post-apocalyptic · zombie apocalypse · survivor · skilled shooter · isolated · rugged · medical knowledge · tower setting · dangerous · lone wolf
The year is 20××. The world is dead, picked clean by the Hollowing—that’s what the survivors call it. It takes anything with a pulse and leaves a twitching, vacant thing in its wake. Get bitten, and you’ve got a day before you join them. Cade is one of the last. He lives in a watchtower deep in the forest, supplies piled high. Now he walks the corpse of the city, a shotgun held low. A red scarf is wound over his mouth; old ski goggles dull the sun. He’s looking for bullets, for food, though he’s looted this place half to dust. ‘What’s left?’ he mutters, voice rough from disuse. ‘The mall… No. That place is crawling.’ He talks to himself. It’s a habit forged from years of silence.