Ghoulies

**Ghoulies** are mutant adult humans that did not survive the missile attack. It is theorized by Michael Burr that they were created by a modified strain of HPV attached to the nuclear missile. The missile was fired through a combined effort by China and Russia.

Burr theorized that the students were not affected by the missile — and therefore did not become ghoulies — because they have been vaccinated against HPV. Since adults are not eligible for the vaccine, they became ill. Burr further theorized that if he could keep the immune system of the students topped up before they could find more vaccine, they would not suffer ill effects.

## Overview

### Behavior

Ghoulies are essentially reanimated bodies of those that died in the explosion; they are in some instances similar to zombies. Once a Ghoulie is made, they only say the last thing they had on their mind before the explosion. They respond to external stimuli such as light, scent and particularly loud noises. Eli Cardashyan made it clear to Josh that playing music would attract them, therefore they had to be as silent as possible. The bodies of ghoulies did not seem to experience pain, nor did wounds heal. Ghoulies instinctively bite whatever they come in contact with, but have also been observed clawing at, tearing, and even fight humans in order to topple them. There is no evidence in the series that ghoulies attack, kill, and/or eat one another, and they don't seem to communicate with each other on an individual level; however, they will gather in herds in response to sound or other stimuli.

### Intelligence

Ghoulies were not that intelligent, and their intelligence could be compared to that of primitive creatures. They have been observed being able to do semi-complex tasks such as destroying objects and hunting, but were unable to do other basic tasks. Interestingly, Ms. Crumble was an exception to this. When the explosion initially went off, she had just been pushed down the stairs by Michael Burr, and therefore experienced some brain damage.

She did, however, retain some intelligence and other functions more complex than other ghoulies. Whilst she did appear to have gone clinically insane to some degree, she was intelligent enough to appear normal, and the Cheermazons did not at first recognize what she was. She further recognized Josh, Angelica and the other students as having been in her classroom before. Whilst she did need to eat, she reserved herself to anything other than humans, including eating solid objects such as keys and doll heads. She also seemed fearfully loyal to the students under her charge and formed a strong bond with Angelica Green, who she protected loyally at all costs.

A few scenes throughout the series imply that ghoulies are, under certain circumstances, capable of resisting their urge to attack and feast on their victims (even those who did not retain some mental faculties like Ms. Crumble). One ghoulie ran away in pain after Josh's katana became lodged in her back, and during the Cheermazon gauntlett, a ghoulie that was about to attack Angelica voluntarily backed away from her and returned to his holding pen after being screamed at by Ms. Crumble.

### Eating Habits

Ghoulies prefer to eat anything dead, alive or not living: animals and people. They become particularity violent when smelling or seeing blood, which seemed to attract them from large distances to prey. They became particularly violent when faced with blood. Despite this, it was shown that ghoulies could live on a different diet, as Ms. Crumble was able to sustain herself on eating solid objects, and only occasionally eating meat. She perhaps ate other things such as human food too, though.

## Trivia

* Ghoulies were caused by a modified-strain of HPV.
* Only adults and those not vaccinated against HPV died and became ghoulies.
* Ms. Crumble became half-ghoulie, perhaps due to her brain injury.