They discussed the plan for a time, though in all honesty the ghouls were not that communicative. Once they managed to work out the details of their deal, Rosa prepared to call the group to move out. However, the lead ghoul had something else in mind.

“Meat. Eat,” said the ghoul.

“You… want to eat first?” asked Rosa.

The ghoul shook his head then turned to the crowd and practically barked out. “Small. Come.”

The hideous looking creatures were slow to move, but once they did get the idea of what was desired the lesser ghouls stepped aside. Several little ghouls, possibly former human children who had lived in the area, staggered forward.

Rosa sucked in a breath, something the others in Team Badass also did. It was the most terrible thing she could image. Little dead children with shark teeth were staggering toward them.

However, the little ghouls soon turned and shambled toward the meat trailer. They slowly climbed up the side, though several of them fell off due to their lack of coordination. The ghouls did not move to help them.

Once the little ghouls made it onto the trailer they began to eat. They tore into the flying eyeball tentacles with their wickedly sharp shark-like teeth. Blood and ichor ran down their faces and dripped onto their already ruined clothing.

“I’m actually seeing this, right?” asked Cia with a hollowness in her tone that perfectly encapsulated her feelings on the matter.

“Yes,” said Rosa in as calm a manner as she could muster.

The head ghoul looked back to the milling crowd of his brothers and sisters. “Small. Eat. Rest. Push.”

The ghouls shambled forward in a rotten wave of helpfulness and took up places around the trailers. The four living bits of flotsam in that little sea of the undead soon realized that there were a lot more of them than they had originally thought.

“If we’d had to fight them…” whispered Harold.

Rosa shook her head. They shouldn’t reveal the fact that this many ghouls would have been impossible to beat with just the four of them. There had to be over a hundred of them, and some seemed less rotten than others. There were clearly high-level tier ones, and the leader might even be second tier.

The horde and their human allies wandered through the post-apocalyptic suburban streets. At first, the living feared a sudden attack from the dead. As time passed and nothing happened, the situation became more conversational.

Michael tried to strike up a conversation with the lead ghoul. However, it was a frustrating affair. The lead ghoul could speak, but not well. There were a few other ghouls who could speak but most of them could only moan.

More than a few eyed the humans like they were fine snacks. Michael asked about that fact eventually.

The lead ghoul reached up and rapped the top of his head with his knuckles. “Brain. Bad. Need. Boss.”

“Brain bad… Are you saying that your people can’t really help themselves?” asked Michael.

The ghoul nodded. “Young. Weak. Brain. Bad.”

Michael nodded to him in kind. “Does it get better?”

“Eat,” said the ghoul. “Eat. Helps.”

“So, that’s why you wanted that meat? You wanted the younger ghouls to get stronger?” asked Michael. It seemed like common sense, but he wanted to be certain.

“Too young,” said the ghoul. “Can’t fight.”

The ghoul looked to the trailer load of child ghouls who were devouring their meal. “Eat. Now. Fight. Soon.”

While Michael continued his conversation with the head ghoul, Cia slowly worked her way over to the trailer full of ghoul children. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. One of the ghouls, a little girl who was missing an eye, clutched a teddy bear to her chest. The bear also had lost an eye.

Her free hand was used to hold bits of tentacle while she ate, but she clutched fiercely to her teddy bear. Suddenly, however, the trailer ran over a rock. The little girl lost her grip on her bear and it fell to the ground.

The filthy blood-soaked bear lay were it fell, it’s one remaining eye staring up at the heavens as though it wished to blame the sky for its fate. The little ghoul girl stopped trying to eat and looked to her bear. It was obvious that some part of her remembered it. Yet, she could not vocalize.

Cia, seeing this, went over and picked up the lost toy. She trotted forward and handed it back to the little ghoul.

The ghoul child looked from the bear to Cia with her good eye, then looked away while she took it with her free hand. A strange noise, almost like a whimper, escaped the ghoul child’s lips. She then hugged the bear to her little chest.

The little ghoul nodded once, briefly, then went back to eating. Cia tried to strike up a conversation with her, but the little ghoul was lost in the sensation of tearing flesh. When Cia drew back a short distance, however, in a bid to return to Rosa’s side. The little ghoul glanced at her briefly then looked down at her hands. She tried to say something but found that she could not.

Cia offered her a smile. “You’re welcome.”

The little ghoul nodded once briefly, a ghost of a smile on her lips, before her milky blue eye turned away and she looked to her meal once more. Cia did not realize it, but her actions did not go unnoticed. Several ghouls who had looked at her like she was a snack, now looked at her with strange eyes. Perhaps being allies with their cattle would not be so terrible after all.

The day wore on, and the caravan soon reached the turn-off point for the bridge. The head ghoul pointed the way then said, “We. Stop. You. Go.”

“Thank you. We can take it from here,” said Michael.

Rosa glanced at him. Her gaze lingered for a moment, but instead of speaking she instead nodded to the ghoul. The ghoul nodded in kind then called for his people to follow. Many looked back longingly at the snack meats that had gotten away, but such was the nature of alliances.

Seven trailers left; they were forced to move them two at a time. After they reached the bridge with the first two trailers, they discussed the situation with the lizard girls. The negotiations led to a trade similar to the last one. They would help move the trailers across the bridge, but they would require half of the eyeball meat.

There was no way to move the trailers across the bridge normally, due to all the cars that blocked it, but the lizard girls proved disturbingly strong. Twenty of them were called in to help, and those twenty girls lifted the over-laden trailers and carried them overhead. Instead of pulling them across the bridge, they carried the trailers one by one, climbing atop the cars and trucks at times.

More than once they nearly turned over their precious cargo, but while they carried the trailer, some of the girl got the bright idea to move a few of the cars around since they had wheels. Most were positioned in a way that they could not be moved, but there were pockets of hope that could be used.

Despite the physicality of the lizard girls, it still took a few hours to get the trailers across the bridge. They had more than earned their share of the meat. Once a trailer was brought across, two of the team members would begin to pull it off to the house. It was a long, slow, haul given the distance and weight that they were hauling. A two mile or so trek took well over an hour. As things stood, only three of them had made it to the house before they were all moved from once side of the bridge to the other. Though, the fourth was now on its way.

The sun had long since set, and the moon risen, by the time the last cart made its way through the gate. At that point, everyone was exhausted, as even Rachel, Frank, and Hana had joined in the trailer movement brigade. Only Harley remained awake to watch the house, though eventually Scott did awaken and chose to join her.