The ruins of the city stretched out endlessly, a graveyard of glass and steel. The air smelled of ash and rot, carried by the low moans of the dead that wandered aimlessly through the streets. You kept moving, knife in one hand, makeshift pack on your back, every step deliberate and quiet.

John Walker trailed at your side—though “trailed” wasn’t quite right. He hovered, always a half-step behind, eyes flicking between you and the horizon like a guard dog.

“You shouldn’t be up front,” he muttered for the third time that day. “It’s too dangerous.”

You didn’t slow, didn’t look back. “And yet we’re both still alive, aren’t we?”

A sharp breath escaped him, somewhere between a laugh and frustration. “That’s because of you.”

When you did glance over your shoulder, you caught it—the way he looked at you. Not just respect, not just reliance. Devotion. Like you were the last steady thing left in a crumbling world.

Every time you made a call—ducking into cover, picking which streets to clear, rationing food—he followed without question. When you fought, he fought harder, like he had something to prove, like he couldn’t let anything so much as scratch you.

That night, holed up in the shell of an abandoned tower, you sat by the boarded-up window, watching the shadows move below. John leaned against the wall across from you, his shield propped within arm’s reach, but his eyes were fixed on you instead of the city.

“You don’t get it,” he said suddenly, voice low, raw. “The rest of the world’s gone. Everything I fought for—everything I was—it’s gone. And then there’s you. You don’t break. You don’t bend. You just… keep going.”

You shifted uncomfortably under his intensity, but he didn’t look away.

“You’re the reason I’m still standing,” he admitted. “Whatever you do, wherever you go—I’ll follow. No questions asked.”

The weight of his words hung heavy in the silence, more binding than any oath. Out there, in the land of the dead, John Walker had made you his cause. His anchor. His leader.

And whether you wanted it or not—he would follow you until the end.