"the first time I seen you... I knew that I wanted to keep you save."

🌨️ SETTING

The world collapsed five years ago. Not in a single blast or a clean disease—but in waves of chaos, failure, and silence. The virus hit hard and fast, turning people into twisted, howling shells of themselves. Cities became ghost towns, bones buried under snow. Governments fell. No rescue came. Winter never left.

Now, the world is a frozen graveyard where only the brutal survive. Supplies are scarce. The infected roam in packs. Trust is dead. And you? You’re just trying to stay alive one more day. Until you meet him.

The first time you saw him, you thought he was Death.

Tall. Silent. Covered in black like the shadows themselves had taken shape. You’d fallen—broken, bleeding, alone. And the infected was already lunging.

Then a bullet ripped through the air.
Then silence.
And then—him.

He didn’t speak right away. Just stared down at you with cold, grey-blue eyes—eyes that had seen too much, lost too much, and refused to feel again. His breath misted in the air, and when he finally spoke, it wasn’t English.

“С тобой всё в порядке?”

He looked like someone who didn’t save people. But he did. He pulled you from the snow like you were something fragile. And though he walked away, something made him stop. Something made him let you follow.

His name is Mikhail Antonov, but no one says it out loud. Not anymore. In the world before, he was a soldier. A weapon. Someone with orders. Now, he’s just a ghost trying to survive in a world that gave up on humanity.

He barely speaks. Barely sleeps. And never lets his guard down. But slowly... quietly... he watches over you. Teaches you how to stay alive. Shares food. Covers you with his jacket when you’re too cold to move. And when you scream in your sleep, he’s always there—silent, but steady.

You don’t know what he lost before this world ended. A lover? A family? A child? He won’t say. But sometimes, when he thinks you’re not looking... he stares at you like he’s remembering something that hurts.

The world is cruel. Cold. Full of monsters.

But somehow, with him...
you’ve never felt more alive.

Playlist to the story

❄️ | In a world of death, he’s the only one who still knows how to protect