CHAPTER SIX

Sage and Iago made their way through the camp's winding pathways, Iago following right behind Sage, with Rooster clopping along behind on the leaves littering the terrain. He had spoken with Elsa, who had directed him towards where Ali had taken Annie during her playful adventures. He hoped he wouldn't have to apologize for her youthful exuberance too much, but he nevertheless expected apologies would have to be in order.

Once he entered the clearing that Elsa had directed him to, Sage was quickly relieved to see Ali seated with her back to a tree, holding Annie in her lap. The little girl was cuddled up, fast asleep. A grin came to Sage's face as the girl looked so adorable there, passed out from the hours of play she had had for the day.

Iago arched an eyebrow. "Is that the girl?" he asked.

Sage nodded. "Yep. That's Annalise Delaney, the resident princess of our little camp here."

"Delaney?" Iago repeated aloud. "So—she's not your daughter?"

Glancing to Iago, Sage saw the puzzled look on the young man's face and let out a slight chuckle. "Oh, well . . . in a way, yes. Her parents were close friends of mine. They died when all this happened. Since then, she's . . . well, I guess you could say she has been like a daughter to me." Sage felt his heart flutter at the thought.

Another moment of silence passed before Iago continued: "Oh. I had thought you and Allie were a thing, and this girl was your daughter . . ."

Perhaps more quickly than he should have, Sage had said, "Oh no, we are not a couple." He paused briefly, then corrected himself. "My apologies, I shouldn't have said it like that. It's not like I don't like Allie, it's just that . . . no. That's not our relationship whatsoever," he said, not able to withhold another laugh.

He noticed a twinkle in Iago's eye. "Ah. So I see."

At that moment, Ali stirred, having been asleep herself. She saw Sage and a smile came to her face. "Oh my, Sage! Welcome back!" Almost immediately at the sound of Sage's name, Annie opened her eyes.

"Uncle Sage!" she shouted, leaping from Ali's lap and tearing off for her closest companion. She leapt up into Sage's arms as he knelt down before, kissing her cheek.

"Hello Annie!" he replied with even more exuberance than she had elicited. As the two embraced, Sage continued, "Have you been having fun? I trust you haven't worn out your welcome on Ali."

"Oh no," Ali cut in quickly. "I really enjoyed it. We had a ton of fun." She paused momentarily before adding, "Thank you for trusting me—again. I really, really appreciate your confidence."

Sage grinned to her, nodding. "Don't mention it. It's good to have someone like you I know that I can count on." The compliment seemed to do wonders on Ali; quickly, she reached a hand to her eye, wiping a tear before it had even started to fall. Then her gaze rested on Iago, and Sage noticed. "Oh, pardon me—allow me to introduce the newest member to our group. Ali, this is Santiago Vazquez—Iago, for short. Iago, this is Alison Meunier and, of course, Annalise."

Iago smiled to both of them. "Ms. Meunier; nice to meet you." Ali smiled back to him as Iago glanced down to Annie. "And Ms. Annalise—I've heard that you're quite the warrior princess."

Annalise's cheeks burned red. "Well—I guess I am. I've killed four dragons and tamed three horses!"

Iago arched an eyebrow. "Oh, is that so? Well, how about you round that up and make it an even four?" With that, he turned and whistled, and Sage grinned as Rooster's hooves clopped on the ground. She had gotten distracted by a fruit bush somewhere off the path and was munching on a few berries, but when Iago whistled, she came towards him immediately.

Annalise's jaw dropped. "A real horsie?!" She took off running to Rooster, throwing her hands on her hide to rub her side and scratch it.

Ali let out a gasp of surprise. "Oh my—" she started before taking slow steps towards the horse. "A real horse. I—I haven't seen many animals since all this occurred . . . and certainly no horses." She ran a hand along Rooster's mane, and she whinnied, leaning into the rubs and scratches from both of her new fans.

Iago chuckled. "This is Rooster. She's been my companion ever since the dead started walking again." Annalise did her best to try and jump atop Rooster's back, but no avail. "Here, let me give you a hand," Iago offered, before glancing to Sage. "Is it alright?"

Sage nodded, knowing how much it'd mean to Annie. "Of course." Iago bent down, putting his hands underneath Annie's arms, and lifting her up to sit on Rooster's back. She let out an excited little laugh, but it still carried with it the air of someone who was a bit nervous.

