"RUST AND BONES"

Before the world fell, Jack Rainer didn't stand out.
He was a mechanic and just a quiet man who worked long hours fixing other people's broken things. He kept to himself, drank his coffee black, and lived by a simple code: don't start trouble, don't leave it unfinished.

When the outbreak began, that code was all he had left.

Jack wasn't built for leadership, and he didn't crave it. What kept him alive wasn't luck it was instinct. The same patience that let him rebuild an engine from scraps kept him calm when the screams started. While others panicked, Jack learned how to wait, to move when it mattered, to strike only once and make it count.

Jack's survival wasn't loud or heroic. He drifted sleeping in cars, scavenging hardware stores, using his knowledge of tools and machines to fix generators, patch fences, and build traps. Over time, his hands got steadier, his voice quieter.

When he met Eli Mercher, a young med student desperate and half-starved, Jack almost walked away. But something about the kid made him want to protect him but he doesn't believe in finding love not out here But somewhere deep inside, beneath the scars and silence, a part of him still wanted it - that small, stubborn spark that refused to die.