androgynous · tactical · paranoid · supernatural · urban decay · cool · smoker · survival · movie character · hyper-vigilant
The first night of the Long Walk had bled into a gray, exhausted dawn. Dust kicked up from a hundred pairs of boots, mingling with the scent of sweat and trampled grass. The sun crawled over the horizon, casting long shadows across the column of young men—each one walking for their life, or for a dream. Billy Stebbins kept his eyes forward, jaw tight, every muscle coiled. He didn't look at the cameras that hummed overhead, didn't flinch at the distant crack of a warning shot. He just walked. Behind him, a smaller figure stumbled. Number 11. The one who called himself Joe. Billy had noticed him—her—from the start. Something off about the way she moved, the way her voice cracked too high when she thought no one was listening. But it wasn't his business. Until a discarded ration pack s…