Most of the clan sat together on the floor in the big room on the second floor, lazily making their way through a meal. Peter thought it had been time to take the pressure off, just a bit, to give them a chance to recover their strength and let their wounds heal up. He needed them strong and ready for what came next.

Dumbo Ghoul was grinning and laughing. He’d discovered a chocolate bar in his MRE and they’d just about had to hold him back from systematically disassembling the rest of them to find more. Fortunately Peter had one too, so had given it to DG and told him to go sit down.

“Don’t worry,” he’d said. “When we’re done you can eat all of the chocolate you want.”

DG had nodded and smiled. He was nursing his last bar for now, nibbling carefully at it.

“That good, not going to eat anything else,” he said.

Barbie Ghoul was still sleeping in the middle room - she hadn’t moved at all, but at least she was still breathing. Dumbo Ghoul had carried her there and laid her out gently on the ground, and Peter had put a rolled-up pair of raider pants under her head.

Furnishings. We need a damn bed. Plus a desk. How is a ghoul supposed to plot his takeover of the lands of men when he doesn’t even have a desk to work at?

But it would have to wait. He went over to them and sat down on the floor.

They stopped talking and looked at him.

Ghouls liked a firm hand from their leader, so he nodded sharply and pointed at Bill.

“You,” he said. “You’re the new Fixer, now that Barbie is our Mystic. I want to to make sure all the knives are sharp, and then try to fix up as much of that stuff” - he pointed at the pile of Raider armor in the corner - “as you can. Fix holes and tears, whatever you can do to make them strong again.”

Bill gave the stuff a blank look.

“I guess. Don’t know much about that but I try…”

“You’ll do great,” Peter said. He hoped it was true, anyway.

He looked at KG.

“They’re not just going to forget about the crystal they were after, but we can try to not to make it too obvious where we are. How did the cleanup go?”

Knife Ghoul nodded.

“Pretty good, they move all the stuff inside and make the blood go away.”

He gave the clan an approving look.

“Good,” said Peter. “But we still need more Horde. After we rest up I want to send out two parties to find single Ghouls and bring them back here, okay?”

“Two parties?”

“Going in opposite directions. And being sneaky. Don’t get spotted this time.”

He looked at Charlie. That was his party leader, no doubt about it.

“You take Bill and head out along the road, and search the buildings. Carefully.”

Charlie nodded.

“Rather fight, but I do what boss says.”

Which meant the other party of two was either him and Dumbo, or KG and Dumbo.

He looked at his Clan Leader menu.

HORDE CLAN LEADER Tier 2 Clan (56/100) Carnage Clan 5 Common Horde Moral 85 (Content) Parties Recruiting Party 1 2C L:Charlie 0:00 Commands BUILD ROLES

There’s a timer for how long they’ve been away. That’s convenient I guess.

What was more interesting was the 56 number. Since one ghoul captain was 15 and the other four were ten each, that should have been 55.

So dead ghouls leave us a present in our rank even after they die. Thank you, Dave. But we still need five more new ghouls.

He looked at KG.

“If I leave you here can you work on a bit of camouflage?”

“Don’t know what that is.”

“Well… the wall we built is kind of obvious from outside. Maybe pile some more junk up against it, make it look like random garbage. I don’t know. Just something that doesn’t scream ghoul nest right here.”

The Ghoul frowned and sighed.

“Don’t know how to do that, but I try.”

“It will be just you and Barbie here for a bit so stay sneaky when you go out. I want my clan alive.”

“Boss go find Horde too?” Charlie said.

“You bet. I want our clan to grow. Big enough that we can tear a few Raiders to pieces without even breaking a sweat.”

Charlie grinned.

“Good plan.”

Peter looked at Knife Ghoul again.

“What else do we get once we’re a Tier 3 Clan, do you know?”

“Tier Three? Don’t know what that is, but if we have this many again” - he made a circle around them all with his hand - “then maybe we strong enough to make Warrior band.”

Charlie made a strange growling noise in his throat.

“Warrior band. Only big clans have that.”

There was a gleam in the Ghoul’s eyes, though.

Interesting.

“Does a Warrior band have a leader, like a Captain?”

KG nodded.

“For sure, Warrior Captain leads them, makes them stronger.”

Peter smiled at Charlie.

“What do you think? Do you want to be a Warrior Captain?”

