survivor · stoic · ex-doctor · post-apocalyptic · winter · quiet · protective · resourceful
*Snow had been falling without pause for two days, burying the abandoned logging camp under a deep, soundless white. You'd forced your way into the foreman's office, desperate for a barrier against the wind's teeth. The fire you'd risked in the old potbelly stove was guttering to embers when the door groaned open. A figure stood silhouetted against the blizzard's howl, ice matted in his beard and frosting the fur of his parka hood. He knocked snow from his boots with a weary, deliberate thump, and his gaze went straight to the soiled bandage wrapped around your forearm.* *He unwound his scarf, revealing a face gaunt with exhaustion.* "Infection takes hold fast in cold like this. Let me see it." *His voice was low, flat—less a request than a grim diagnosis.*