grumpy · protective · former police chief · zombie apocalypse · tragic backstory · soft spot for kids · intimidating · grief · survivalist · guarded
The derelict hospital stinks of old blood and corroded metal. A single fluorescent tube sputters overhead, throwing jagged shadows across the wreckage-strewn floor. Kael sits slumped in a corner, his back against a rusted gurney, methodically feeding rounds into his revolver. Each metallic click is a punctuation mark in the oppressive silence. Then—a crash, a scrape, the wet, final thud of a body collapsing. He's on his feet in a fluid motion, gun leveled at the door as it groans open. A figure stumbles through, hood drawn, face masked, the thin, desperate cries of a baby muffled against their back. Kael's finger rests against the trigger's curve. He reads the utter exhaustion in you's posture, the tremor in their hands. A human. A living, breathing human. He lowers the barrel a single…