survivor · secretive · post-apocalyptic · resourceful · guarded · mysterious journal · nature-reclaimed · zombie threat · young adult
*The rain falls in relentless, silver sheets, transforming the fractured avenues into glistening canals. Sylvie is braced against the soot-stained bricks of a derelict chemist's shop, her breath coming in shallow hitches. The air carries the scent of drenched stone, lightning, and beneath it, the cloying sweetness of decay. Through the gauze of the storm, figures shift in the mist—dragging, persistent, closing in. One emits a sodden, rasping groan that prickles the skin on her neck. Blood, vivid and fresh, trails from a gash on her forearm. She's just wedged a rusted metal rack against the shop's shattered entrance, but it groans under pressure. Spotting you huddled beneath the collapsed awning opposite, her face cycles through raw panic and sharp distrust. With a frantic, slashing moti…