The Ghoul’s usual fierce expression went blank for a second, and his eyes were wide.

“You make me Warrior Captain?”

“Only if you want it. I could choose someone else.”

“No! I be good Warrior Captain! Best one! Kill all enemies for Raider Ghoul!”

Peter pretended to consider it and then nodded.

“Fair enough. If we get enough Horde to make a Warrior Band, you can be Captain of it. As long as you stay strong.”

The Ghoul put his meal down and bowed low to Peter, his forehead touching the floor.

“Thank you boss. I do good for you. For clan.”

“I believe you will. Stay strong and alive and kill everyone who tries to fight us, and you will be the greatest Horde Warrior ever.”

When he raised his head again, Charlie looked determined.

“I kill anyone for Raider Ghoul.”

He said it very seriously. Peter believed him.

Nice, very nice. That’s the kind of minions a God King needs.

But all the same, Knife Ghoul had revealed something interesting. He could provide at least a little information on leveling and abilities ahead of time. That was an important discovery.

He needed to ask some pointed questions.

But after what felt like an hour of frustrating back-and-forth later he was none the wiser. KG knew about Warrior Bands, but he didn’t seem to have any idea about what other roles or abilities might be available on a clan upgrade.

Which might just mean that’s all there is. But I could do with a few warrior bands out killing things and pulling in more ghouls.

“What about an even bigger clan?” Peter said. “How many do we need to have even more kinds of Horde?”

KG made a scoffing noise.

“Like huge clan? They have things like special fighters and makers, but we only hear about those. Don’t know much about that.”

“How many Horde in a huge clan?”

“Lots and lots.”

Ghouls didn’t have much sense of numbers other than a few an a lot.

I guess that’s my job. But for now we need to break through to ten members.

After they’d eaten, most of them fell asleep, but Bill was sitting near the new Weapons Pile and working with their knives. He’d gotten into a loud argument with Charlie, but walked away with something from their prospective Warrior Ghoul’s inventory.

Now he was carefully sharpening the blades, one after another with what looked like a small piece of tile. It was some kind of makeshift whetstone.

“How did you know to use that?” Peter said.

“Arthur make Charlie carry his stuff,” Bill said. “He use this to make blades sharp. Watched him do it, seems pretty easy.”

The Ghoul already had three of the blades lined up, and all of their edges glinted nicely. Peter scanned one.

85%

Well that’s better than nothing. Hopefully he levels up if he keeps at it.

He handed over his Gladius, which was currently scanning at 65%. Bill took it carefully and looked at it with a critical eye.

“What do you think, can you make my blade sharp too?”

Bill frowned.

“I try. Looks more complicated.”

“You’ll do great, I trust you.”

The Ghoul nodded but looked worried.

I hope I can trust him, anyway.

Peter wanted to let them all rest, but he just couldn’t settle down. He needed to get things done. So he padded downstairs and stared around the big bottom floor room.

A mess. It’s just a god awful mess.

He started picking up garbage and piling it against the wall near the door.

It was oddly relaxing to be doing simple housework and not trying to figure out game dynamics for a while. After a while he’d cleared out a big section of the floor leading up to the doorway, and had found a bunch of screws, nails, glass, and metal bars. Those he piled separately, close to the stairs.

He had no idea yet if ghouls could craft anything, but it might be something to trade or sell once he found some Biomorphs. He made a mental note to tell the crew what kinds of garbage were valuable and what to do with them.

The rest of it could go outside. Maybe KG could use it to help disguise the wall.

He also found one minor treasure, nearly buried under old newspapers in a corner.

It was an actual office chair, and it was in okay condition. He set it upright and sat down. It squeaked but was otherwise solid.

As thrones for a future King go it’s not much, but we have to start somewhere.

He carried it upstairs and plunked it quietly down in the room which they had all adopted as their main nest.

It looked like they were nearly done resting. Bill was still working, but KG was up now. Dumbo Ghoul stretched and rubbed his eyes then started pawing through the remains of his MRE, looking for anything he’d missed.

Charlie was still asleep until Peter gave him a solid kick on the knee. The Ghoul snarled and leapt up, looking ready to tear him apart, until he realized who it was.

“Oh, hey boss,” he said. “We go now?”

Peter nodded.

“We go. Time to find some new clan members.”

