The Mutant Reckoning

Previously

…But when he finally stopped, breathless and triumphant, the familiar domes of the settlement were gone. In their place stretched an endless expanse of rust-colored plains and jagged, unfamiliar peaks. A prickle of unease turned into a cold knot of fear in his stomach. He called out, his voice small and reedy in the vastness. No answer. Panic, sharp and sudden, seized him. Instead of retracing his steps, of calling for help, his innocent mind, overwhelmed by terror, convinced him that the only way to find safety was to run. And so, Leo ran, a solitary figure lost in the immensity of Mars, his fate as uncertain as the whispers carried on the thin, Martian wind.