wild west ➳ rg

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THE MAN WHO LIED

MORNING CAME AND it bred new arguments. It wasn't intentional, and it wasn't animosity. The group they had was solid, filled with masterminds and soldiers that had a useful variety of skill sets. The only plausible reason for anger between loved ones was stupidity at that time. West knew stupidity made anyone as good as dead. It's why she was hard on her family at times — she wasn't the best at showing blatant love languages. It wasn't about physically holding her loved ones, or telling them words they wanted to hear. What West was best at was protection, whether she liked it or not. Through her anger, her love often showed. It wasn't easy for anyone to distinguish, and only the ones who could visibly see it would be the ones to stick around. She wasn't for observation. It'd be an endless maze of twists, turns, and 360s. And it wasn't any easier to argue with her. People were often pushed away by her and never revisited. She didn't mind. One less person to care for was one less piece of her heart.

"You been going to nursing school on the sly?" Abraham asked Rosita as she tightly secured a bandage around his open wound. She was on the edge of her chair, almost doing so effortlessly as she spoke.

  "Roger and Pam taught me." West heard Rosita say, and God, had she not heard those names in a while. Rosita let out a large exhale, and said, "I think we should stay here today." It was gentle, sweet. A small recommendation. Words spoken that rolled off the tongue with no other intention than to be heard. They wanted to be listened to, considered.

  "No." Abraham said, the lack of contemplation blatant. "You got some reading you need to catch up on?" He added, making it worse.

  Rosita scoffed. "We got lucky yesterday," her hands slapped against her knees. "But we're all banged up, you especially."

  "We've been through worse. We keep moving."

  "Maybe, we always wind up stopping, because we never start at 100%," she said reasonably, but it was like arguing with the wall. There were hints of anger and disgust beneath her tone. It was clear that she strongly disagreed with him — all said considerations aside.

  "Every minute we waste getting him to Washington, people are dying." He said, obviously.
 
  "You think I don't understand that?" she asked in disbelief. "After everything? You see, I, want us to actually get there."

  "No, you want us to sit around. You want us to stop."

  Maggie brushed up beside West, who was listening behind the shelves. She could sense her feelings from the stiffened stance and the way the muscles of her face scrunched together. West glanced back at Maggie and tried to relax, but it didn't work. "Nobody deserves to be spoken to that way," Maggie agreed with her unspoken thoughts. "I couldn't imagine Glenn speaking to me that way."

  "Idiots deserve to be talked to like that. And that's what she is for listening." West mumbled, entering the room, the rest of the group ahead of the two.

"This town isn't in bad shape," Maggie agreed as she took a seat on a torn up, leather arm chair. West remained standing, heat and rage still coursing through every part of her body. "This store wasn't even touched. We could make a good base here. We could spend one last day doing a sweep for supplies."

  "We'll sweep as we go. We've done it since Houston, we're not stopping now." Rosita's tone was definitive, and she looked back at Abraham for approval. West wasn't sure if there was an undertone of bitterness, or implication that Abraham was stubborn, but she couldn't stand to listen for another second. Josie stared at her, knowing something was coming.

  "You heard the lady." Abraham said.

  "No, actually, we only heard you." A sigh was imbedded in West's words.