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“And a needle mark in your arm. The Siblet must have sedated you,” Cleo said.

Hunter reached up and cupped her face in his hand, wiping a stray tear off her cheek. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

A choked laugh came out of her. “Neither can I. Why are you on Rowick?”

“This is my first posting. I was brought here after leaving the Apocalypse.”

Ash shook his head. “What are the chances of us coming here at the same time as you?”

“I know. I’ve been running patrols with my troop here for the last few days. After we finished today’s patrol, I decided to take a look around, and discovered this place. I couldn’t resist taking a peek.”

“Trust you to get in so much trouble by sticking your nose into an evil aliens’ business,” Ash said.

“You know me. I like to make a mess. I was on my way back to base to make contact with you and let you know what I found,” Hunter said. “The Siblet have stepped it up a gear. That beast I fought had full-on camouflage.”

The rodent climbed out of the backpack and limped over to Hunter. He hopped up, snuggled against Hunter’s chest, and made a soft purring sound.

“It’s good to see you too, tiny warrior,” he said. “And now we have backup, we can definitely get out of here.”

“And we need to move,” Cleo said. “We’re living on borrowed time. I’m amazed the Siblet haven’t discovered us yet. Can you stand?”

“Sure. Just give me a second to remember how to walk again, and I’ll be right with you.”

“On your feet, soldier.” Ash passed Cleo the rodent, then yanked Hunter up.

Pain flared through his chest, but he gritted his teeth and fought through it. “I definitely haven’t missed you.”

Ash gripped him by the upper arms and grinned at him. “Liar. And you can’t die. We need you back on the Apocalypse.”

“I’m working on staying alive.” Hunter wheezed out a breath. The Apexian energy transfer was taking its sweet time to kick in and speed up his healing.

“We need a shortcut out of here,” Cleo said. “If we go back the way we came, it’ll take too long. Hunter needs treatment immediately.”

“I’ll be fine,” Hunter said.

“You’re already swaying on your feet,” Cleo said.

“Really? I thought it was an earthquake.”

Georgia entered the room with a box full of medical supplies. “Hey! Will you look at that? Hunter didn’t die.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” he growled out.

Georgia nodded at him. “I’ve got just about everything in here. Adrenaline pens in case you flat line, hard core pain relief to space you out and make you think nothing is broken and you can run a marathon, and even some kind of weird, sticky stuff that I have no clue what it does. I was planning to use it all on you.”

“Georgia, Ash, go ahead and scout out any shortcuts to get us out of here,” Cleo said. “And the quicker the better. We need to get back to the ship and get the hell out of here.”

“We’re on it.” Georgia set down the box of supplies and dashed out of the room with Ash.

Cleo looked up at Hunter and then wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight.

He gritted his teeth against the pain, but it was so worth it to have Cleo wrapped around him once again. “I’m not going to lie, I wondered if I’d ever see you again after the Siblet caught me.”

“I was a hundred percent sure I’d see you.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “I was working on a plan to get you back on the Apocalypse.”

“What did you have in mind?” Hunter stroked a hand down her back.

“Mutiny was suggested.”