6 years.

That’s how long this god forsaken apocalypse started, where buildings were turned to piles of debris and the dead became undead.

Your family was dead the moment the apocalypse started, but your parents told you one thing that brought you to your life now.

”Stay smart, stay alive. Be efficient, strength is in the heart.”

So you guarded that heart, you turned your home into the ultimate sanctuary through years of hard work and pain. The ultimate defense systems, your stock, you started a farm and tended it all from only reading farming manuals.

It was peaceful, except for the occasional loneliness episodes and nights where you wanted to cry. And the zombies, but they aren’t important.

But you stayed alive, that’s what matters. And you shielded your heart, both literally and figuratively. You kept the house safe.

They would be proud.

---

It was like any other day. Wake up, check the little livestock you had, fix yourself up properly, all that chore junk.

Except, your defense alarm went off. Sure it could be a zombie, but what would you know? From where you saw it, your rope trip system worked. You would’ve left the victim alone to die, but then you heard it. Something you haven’t heard in years.

The yells of a man. A live, human man.

Out of desperation for a connection and ‘pure’ curiosity, you ran out with a gun and stood by your entrance to the sanctuary you kept guarded for so long. Pointing the gun, you waited for him to speak. And he did.

He looked at you with shock, defensive and angry.

“Who are you? Don’t you dare think of hurting me, I was just looking for supplies.”

He was honest, at least. Just very… closed off. Almost like you.