Having lived on a farm his whole life, Ezekiel was used to waking up early. He'd never realized that teenagers actually liked sleeping in. Not getting up at the crack of dawn made Ezekiel feel useless, even if he didn't do anything until the others woke up. He started his normal morning routine until he noticed something. Cody was missing. His friend hadn't ever woken up before him. The only person that had ever done so was Beth. So where was he? Zeke shrugged, acknowledging that maybe this was a fluke. But when he noticed his bed was completely unmade, with a few ants in it, he began to question what had happened.

After putting on his hoodie and toque, he stepped outside to find that Beth had beaten him to waking up. He walked over to her to ask her a question. "Hey, Beth. I noticed Cody wasn't in the cabin, eh. Do you know where he could be?"

"Oh, hey Ethekiel. You didn't hear him latht night? Thomeone put fire anth in hith bed. I gueth he doethn't want to be around here. Not that I care," she said. Ezekiel sighed to himself, worried about his friend. But he knew going to look for him in the darkness wasn't the smartest thing to do.

He knew that bringing up Cody anymore wouldn't help. Instead, he tried to reach out to Beth, asking about her homelife. It was interesting learning about the animals that Beth kept, since Ezekiel spent most of his time on the farm dealing with the crops.

"Oh, look at the two lovebirds!" Heather mocks, as she steps out of her cabin. Ezekiel angrily glared at her, while Beth looked sheepishly away. The short girl instinctively walked towards her alliance member, the two then going to the dining hall. By the end of the hour, all of the other teens had left their cabins, while Cody was still nowhere to be seen. Ezekiel, beginning to get worried, began asking around.

First, he went to Trent to ask him. "Why should I care? Dude's a creep, let him be until he's voted off." Zeke raised his finger to object, but Trent cut him off. "Don't try to defend him. I know he's your friend, probably your first. But you just gotta accept the fact that he might be a bad guy. Don't waste your time defending him." The homeschooled kid bit his cheek to not say something he'd regret. Trent left, with Ezekiel then looking to find Gwen. As much as she hated him right now, there was still a chance she'd know where he was.

However, when he found the goth girl, he also found Trent, who had gotten there first. Instead of leaving, Zeke decided to hide behind a nearby bush.

"... and I promise you, I don't know why those two tried to pull that, but what they wrote is completely untrue." Gwen apologized. Trent nodded his head as Gwen went on. "In fact, I think I might… like you." Ezekiel's jaw dropped as he watched the confession, while Trent's lips grew thin. He put his hand behind his head and awkwardly chuckled. "Look, Gwen. It's not that I don't feel that way. I've just… got a few feelings I've gotta think through before I can consider saying yes."

Gwen looked crestfallen, her face sinking into sadness. Trent began to console her but was cut off. "It's- it's fine, Trent. Don't worry about it." She walked off before he could say anything else. Trent looked around but didn't see anyone. He then walked back to his cabin without chasing after Gwen.

"Oof." Ezekiel whispered to himself, "Poor Gwen, eh?". He debated on if it was still worth it to ask Gwen where her most hated person on the island was, and he decided it wasn't. With little time left in the day, Ezekiel decided to take a chance and walk around the island himself.

He began his search in the woods, reasoning that Cody would have been seen if he were anywhere clear like the beach. Zeke walked through the forest, twigs and leaves crunching underneath his boots. Every once in a while he'd see a bunny or deer roaming their island's forest, but there was no sign of Cody.

After a few minutes, Ezekiel heard what sounded like feet running. Making his way to the noise, Zeke found not Cody, but a rabbit trapped in a trap. Its feet were caught in a rope, preventing its escape.

"Oh, you must have gotten stuck in one of my traps, eh?" A skill he had learned from the deep forest surrounding his home, Ezekiel had decided to practice his traps while on the island. Unfortunately for the bunny, he had made a lot of progress during his time.

"Sorry there, buddy," he said, bending down to release the animal. Once free, the bunny turned to look at its savior before running off. Ezekiel began to wander off again before he heard something.

"Oh you're back? Glad to see you again." The voice was soft, sounding as if it could barely speak anymore. And Ezekiel recognized it immediately.

"Cody?" A pregnant pause took hold for moments.

"Who is it? Please, just leave me alone. I swear I won't bother anybody else."

"Cody, it's me. It's Ezekiel."

Another pause. "Oh… Ezekiel. I told you to stay away."

Ezekiel found himself in a small clearing. Cody was sitting upon a log in the center, looking worse for the wear. The ant bites from last night were painfully obvious, but those weren't the worst part. Cody had obviously been crying. Both the tear stains and the red eyes gave it away.

"I know what you told me, eh. But I'm not gonna just leave you here to wallow."

"And why not? I try to be as good of a person as I can, and this is my reward. The whole team hates me."

