While trying to get into the heavily defended city of Keybas, the group encounters a young child who accidentally leads them back to a group of orphaned kids living in the desert. Their leader reveals that the children happened to meet there after their parents all entered a trance-like state and wandered away from their villages. The kids' hideout is attacked by the townsfolk, but the attack is interrupted by a group of strangely organized sandworms, who are revealed to be controlled by Zazie the Beast, one of the Gung-ho Guns.