Bill came up to him with his sword.

It scanned at 75%.

Better, at least.

He gave Bill a serious nod.

"I try to fix Raider gear, but too hard for me. Sorry, boss."

The ghoul looked absolutely ashamed. Peter thought he'd try some encouragement with him. At least as an experiment.

“This is great work on the weapons, you’re a good fixer. Don't worry about the other stuff, you'll get better at it.”

Bill looked relieved and went over to stand with Charlie.

It's probably true at least, but I'll have to keep an eye on him.

He wanted to take a detailed look at Bill's stats to see how much he'd leveled up, but it could wait for now. There were more important matters to deal with.

Dumbo stared around in confusion.

Peter motioned to him.

“It’s you and me, big guy. We’re going hunting for new Horde for our clan.”

“Oh!” DG said. “Okay, that good idea.”

“KG, you take care of Barbie. Let her sleep and eat and recover. And stay sharp when you’re outside. No fighting, just run away from everything, okay?”

“I do that, for sure.”

Peter looked at the pile of Raider gear. There was enough for everyone to suit up, but that didn’t seem like the right idea. He and DG were already going to generate instant hate from other Ghouls with just him wearing it. It didn’t seem like the best recruiting strategy to send the other two out with the same issue, and Charlie’s instinct to solve problems by stabbing people.

But he told KG to put it on. There was no sense in leaving him undefended.

For Bill and Charlie he’d have to take a chance on their stealth and experience in staying alive. He could keep Dumbo Ghoul by his side, and try to steer them both out of danger.

“We’re going to head out in opposite directions. DG and I will go up the street towards the tall buildings. You two will go down the other way. Stay hidden, don’t start any fights, and run away if you need to.”

He stared at Charlie meaningfully.

“You’ll get lots of chances to fight, okay? The job right now is find alone Horde and make them part of the clan. That’s how you’ll get your Warriors.”

Charlie nodded grimly.

“Okay, no fighting. For now.”

KG had shuffled on the Raider leathers. When he stood up straight he gave them all a big ugly Ghoul smile.

“I look like Raider scum now?”

Charlie growled.

“You get killed if I not know you,” he said.

“Get used to it,” Peter said. “Pretty soon we’ll all be wearing that stuff, at least until we get better armor.”

Bill grimaced.

“Not like it much, smells like Raider, too.”

KG growled.

“You wear it and you like it, if Raider Ghoul tell you to.”

Peter nodded.

“For now. We’ll get better stuff. Way better than any Raiders have. Or any players, too. Trust me on this.”

It was obvious none of them really liked it, but they didn’t argue.

Peter flicked his interface.

Local Time 03:17

"We've got maybe three hours until the sun comes up. That’s enough time to do a few blocks in both directions. Scout the buildings, look for Horde. Tell them to come with you and we’ll give them food and make them safe. Plus look for anything else you can see like gear, food, equipment, whatever looks interesting. Then everyone head back to the nest as soon as it starts to get light.”

Bill and Charlie both looked like theY understood. DG just stared at him with his mouth open.

“Don’t worry big guy, you’re with me. I’ll take care of the plans.”

The Ghoul nodded seriously.

“Okay, boss.”

He looked around the room again. There wasn’t anything else to do. Hopefully this time they’d actually manage to find more ghouls.

Just typical. There’s Ghouls everywhere until you actually need some.

He made them each pocket one of their new grenades as well.

“Those are only for emergencies,” he said. “We made enough noise out there already. Keep things quiet unless you’re in real trouble.”

Outside, he shut the door behind him and heard KG start to move some beams into place on the other side to brace it.

He looked at his men.

“Okay, like I said, we’re going that way” - he pointed up the street towards the distant cluster of tall ruins - “and you two go that way.”

Bill and Charlie nodded and crept away into the shadows. They disappeared almost instantly.

Good stuff. We’ll all level our sneak some more from this too.

He dropped down into a Ghoul crouch and motioned to DG to follow him.

But the big Ghoul hesitated.

“Hey boss, we look for alone Horde, right?”

“That’s right. Let’s get going.”

DG pointed out across the street.

“What about that guy?”

Peter looked.

A lone Ghoul was watching them from a ruined stairway. But it wasn’t hiding. It was just lounging on the steps and staring at them with its head tilted to one side and a grin on its face.