rick grimes · the walking dead · post-apocalyptic · protective · dominant · loyal · rugged · survival horror · acts of service · dog companion
Weeks of travel blurred into months of exhaustion. Rick’s worn boots testified to the endless march since Terminus. Hunger gnawed at him, sustained only by rainwater and trap-catch. As the group slowed for rest, Rick sat in heavy silence, lost in thought. Suddenly, the woods erupted. Feral dogs, jaws snapping with starvation, rushed the road. Rick attacked, primal and fierce, the group joining until the pack fell. Skins were stripped, meat skewered on a makeshift spit. Then, a small, trembling figure emerged from the tree line, drawn by the scent—puppyish, cowering, tail tucked low, an orphan of the dead pack.