.

I turned back to my personal pain in the ass. Princess whistled innocently, painting her fingernails with Not-So-Quiet Riot. There was a sharpie tucked behind her ear.

"Who are you?"

Princess finished the nails on her right hand, carefully screwing the cap back on the bottle before she joined me on the bed. She sat with her arms wrapped around her calves, her wet nails spread out to dry, as if we were having girl time. If she asked me 'who I wanted her to be' I would break her nose. The woman missed nothing, reading the impatience on my face with a faint smirk on her lips.

"Olivia Greaves, PhD. candidate for field research of infectious diseases."

I stared at her, from the tips of her hot pink pixie haircut to her elaborately painted toe nails. She'd acquired a fresh t-shirt with an ACDC logo on the front. It fell to her thighs, nearly covering her plaid skirt, softening her hard edges. Likely the same gentlemen who loaned me his spare flannel. Since Wolf Girl relieved her of the other one, both safety pins were gone from her ear lobes. Kohl still lined her eyes, but her lips were a pale pink. The disguise was there, still hiding her, but there were enough cracks to glimpse who she used to be. It didn't matter, Olivia Greaves would always be Princess to me.

"Who are you?" she asked, throwing the question back at me.

I paused, reliving those awful flashes of memory. No, not all were awful. It began with a lovely girl, on a lovely day in sunshine. She was important to me, I could sense that, but who she was, what she was to me, and who I was dangled out of my reach. I could feel the information now, locked away inside, but I couldn't get to it. Not sure I wanted to get to it. Remembering the woman in blue was painful, more painful than my death.

"I don't remember," I sighed, frustrated.

"It will come back in time," she said. There it was again, the feeling she sat on a mine field of information. I wondered if that were true, or if she was really full of bullshit. "Wolf Girl, Fred, the others, what happened!"

"Easy there Ripley, your foundlings are recuperating. Fred passed out about five minutes after you did. Kind of surprised he lasted as long as he did." Princess frowned. "He's like Ginger in a lot of ways."

That was a shuddersome thought. "I can't believe all we needed was sleep." I rubbed at my eyes, expecting the normal crusties. I never thought I would miss eye snot but it was another thing that reminded me how far I was from the girl who died in that stairwell.

Princess clicked her tongue against her teeth. "It's not just sleep. These bodies need rest to catalyze change, to initiate memory recall, to increase regenerative capability, and to strengthen cell structure. You kept putting it off to the point your body demanded it, same as the other idiot. Your soldier friend wizened up and took a couple cat naps on his own." She pointed at me. "Remember to take regular naps so you don't pass out again like a big pussy."

Wow, for a minute there, she actually sounded somewhat professional. "Wolf Girl's okay?" She was the one I was truly worried about.

"I checked her out myself, after she stopped snapping at my fingers. She nearly bit off my index finger you know, little savage. She had a few parasites nesting in her guts, and severe malnourishment, so her bone density was a bit difficult to judge without proper equipment, but with a whole lot of TLC and some multivitamins, I bet she'll start looking like a seventeen year old soon enough."

"What! She looks twelve!"

Princess sucked on her lip. "She's spent a dozen years living on whatever she could find. It's amazing she survived at all. She'll always be small, and her development might be permanently stunted in some ways, but I expect our little psychonaut will get back on track. I think with some help, she will be able to speak."

It was bizarre listening to Princess talk like this, as someone who actually knew their shit. Maybe there was more truth than B.S. to her after all.

"You lied, about the humans." I said, watching for her reaction. Her face was passively smooth, one hell of a poker player.

"Necessary evil at the time. Didn't really know you then."

"And you do now?"

She grinned, waggling her eyebrows. I suddenly worried how long she'd been watching me while I slept. Our little kiss was still fresh in my memory.

"Why all this?" I gestured to her, to the collection of glitzy nail polish, and the fishnets. Such a thoroughly constructed image, painstakingly so for the end of the world. She hadn't frolicked through the local Wally world for a decent outfit. She hid herself, creating a complete façade. Why? Why did she think she had to hide who she was and from whom? "Were those aliens really after Ginger?"

"Oh yes," said Princess, shifting her grip on her legs. "but they don't know the whole story. Ginger is quite unique. The mutation has brought her back faster and further than anyone I've seen. I have learned a great deal about our condition and what to expect from it by watching her, but she's not the first. She is simply notorious."

I was getting the hang of Princess speak now, enough to see between the lines. "She's not the first because you found her."

She beamed at me. "No, I am not the first either. At least I don't think so. The world is a big place and those three legged assholes have been kicking around for longer than a month."

"Why say she's the first?" I threw up my hands, exasperated by the two of them and their cycle of lies and half truths.

"Well, that reason has better P.R. than mass murder. I wasn't about to tell that doe eyed human why my fiery companion was wanted by the aliens who roughed him up. I don't know where his loyalties lie. Honestly, I'm still not sure I want to trust these humans, but it's easier to hide in a crowd than in a field, right?"

I frowned at her. The woman couldn't answer a simple question if I nailed her to the wall. "Not sure I followed all that. Are you capable of actual truth?"

Her face fell. She picked at the detailed frescos on her toes nails, destroying one. "I switched on the punk craft after I found Ginger. It was the farthest I could get from lab coats and doc martens." Her eyes flashed at me, cool grey. "It was a military base in Florida, long abandoned after the world went to shit. I don't know what they were looking for there, but they stumbled on her in the mess hall. There were over twenty aliens. I think one of them had some status. His spanks were flashier than the others. Not a single one made it out alive. I still can't figure out how she managed it. They were armed. Even if she surprised them, one of them should have killed her, but they didn't. I found her sitting, shocked, terrified, and surrounded by puddles of goo."

