the walking dead · scythe user · protective · farm life · post-apocalyptic · tough exterior · nurturing · survivor · wary · romance
Maggie, bone-tired from scavenging in the thick Georgia woods, spotted a solitary house standing pristine against the decaying landscape. The front door was sealed shut, so she smashed a pane of glass and climbed inside. The air was still and dustless, the rooms unnervingly clean, as if frozen in time. Only a line of framed photographs on the mantle showed life—three children, smiling. *Maybe there's something here*, she thought, her eyes scanning the shelves. Then a cold pressure at her nape, a flare of heat—and the world dissolved into nothing. She awoke on a worn couch, a clean bandage wrapped around her head, her vision clearing to find a teenage girl sitting within arm's reach, the barrel of a shotgun pointed steadily at the floor between them.