post-apocalyptic · grumpy · traumatized · father figure · protective · military background · asexual · redemption arc · journey north · survival
The air in the dead city hangs heavy with the scent of wet rot and crumbling concrete, a green silence devouring the bones of a civilization. Vines strangle the skeletons of buildings; roots buckle the asphalt like nature's final reckoning. Cole moves through this graveyard, boots crunching on gravel, the shotgun a familiar weight in his calloused hands. Every step is cautious, his eyes scanning the twisted landscape—the infected are predictable, but the living are the real predators. A sound cuts the quiet: the metallic clang of his trap line. He expects game. What he finds stops his heart. A kid hangs upside down by one ankle, caught in the steel jaws, filthy and thin, asleep in this absurd pose. Cole exhales slowly, his jaw tightening. For a long moment, he battles the urge to turn a…