“Nice work guys,” Peter said. He was being serious. “Junk pile wall” was underselling it.

I mean, it’s definitely still a junk pile, but it’s a decent junk pile.

They had woven long beams and lengths of steel into the structure to strengthen it, and bolstered the bottom with a lot of reinforcement from big slabs of concrete, which were also piled up strategically in series along the length as well.

He gave it a few kicks, and nodded. There was a decent chance this could even keep a couple of those big beasts out.

KG and DG smiled at his praise, but neither of them got up from where they sat on the ground.

Morale was down, Peter noticed. A shocking 15 points, in fact.

“Thanks boss,” said KG. “But we tired now. Not had much food for a long time.”

Peter wanted to slap himself. He couldn’t just keep pushing them without seeing to their needs. Foraging for food was one of the basic clan functions.

“That’s perfectly fair,” he said to them. “First we had to make sure we had a safe nest, but now you two deserve food. Lots of food. Enough to make you fat and happy.”

Dumbo Ghoul looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Lots of food? That would make me happy.”

Peter nodded.

“You two just rest, okay? This is on me and Barbie. You guys deserve a break and so much food that you puke.”

That bumped morale up five points again, but it was obvious that actually providing a meal was going to be necessary to bring everyone up to full fighting form.

He went upstairs to see how she was getting on. He didn’t even feel any need to creep, though he had to carefully step over broken concrete and garbage the whole way.

The apocalypse is really just a god awful mess. Well I’m not having it. We’re going to clean this shit up and have the best organized ghoul Nest anyone has ever seen.

Barbie Ghoul ran up to him with a big smile.

“Look what I find! Did I do good?”

In her hands were two big sharp kitchen knives.

He had been hoping for something a little more lethal, but BG was looking at him so hopefully that he made a point of giving her a big smile. They weren't very dangerous, but they were certainly better than pointed sticks, and it meant they could each have something now.

“Excellent work!” he said. Clan members were party members, AI or not. Praise was cheap and kept them happy. “Now we all have good strong weapons.”

She nodded eagerly.

“I find special thing for you, come and see!”

She ran off so quickly down the hall that he had to jog to keep up with her.

The upper floor was just a hallway with doors to two small offices along the length, and ending in a door to a much bigger room. Everything looked to be full of trash and debris, without even a bit of intact furniture.

We’re going to have to haul in anything we need, that’s for sure.

In the big room she was waiting for him and was obviously hiding something behind her back.

“What do you have there?” he said.

She smiled again, and showed him her find.

It was a sword. An actual honest-to-god shortsword.

“Leader should have good weapon,” she said shyly, not meeting his eyes.

He took it from her without a word and flicked up the stats.

REPLICA GLADIUS UNMODIFIED SHORT SWORD

ONE-HANDED, MELEE ATTACK +20 (Condition 65%) 13 Probably Mall Ninja gear, but this is still a real sword, and somebody has made an effort to sharpen it so that it’s actually dangerous. Don’t cut yourself.

“Holy crap, Barbie,” he said. “This is an amazing find.”

He meant it. With this and his armor buff he was going to be punching above his ghoul weight.

She smiled and looked at the ground.

“I think it good. Really shiny.”

She grinned at him again.

Peter wasn’t sure how you rewarded a ghoul exactly, but he earmarked her for something special once he had figured that out. He slid the sword into the leather loop on his Raider pants and patted it protectively.

“Look good?” he said.

“Look very good,” she said, and smiled at him again. Her broken ghoul teeth were plainly visible.

Why am I feeling awkward? Oh my god is she…

“Let’s go,” he said quickly. “We need to start looking for some food for all of us. Those two downstairs have been working pretty hard.

She hesitated for a moment then nodded.

“Okay leader,” she said. “I do what you say.”

I don’t need this. No offence Barbie but... yeah no.

He supposed that as ghouls went she was attractive, but he wasn’t in much of position to judge. He didn’t want to insult her though.

He made a point of letting her go first down the hall, and he put his hand on her shoulder as she went past. She looked up at him frankly, staring into his eyes.

Yikes.

He opened the door of the building very carefully and peeked his head out.

Nothing to see. The dark street looked empty. Looked that way, at least.

