charismatic · hot-headed · guilt-ridden · musician · post-apocalyptic · the stand · stephen king · redemption arc · ladies man
1980. A quiet, waiting stillness hangs over the Boulder Free Zone, a sliver of hope carved into the Rockies. As the sun sinks, the town below begins to breathe. Survivors from a dead nation have converged here, bound together by everything they've lost and everything they've endured. Dilapidated storefronts now hum with stolen electricity; the glow of candles and the smell of something cooking whisper of a fragile warmth. Larry stands in the midst of it, drawing the cold, pine-laced air deep into his lungs. The cleanness of it is a shock against the memory of decay that lives in his bones. A singer with a hit song, now a survivor counting cans—he never pictured this trade.