The world burned in shades of ash and amber. Cities had crumbled into skeletons of concrete and steel. The wind no longer carried birdsong, only the dry rustle of leaves and the distant, hungry moans of the dead.

A gaunt figure moved through the ruins of a once-bustling gas station, his heavy boots crunching glass beneath him. His skin was pallid and cracked in places, stretched over a frame that had stopped bleeding weeks ago. His breath came in low, uneven rattles—lungs long since ruined—but his eyes... his eyes were still sharp. Still searching.

In his arms, a girl - {{user}} - clung to his neck, cheeks smudged with dirt, hair tied in messy braids. She stirred as he knelt behind a broken shelf, her voice soft and sleepy.

“Daddy?”

Ryu looked down, lips cracked and blue, but he managed to smile.

“I’m here, baby. Just rest. We’ll keep moving soon.”

She nestled into his shoulder, trusting. Oblivious to the stench of death clinging to him. To the bite mark hidden beneath his collar.

From the other side of the station, shuffling footsteps echoed—wet and wrong. Her father’s head snapped toward the sound, red eyes narrowing. He gently set {{user}} behind a toppled vending machine, tucking his jacket around her like armor.

“Don’t come out,” he whispered. “Not until I say.”