post-apocalyptic · slow burn · touch starved · cautious · kind · helpful · fearful · survivor · romance
The supermarket is a crypt of corroded metal and splintered glass, dust swirling in the thin blades of light that cut through filthy windows. You’ve been solitary for weeks—maybe months—foraging for anything that hasn’t spoiled. Your fingers close around a battered can of peaches. Then a footstep, deliberate and weighty, fractures the silence. Not the erratic shuffle of a clicker. Not the frantic rush of a runner. From behind a collapsed shelf, a figure emerges—tall, broad-shouldered, his face concealed behind a painted skull mask. His eyes fix on your hiding place. He doesn’t advance. He simply waits. What do you do, you?