“You two lock this again once we leave, okay? Don’t let anyone else in,” he said to KG and DG.

“You bet, boss,” said DG. He seemed hardier than KG, and he was up and walking around again, while KG was still splayed out on the floor, asleep.

“You have any idea which way we should scrounge for food?” he said. The ghouls must have standard ways of doing this.

DG shrugged.

“Rats everywhere,” he said. “Look in dark places.”

Rats. Ugh.

There had to be a better option. Then again the ghoul somatics probably made them taste great, and he should probably get an idea of how to hunt like one of them. It wasn’t a very auspicious start though.

He and Barbie crept down the street, keeping to the shadows and stopping frequently to listen for any suspicious sounds.

“There,” she hissed, pointing to an alley that didn’t look much different to Peter than any of the others they had passed. But he didn’t want to look unskilled, so he just nodded.

“Good,” he said. “That looks like a great spot to start.”

She crept forward, holding her kitchen knife in one hand, looking like she was ready to pounce.

There was a sudden squeak and a scrabbling sound of little claws, and Barbie slashed at a rat that scuttled past her. It flashed red but kept going, right towards Peter.

“Get it!” she said.

He stabbed down hard with the other kitchen knife - he wasn’t going to waste his last poison charge in the good knife, and the shortsword was too long for this business. The rat squealed and jerked, and it’s small health bar flashed black. He got a whole XP for his work.

Fear Raider Ghoul, the mighty hunter!

Barbie crept over to him and grabbed the rat, stuffing it away in a sack that she pulled out from her rags.

“Good,” she said. “But more here still.”

He followed her along the alleyway, and they quickly got into a pattern. She spooked rats out of hiding, and he stabbed them to death. As a level 4 ghoul, even equipped with just a kitchen knife, he had no need for second thrust on a rat. Before long Barbie’s bag bulged with bloody rat corpses.

“Okay,” she whispered. “That lots of rats!”

Peter hesitated. He was sure the rats would do fine for basic food, but he hated to just give up on finding anything better. As a player it was common enough to find old prewar canned goods or rations in the ruins. They were standard health and vitality boosts. There didn’t seem to be any players around - they were fairly close in towards the Nexus after all - so why shouldn’t they have a quick look?

“Come on,” he said to her and crept forward towards the broken rear door of the nearest building in the alley. “Let’s see if we can find anything else.”

“Maybe we find trouble,” she whispered. “Eat rats is no trouble.”

That’s their ambition? Did I recruit an underachieving ghoul clan?

He grinned back at her and pulled out his Gladius.

“My clan is going to do better than rats, trust me,” he said.

She didn’t look any less worried, but she brandished her own knife and followed him without question into the building.

It was dark and filled with junk and smashed furniture, but his eyes adapted quickly and he went quietly down a corridor, peering into rooms on each side, hoping for a glint of an intact can or bottle, or (best of all) an MRE box. But there was nothing. And definitely not any good stuff like boxes of ammo or the glint of the LEDs on a safe.

It almost feels like it’s been cleared out before.

It would be a shame if someone had already taken all the easy items. Raiders maybe, or even players. Certainly not impossible.

There was one more closed door at the end of the hallway. They waited outside, listening carefully with their ghoul hearing, but there wasn’t even a faint hint of breathing on the other side.

“Screw this,” he muttered and twisted the doorknob. The door swung open with a creak, and Barbie Ghoul gasped.

“Bingo!” he said.

There was a pile of cans on the floor. Unopened. Plus a box that could only be MREs.

No rats for us, I’ll take lasagna instead.

He grinned at Barbie.

“You see?” he said. “All we needed to do was...”

But before he could finish the sentence there was a crash at the other end of the hallway and dark forms were running towards them.

“Kill them!” a voice shrieked. “Dirty thieves!”

Peter jumped in front of Barbie, intending to protect her. But as he stood up and brandished his sword he realized she’d already positioned herself beside him at the ready with her knife. She growled deep in her throat.

Damn. That’s a scary-ass ghoul noise. Good job.

Their attackers stopped short as they finally got a good look at Peter and Barbie. The glittering shortsword and raider gear must have marked him out as no easy target.