"If they all died, why are others hunting her now?" It was a reasonable question. Princess's smile was bitter.

"One managed a distress call, probably too shocked to do more than send for help. I was still talking her down from kill mode when the cavalry arrived." Her eyes looked haunted. She must have realized it, and shook herself. "Most of them died too, but I was more concerned with getting both of us out of there than I was with leaving witnesses. I've learned better now."

Another toe nail mural was scratched to oblivion.

"You've been running this whole time? Is that why you tried to mug us?"

Princess shrugged. "You lot weren't the first mutations we ran into. Not nearly so cuddly either." She winked at me.

"What were they like?" I was curious now, given we'd created a few dozen more in our rescue of Fort Braydon. Speaking of which, "How are the new recruits doing?"

"Wondering when you'd ask. J.D. and your soldier boy are acclimating them. They are already far more stable than the loners we ran across."

I could remember how lonely I was, before I brought back the Muppets, before I found Fred. "Was it bad?"

"Mad Max worthy. We met some of the cruelest and brutal sons of bitches along the way. Most wanted nothing to do with us when they realized Ginger was a 'fugitive from the law'." Princess rocked back, looking thoughtful. "None of them ever tried to juice up a regular zombie on their own, though." She smirked. "That was a new one on me."

It was my turn to look away, looking at my hands. "I was lonely." It was a simple admission, though I wondered why none of the others they ran into tried something similar. My hands were different.

Maybe it was that last infusion of alien brains or my three day siesta, but my body finally completed the skin growth, covering all my fingers. I knew without looking my toes were fully covered. I could feel it. The blanket with stiff and coarse, and glorious to feel against my skin. What the hell? Princess had painted my nails crimson red. I shook my head. "How are they?"

"Your Muppets? They still look like a couple of worn leather jackets but their progress continues. One more infusion ought to do it. Though I don't suggest Ginger. She's probably like high octane jet fuel."

I looked up, startled. "What?"

"Don't look so surprised. They just needed a little jump start to the system to really start changing. I gave them a shot of my blood," said Princess, testing her silvery nails.

"You what?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then your crazy feral child jumped me, Ginger tried to seduce your special buddy, aliens showed up. It was all a big mess really."

"You fed them more blood? Does that mean they are like us?"

"Oh, I think those too are something new. Not sure what they will turn out to be but it will be fun to watch," she said, looking far more excited than I felt about creating a different breed of monster. She patted my knee. "So, now that you are awake, what do you plan to do?"

Considering I didn't expect to wake up the question was something to think on. Since waking up like this, I formed a new goal as I met my old one. Find clothes, check, find others like myself, check. Find humans, well, here we were in the middle of Fort Braydon, and now I knew there was a human city still out there. What did I need to do now?

"We have to warn them, that hidden human city Kit told us about. Those aliens, they said they were scouting. I think more are on the way."

Princess pursed her lips. "You want to stay with the humans, provided they don't kill you, and try to stop an overpowered alien invasion force? Do I have that right?"

"If they haven't killed us yet, I don't think they will. Yeah, I think they'll be back, with bigger guns and greater numbers. They don't seem the quitting type. What are you going to do, run again? Cause if we don't stop them, you're going to run out of hiding places."

She reached out and ruffled my hair. I swear one of these days I am going to kick her ass. "That right there is the reason Ginger and I are staying." She started rolling off the bed.

"What are you talking about?" I snapped, grabbing her shirt sleeve.

"I wasn't lying when I said the other zombozos we met were...rough. J.D. would probably be just like them, if he hadn't met you. They would have destroyed someone goofy like Fred before giving him a chance. They definitely would have left a feral child to die. None of them would have given Ginger a second chance no matter what she said." She reached over and gently 'booped' my nose. "You're awesome, darling. Don't ever change." Before I could react, she pulled her sleeve free, sauntering to exit flap of the tent. She stopped, cocking her head. "Fred's awake in the next tent, though I would, uh, give him maybe ten to finish up before you barge in." She said over her shoulder before shoving the flap aside to leave.

Ten minutes my ass. I threw the covers off, thankful the flannel came down nearly to my thighs since there was nary a pant in sight. I wanted to see another face other than the baffling Princess I didn't really think about what she said. I peeked outside, the warmth of early morning sunshine on my face. I was in an erected cluster of medical tents, separated from the rest of the fort by a wooden barricade. There was movement in the tent next to me and no sign of Princess anywhere.

Self consciously tugging the flannel down, I leapt from platform to platform, opening my mouth to call Fred's name as I swept the tent flap aside. Two bodies were tangled under the white sheet. The intrusion of sunlight didn't interrupt the furious grope session, though considering their eyes were shut as they mashed their lips together I doubt they noticed. It took all of five seconds for the scene to burn itself into my retinas before I realized what I was seeing and stepped out without a word. Judging by that horizontal tango, I concluded Fred and Ginger were getting along now.

I left them to it, wondering where I could find a conveniently sharpened stick to stab in my ear and scrub out my brain. Making my way down the short set of stairs, I noticed a black splotch on my thigh.

"What the-?" I glanced around, satisfied no one was around, before lifting the flannel higher. "Oh, I am so going to kill her."

Scrawled in black sharpie up the inside of my thigh, complete with a little smiley face, was a message. 'Liv wuz here.'