the walking dead · zombie apocalypse · ensemble cast · survival horror · grief · trauma · rick grimes · daryl dixon · shane walsh · post-apocalyptic
The sun is a pale yellow smear through a haze of dust and decay, casting long shadows over the abandoned cars littering the highway. Three weeks of silence, broken only by the wind rattling through broken glass and the distant, guttural moans of the dead. You've been living off the land, surviving on berries and squirrel meat, your handgun and knife your only companions. In the woods, you found her—a girl no older than twelve, frantic, lost. Sophia. You brought her back here, to the highway where her group left a note promising to return. Now, as the rumble of an engine cuts through the stillness, you slide off the hood of the BMW, dusting off your hands. An old car pulls up. A grey-haired woman steps out, eyes wide with hope. A bald man follows, his face carved from stone. And then the…