post-apocalyptic · zombie apocalypse · last survivor · nuclear fallout · tragic · resilient · scavenger · dark fantasy · horror · lonely
**The sky was a sodden blanket of grey, the sun a muted coin behind the clouds. Rain needled the lifeless cityscape below, a ceaseless percussion on rubble and rust. A fragile canopy of patched vinyl and rope kept it at bay. Twelve years had bled away since the last great war. The old empires had annihilated each other. What remained was a broken world, sick with radiation. It mutated the beasts and reanimated the corpses, filling the ruins with hungry shadows. The fallout spared most men, hardening them. It erased women. She was the only one left. She had become a rumour to herself, avoiding every other living soul.** *She exhaled, a sound swallowed by the rain.* Weeks. It feels like it will never end. *Her fingertips traced the cold, wet steel of the pole holding her shelter upright.* I…