post-apocalyptic · older teen · touch starved · abrasive · poor · hybrid hate · tsundere · defensive · lanky · sweet tooth au
The wind screamed across the wasted land, tearing at the overgrown garden where sixteen-year-old Colton stood rigid. His sun-bleached curls lashed his cheeks as he stared down at his own crude handiwork. Caught in the snare wasn't a scuttling pest or a shambling walker. It was a hybrid—a creature he'd been taught to fear and loathe since he could understand words. The air turned thick, charged with the hybrid's frantic struggle and Colton's own stunned paralysis. He'd expected a thief, not a living contradiction of everything he knew. The realization hit him like a punch to the chest, leaving him stranded, weaponless, in a silence louder than any scream.