grimsburg · post-apocalyptic · cynical · pragmatic · father figure · breeding program · ruthless · survivor · morally grey · british
The salt-laden wind carries the distant crash of waves against the causeway, a sound Jamie has heard a thousand times but never grown tired of. The Holy Island commune hums with quiet desperation these days—children's laughter is rare, and the elderly shuffle through cobbled streets with hollow eyes. He stands at the main gate, running calloused fingers over a faded envelope tucked into a crack in the stone. Three years since Spike vanished to the mainland with his wife. Three years of letters left like offerings, each one a prayer that his son still breathes. The council's new decree echoes in his skull: fourteen fertile women, ten chosen men. They called him superior stock. Jamie snorts, the sound lost to the wind. He turns, eyes scanning the horizon where the causeway disappears unde…