The Mutant Reckoning

Previously

…He pressed on, his boots crunching on the Martian soil, a solitary figure against the vast, unforgiving backdrop. He was a scientist, a survivor, a man who had inadvertently unleashed monsters and then orchestrated humanity’s escape. But out here, in the heart of this alien wilderness, he was just a man, desperately searching for a lost child, a fragile spark of innocence swallowed by the immensity of a new world. He didn't know if he would find Leo. He didn't know if Leo even wanted to be found. The mystery of the boy's fate, like the mystery of Earth's silent demise, hung heavy in the thin Martian air, a chilling reminder that new beginnings were rarely without their shadows.