CHAPTER FIVE

Sahale

The entire walk back through the camp with Elodie and Brennan was quite an interesting one for young Sahale. The nine-year-old boy knew enough about how lovelorn teenagers acted around one another to know that Brennan was a bit agitated at his intrusion on his attempts to woo Elodie.

He'd be crazy to act let Brennan know he knew that, though. The seventeen-year-old would be even more upset at Sahale, and that was nowhere near the top of the list of things he wanted to be subjected to.

Especially since his grandfather was already likely to be extremely angry with him for wandering off.

He knew it was quite foolish to go off on his own with the world in shambles as it was, but he had assumed it would be no harm—especially if he had arrived back before his grandfather had woken up from his deep sleep.

Unfortunately, those hopes and wishes were dashed, as Nigel McAdams was already walking towards him and the two teenagers as if he was on a mission. "Sahale!" he shouted, his face a mixture of anger and relief.

Sahale bit his lip as he did a poor attempt at hiding behind Elodie; she was rather skinny, so he did not disappear from Nigel's view at all.

Coming to a stop before the trio, Nigel sighed. "Sahale—where have you been? I woke up and realized you were gone, and I was worried sick—"

"Please, Grandpa, don't be angry!" Sahale cut in. "I just went off for a walk. I didn't go far, honest." He glanced up to Elodie, and then threw up another look at Brennan. "Ask them. I found them!" As he said the last part, he noticed Brennan's brow furrow. Whoops. Poor choice of words, I'm afraid.

Nigel seemed as if he was mulling over his next words carefully, and then sighed. "Don't worry, Sahale. I trust you." He gave a smile to his young grandson, possibly the sincerest smile he had smiled before anyone in front of the group. He glanced towards Elodie and Brennan, and just like that, the flicker of relief and joy on his face gone. Instead, it was replaced with his typical grumpy demeanor. "And what were the two of you doing alone in the woods? Hmmm?"

Brennan's face dropped. "What?! Erm, I mean, we were just . . . um . . ." His face flushed as Nigel continued.

"I'm sure I know what you were doing, young man, and I must say, it's quite shameful, not only to be doing such a thing in the first place, but in this sort of a world, in the middle of a camp that you share with your family and young children?" Nigel let out a huff. "Back in my day, youngsters were more proper in their actions."

"Proper?" Brennan balked at Nigel's rebukes. "Now wait just a minute—"

Nigel cut him off. "No, young man, you wait! I don't believe that you and this young lady should be up to any funny business." He eyed Brennan warily. "What I should do is tell your mother and father about this." He tore his eyes from Brennan and Elodie. "Come along, Sahale." As he pulled his grandson away from the two teens, Sahale gave a goodbye wave to them both.

Elodie grinned to him as she waved, but Brennan just stood there, unmoving, as if in a trance. Sahale's eyes dropped to the dirt floor of the campground. Well, I suppose it's a good thing he isn't mad at me.

Elodie

"Can you believe the nerve of that old man? To insinuate that I was doing . . . 'funny business' in the woods?!" Brennan groaned as he ran a hand through his hair.

Elodie felt an all-too-typical smirk come to her lips. "Oh? Is it really nerve to suggest that's what you were doing?" She took a step in front of Brennan, turning on her heel in front of him as she eyed him flirtingly. "Or should I say trying to do?"

Brennan felt his cheeks run red. "Well . . . I mean, I wasn't trying to do any—"

Elodie chuckled as she reached a hand to Brennan's face, playfully pinching his chin between her fingers. "Aww, what a cute little baby, so innocent and naïve," she said in the voice one uses to speak to a baby with. She removed her hand from his face and rested it on his arm. "I'll catch up with you later, Brennan," she said as she walked past him, moving off towards the designated sleeping area of the camp. She could feel Brennan's stare in her back, relishing in it.

It did feel good to be liked—and not just the way a lovestruck boy likes a girl. In a world like this, she cherished the feeling that she actually had a friend.

But she'd rather be caught dead than actually admitting that to Brennan, or anyone else for that matter.

Iago

It was a rather uneventful journey back to the survivors' camp. What am I thinking? Iago thought to himself. This is my camp now, too.

It certainly felt good to have somewhere new to call home. That was something he really hadn't had for a month now. Since the apocalypse had broken out, Iago had really been on the run. He was born in Florida, to his father Reynaldo, an immigrant from Cuba, and his mother, Rebecca, an Irish American, with two brothers, Paulo and Reynaldo II. He had grown up living what he considered to be a normal life. His father owned his won construction business, and taught Iago and his sons a lot of what he knew. Primarily, though, it was Iago who was the most interested.

That meant the world to Reynaldo, that his son was interested in his handiwork and carrying on the field in the future. Not every father was blessed to have his son's interest in his job as Iago was, and Reynaldo expressed his gratitude whenever he could. Iago picked up a lot of what his father had taught him very easily, learning about the basics and even some more advanced parts of construction and other work with tools. He also had developed an interest in forgery and smithery.

