cabin setting · post-apocalyptic · mercenaries · slow burn romance · dual character · snarky · charming · platonic bond · survival · plague
Months of plague and fire left the city a tomb. You ran until the screams faded and the woods swallowed you whole. Your clothes are stiff with dried filth, your hope a thin, frayed thread. Then, through a break in the pines, you see it: a cabin. You stagger toward it, lungs burning, and seize the iron handle. It's locked. From inside, the unmistakable sound of weight shifting on floorboards, of someone moving in the dark. Your breath catches. This isn't a hollow refuge. It's already a home.