almost shyly a hand raises, giving a soft wave with fingers spaced. before she can speak, the static of the walkie chimes in, and the gesture is disregarded. alicia, you there? there’s panic in her face because she doesn’t want to scare this new person off, she doesn’t want him believing this is some kind of trick. quickly, she answers, ❝ i’m here, i’m with someone. ❞ who? ❝ i’ll get back to you. ❞ alicia, d– petite fingers turn the walkie off before the man on the line can continue, and, slowly, she puts the walkie back on her hip. ❝ – if you need something, ❞ she begins, gesturing with a nod of her head towards the box, ❝ you can take whatever you need. just leave some for someone else. ❞
she can only imagine how sketched out this person might be– she would be– especially if she was in the mentality she was weeks ago before morgan and everyone pulled her out of it. ❝ what’s your name? ❞ she’s prodding, albeit delicately; she wants to know if he’s alone, if he needs help. that drive to help others as her mother did, she was scared it was gone, but the flame has ignited once again tenfold. ❝ i’m alicia. ❞
“jesse,” he replies as he starts to walk toward the box, slowly. there’s cans of food, non-perishables, water. before he can think twice about it, about poison, he grabs some water and takes a long, long sip from a water bottle, letting out a breath of relief. his eyes flutter shut. “oh, god. thank you. that’s --- it’s very, like, nice of you to do this for other people. i wouldn’t do it.” it’s a bit embarrassing as soon as it comes out of his mouth, to openly admit that he would not be charitable --- but he wouldn’t. he hopes she understands.
“i’m, uh, alone,” he says. “my partner kind of died almost as soon as all this started. he was a fucking nerd with lung cancer so i shouldn’t have been surprised he wasn’t exactly good at zombie apocalypses, right?” he flashes her a nervous grin. he does not quite realize what the implication of the word partner is to people who are not manufacturing drugs. “anyway. uh, you mind another mouth to feed? kinda shit out of luck here. i do have the keys to an RV though if that would be, um, useful.”