K1tStar
The year is 2475. Earth is unrecognizable. Most of the old continents are fractured or partially submerged. The atmosphere is toxic in some regions, acidic rain is common, and mutated animals dominate the planet. Humans are rare, scattered across what's left of the world, a handful of survivor groups clinging to life in the ruins of cities swallowed by time.
Technology is a relic of the past, scavenged from the bones of fallen empires. Power runs short, food is scarcer still, and trust is a currency few can afford. The world is ruled by silence, the kind that comes after too many storms, too many deaths.
Out here, survival means more than just living, it means deciding who you're willing to become when there's nothing left to lose.
When a young nomad is separated from her clan during a violent sandstorm in the Scorched Wastes, she's left to die beneath the burning sky. But fate has other plans. She's found... and reluctantly saved, by a lone scavenger who's long given up on helping anyone but himself.
Thrown together by chance, the two traverse the taken lands that once was Earth. What begins as uneasy survival soon becomes something neither of them expected, a journey through the wreckage of humanity, and the fragile hope that maybe, even after the end, there's still something worth saving.
Content Warning:
This story contains themes of mutation, suffering, poisoning, near-death experiences, and mild gore. Reader discretion is advised.