No one knows what gave him the strength to persevere. Day after day he had struggled, and toiled. Still, despite him never having been known to have a child of his own, for some reason he always seemed to take extra special care to protect any children he ran across.

It was a strange sight, seeing such a hard man grow soft and protective. I'd seen him face down tyrants and goblinkin, devil ragers and would be bandit kings without batting an eyelash. Put a crying kid in front of him, though, and he acted like a pile of mush.

An excerpt from one of the rare interviews with the Magus Darren Black, one time enemy, and eventual companion to the 'man' known as Paladin.

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Chapter 5: The trouble with kids today.

The sun beat down mercilessly on him as he slowly rode against the flow of water on the small river. Even though it was winter, the powers that be had chosen that day to be the hottest winter day in record. Scott would not know this of course due to his lack of any kind of knowledge of the whereabouts of the supposedly still existent human race.

He did know that if he could not find a place to get out of the sun soon, his heavily padded makeshift armor would probably cause him sweat to death. He'd run through half his meager water supply already.

Scott set the barge to continue forward on its own for the twelve mile stretch coming up and decided to go check the cargo to make sure nothing had shifted.

While nothing had happened directly, several zombies had periodically shown up on the bank to scream and moan at him. They all eventually were passed by. It was still an eerie feeling since this was the first time he'd truly gotten the chance to appreciate their appearance. Before he'd always been running attempting to stay one step ahead. There had been no time for zombie sight seeing.

"Hmm.. nothing's out of the ordinary.. heh." he said softly to himself, after checking the tie-straps for the tenth time that day. He then glanced down at his watch and nodded. It was time for a little lunch. At least that was something to do that might take his mind off the hot suit he was in.

An hour later he was making a course correction so that he'd be able to enter the tributary that lead off to that grocery store slash bait and tackle shop when he noticed something peculiar. There was a small boat in the middle of the river. The kind with an outboard motor, that people took on small lakes to fish.

It was nothing fancy, and would usually only serve to be a distraction. The peculiar thing was that it seemed to have a body on it. A small body. A body that would be within easy jumping distance in less than a minute.

His conscience and his intellect warred with each other. Obviously a child even from this distance, he was torn trying to decide whether to check the kid or leave it here. The current had carried the little boat this far towards the main river, but who knew whether the occupant was alive, dead, or other.

Scott sighed mentally. He wasn't a bad guy, but he knew this was trouble. Still, his conscience won out even as his intellect drew his hand consciously to the axe he'd fashioned.

When he came up to the boat he steeled himself, but there was no immediate leaping to the feet. No blood curling scream of the damned.

What he did hear was a softly whimpered, "mummy."

Unless the zombies had developed a family social structure and the ability to talk, this was not a zombie. Well, so it seemed.

Scott stood there and waited. His barge started to drift past and he still waited. His intellect and his heart warring with each other. As the barge began to pull away he gazed back at the little girl.

The young man looked away, then up to the clear blue sky and sighed. He'd hate himself for this in the morning. "Dammit..", he whispered to himself. His engines came to a full stop and began the slow backpedal process as they weren't designed for speed in reverse. Hell they weren't designed for speed when moving forward.

He took one of the boat hooks stored near the front of the barge. An item normally used to remove the occasional floating debris and such that clogged the river or to pull the barge into the dock more fully without risking a sharp forward movement from the engine.

The small boat was drawn towards him, and he tied it at the back of the barge with a bit of rope. The girl, since he figured that's what she was now, didn't wake up this entire time. How long had she been out here.

Scott briefly checked her over for bites as best he could without removing her clothes. He just couldn't make himself do that.. it'd be creepy and weird. Had she been like sixteen or so at least.. hehe.. no wait, bad thoughts.. bad thoughts, bad creepy old man thoughts.

There was no visible blood on her that he could see. It would be easily discovered considering the somewhat stained but still pretty white dress she was wearing. It kind of reminded him of the sort of thing a flower girl at a wedding might wear.

The young man picked her light frame up and brought her on-board his mini-barge. She looked like she could use a little food and water. Honestly, she looked like she could use a lot of water. How long had she been out here?

Scott steadied his course again and set the barge into its slow forward motion. He could have probably walked to the store by now, but he wouldn't complain. The barge could move faster, but he saw no need to waste either the fuel or the noise to do so. As it was, it barely made a sound as it glided on it's way.

