Peter crawled along the floorboards, poking his fingers into every crack.

Nothing.

But he knew there had to be something there. It wouldn’t make any sense for the Barbie entity to just… troll him with nonsense directions.

“I don’t know,” he said to KG. “I can’t find anything. We’ve got maybe a minute before those Raiders decide we’re just playing for time.”

“I look too,” Knife Ghoul said. He stuck his face down next to the floor and snuffled along, sniffing deeply.

Peter kept looking while he thought furiously about how they could defeat the raiders. Dumbo Ghoul would probably just end up getting shot if they relied on him to keep throwing things at them. Whatever was in the basement was still too high level for them to access. Maybe they could draw them in, one by one? They might have a chance like that, hand-to-hand, though they’d probably still lose multiple ghouls in the process.

There was another shout from outside. It sounded like instructions.

“We’re out of time,” Peter said.

“No,” said a voice from the doorway.

Barbie Ghoul was dragging her way into the room. She looked half dead.

“What are you doing?” Peter said. “You should rest.”

“I see it,” she rasped. “I see it when Dead Horde tell you.”

She crawled across the floor and Peter stood back. He hated to let her exert herself, but it was their last option.

She poked a spindly ghoul finger into one crack that looked no different from any other one, then stretched her other arm out as far as she could, groaning with the effort. At the far end of her reach, she poked a finger into another spot in the floor.

There was a click, and the floorboards slid away from underneath her, dropping her down into a shallow gap.

Peter leapt forward and grabbed her, pulling her up and away, then sitting her down against the wall.

“Good job again,” he said quietly and gave her a smile.

She nodded, looking utterly exhausted.

“Boss,” said KG, “You look at this stuff!”

There was a wooden box inside the gap, and Knife Ghoul opened it up to reveal something amazing.

Grenades. Row after glorious row of dull green ones, and on either side a row of ones with red stripes, and another row of ones with green stripes. There had to be fifty. Along with those, laying sideways, were two long orange pulse grenades.

“Oh my gosh,” Peter said. “That is a thing of beauty right there.”

He flicked for an ID on one of the dull green grenades, fearing that he’d only get the red screen of failure.

HAND GRENADE FRAGMENTATION LEVEL 2 SINGLE USE (400 HP to 1 meter; 50% falloff per meter) It’s a grenade. Hopefully you know how it works. Pull, throw. You get the idea.

Magnificent.

He pulled them out by the handful, and passed them out to everyone in the room.

“Charlie!” he said, pointing to their resident kamikaze ghoul. “Take as many as you can and sneak up onto the roof. Don’t get shot. You know how to use these?”

Charlie nodded.

“Pull thing out, throw it, boom,” he said.

Peter nodded.

“Spot on. I’m going to lure them in to right outside the door. You and Dumbo wait until they’re right there, then blow them to pieces. Get the ones across the street too.”

“What about Raider Ghoul?” said Charlie.

“Don’t worry about me,” Peter said. “I’ll take care of myself.”

There was another shout and the crack of a rifle. They all heard the bullet clang against the side of the building.

“Do it now!” he said to Charlie.

The ghoul ran out of the room.

He looked at the others.

“Once you hear the first grenade go off, you pull the boards off the windows and do your best to take out anyone you can see.”

He pointed to Dave.

“You go to the back. They likely sent someone around to see if they can get in that way. Take him out.”

Dave nodded.

“I do good, you see!” he said.

“Great, let’s go,” Peter said.

He ran down the stairs to the sound of another rifle shot.

“I coming, I coming!” he shouted. “Me got the crystal for you now!”

He looked desperately around the garbage that littered the main floor.

There.

He picked up a palm-sized chunk of shattered glass. It looked like part of a figurine.

He a grenade in his other hand, and one in the pocket of his jacket.

The last thing I need is them getting suspicious before we can stab them in the back.

He set them both down carefully by the door, then opened it and stepped outside.

He couldn’t see anyone, but he knew that multiple raiders were aiming at him.

“Okay boss!” he yelled. “I get crystal for you like I say!”

He held up the piece of glass cupped in his hand, hopefully obscuring most of it.

A Raider stood up from behind a chunk of concrete across the street.

