Like a top spinning off its axis, the structure entered the atmosphere in one unfathomable piece, but as it descended, the cone of its body shattered in half, and one of its rings snapped away on its own.

It seemed to fall in slow motion, and a cascade of twisting metal poured after it. The Masked Man held his breath.Ī flaming needle punctured the sky, ripping the clouds in two. It grew denser, stretched wider in every direction, painting the land beneath in artificial night. All commotion ceased in the city below, and the Masked Man turned to see a shadow filling the distant clouds. It was an odd noise, like a thunderclap on a loop. The future was coming, and it belonged to him. The Masked Man grinned, still watching the northern sky. Their singsong messages defined him, and soon, they would redefine the Junkyard entirely. He drowned out the screams and plasma gunshots, focusing instead on the sweet musical whispers at the edge of his consciousness. The Masked Man took no pleasure in such violence, but he was an agent of peace. He could hear the aftershocks of his conquest echoing from below.

When he looked down, the Masked Man could see every corner of the shanty metropolis laid out before him. The Heap was where all the junkies came to deal their goods, where the great mercenary clans chose to call home. Jericho was another universe, inaccessible behind its great wall. He stood on a railed balcony high above the Heap-the closest thing the anarchistic Junkyard had to a capital city. With the help of a ragtag team of misfits, Diane and Virgil may just have a chance to stop him-if they don’t kill each other first. The two will have to wait to work out their differences, however, as a new threat appears on the horizon: a masked man called the Messenger, who hopes to subdue the Junkyard with a mysterious new power. And Diane’s untainted blood, a precious resource in this radioactive hellscape, could keep Virgil alive long enough to finish one last mission-but at what cost? Virgil’s spare mechanical battle suit, nicknamed the “Grave Walker,” can help Diane survive the ruined atmosphere-but it could kill her if it runs out of power. When a mysterious scavenger named Virgil stumbles upon Diane’s escape pod, the two strike a deal (if it can be called that).

This is where Diane Three-One-Seven finds herself after the arkship Cradle-the only home she’s ever known-falls out of the sky.

Welcome to the Junkyard, a toxic wasteland where humans, machines, and everything in between fight for survival among the ruins of a long-forgotten war.

Blacktop wasteland a novel