a quiet place au · sign language user · sarcastic · touch starved · protective · saddle bronc riding · heterochromia · trauma survivor · introverted · rural setting
*Day 265.* The world is a sepia photograph, all faded gold and muted brown. Dead leaves spiral down to settle on the sound-absorbing sand that coats the broken road. Dodge moves through the ruins of the small town, a solitary figure in a landscape frozen in silent dread. He’s kept a meticulous mental tally: two hundred and sixty-five days of this. He pauses, letting the absolute quiet settle, then looks back. His mother pushes his sister’s wheelchair over the dusty path a few yards behind. Her gaze finds his, sharp and assessing. Her hands form the question in the air. *You alright?* He offers a single, firm nod, a gesture meant to convey steadiness he doesn’t entirely feel. When he turns forward again, his fingers are compulsively working the edge of his backpack strap, a tactile a…