He assembles teams of friends to help quarantine families of the sick and care for those who have fallen ill. He works day and night, day after day. He works with such feverish commitment that his friend Tarrou asks him about his motivation. He tells Rieux, “‘your victories will never be lasting; that’s all.’ Rieux’s face darkened. ‘Yes, I know that. But it’s no reason for giving up the struggle” (128). Rieux demonstrates that, even in the absence of God, where the plague will forever take lives faster than he can save them, he still feels it is worthwhile to struggle against the plague with all his might, and do what he can to save. In true existential fashion, he helps others with no thought towards himself. He explains to his friend Rambert, “there’s no question of heroism in all this.  It’s a matter of common decency. That’s an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is—common decency” (163). Though Rieux denies his own heroism, Camus deliberately portrays him as a special type of hero—an existential hero.
	To fight the plague, Rieux has to team up with the other healthy residents of Oran. For instance, Rieux forms a strong bond with a man named Tarrou. Tarrou is not a resident of Oran; he merely vacations there. When the plague strikes and the gates close, however, Tarrou is trapped inside. He forms a strong bond with Rieux as they struggle to save plague victims side by side. During one instance, he stays up all night with a young boy who is dying. When Rieux arrives in the morning to do what he can to help, Tarrou’s face is streaked with tears. During a long talk Tarrou has with Rieux (in which the philosophical Tarrou does nearly all the talking), he explains that he does not believe in any God, and that he finds that humankind only has meaning when people choose to struggle against the inevitability of death.
	Teamwork like that between Tarrou and Rieux gets special attention from Camus. Rieux cannot help all of the plague victims by himself—the plague is much too large for that. The only hope he has to make any difference is to team up with as many people as possible. Only by creating a network of civilians all working to fight the plague can he hope to stop its deadly spread. Even with the group Rieux assembles to look over makeshift hospitals and quarantines, Rieux still works day and night and the plague still claims hundreds of victims each week. The comradery of the men is given special emphasis—rarely does Rieux tend to a patient with no help. In Oran, saving people is a team effort.
	In order to include a team of people in his efforts to save, Rieux must be exceedingly modest. He cares not for his own glory, but merely for saving people—however it can best be accomplished. 