We stayed huddled in the kitchen, crouched amid shards of glass and oatmeal flakes, waiting for another hit. Nothing.

JD frowned at the ceiling, giving voice to the question we were all wondering. "Why just one hit?"

It wasn't long before the general appeared.

The door hummed, squealing as it rose, probably jostled on its tracks during the explosion. He entered, flanked for half a dozen soldiers, including Petra.

"Everyone safe and secured?" The general was slipping. His air of concern barely concealed the suspicion and calculation in his eyes. He looked over the group but made no mention of the absent Princess. That itself was worrisome, after he noticed in a glance one of Petra's men was missing. His eyes slid over each of us, lingering on JD once again. "Care to offer a report Corporal Daniels?"

Interesting. The general either didn't think much of a woman in charge, which didn't seem right considering how much respect he appeared to have for Petra, or he didn't know who was in charge of this outfit. Another detail Petra kept from him? I frowned at her. JD stepped forward until he was next to me, a strong presence hovering at my shoulder. I looked up to catch him salute me.

"Permission to report m'am?"

I raised an eyebrow at that. The corner of General Mitford's mouth twitched. Perhaps his reasons for addressing JD were something else entirely, a game I wasn't adept at understanding, but I decided to play along. I flapped my hand at him. "If you think it necessary," I said.

JD clicked his heels together. "Sir, we were enjoying a morning conversation over grits when we were hit by an explosion of unknown origin."

If JD's sarcastic performance bothered him, he didn't show it. Mitford glanced over Lannie and away. Two things became clear with the small gesture. One, he was completely aware she was human. Two, he didn't care. And I was completely done with the asshole.

"General Mitford, we both you don't give two shits if we are alive and well. So, why are you here?"

Petra flinched at the tone of my voice, but Mitford met me stare for stare. The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile that came nowhere near his eyes. "I have respect for a leader who prefers to cut through the bullshit. Very well, Ms. Li. As you are aware, we are currently being dogged by a concealed extraterrestrial craft. If you will not volunteer yourselves to scientific study, perhaps you can be of use in other ways."

Oh, I so didn't have a good feeling about this.

"We require a small contingent to perform reconnaissance on the ship to pinpoint any weaknesses our own weapons could exploit."

"Or, we could shards of glass in our eyeballs," Fred muttered.

"And you want to use a bunch of untrained, sorry JD you are the exception, mutated zombies for this little task because?"

Mitford looked me square in the eye. "You are sturdier than my men, and expendable."

We were now past the sugarcoating stage.

I glanced at the others, wondering how they felt about the general's new found honesty. JD and Fred comically wore matching sneers while Curley looked steeped in disappointment. The Muppets stood in front of Lannie, shielding her from the general's view. Their expressions were difficult to read but it was clear they didn't like the aloof General Mitford either. Submit to experiments or risk an alien fire fight were not ideal choices. They were crap choices.

"I want to see my friends in lab," I told the general. He sucked on his teeth with an audible 'tch'.

"I promise you, they are perfectly safe," said the general. Fred snorted, loudly.

"Not that I don't think you're a man of your word, General," I said, my eyes on Petra as I spoke. "But your options are all risk and no reward." I held out my hands, palms out. "I simply want to check up on my people. See with my own eyes they are okay."

He considered me for a moment. The general gave a short bow, stepping aside to gesture me through the door. "After you Ms. Li." He addressed a trio of his men. "Get the transport ready for them."

Petra watched them leave, an inscrutable look on her face. For the sake of my sanity, I put my feelings and theories about her on the back burner and waited for Mitford to take me to his lab of secret delights. I turned to the squeaks on the painted cement. Everyone had followed me out.

"What?" Fred shrugged. "We're all curious."

The general looked the slightest bit exasperated by the lot of us but he led the way, the remainder of his people bringing up the rear. The labs were much deeper in the facility that I thought they'd be, on a whole other subterranean level. Sub Station Apollo was massive on a far grander scale than I first thought.

"How many levels does this place have?"

"Six," replied the general.

Six? When and how had they found the time to build something like this? In the middle of an apocalypse, surrounded by zombie hordes no less? Build the fence and dig? It was something to mull over as we crowded into a true working elevator, descending to the lowest level. The lurch of gravity was both familiar and oddly comforting. That was another odd quirk of Sub Station Apollo. Perhaps its situation below the ground was the reason there were no zombies lingering outside the fence.

We emerged on floor 6, as polished and unlabeled as the rest of the place. Floor 6 also had a lot more open space, the majority of the floor an open warehouse style setup with various lab tables dotting the premise between rows of hospital beds. The right side of the room looked more familiar, a row of containment cells with the same sliding garage door set up as our own.

"Hey, Red, how's it hanging?" Fred broke away from us, making a bee line for Ginger who looked equal parts relieved and exasperated to see us. She was on a bed in the third row, hooked up to a relatively benign looking IV. A pair of older men in thick glasses and lab coats frowned at our presence but for the most part ignored us as they finished jotting down notes at Ginger's bedside.

She ignored Fred, frowning at me as I joined them. "Did you volunteer too?"

I shook my head. "No, we came down to visit before we head off on a different assignment." I nodded at the bag of clear fluid being fed into her veins. "What's this?"

Ginger made a face. "Saline drip."

"Huh," I said, looking to see if the general hovered nearby. I thought he would be breathing down my neck but he waited by the elevator, giving us free reign of the lab. Petra stood with him, her expression still conflicted. Whatever the ice queen felt about the situation, Mitford certainly didn't act like he had something to hide. I turned to Ginger. "Are they treating you alright?"