Four more ghouls faced them. They were all dressed in rags, but their leader was a head taller than Peter and carried a thick piece of iron rod in one hand and nasty-looking combat knife in the other. He was a big guy, easily bigger than Dumbo Ghoul.

Arthur

Horde Clan Captain; Lvl 5; 100% Bloody Knife Clan

Seriously? Arthur?

The naming had to be temporary. Probably they would do lore-friendly names before release.

“Thieves,” it said. “That our food!”

They didn’t just jump, though. Maybe ghoul clan conflict involved a bit of feeling each other out first, to see who was really stronger.

The other three were nameless, but they were all Level 3. Barbie wasn’t going to stack up well against any of them. If this descended into a melee she was going to come off badly.

It was time to see about recruiting some new clan members anyway.

They all looked like they wanted to jump on Peter and stab him to death then and there. His Raider gear debuff was probably not helping one bit.

“Wrong!” Peter said. He did his best to bellow like a clan leader. “Our food now! You can have some when you submit and join Carnage Clan!”

Arthur the ghoul snorted.

“Raider clan leader? That stupid.”

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Look at me! I’m Horde, not a Raider. I’m wearing the armor I took from their dead bodies when I killed them!”

Arthur looked him up and down and sneered.

“Stupid Horde wearing Raider clothes. I take your woman when you dead.”

Barbie growled again.

“Raider Ghoul is smart not stupid! We make new clothes from your clan’s skin!”

Arthur grinned toothily.

“Keep that one alive,” he said to the other three. “I like her.”

This was still moving towards a melee. He needed to short-circuit it. But obviously shit-talking was part of the protocol here.

“The clan follows you?” he said and laughed. “You wear rags! What kind of leader wears dirty rags?”

He looked at the other three.

“Follow me and I will give you the best armor and food and weapons! You will be stronger than any clan you have ever met!”

It didn’t seem to do a lot of good. They were still staring at him, waiting for Arthur to make a move.

“Raider Ghoul saved us from Barong,” Barbie said. “He smart enough to fool it. He tear you all to pieces!”

That’s very optimistic of you, Barbie.

He couldn’t take on all four at once. There was no doubt about that. Even Arthur on his own was going to be a problem. Of course he still had one poison charge on his knife. That was an ace in the hole at least.

He needed to make this one-on-one.

“Arthur,” he bellowed. “You are weak and lead a weak clan! Fight me and I will show them who is stronger!”

“I think we just kill you,” Arthur said. “Easier that way.”

“You see!” Peter said, and pointed at Arthur. “He fears Raider Ghoul! He is too weak to even fight me alone!”

That seemed to have some impact on the other three. Their weapons lowered and they stared at Arthur, obviously uncertain.

Maybe those social points weren’t a waste after all.

But Arthur was no fool. He looked at them, then spat on the ground.

“Okay,” he said.

Without any warning he sprung through the air towards Peter, with his iron rod held up high and his knife at waist-level.

Dual-wielder. Great.

Peter dodged to one side, letting the impact fall on his leather Raider armor.

Health -10% (90)

Not good.

He twisted around and slashed with his sword, aiming for Arthur’s legs, and was satisfied when it connected solidly. Arthur hissed and his status bar dropped by a solid 10%.

Well at least we’re still even.

His Raider gear was protecting him enough to keep him at par with a ghoul one level higher.

But that wasn’t going to cut it.

The other ghouls - even Barbie - had stepped back to give them room. There was obviously some kind of ritual at work here that they all understood.

Peter stood tall and sneered. He sheathed his sword through his belt loop and pulled out his combat knife.

“Too easy with weak Arthur,” he said, trying to sound like real ghoul. “I give you a good chance now.”

He brandished his knife and smiled.

Arthur grinned back at him and touched the ragged belt at his own waist.

“Raider Ghoul not fool me,” he said, as a shimmering light washed over him and then disappeared. “I think that special knife.”

God damn it. He has a personal shield generator!

It was a moderately rare find, and definitely valuable. Ghouls could pick up and use basic tech, of course. Now Arthur’s status bar shone purple. Peter would have to drop that down to zero before he’d even start eating into Arthur’s health again.

Not good, not good.