“Just stay right there,” it said.

“I stay here boss, you don’t worry about that,” Peter said, giving him a big shit-eating grin, and waggled the piece of glass again.

The Raider kept his rifle trained on Peter as he walked slowly across the street.

Shit, my shield would have been handy.

The timer had probably cycled and it would be recharging again by now, but it was too late to check and he didn't want to make any suspicious moves.

He stood very still, and slowly let his hand fall until it was holding out the chunk of glass. The Raider was too busy watching him to pay much attention to it yet.

“Here,” he said. “You take crystal, and we all friends, right?”

The Raider sneered.

“Fuck you. There’s only one way you got the gear you’re wearing.”

That reputation hit. It was going to get him into trouble.

“I just find gear, it look fancy!” he said, trying to sound simple-minded.

The Raider made a scoffing noise. He was almost at arm’s length. His eyes flicked down to the chunk of glass.

“That’s not the crystal,” he said flatly. “What are you trying…”

There was a shout from across the street, and then two loud explosions and orange flashes. A Raider started screaming in pain.

I guess I shouldn’t have trusted Charlie to stick to the plan.

Something scrolled across his status display but there was no time to worry about it.

The Raider had turned to look. Peter knew it was the only opportunity he was going to get. He leaped at him, grabbing for his big combat knife at the same time.

But the Raider was quick too. He wheeled around before Peter had even made it across the space between them and raised his rifle. Peter grabbed the barrel and pushed it away, stabbing at the same time. The rifle cracked and jerked in his hand.

Peter landed his stab solidly into the Raider’s neck.

The Raider gushed blood and the two of them fell to the ground together. Critical 30% flashed, and since he was bleeding heavily that was probably good DOT too.

Something smacked into the pavement by Peter’s head, splattering sharp rocks across his face.

Shit. I’m exposed.

It was pointless staying outside and and getting shot. Time to let the ghouls with the grenades do their thing. He jumped up and bolted for the door.

The second shot connected with his leg and he collapsed to the ground again.

I’m screwed.

Health -15% (85)

As he staggered up again there were two more loud explosions, and then he saw a blur off to his left, falling towards the ground. For a moment he assumed one of the ghouls on the roof had been hit.

But instead he heard Charlie’s voice shrieking like a maniac. The ghoul crashed to the ground and its health plummeted to 40%. Charlie didn’t even pause. He jumped up and ran straight towards the spot where the other sniper was hidden, screaming at the top of his lungs and holding a grenade in each hand.

Peter scrambled at his waist and drew his gladius, whirling around to the Raider. It was on its feet again, its whole side soaked with blood and its health at 60%. The rifle came up, and Peter jumped, slashing.

The sword connected with the rifle with a clang, knocking the barrel aside. He whirled the sword around again at high speed, bringing it down to cleanly slice through the Raider’s wrist. The rifle fell to the ground.

He heard two more explosions and assumed that both Charlie and the snipers were gone.

The Raider snarled and pulled a knife from its belt. Peter was faster. He jumped and pushed the mob over landing on top of him and stabbing it over and over again, holding the sword with both hands and shrieking like ghoul. It felt good.

In fact, it felt amazing. When the Raider was dead he jumped up again and turned to the building.

“Attack!” he yelled. “Kill anyone that’s still alive!”

His clan didn’t need any more encouragement. They flooded out of the building, knives at the ready, and scattered across the street looking for anyone they could stab. Peter could hear Dumbo crashing along the rooftop, presumably trying to get down in time to be part of the fun.

One of the Raiders was apparently still alive. He stumbled out from behind a wall with a ghoul latched on to him - Charlie was on his back, holding on with one hand while the other stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. Bill leaped through the air and grabbed both of his legs, tripping him up. When he fell to the ground there was a brief shriek as the two of them finished him off.

Knife Ghoul was dragging a dead Raider body across the street, grinning widely.

“He have good stuff, come and see!”

Peter nodded.

“Soon enough. What about the one who went around back?”

He was still worried about the hypothetical Raider who might be aiming at one of their heads right now.

“Dave go around back but that one probably run away scared now!” KG said.

Dumbo Ghoul came scrambling out of the building, still limping on one leg. KG stopped him and pointed.

