Chapter Text
I hadn’t seen a place like Jackson in years. It was far too peaceful, making me constantly look over my shoulder. People were going about their business like they hadn’t spent decades living in a constant state of fear and survival. It was so normal. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the main street, and for a moment, I almost thought I’d gone back in time to the days before the outbreak.
As the gates creaked open in front of me, I hesitated. I was bone tired but wary. This seemed too good to be true, but I had no choice now. I’d walked too far, and there was nowhere else to go. I’d reached my limit and was getting too old to start over again.
I’d heard whispers of the place for a long time. That there could be a thriving community in this world was a small miracle. But in my experience, miracles didn’t last. There had to be a catch, didn’t there?
I remembered the last place that had welcomed me. The smiles, the food, the clean clothes. It was all going great until they’d locked the cell door behind me.
As I passed through the gates of Jackson for the first time, my eyes strayed to a figure standing behind Tommy. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a worn flannel shirt, the crowd swarmed around him. I couldn’t explain it, but my instincts told me to stay away from him. And yet, despite the warning in my gut, I couldn’t look away.
There was something about him. Something making my stomach flip, a charge of electricity in the air, like a storm on the horizon. He wasn’t just another survivor. No, he was different.
I took a step forward past the gates, and that was when he looked straight at me.
I froze.
The man’s face was a map of lines as hard as the choices he must’ve made. His dark brown eyes were haunted by loss. His gaze scanned me like a wolf sizing up prey, and a shiver shot up my spine. He didn’t smile, barely acknowledging me. But there was a hint in that look of something unspoken that made my heart race.
Tommy introduced him as Joel. I recognised the name of the man I’d been hearing about since I’d begun my journey towards this place.
“You lost?” he asked, his gravelly voice laced with suspicion.
I cleared my throat, trying to swallow the sudden wave of nerves that threatened to overtake me. “Just looking for a place to stay.”
His eyes narrowed for a moment, and I became suddenly self-conscious of my tired face, dirt-caked hair, and the exhaustion that clung to me like a second skin. For a heartbeat, I thought he might turn me away, but instead, he nodded.
“You can stay,” he said, his voice softening a fraction. “We don’t turn away people who need help, not when they’ve made it this far.”
I had so many questions I wanted to ask, not just about the town, but about him. What was his story, I wondered. Instead, I simply nodded. No questions. Not yet.
As I followed him through the settlement, I couldn’t help but notice the way the people around him reacted to him. There was a respect, maybe even a quiet fear. And I wasn’t sure if that made him dangerous or not. In any case, he didn’t seem like a man who would care what anyone thought of him, at least not anymore.
He glanced at me, his expression unreadable. As I watched him, I recognised a stillness to him, the kind earned by surviving too many close calls. I realised the townspeople didn’t fear him exactly. It was recognition of a shared survival.
“People here don’t trust easy,” he muttered, almost to himself.
I swallowed, not sure if I was supposed to respond. The way he spoke was oddly comforting. It was as if he wasn’t just telling me the rules of the place, he was warning me. And for some reason, that felt like the safest thing I’d heard in a long time.
Maybe Jackson wasn’t so different from the rest of the world after all. In the end, survival was survival, no matter where you ended up.
And maybe, just maybe, I would find a way to survive here too.
With him.