Funnily enough, those skills could become quite useful in a world where blades and melee weapons were quite ideal. Of course, Iago had never intended weapons to be the primary reason behind such a skillset.

Once the virus had broken out, it spread across the United States like a wildfire. Reports began to spill in of outbreaks in pockets across the country before they finally appeared in Florida. It was a madcap rush when the first reports of the dead rising came in the state, and before they knew what had happened, the Vasquez family was stricken by tragedy—Rebecca, Paulo, and Reynaldo II had all been infected by the virus and had turned into walkers.

Not able to kill his family, in spite of their reanimated forms, Reynaldo simply packed up his belongings and took Iago with him. They began to scavenge to survive, eventually coming upon the city of Lakeland. It was there, while Iago and his father were raiding a mall, that they had come across a group of other survivors—five of them.

Then, they killed Reynaldo. Right before Iago's eyes, after swearing they were just scavengers same as them, they murdered his father. Two of them had then grabbed Iago and they were about to kill him, too, before he broke free. The five men jokingly mocked Iago, as they had confiscated his gun, but that did not stop him. He pulled his father's blue-handled machete from his corpse and used it to kill his father's murderers. All of them.

They were the first human lives Iago had taken, but he did not see them as human at all. They were monsters, far worse than even the undead. At least the undead had the excuse that they were . . . well, zombies. But these were living, breathing people who willingly chose to kill, and why? Because they could?

No matter, Iago had told himself then. They will bother no one else now.

He had taken his father's machete as his own weapon now. It was one of his most prized possessions, really only surpassed by Rooster, although she was a companion, not a possession. The machete even was more sentimental to Iago than his books, of which he kept five in his backpack at all times.

The purple car came to a stop in a clearing, where several other vehicles were located. A man, who looked to be in his late-thirties, was next to a rather new-looking truck with a camper hitched to the back. The man removed his tan cap from his head and ran a hand through his short brown hair before replacing the cap, making his way over to the car as Iago stepped from Rooster's back. He rubbed her neck softly as she let out a light whinny. "Yes," he whispered into her ear. "It is nice here. Nice and quiet."

The man strode over to the car as Sage and Allie got out. "Welcome back," the man said in a friendly manner. His eyes were trained on Iago, skeptically. Iago couldn't much blame him; he'd be wary too if some random guy came riding into his camp on horseback. "Found some company, I see?"

Sage nodded. "Yeah. His name is Iago. We found him on the road into Atlanta."

The man nodded to him. "Hello, Iago. My name's Brian. Brian Kratt." The man reached out a hand, and Iago shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here," Iago said.

Brian turned back to Sage. "Find anything else on the run?"

Sage nodded. "Sure did." He led the way to the trunk of his car, popping it open with his key fob. He pulled two of the gas canisters he had found on the highway. "Four canisters of gasoline. It won't get us into another state or anything, but it'll be enough for us to travel to another city at least. Somewhere where we can find some more fuel."

"Awesome," Brian commented. "Find anything else?"

"Nothing much," Sage replied. "We didn't get to go too far before he met Iago, and I decided we'd better head back so we don't get caught off-guard, since there was only three of us and we were on foot due to the roadblock. I thought I'd talk it over with Alex and maybe put together a bit larger of a group so we could go back."

"I see." Brian placed a hand on his bearded chin, in thought. "You think Alex will go for that?"

"Hah," Allie said, nearly guffawing. "Good luck with that. Good old General Alex will only go along with something if it's his idea. He won't like being told what to do."

Sage sighed as Brian suppressed a chuckle. "Have you seen Alex around lately?" Sage asked. Brian shook his head. "Well then," Sage said, "I guess I'd better go try to find him." He turned to Iago. "Hey, Iago, you can come with me if you'd like. I'll introduce you to Alex and some of the others."

Iago nodded. "Sure." He started to walk down the path, Rooster following along behind him.

Sage chuckled softly. "You, um, want to leave Rooster here? Allie can watch over her if you'd like."

Now, it was Iago's turn to laugh. "I appreciate it, but no. Rooster sticks with me—at all times."

The image of a certain little girl filtered into Sage's mind. "Trust me, I know how you feel." He gestured with his head deeper into the heart of the camp. "Here, follow me. Before we find Alex, there's someone else I gotta see."

"Your little girl?" Iago asked.

Sage grinned. "You catch on quick, don't you?"

Iago's smile had never dissipated. "You could say that."

Once Sage finished laughing, he said, "Come on. Let's not keep the little princess waiting."

A/N: Here's chapter 5! A bit more backstory on Iago, our latest member of the group, and some more moments with the other characters. I hope you guys have been enjoying the story thus far! Next chapter is when things get exciting and the action starts to ramp up. And we may be crossing paths with a few fan-favorite characters soon! Thank you all for reading as always, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts! And, if you have your own OC you'd like to submit, there's still a few slots left open! Thank you all for stopping by. Until next time!