Coraline Young, a 26-year-old lone survivor, desperately searching for her younger brother as the world crumbles around her. Hope dwindling as days turn to weeks. Aimlessly she wanders through the wilderness, chasing ghosts and guesses, too stubborn...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
With headphones on you walked alongside the empty road, a navy blue backpack strapped to your slender figure. Nothing but your trusty hunting knife and half loaded handgun keeping you company. Absent-mindedly you wandered on, your legs carrying you through the blazing heat of the midday sun, no destination in mind - you wiped your forehead with the back of your hand, wearing a bit too many layers for this time of year.
Oh, she's a little runaway,
Daddy's girl learned fast, all the things he couldn't say..
The music rang in your ears, you hummed along, staring vacantly into the distance. You'd long ago lost track of time. Ever since Jamie was taken everything just bled together, days turned to weeks and now you had no idea how long you'd been on your own.
You tried to suppress the memory of that night. It had been around a week after Oliver's death and Jamie had been ignoring you, angry at the world, angry at you. That night you had a massive argument, separating briefly to cool down. You'd been deeply hurt by the things he'd said and momentarily let your guard down, breaking one of your own rules - always communicate. You'd waited for him to come to you, not wanting to be the first to speak after your heated dispute. Without your knowledge Jamie had gone outside to clear his mind.
Everything had happened so fast, his screams haunted your sleep. You'd ran outside only to see a group of people taking him, dragging him towards a car. The image of him kicking and screaming to no avail engraved in your memory. You hadn't made it far towards them before shots were firing your way, you'd jumped behind a row of dumpsters for cover. Pulling out your gun, you'd shot back, hitting one of the men dead in the head - your first and only time killing the living, yet.
They'd thrown Jamie into the car and driven away. You ran after them until your legs gave out, crying your heart out in the middle of nowhere, it seems you cried all your tears that night, honing this chilling emptiness ever since - unable to cry, as if some unknown force held your emotions captive.
For a long time you searched for him, scrutinizing every building and car on your path, facing more of the dead with each passing day. But there was no use, now you just kept on walking. The thought that he might very well be dead was too much for you so you tried not to think at all - turning your back on the world like it had turned its back on you, ignorance the bitterest bliss.
Perhaps it had all been a far-fetched dream, too good to be true. Naive for thinking yourself capable of shielding him from the cruel grasp of reality, simply caught in the venomous web of wishful thinking. You may have thought yourself prepared for anything, but oh how wrong you were. Until that night you hadn't fully grasped how quickly you could lose everything - well now you did.
And she don't really mind
It's only love she hoped to find..
A low growl from behind you ripped you from your haze. You turned around, knife at the ready. A strange sight to witness - a few feet away trudged the remains of a man in military uniform. Bulletproof vest, helmet, gun strapped over his shoulder - the whole package. You tilted your head, taking a good look at this spectacle that moved leisurely due to its half mangled left leg. As he neared, you spotted something small and round holstered on his belt, its surface shining as the sun reflected off of it - a grenade. Proceeding with caution, you took on the tall individual - a particularly difficult battle due to the helmet covering his only vital organ - but you managed, the man falling back onto the heated pavement at last.
