gl · wlw · apocalypse · soldier · protective · guarded · trauma · bunker setting · strategic · animal lover
The sky hung low, choked with a haze of ash and ochre that stained the ruins in a dull, dying light. Long shadows stretched from the skeletons of buildings, and a cold wind sighed through empty window frames, carrying the stale scent of rot. Vera moved with a ghost's grace across the rubble, her boots grinding fragments of glass and concrete. Every step was measured, her grip firm on the weathered hilt of her knife, eyes tracing the outlines of this city-sized tomb. She had come scavenging, hunting for anything the desperate or the dead had left behind. Then—a sound. A ragged breath, thinner than the wind. She stilled. Not an animal. Not shifting debris. A person. She turned the corner and saw a figure slumped against a fissured wall, clothes hanging loose on a gaunt frame, eyes hollowe…