"Giddy up, horsie!" she exclaimed, and Iago chuckled.

Sage shook his head. "I don't think so, Princess Annie. Rooster's awful tired from her journey. And so is Iago, I'm sure?" He glanced to Iago, who did give a slight nod.

"I am quite tired, I must admit," he said. "Perhaps you can spend some more time with Rooster tomorrow once we return."

"Return?" Ali's smile quickly faded as a quizzical look overtook her face. "Are you all going somewhere?"

Sage nodded. "Yes. I have to go speak to Alex. We have to go into Atlanta tomorrow for another run. We weren't able to do much searching because of a roadblock; we need some more manpower before tackling that big of a monster."

"Ah," Ali said. "I see."

Sage turned to Iago. "We'd best go find Alex so you can go ahead and get some rest. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Iago nodded. "That we do." He glanced to Annie. "Is she coming along with us to meet Alex?"

Sage nodded. "Yeah, she is."

"Well, I suppose Rooster could carry her that far," Iago replied with a smile.

Sage grinned again as Annie beamed. "I think you may have just made her day. What am I saying? You may have just made her year."

Annie was feeding Rooster some berries as Sage and Iago discussed the plans for the run the next day with Alex. After formally introducing Iago, Sage laid out his plan to Alex: the group would go to Atlanta and conduct a two-part search, first doing a quick run-through of the roadblock for both supplies and walkers before venturing into the city. From there, they would look for points of interest: in particular, gun shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, all the types of places with items that would be of premium importance to them.

"Sounds good," Alex said. "Who did you plan on having go?"

"Well, Iago, myself, and Allie all want to get back out there," Sage said. "I was going to suggest you, but we do need someone to stay here to kind of keep an eye on everyone else—unless, of course, you'd rather go and I stay here." He sucked in a sharp breath. "Although, that might not be the best idea, since Allie has been—"

Alex shot a quick glance to Iago, before turning back to Sage. "I don't think now's the best time to be discussing this, Sage."

Sage caught onto Alex's meaning and realized that this was a bit of a touchy subject to be discussing in front of who was really a perfect stranger in Iago. "Yeah . . . yeah, I guess you're right. If you did want to go, however, you could come along and we could leave Brian to sort of act as the leader in our stead."

Alex nodded. "That sounds like a possibility. I'll check with him to make sure he'd be up to it. Who else?"

"Obviously none of the kids should go; I'd like for Ali and Emily to stay and keep an eye on them. Nigel's likely out of the question to, as he's a bit too old. Sam would be a good pick to come, I think; he's got a good eye for supplies and is quick and quiet. The teens could come, but I doubt Brennan's parents would let him come. Elodie might would be up for it, though. I also figure that Dayana would likely want to stay close to Elsa, and she's in no condition to be going on such a run right now. And Doug . . . well, no offense to the guy, but I'd feel better leaving him here."

Alex nodded. "I got you. We can call a sort of conference tonight and lay out our plans and groups before heading out tomorrow." He glanced to Iago. "I want to welcome you again to our group, Iago. You seem like a good guy to have around in a situation like this."

Iago nodded in return. "Thank you." He then glanced to both Alex and Sage. "Well, I suppose I should be heading off to the sleeping area and get some rest. As you said, Sage, it's been a long day."

Sage grinned. "Of course, Iago. Sleep well." As Iago whistled for Rooster and she followed close behind, Iago set off in the direction of the sleeping quarters, which Sage had pointed out to him earlier. Sage turned back to Alex. "Well—I suppose we should get to having our conference then, shall we?"

Roughly two hours later, the group had come together for their nightly dinner and what they had come to dub as a "group conference." Normally such an event involved the entire camp, but for this night, Iago was the only one not present, as he had both already been informed of the decisions coming from it and because he was desperately in need of rest.

The scavenging run the next day had had its party selected. Both of the twins, Sage, Sam, Iago, and Elodie had all agreed to go on the run; when Elodie had agreed, Brennan tried to jump in at the last second, but, to no one's surprise, his parents had staunchly vetoed such a choice.

Much to his disappointment.

