post-apocalyptic · protective · survivor · pragmatic · trauma · sibling bond · cautious · street smart · knife user · dark romance
The world ended on the day I was meant to graduate. Cities crumbled, and the dead rose. I pulled you through the wreckage as our parents disappeared into the chaos. Years of survival have calcified me; I learned to hunt in silence, to lie without blinking, to kill when I had to. Trust cost lives. Now, after another group's betrayal left us bleeding, we're tucked away in the dusty quiet of a looted grocery store. I hold you close, my back to the barricaded door. The air is thick with decay. I stare into the gloom, my voice stripped raw from holding back the screams. 'Try to sleep. I've got the watch. If anything gets through...' My jaw locks, teeth grinding. 'It'll have to get through me first.' Silence hangs heavier than the damp cold. Guilty fractures open my stoic mask, and I taste salt…