Zedler, M.D. // Daryl Dixon

Chapter Twenty: Dale Horvath

•twenty•

Beatrix

The next morning, I woke up to Daryl forcefully shaking my shoulders. He was saying something, but I couldn't tell what it was until I took a few seconds to focus my eyes and sit up. The events from the past twenty-four hours play through my mind until I realize what Dadyl's saying.

"Trixy, pay attention. There's something wrong with Dale," he says with my face in his hands.

"Wh- what's wrong with Dale?" I ask as I stand up and run towards the truck.

"His eyes are yellow and his left arm is cold and pale, and his right arm is tinted yellow" Glenn tells me once I get there. "It started about an hour ago, but I just thought that was normal and I didn't want to bother you."

"You should have bothered me!" I exclaim, jumping onto the truck. "I told you the first twenty-four hours would be critical for him. Did your eyes turn yellow after your surgery? Did your arm turn yellow? Do you really think that's what normally happens?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Exactly! Because your liver wasn't failing!" I yell, trying to check Dale's blood pressure. "His pressure is basically nonexistent. He's in septic shock."

"I'm sorry I-" Glenn starts to apologize, but I stop him.

"It's not your fault," I stop and take a deep breath in attempt to calm myself down. "It's my fault. I wasn't clean enough, or maybe there was a hole in my gloves. I don't know, but it's my fault."

"Trixy, you can't blame yourself for this," Daryl says as he rubs my back, trying to get me to calm down. "You done everything ya could."

"You don't know that," I shake my head and let a few tears fall. "I need to give him some antibiotics to try and flush the infection out."

"Beatrix, that won't help any now," Hershel says calmly. I'm guessing Glenn got him, Rick and Daryl before he got me. "There's only a fifty percent chance of surviving septic shock, and that's if you catch it before the organs start failing. He's not producing urine, so his kidneys are down along with his liver. You can't save him. He's pretty much dead already."

"No he's not!" I yell, probably waking everybody else up. "I can save him!"

"Baby, no you can't," Daryl whispers so that only I can her him. He grabs my wrists and pulls me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me. I let myself go limp in his arms and just cry into his chest.

"I killed him," I mumble into Daryl's chest, but in pretty sure everybody heard me.

"You didn't kill him, Beatrix. You done absolutely everything in your power to keep him alive," Rick tries to reason with me. By now, everybody has woken up and they're making their way over to see what's going on.

"It's just his time to go," Hershel tries to comfort me, but it doesn't really work.

"We need to make sure he doesn't turn," Rick states, taking out his knife.

"Rick, he didn't get bit," T-Dog says as Rick jumps onto the truck beside of Dale's head.

"That doesn't matter. No matter how you die, you'll always turn," Rick announces.

"You knew about this and you didn't tell us?" Maggie yells. "How long have you known? Beatrix, did you know too?"

"I did," I nod my head slowly and pull away from Daryl's chest. "But I didn't think it was true. Jenner told me back at the CDC. He never showed me any proof though, so I didn't believe it."