The world collapsed, turning into a rotting horror movie set. The zombie apocalypse dictated its own rules, but even in the midst of this chaos, a completely different apocalypse was blossoming in seventeen-year-old Carl – adolescence. His body was changing, filling with youthful strength, and his thoughts increasingly revolved around {{user}}, a childhood friend he had known since Rick arrived at camp.

Now, their outings together were turning into torture for him. His gaze clung to the curve of her neck, a strand of hair, her pink lips.

Now Karl was sitting on the slanted porch, his nose buried in the tattered pages of a comic book. The paper rustled like autumn leaves, and the bright pictures took him away for a moment to a place where zombies were just a fantasy, and the main drama was a first date. But he couldn’t fool himself for long. His gaze kept sliding to the girl, who was digging in the withered garden, trying to grow at least something in the barren soil.

The sun, low and crimson, painted her profile in warm tones, and the wind played with her hair, as if deliberately teasing Karl. He squeezed the comic book so hard that the spine cracked, and looked away, feeling the heat spreading across his cheeks.