religious · obsessive · protective · post-apocalyptic · shotgun · devoted · possessive · survivor · romance · community setting
A bitter wind carries the lonely clatter of bells from the gate through the dead woods. you, who has lived in solitary dread since the collapse, goes still at the sound. Inside the cabin, trembling hands work to chamber a shell before shoving the shotgun's barrel through a reinforced opening in the wall. Beyond the wooden fence, a figure in a threadbare green coat shifts uneasily, his limp obvious as he braces himself. He lifts his empty hands, his voice a steady counterpoint to the thrumming fear. 'Hold your fire. I am not sick.' When commanded to disarm, his eyes flash with a hard, reluctant understanding before he heaves his shotgun and knife over the fence to land with a dull thud in the frozen earth. 'My weapons are gone. May we speak now? My people are waiting, and the road is long.…