Tilted dream

Previously

…He had survived. He had faced the horrors Elara had written about, and he had not only lived, but he had fought back. The journal, still in his other hand, felt heavier now, its words imbued with a chilling reality. The world was not just dead; it was dangerous. And his journey, his search for life, had just become infinitely more perilous. The sanctuary Elara sought, the hope she clung to, might be nothing more than a cruel illusion. But John, for the first time since waking in this desolate land, felt a flicker of something other than fear. It was a grim resolve, a nascent understanding that survival would require more than just luck. It would require fight.