- "I knew you were coming, the Bruja told me. She is dead and yet she told me. She has asked me to tell you that you must go back."
- —Chava to Altman
Salvador, nicknamed "Chava" was a young boy who lived in a shantytown near the coastal town of Chicxulub, on the Yucatán Peninsula, in Mexico. Chicxulub is near to the geographic center of the Chicxulub crater.
Biography[]
Little is known about Chava, his age, past or his family life, but he was a key character in assisting Michael Altman during his investigations into the Black Marker in the Chicxulub crater and the subsequent Necromorph outbreak.
He lived with his family which included his father, mother and sister. The only known information about his family is that his father often traveled extensively for his work as an "Ecological Guerrilla," but he was reluctant to divulge this to his family.
By any means, Chava and his family appeared to be relatively poor; they lived in a shanty shack with an aluminum sheet for a door and only a bucket filled with water for a water supply.
Chava, on a number of occasions, had experienced nightmares and hallucinations which appear to have been caused or influenced by the Black Marker.
Encounter with the Chicxulub Wheezer[]
Chava was the first known human to encounter a Necromorph. After waking from a nightmare, he was compelled to a location on a local beach, where a Necromorph fitting the description of a Wheezer had washed ashore. After raising the alarm and bringing his mother and other shantytown residents to the Wheezer. In this time, it had grown the "lungs" on its back at an alarming rate, poisoning the air around it. After the locals dubbed the Wheezer "Ixtab" after the Yucatán Mayan goddess of suicide, Chava was instructed to fetch the Bruja to tell them what to do.
Chava returned with the Bruja and under her guidance, the crowd performed a dance during which they collected nearby driftwood. By throwing the driftwood at the Wheezer, they pierced its "lungs" slowing the Necromorph's ability to poison the surrounding air.
Chava was then instructed by the Bruja to take a bottle of alcohol from the Nameless Drunk and tip its contents onto the Wheezer. The Bruja then set it and the driftwood alight the alcohol acting as an accelerant for the fire and the driftwood acting as fuel ultimately destroying the Wheezer.
Subsequently, Chava discovered that the Bruja had, in fact, been dead for a number of days. She had scrawled icons from the Marker over her shanty hut wall before slitting her own throat having, presumably, succumbed to the effects of the Black Marker. The Bruja had been nothing more than a hallucination and, to the other shantytown inhabitants, it appeared that Chava who had guided the villagers on how to kill the Wheezer.
It was not long after this event Chava was first introduced to Michael Altman by Ada Chavez where he retold his experience with the Necromorph and guided both Michael and Ada to the remains of the Wheezer in exchange for food.
Second meeting with Altman[]
Soon after Michael Altman's first escape from the Oceanic Research Facility after it had been overrun by Necromorphs, Chava and the Nameless Drunk were curiously waiting on shore for his return. Chava then explained to Michael Altman that the Bruja has asked him to convince him to return to the facility. After some initial reluctance and a confrontation at the DredgerCorp compound, Michael Altman eventually agreed. Chava lead Michael Altman to his father's weapon cache before Chava finally said goodbye to him and saw him off as he returned to the Oceanic Research Facility.
Trivia[]
- Salvador, means "savior" in Latin.