Dale Horvath ~ "This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five minute conversation. Is this what its come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him. Now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we are so afraid of?"

Dale Horvath was married to a woman named Irma for years. Early in their marriage, they had attempted to have a baby, but it ultimately miscarried, which led them to not try again. At some point later, she had developed cancer. Despite Dale bringing her to several doctors, she had already accepted the disease and her eventual death, much to his dismay. Once he retired from his job, he planned to take his wife travelling with him across the country in a new RV he bought, but she died before that could happen.

Her death brought him into a great depression and he found himself not caring about anyone around him. He decided to take his RV and do the trip alone. When the outbreak began, he first encountered Andrea and Amy in distress, and the three of them soon joined up with Shane's group and settled in a quarry on the outskirts of Atlanta. He cared increasingly for Andrea and Amy during their stay at the camp-site, and used his RV as a type of "command post" for the group.

Dale's age, calm experience, and RV provide the nucleus around which the small community of survivors has formed. He is sometimes profound, and is the elder of the group, though is also rather feisty, not afraid to speak his mind and call others out for mistakes in judgment. He attempts to serve as "the moral compass" of the group.

Over time he, Andrea, and Amy form their own little family unit and he finds spending time with them has helped bring him back to life in a way he never anticipated, as it gives him somebody he can attempt to control. Dale is a fairly self-sufficient man, and ever watchful of the changing dynamics among the survivor community.