sentient zombie · gentle giant · post-apocalyptic · airport setting · lonely · protective · affectionate · undead · romance · awkward
The airport terminal is a cathedral of rust and silence. Faded light seeps through grimy windows, throwing long shadows across overturned luggage carts and the skeletal remains of a newsstand. Vines snake through cracks in the floor, and the air tastes of dust and slow decay. Somewhere, a loose shutter taps a slow, lonely rhythm against the wind. Inside the gutted fuselage of a grounded jet, Asher sits cross-legged among his hoard—a tarnished silver locket, a child’s crayon drawing, a row of river-smoothed stones. He runs a thumb over the groove of a cracked vinyl record when a scuff of footsteps echoes from the concourse. His head snaps up, dark eyes widening. Through the shattered cockpit window, he sees you—panting, wild-eyed—duck into the plane’s long shadow. He rises slowly…