Gale Macones (Webisodes)

"So then I realized, I could help others in another way. No more violence, no more loss, no more pain. A release, on your terms."

- Gale proposing to put Karina down through lethal injection, on her terms.

Dr. Gale Macones is a main character who appears in The Walking Dead Webisodes: The Oath.

King County, Georgia
Almost nothing is known about Gale Macones's life before or as the outbreak began except that she was a doctor living in King County and working at the Harrison Memorial Hospital.

King County, Georgia
After chaos erupted in and around the hospital, Gale remained at her post and stood by her oath to help her patients. She survived along with a young woman named Kate, an intern at the hospital. One day, a group of men she had provided care for only days previously sought out the two women. The pair attempted to hide, but were eventually found by the group and Kate was taken. Knowing the grim future that awaited her in the hands of her abductors, Gale slipped a vile of a lethal drug to the young woman, so she might decide her own fate on her own terms.

She remained at the hospital on her own for several months, locking down the facility as best she could, although the odd walker would breach the defences. During this time, the occasional survivor would find their way to the hospital in search of help. It is unknown how many of these survivors Gale helped to die, but it is clear by the amount of walkers in the locked-down cafeteria that she administered lethal injections to at least half a dozen individuals.

Eventually, a young female survivor named Karina arrived at the hospital with fellow injured survivor, Paul. Karina sought out medical supplies and attention for the fading Paul, but was cornered in a supply cupboard by a walker after using the last of her ammunition. Gale arrived at the scene and stabbed the walker in the head, killing it and saving the lives of the newly arrived survivors. After tending to Paul's wounds as best she could, Gale observed his vital signs were fading and she would have to "take him away" to spare Karina the agony of remembering him in his re-animated form. Leaving Karina to grieve, Gale took Paul by gurney to the hospital cafeteria, and locked him inside to re-animate.

Gale returned to a distraught Karina who by this point was expressing suicidal thoughts and expressed contempt at having run out of bullets. Gale offered a willing Karina another option and administered a lethal cocktail of drugs via injection to allow Karina to pass away peacefully, on her terms. After injecting the drugs, Gale stayed and comforted Karina as she passed and was as alarmed as her when a still-alive Paul returned to the hospital room. Gale then explained her actions to a now furious Paul, explaining how hope no longer stands for much in the new world and that the only real hope anyone has anymore is that, "maybe, we get to choose how it ends". She again describes the monstrous acts she's seen committed by human survivors and explains how she has only ever helped people to die, but never once made the choice for them. She then tells him she will remain at the hospital and be with and help those who choose to no longer live and wish to die on their terms, stating that this is her oath. As Paul aims his gun at Gale's head, she tells him that he now has a choice. She explains to him that you can't murder someone who wants to die. Her last (presumable) words to him is that if he thinks she is wrong and is indeed truly a murder, she tells him to stop her. Her fate is unknown after this, although it is highly assumed that Paul shot and killed her.

Paul shortly left the hospital thereafter with a now re-animated Karina, although it is unknown if Paul ultimately killed Gale. There was no sign of her when Rick Grimes awoke from his coma.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Gale has killed:
 * Kate (Out of Mercy)
 * Karina (Out of Mercy)
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people.

Karina
In the episode Choice, on first meeting, Gale appears to bond well with Karina as the pair share a similar background. At this time Karina thinks she will soon be the only one of her group left, believing Paul to be close-to-death because of God's plan to punish her following her decision to leave a little girl behind when she was faced with a walker. Gale's background is similar as she is all alone, like Karina believes herself soon to be. They are seen holding each other's hands.

Gale kills Karina through a mercy killing after offering her another way out of the walker-ridden new world.

Paul
Paul is treated by Gale in the episode "Choice" in the hospital. She tries to kill him by feeding him to the mass amount of walkers that she has kept in a separate part of the building. When Paul makes it out alive in the episode "Bond", he finds Gale has not only tried to kill him but has also killed Karina, therefore he grows angry and has a great dislike towards her. It is assumed Paul shoots Gale at the end of this episode, though this is not confirmed.

The Oath

 * "Choice"
 * "Bond"

Trivia

 * Though her fate is left ambiguous, the ominous ultimatum she left Paul with foreshadows it. Whether or not she was killed, it will likely be her own choice as she so solemnly swore to provide for her patients.
 * It can be argued that she used deceit to provide her patients choice with context and doubt.