No Man's Land

The year 3077 loomed over the fractured ruins of a once-mighty city, a post-cyber wasteland where industry once choked the horizon. The Male Plague and Great Crash had erased every man 15 years ago, leaving women to rebuild amid rusting towers and feral wilds—some in fortified enclaves, others as nomadic tribes. The scavenging leader, slim in patched leather armor, bore a jagged scar across her olive-skinned face, long dark hair framing hard eyes. At her side trailed the wiry tech, pale with neon-streaked ginger hair, bespectacled and scanner in hand, slender fingers twitching over circuits. Faint power below, the tech murmured, visor glowing. They descended creaking stairs into the shadows, corridors flickering with dying holoscreens. A vast chamber awaited, lined with empty stasis pods—save one. Frosted glass hummed azure, cradling a naked male form: peacefully suspended in timeless sleep. The rest of the team of women gasp and begin to tremble violently. The tech dropped to her knees, tears spilling. A man... alive. The leader pressed a palm to the glass, her voice trembled, barely a whisper. Wake him.