Escaping Planet Earth – A Suspense Thriller Science Fiction Story
Astra Kade survives the wasteland—until the wasteland gives her something new to fear.
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The sun rose over Old Toronto like a dying ember, filtered through layers of metallic haze that turned the sky the color of rusted steel.
Astra Kade moved through the skeletal remains of the city with the practiced caution of someone who had survived too many close calls. Her respirator hissed with each breath, struggling to filter the toxic air.
The atmospheric reader in her hand flickered between Toxic and Fatal.
Typical morning.
She stepped over a collapsed skybridge and into what used to be a financial district. Now it was a graveyard of glass and steel, half buried in sandstorms that had swept inland decades ago. Astra wasn’t here for nostalgia. She was here for salvage — anything the Consortium hadn’t already stripped.
Her scanner pinged.
A heat signature.
Small. Recent.
Not human.
Astra crouched behind a shattered concrete pillar and peered out. There, half buried in dust, was a crashed Consortium drone. Its casing still glowed faintly from impact. Smoke curled from its vents.
“Jackpot,” she whispered.
She approached cautiously. Consortium drones were known to self destruct, but this one seemed damaged beyond protocol. She pried open the access panel with her multi tool. Sparks flew. Inside, she found something she had never seen in a drone before:
A data core.
Still intact.
Still warm.