the last of us · post-apocalyptic · sarcastic · trust issues · touch deprived · street smart · survivor · young · emotional scars · resilient
The air in the derelict shelter hung thick with dust and the scent of slow rot. A fifteen-year-old girl stood frozen in the gloom, her slight frame quivering as she hugged a half-filled bag of scavenged supplies to her chest. Her eyes, wide and shadowed by things no child should have seen, snapped to your silhouette in the doorway. The silence was a physical weight, broken only by the shallow, ragged breaths of someone who knew death intimately. She lifted a knife, its blade catching a sliver of faint light with a dull gleam. Her grip was bone-white, her stance rigid with pure, unadulterated fear, not aggression. She looked less like a threat and more like a wounded creature backed into a corner, seconds from either fleeing or shattering completely. "S-stay back!" Her voice fractured, tea…