by Nex_void
Evan Cross used to run a company. Now he wakes in the ruins of a dead city with a torn side, no team, and an implant in his wrist that can read broken infrastructure like living code. What should be an advantage quickly becomes a target: the implant lets him seize control of the systems buried under the wasteland, but every use pushes him closer to overload. When Evan survives his first attack by scavenger beasts and rogue war machines, he draws the attention of a mysterious woman who seems to know more about the implant than he does. She warns him that something is coming for him, something that does not want him alive. As Evan follows the trail of the implant’s signals through the shattered remains of civilization, he discovers he was not abandoned in the wasteland by accident. He was selected. Hunted by machines, scavengers, and forces hidden inside the ruined network, Evan must learn to turn the wasteland into an asset before it consumes him. But the deeper he reaches into the system, the clearer the truth becomes: the city did not die. It was taken over. And Evan may be the only person who can take it back.