“You go back there and help Dave. Find out if another Raider there and kill him!”

Dumbo nodded eagerly and didn’t seem at all worried about his injury. He limped around the corner at high speed, pulling out his knife.

“We don’t want any getting away,” Peter said. “They’ll just end up bringing more back. Maybe more than we can handle next time.”

“If they do we tear them apart!” Charlie yelled. He was smiling broadly and dragging the dead Raider behind him. Bill followed along pulling the ruined body of another who must have died in one of the explosions.

“Charlie, you’re a maniac. I’m impressed.” Peter said.

The ghoul laughed and kept lugging the dead Raider to the nest.

He wanted to clear away all evidence of the battle as fast as he could. Charlie’s insane optimism notwithstanding, he didn’t want to attract anybody’s interest in their nest. He ordered them to go back and clean up any evidence of the Raiders that they could find.

Peter limped along and went into the nest. The pain was bad, but it didn’t seem quite so disabling this time.

Either the infection is getting better or I’m just getting used to it. Or else Weller turned down the knob a bit.

He didn’t trust Paul to be that helpful though.

They lined the Raiders up along the floor inside. Peter wanted to do a really thorough inventory search on these guys.

Then without warning an update scrolled past. He’d been ignoring most of them during the fight, but this one stood out.

Dave (Common Horde) has died. Clan membership now 5 (Level 2)

“Shit,” he said. “We just lost Dave.”

The ghouls nodded glumly. Ghoul death was a common enough thing that nobody seemed surprised by it.

He pointed to Charlie and Bill.

“Take a couple of grenades and go see if Dumbo needs help!”

Of course there was an upside to ghouls being disposable. Neither of them seemed worried by the order. In fact Charlie moved briskly, obviously eager to get out there and start fighting again.

“Don’t take too many risks,” Peter said. He didn’t want to drop down to a Level 1 clan again if possible. “Just see if you can help.”

Charlie grinned.

“I help stupid Raiders die, that my help!”

He turned and ran out of the door with Bill tagging along behind him

Peter’s health was still at 85% - he’d come out pretty clean for that scale of a fight. Knife Ghoul was at ninety. He needed to go upstairs and check on Barbie soon. He hoped she was asleep.

He looked at KG.

“What do you think? Should we go and help out?”

Knife Ghoul frowned and then shook his head.

“We take care of nest. That important. Dumbo strong, he have two more with him. They probably okay.”

Peter nodded.

“Alright.”

There was an explosion in the distance, quickly followed by another one. He and KG both looked in the direction of the sound.

Peter waited to see if he’d get a status update.

But nothing came.

He shrugged.

“Nobody else is dead yet,” he said.

KG looked at the bodies on the ground.

“We take their things. Make us stronger.”

“How do you feel about trying to wear Raider armor? Will that be okay?”

The ghoul laughed.

“Boss wear it, he smart and strong. I think it maybe a good idea.”

“You’ll be safer too.”

KG nodded and went to look over the bodies.

Peter had been ignoring a lot of status updates. He sat down on the stairs now that he had a moment to review them.

Charlie XP +150 (Raider killed) Clan Leader Share XP +15 Knife Ghoul XP +150 (Raider killed) Clan Leader Share XP +15 Charlie XP +150 (Raider killed) Level +1 (Now 4); Leader Share XP+20 Dumbo Ghoul XP+150 (Raider killed) Clan Leader Share XP +10

Yup, like I thought. Every time one of my clan gets XP, I get a share. When they’re higher levels I get even more points.

Which of course meant that the bigger his clan got, the more kills they could accumulate and the faster and higher he could level. If he’d had a hundred ghouls in his clan today he could have swamped the tiny Raider party in seconds, even if it meant losing ten or fifteen in the process.

Also, Charlie is a killing machine. I need to promote that ghoul.

Another update scrolled past.

Charlie XP +150 (Raider killed) Clan Leader Share XP +15

Peter gave a thumbs up to Knife Ghoul.

“They got him,” he said. “They should be coming back now.”

KG nodded and kept poking through the Raider’s inventories.

Peter watched him, thinking.

I need more ghouls.

I need a lot more ghouls.