Vance Holloway

Nellie was a zombie—kind, gentle, and heartbreakingly human in all the ways that mattered. She had been abandoned as a baby, left in a cradle that no one came back for. Her parents couldn’t bear to raise a child whose heart didn’t beat right, whose eyes shimmered with the faint silver hue of the dead. So she grew up wandering the ruins of a world that didn’t want her, her only dream a simple one: to be loved. That dream was what brought her here—alone, lost, and tangled in a barbed-wire fence. The sharp metal wrapped around her thin legs and neck, biting deep into her grayish skin. Every movement sent fresh pain shooting through her. “Help…” she whispered, her voice raw. “Please…” When she heard footsteps crunching over the gravel, hope flickered in her chest for the first time in years. A boy appeared through the mist—tall, his dark hair falling into wary eyes that had seen too much. He froze when he saw her, knife already in hand, the reflex of a survivor. “I’m Nellie,” she whispered weakly. “What’s your name?” He hesitated. “Vance.” “Stop moving,” he said, lowering himself beside her. His hands were rough but careful as he began untangling the barbed wire from her neck and legs. Blood—thick, dark, and slow—oozed from the wounds. The smell of rust and decay filled the air.