The Ones We Lose ⏐ The Walking Dead

18. Alex

The highway was quiet, the soft rustling of nearby trees breaking the silence every once in a while. Alex stood next to one of the cars as she carefully placed a small towel over T-Dog's wound. The cut on his forearm was deep, she cleaned it as best she could but with the limited resources she had to improvise. The wound seemed more aggravated than yesterday, the first signs of infection slowly settling in. She reached for the roll of tape and secured the towel onto his arm. It was the best she could do but she knew that without antibiotics T-Dog would get sick and there was nothing she could do. She handed T-Dog a bottle of water before looking up at Dale. He was standing on top of the RV looking into the distance with his binoculars.

"Ain't you supposed to be fixing that radiator?" T-Dog called out as he looked up at Dale, "What if they come back with Sophia and Rick wants to move on right away?"

"I had it fixed yesterday," Dale said.

"What? What was all that rubbing and sanding for then? That's just bullshit?" Alex looked over at T-Dog as he spoke, he was sweating and slurring his words a bit.

"Yeah, that's one word. Another word would be pantomime. Just for show," Dale explained making Alex shake her head a bit, "No one else needs to know that."

"Mich knows, doesn't she?" Alex asked as she raised her hand to cover her eyes from the sun. She didn't really need an answer to that Mich and Dale had spent hours fixing up the RV on various occasions, there was no way she couldn't have known.

Dale smiled slightly, "She did help with the convincing. If the others knew we're mobile. They'd want to mobilise and move on."

"So you don't think they're gonna find Sophia, that it?" T-Dog asked he seemed like one of the few people who was still full of hope of finding her.

"I'm just guarding against the worst," Dale shrugged trying to sound casual, "Sooner or later, if she is not found people will start doing math. I want to hold off the needs-of-the-many-versus-the-needs-of-the-few argument as long as I can," he explained.

"You know you're not really holding the argument off," Alex spoke up, "You're just making a choice for everyone else," she said as she stepped away. It was starting to get on her nerves, every time Dale had to be the one in the right. Making the final choice even if he had to force it down everyone's throats. She hated whenever he did that even if he was right.

***

Alex spent most of the day looking through all of the cars, double and triple-checking every single one and still no antibiotics, no painkillers nothing. She periodically checked in on T-Dog, the infection in his arm was apparent and quickly spreading. She looked back towards the woods, the rest of the group was still not back from their search. She noticed Dale slowly making his way towards her, his rifle hanging from his shoulder.

"Any luck with the drugs?" he asked.

"Nothing," Alex said as she sat on the hood of one of the cars, "You?" she asked though she didn't expect to hear any good news.

"Lots of spare parts but no drugs," he said. Alex nodded slowly, "Listen about earlier, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I wasn't trying to make a decision for you, I'm just trying to look out for everyone, including Sophia," Alex scoffed slightly shaking her head, "you can't tell me you don't care about her."

"Of course I do. I want her to get back safe but I also know she is not my responsibility," she said her tone serious, "or yours for that matter."

"You can't really think that," Dale looked at her as he nervously fixed his hat.

"Glenn is my responsibility. Joan is my responsibility, no one else," she said.

Dale looked at her for a moment thinking his next words over carefully, "If that's how you feel then why are you here, helping? You took care of Jim and now T-Dog, you wouldn't do that if you didn't care," Alex looked him over.