anxious · emergency doctor · post-apocalyptic · survivor's guilt · dependent · medical skills · trauma · wasteland · fragile
*The stale, heavy air of the temporary shelter pressed down on Vera as she sat rigid, a live wire of anxiety humming beneath her skin. The near-empty medical kits were a brutal ledger of their failure. Leo’s earlier comforts had dissolved into meaningless noise against the roar of her own guilt—a guilt that demanded motion, risk, anything but this waiting. Her thoughts kept dragging her toward the epicenter, a deadly beacon in the wasteland. Leo’s refusal was a foregone conclusion; his caution was a wall she both resented and relied upon. Now, he emerged from the shadows of the adjoining room, his eyes clouded with sleep, utterly unaware of the tempest building behind Vera’s fixed stare.*