He spent a few moments arranging the little girl in something he figured would be comfortable, and then opened a new water jug. This would be her personal jug. He didn't know where she'd been or truly if she was indeed bit or worse anywhere. So the idea that she might infect him with even a simple cold was hard pressed into his mind.

Besides, with her own water jug he couldn't make her sick either.

He worked her tiny mouth open and began pouring a tiny trickle. He didn't want to risk too much as that might choke her. The little girl's eyes fluttered open a moment later and when they settled on our hero she did the only sensible thing a little girl could do when confronted with the image of a blood spattered man in makeshift armor pouring some unknown substance down her throat.

Scott sniffed a little and then blinked. "Oh no way.. you better be potty trained kid cuz I ain't changing any diapers.."

The little girl just stared at him wide eyed, shaking a little. Tiny tears began to form at the edge of her eyes. Scott groaned inwardly. What the hell man.. zombies he could handle.. but crying little girls would be the death of him. He just knew it.

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She didn't know what to do. She was stuck on a boat with a crazy man. He had to be a nutcase right? All strangers were insane weirdoes who wanted to give her candy and make her ride in their car. That's what mummy had said, and mummy was always right!

She thought back to all the times her mummy had been right. There was the time that she'd been told that too many sweets would give her a tummy ache. They had. She'd been told not to play with the pretty little flying bug because it would sting her. It did. She'd been told not to do all sorts of things because she'd get hurt. Mummy had always been right.

So, now she was stuck in a boat with a crazy man who would offer her candy and then make her ride in his car. She wasn't so sure what was so wrong with either thing, but mummy had acted like it was really bad to go with strangers, and they didn't come much stranger than this guy. Who ever heard of someone wearing such a thing in this heat anyway!

He had a funny accent, and he smelled bad, and he was dressed a little like that poor homeless man daddy had given a dollar a few days ago. With all the pieces of clothes sewn together. OH yeah! He had an axe too.. mummy had mentioned something about axe murderers. She wasn't quite sure what that was but it sounded simply aweful.

The only thing that kept her from trying to swim away was that he had food. She was so hungry, and he talked a little. Sure, it was mostly to himself and he kind of answered himself too if he asked a question. The main reason she didn't jump though was that he hadn't tried to eat her. Mummy had never told her about people that ate other people. Had she mentioned it though she would have been right of course, she was her mummy after all.

She tugged on the pair of jeans the strange man had given her. They went all the way to her arm pits and were so loose he'd had to tie them on with pieces of rope for suspenders. He'd seemed so happy when she had said she was a big girl and new how to handle the sort of thing she'd done when they first met, all on her own. Though a little annoyed when he had to give her somethng else to wear.

The girl smiled a little. He was a strange man, with an axe, who probably wanted to put her in a car and drive away with her.. but he seemed nice. Scary but nice.

"Hey kid. You got a name? I can't keep sayin hey you kid all the time."

She blushed a little and looked up before saying, "Maribeth.." in a soft almost whisper.

Scott nodded and then turned his back on her, they were coming up on his target, and he had plans to make.

Maribeth drank some more water and snuggled herself up between some fuel drums. He was nice but rude. Mummy had said that if someone asks your name they're supposed to give you theirs first. They're also supposed to say please and thank you.

She settled in and waited to see what happens. He had mentioned something about the grocery store up ahead and she was hoping it was the same one her family was at. The mean people that tried to eat them had gotten in and mummy had shoved her into the boat, before they dragged her off.

Maribeth sniffled a little and started to cry before slowly drifting off to sleep again.

Scott glanced back at hearing her whimpering little sobs and sighed. "Poor thing.. must be in shock or something. Weird kid though, most of the little ankle biters would be bawling their eyes out."

The grocery store was about a mile up the river, and he'd catch a glimpse of what he needed to do when he got there.

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Yes, i'm aware that this is a REALLY short chapter as far as such things go. I apologize if that annoys some of you, but honestly it didn't feel right to introduce a brand new character and then have her glossed over while our makeshift hero raids a grocery store.. and more.

For those of you who were hoping for more gory over the top action, or at least SOME action. Learn to live with disappointment. hehehe. Action aplenty in the next chapter.