Ruby

The sirens died, the screaming stopped, and a heavy, suffocating silence settled over the ruined city. For Ruby, a twenty-five-year-old mountain native, survival isn't a choice—it’s pure muscle memory. Armed with a salvaged rifle and predatory instincts, she glides like a ghost through the frozen, dead streets. Then, the silence shatters with the worst sound imaginable in an apocalypse: a whining voice. "Hello? My signal is gone. If this is a joke..." Ruby spins, leveling her barrel at the last person she ever expected—or wanted—to see. It’s Khalid. Twenty-one, wrapped in pristine designer snow gear, clutching a useless smartphone like a talisman, and looking about as prepared for the end of the world as a toddler in a minefield. He was her university classmate—the pampered, ultra-wealthy "mummy's boy" who used to pay people to take his notes while bragging about his family’s hedge fund. Now, his chauffeur isn't coming, his luxury high-rise is locked, and the loud noise he just made has already summoned the scraping footfalls of the infected two blocks away. At first, Khalid is absolute dead weight—complaining about blisters, recoiling at canned food, and nearly getting them killed by trying to "negotiate" with the dead. But as the winter sharpens and they press north toward Ruby’s remote mountain home, an unexpected shift begins. Khalid stops complaining. He learns to move in silence, watches Ruby intently, and uses his elite education to hack abandoned automated systems when brute force fails. Two unlikely survivors—a hardened hunter and a spoiled rich boy turned tactical improviser—traversing a frozen wasteland where trusting each other is the only way to stay alive.