Her coppery eyebrows rose toward her widow's peak. "They've been nothing but civil. All the tests have been fairly rudimentary so far. They are taking vitals, interviewing us to see what recall we have. So far they've done nothing remotely Dr. Frankenstein-ish." She readjusted the IV tube, looking passed us to the others exploring the room. A flash of pain appeared and vanished on her face in the space of a blink. "I see Liv took her leave."

I nodded, wishing I didn't feel so conflicted about her departure myself. "Have they mentioned what sort of tests they'll be doing?"

Ginger tugged a loose string from the thin sheet she sat on. "They want to see how developed my biology is, everything from immune system to reproductive organs." Her smile was tight. "Everything inside and out."

I frowned at her. "They haven't," I dropped my voice, "asked you to take any weird pills or drawn copious amounts of blood?"

Ginger rolled her eyes. "I know you were holding out for this to be an evil underground lab, Li, but its like being stuck in the world's most boring hospital waiting room only without the crappy television streaming soap operas."

I don't know what I expected. Yes, I did. I expected the full blown evil laboratory with naked wires sparking along the walls. This was almost a let down. Was my distrust of the general just a gut reaction? An anti-authority streak I didn't realize I possessed? Maybe he really did have nothing to hide and this experiment business was so much smoke, no fire.

Except I couldn't banish the memory of Sarah Benson's empty eyes from my mind. Or her cryptic warning.

"Have you heard any strange noises down here?"

Ginger made a face at me. "Li I don't know what you want me to say, or what I can say to convince you we are okay here."

Nothing, there was nothing Ginger could say to banish the uncertainty sitting like a stone in my gut. It didn't matter how nonchalant the general acted. This place stank. There was even the tiniest bit of sulfur in the air, like somewhere the floor opened to a secret portal to Hell. I nodded to Ginger, giving her as warm a smile as I could manage. We never quite got on, but I would be lying if I said I didn't worry about her and the others in this place.

"Just stay safe and keep your eyes open," I said, leaving her and Fred to have a little heart to heart. The elevator doors slid open. Kit stormed into the lab, shooting Petra a frosty glare before he caught sight of me. Relief flooded his features, relief at the sight of me.

He jogged across the floor to meet me, his hands landing on my shoulders. "Are you okay?" It was the first question out of his mouth and the best one.

"Yeah, was just checking on the rest of the gang before we head out."

Kit frowned, appearing wonderfully befuddled. He had no idea what was going on. "Head out?"

I couldn't help a small smile at his concern. "Since we didn't volunteer for lab work, the general has graciously asked us to scout the alien ship up top."

His face paled. I didn't know about the rest of the soldiers in Sub Station Apollo, but Kit had legitimate face time with the space creepsters. He knew exactly how badly this could go. "Who's going with you?"

I shrugged. "Fred, JD, the Muppets, and Lannie." No way in hell was I leaving them down here, no matter how risky it could get. "Maybe Curley." I spotted the big guy chatting with another couple scientists in coats, looking around at the tables and equipment with an appreciate eye. Maybe not.

Kit caught the direction of my gaze. "He used to a bio engineer you know," he said. I blinked at him. He scratched his chin. "No human back up? No guns?"

I gave another shrug, feigning indifference. "You're a lot squishier than us." It was the evasive way of calling us expendable. Kit saw right through that.

"I'm coming with you." He turned, heading for the general.

For an instant, I allowed myself to feel the fun fluttery sensation, knowing he cared enough about us, about me, to risk his life. Then the cold panic of reality set in. "Holy shit, no. Kit!"

I sprinted after him, too little, too late. I joined them in a heated three way argument between Kit, Petra, and Mitford.

"Like Hell, you're going up there," Petra snapped, pointing at him in the universal language of older siblings.

"They aren't soldiers," Kit snapped back, making short sharp gestures with his hands.

"JD is," I said, earning a scowl from both siblings. "What, he is, was, whatever. Kit, we can handle this."

It was the wrong thing to say. I knew that the second I felt the general's speculation shift onto me.

"Sending them out with supervision is an excellent idea, Lt. Marlowe," said General Mitford. Petra balked behind him, looking equal parts shocked and murderous. "How many men would you feel necessary to supervise this covert mission?"

The general said a lot with his tone. Kit's jaw flexed as he got his temper under control. Petra shifted to stand beside her brother.

"Just two, general," she said.

He considered them for a moment and nodded. "Very well. You have until tomorrow to check in. Allow me to escort you to the transport you'll take to scout."

At least that meant less walking. I signaled the others. JD, Lannie, the Muppets and Curley fell in before Fred stomped up with a face like a thundercloud.

"Trouble in paradise?" Kit grinned at him.

"Oh, blow me pretty boy."

The group began to file into the elevator when Kit stopped Curley, muttering something low in his ear. The big guy turned to the general.

"General, I would like to stay behind and volunteer for testing," he said, taking a step away from the elevator.

"Very well, son, go find one of the lab techs and they will get you settled in," said the general, slapping the button to take the elevator up.

Curley gave me a nod as the doors closed. I didn't heard exactly what passed between him and Kit, but I knew he would keep an eye on the others for us. It eased some of the tension hanging over me. I shuffled from foot to foot as the elevator rose through the floors. We were two floors from the top when I felt the itch of being watched. I looked up at the group reflection in the metal doors. General Mitford stared at me.

He stared at me until the elevator doors opened and spat us out into the garage. It left me with the appropriate feeling of doom.

The general didn't expect any of us to return.