Warehouse Blood

civilization had burned. Choice did not make him pure. It made him accountable. There was a difference, and the difference became the foundation of everything he would build. The aftermath of Eli dragging a janitor through blood-slick pallets was never clean. Survivors counted ammunition, names, and missing fingers. Someone vomited. Someone prayed. Someone accused Eli of being the reason the monsters kept finding them. Sometimes he could not prove they were wrong. The infected recognized his altered blood. Human villains recognized the power gathering around him. Crow's men spread stories of a cannibal mutant king before Eli owned anything larger than a broken stairwell. Fear traveled faster than truth.