"That's not true." Ezekiel lied. He knew this wasn't true, as nearly everybody outside of Zeke hated Cody. But he couldn't leave his friend like this. "People are worried about you. Come on, let's get out of the woods, okay?" Cody sighed, clearly reluctant. But he took Ezekiel's reached-out hand and followed him back to camp. However, disaster struck as soon as they got out of the trees.

Only one person had noticed the two as they left the forest. When Zeke made eye contact with them, a range of emotions could be seen. Instantly, Zeke was afraid, before pleading to them with his eyes.

Heather took one good look at the pair and knew instantly what she should do. With a smirk and a hand on her hip, Heather yelled out, "Oh, hey Cody! Long time no see!"

Zeke looked back at his friend, who didn't quite know what was going on but was still afraid. Instantly, all heads swiveled until they landed on the geek. Most were frozen in shock due to the state of him, however, a select few began to make their way over to them. Namely, Leshawna and Trent both stood up to confront their enemy.

"I-I… I told you this was a bad idea, Zeke." Cody looked nervous for what was to come.

"Ezekiel! This is the second time you've tried defending him. You sympathize with him?" Leshawna asked.

A fire lit inside Ezekiel as he stood up to defend his friend. He was ready to make his case, no matter what the others thought of him. He didn't care if they would hate him, he knew he couldn't let Cody be treated like this any further. But before he could, he heard Cody sigh behind him.

"I'm really sorry about this, dude, but I can't let you get in trouble because of me." Cody whispered. The homeschooled kid turned around, about to ask what he was talking about, before a sharp pain shot up through his nose. Cody had punched him.

"Stop trying to get me to apologize, dude! I don't care about them anymore!" Cody growled as loud as he could, making sure everybody could hear him. His eyes glossy, he looked into Ezekiel's eyes and silently apologized. After that, he sprinted back into the woods before anyone could say anything. All, including Ezekiel and Heather, were frozen in shock. None could believe what had just happened. Many turned back to what they were doing, whispering to each other about the event. Leshawna walked up to her teammate to help him up.

"Sorry there, son. Sometimes you just gotta learn when people are rotten to their core. Just like the ice queen over there." she said, nodding at Heather. Ezekiel's eyes followed, narrowing down on Heather. She gave a quick glare back before turning her head up and walking into the forest.

Leshawna continued on about Cody, but Ezekiel interrupted her, shaking free of her grasp. "Thanks for the help Leshawna, but I've got something I need to do." She backed off and left to find Gwen. Ezekiel stormed to his cabin, digging through the bag he had brought. In the side pocket, he found exactly what he was looking for. When he left the cabin, he scanned the tree line to find where Heather had entered.

He followed Heather's trail into the woods. They weren't exactly hidden, and before long, he found himself face to face with the queen bee.

"Ugh, it's just you, homeschool? Why'd you follow me out here?"

"To get some answers, eh. Why did you do that to Cody?"

"What's with you and your little boyfriend? Stop trying to defend him."

"I'm defending him because we both know he's innocent!"

"So what? You want me to feel bad? As if. It was purely strategic. Cody's next to go because of what they think he did. If people believe what I wrote is true, Gwen's after him. And if they realize it was fake, Trent's on the chopping block for being so harsh because of a fib! It's just… security. Maybe if you had half a brain, homeschool, you'd think of a plan as brilliant as mine. But the more you defend him, the more risk you're putting yourself in. Just accept defeat and let Cody take the fall for me. 'Kay?"

One of Ezekiel's fists clenched, before loosening and falling back to his side. "You're right, Heather. I'll never think of a plan as smart as you do."

"Whatever, dork. Get out of here." she spat out. Ezekiel smirked and turned around. However, he kept his hand out of sight from Heather and quickly stuffed it in his hoodie pocket. As the tape recorder sat, stowed away from sight, Ezekiel couldn't help but smirk.

A/N: I like to play around with having the main protagonist absent for a while in my stories. It allows the reader to see from someone else's perspective, if only for a chapter or two. And here we see it as we switch to Ezekiel. I won't say how far he gets in the story, since I don't want to spoil anything in these author's notes, but for now he's the secondary protagonist, the deuteragonist. I love writing for him, and having him in the main character role is fun.

Some people may think Cody's treatment is too harsh from the others, but that's what I want. It'll make his inevitable justice so much sweeter. But for now, you'll just have to sit through the arguably too dark scenes of Cody hating himself. How fun!

As I mentioned in a previous chapter, the tape recorder felt out of character for Zeke to normally have, so I used it as a call back to chapter four. Ezekiel gets to save Cody, after Cody essentially saved him from his feral future.

Also, Trent kind of rejects Gwen's advances. After the whole drama, he just doesn't feel comfortable around her, even if he believes Gwen that she didn't actually write that stuff.