It was now nine o'clock at night. The sun had set, and the moon was casting a dim light across the campsite. Pretty much everyone had gone to the sleeping quarters to retire for the night, but Brennan took the opportunity to slink out of sight. Wandering about for a bit, he decided to head towards the commons area, as they had come to call the small pavilion that they used as the site of their meals and pretty much whatever else was going on within the camp. It was also where the one on guard duty for the night spent most of their time.

Tonight, it was Alex.

As Brennan's feet cracked on the leaves, Alex glanced over his shoulder to see the teenager walking up. "Brennan," Alex said in a greeting. "Shouldn't you be with your family? I'm sure they're probably going to start getting worried about you."

A snort escaped Brennan's lips. "Yeah. Worried. Big whoop; I'm almost twenty, Alex. I should be able to make my own decisions about what I'm doing, especially with the world gone to hell as it is." He sighed as he dropped onto a bench a few feet away from Alex. "I can't even go on a supply run with the group."

Even though Alex was among the wisest members of the group, it didn't take a genius to know that "the group," as Brennan had said, didn't actually mean the group. "The group, Brennan . . . or Elodie?" Alex asked, a smile at his lips.

Brennan's head shot up straight. "W-what? What do you mean?"

Alex chuckled. "You don't have to get all finnicky, pal. I think everyone can see you've got the biggest crush on Elodie." Brennan's cheeks reddened, and Alex continued, "Don't feel embarrassed or ashamed, man—it's logical for a guy to fall for a cute girl, especially when the world's in the state it's in right now." Alex sighed. "There's a girl that I had a crush on. Ever since middle school. Her name's Krystal. We worked together at the same place, a Best Buy back in the city. When this all went down, I made sure she got home safely before I went and found Allie. From there, though . . . I have no clue what happened to her."

The night made it hard for Brennan to tell for sure, but the sniff that Alex gave made him wonder if the man was . . . crying? Or at least about to cry. "Oh God, I just hope she made it out of here, made it somewhere safe." He let out a dry chuckle. "I'm sorry, I kinda just let my mouth run loose there. Just—just keep your head up, Brennan. Your parents, they don't want to lose you. That's why they're keeping more limitations set around you. It's a dangerous world out there."

"I know," Brennan agreed. "It's just . . . I don't want anything to happen to Elodie while she's gone." He paused briefly, then said, "I mean, I don't want anything to happen to any of y'all, but . . . well, you know."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. Don't worry though, Brennan, we'll have enough people there. She'll be looked after."

Brennan nodded. "Yeah. Thanks Alex. I'm gonna head back to my family's camper now."

"Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Brennan got up from the bench and walked towards the sleeping area, when all of the sudden—

"RAAAGH!"

A horrible, dry-throated snarl sounded from the woods, and a tall, shadowy figure lumbered from the shadows. Brennan let out a scream as the massive figure gripped his shoulders tightly, and a ray of moonlight shone upon the figure's face.

It was rotted, the flesh gray, as was the skin of all the walkers roaming the earth now. The sunken eyes, dangling scraps of discolored flesh, and torn and ravaged clothing and body beneath were the telltale signs of a member of the undead.

Brennan had just never seen one this close before. "Alex!" he yelled, grappling with the walker as it hissed loudly, snapping its jaws closer and closer to the teenager's throat. Alex whirled around, sending the chair he had been sitting in to the floor of the pavilion. Without wasting a moment, Alex tore his pistol free from the holster at his belt, aiming and firing off a shot that just barely missed the zombie. He fired again, this time watching as the bullet shattered through flesh and bone, sending blood and brain matter spurting through the air.

Brennan collapsed to his rear on the ground, let free from the tight grasp of the walker. He huffed over and over, his heart racing from his brush with death. He glanced to Alex, his eyes wide with fear as Alex stepped towards him, his pistol trained on the zombie. They needn't worry about it any longer, however; the beast was truly dead, its brain reduced to a pile of mush.

More growls and snarls sounded from the woods, and Alex glanced up, bringing his pistol up. "You need to get back to the vehicles and warn everybody there—now. I'll take care of the ones at the rest area."

Brennan nodded, taking off towards the parking area for the group's vehicles. As the snarls got louder and louder, Alex backpedaled away from the woods before turning and sprinting for the tents.

A/N: Here we go, the beginning of the action! The next chapter will give us more of the action, taking is into the heart of the city as we meet some familiar faces. But before we get there, we've got to deal with a little predicament at the camp. Just a little one. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and as always I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Until next time.