[b]Alex Clark - The Outpost - Reggie/Nelson[/b]

Arriving back at the Outpost was a bliss as it was every time, but as pretty much every time, overshadowed by the feeling he did something wrong. They quickly brought the unconscious man to Isaas who could tell them that the man only had a broken nose. Alex let out a surprised whistling tone, having seen the wreckage of the car and the enormous amount of walkers surrounding the car-crash victim. He paid little attention to what was going on as he let his eyes scan the man for any more injuries, even though after Isaac's examination that was pretty much unnecessary. Suddenly Jeryy was sent away however,and Reggie started talking to him. As Reggie looked for words Alex shrugged and looked at his feet, anticipating was what coming for him. Isaac seemed to have left without he had noticed anything, so he was alone in the room with Reggie and the unconscious man. 

"... All right, there's something I need you to hear. Don't speak up until I'm finished." Reggie finally began and slowly took a seat on the small table in the room, upon which Alex sat down aswell, right across Reggie. He could see how the man fought to say what he was about to say, and he was indecisive if he wanted Reggie to hurry up or delay some more.

"What happened out there... That shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't happen and yet it keeps happening, Alex, and I know you are well aware of this. I've never liked turning away those that wish to be a part of the scouts, but we're approaching a critical moment for not just the scouts, but for all of Outpost. Every mistake you make is a chance for you to die and every time that happens the whole group is affected."

He supported his head with his face and stared at the table as Reggie's words' meaning got through to him. He couldn't have used any better words, since he was almost exactly phrasing Alex' fears. He didn't want to get anyone killed because of his failures, and he had so many. It had been a completely selfish decision to become a scout back when he joined, already knowing from experience that despite the fact that he, just like everybody else, was just looking for a safe place, any period of rest or inactivity would kill him faster than the monsters out there. He had read it in books and seen it in movies so many times before, but only after the outbreak he had started to realize howmuch truth there was in the sentence 'The monsters in the head are a lot worse than those out there'. Any unguarded moment during which he was not actively occupying himself with something he would start thinking, thinking of all the people of his previous two groups that had died. Because of him. His stupid mistakes, his indecisiveness, his wrong judgement... Even his girlfriend had died because of him. It was even worse that they had trusted him all that time, and even at their final moments forgave him for what unrepairable mistakes he had done. He simply could not. That only made what was coming worse for him, eve, though a macabre part of his brains encouraged Reggie for saying what he was about to say. It was better to ruin Alex' live than to risk the lives of the entire community. In a way he already welcomed the idea aswell, as some sort of justice. He would be delivered to the haunting ghosts of his past as a punishment for getting them killed, and trying to do the same to the Outpost, however unvoluntarily.

Reggie sighed, looking down. "I don't want another death on my hands. I think it's best if you stayed within Outpost's walls from now on. There's always guard duty, and the guys on the wall will--"

His shoulders sank a few inches as he accepted the words. He had seen it coming, but it still hit him like a train. However, before he could delve too far in a cave of depressed thoughts the door swung open, to reveal the pale face of Isaac. He looked extremely troubled by something, yes, even thoroughly afraid. Alex stored the dark thoughts in a small corner of his mind as he paid close attention to the conversation between the student and Reggie, untill the latter left the room to face yet another problem, but not before inviting Alex to have a talk with him about his future. 

This reminded him so much of times when he was sitting in the sofa uncomfortably and his parents would be having a serious conversation with him, that it almost hurt physically. As both men left, Isaac ordered him to stay here with the unconscious man with a sense of authority as if he was a full-fledged doctor already. Ofcourse, that didn't matter anymore in this world, and in fact Alex could claim to be just as much of a historian as Isaac could claim to be a doctor. Only he didn't. Who would be interested in history in a time like this anyways?

He sighed and let his head rest on both of his hands as he was left to his inner demons to torment inside the room with the unconscious man.