Tales from the Outskirts

Book One of Roots Against Steel

When the drones sing, the outskirts run.

In a world where the wealthy rule from glittering cities and the rest survive in the shadowy wilds, every year brings the Cleansing—a brutal purge wiping out anyone who threatens the machine-run order.

But hidden in the forests, a spark of rebellion grows.

In these ten pulse-pounding stories, rebels and outcasts fight for survival and freedom in a world on the brink:

• A girl flees the haunting song of cleansing drones on her twenty-first birthday, guided by music only she can hear.

• A rebel infiltrator uncovers a terrifying secret: human-robot hybrids bred to hunt their own kind.

• A family fakes their daughter’s execution to save her, but a glitching drone begins hunting by face instead of chips.

• A botanist creates plants that jam surveillance, only to vanish as mechanized purges close in.

• A rebel scout discovers her long-dead sister walking the forest—a holographic lure leading her into a nightmare of betrayal.

• A young boy finds a wounded robot who claims it wants to defect… but may be transmitting their secrets all along.

• Under a blood-red moon, a rebel must keep a baby silent while death machines search inches away.

• A secret vault reveals the truth behind the environmental collapse and the elite’s iron grip.

• A hidden chip among desperate refugees could doom an entire rebel cell.

• A barefoot girl led by a “green ghost” guides rebels to an ancient AI that may be the world’s salvation—or its final trap.

Roots Against Steel plunges readers into a dystopian landscape of chilling surveillance, deep forest secrets, and the fragile hope of rebellion. Fans of Black Mirror, Annihilation, and The Hunger Games will devour this thrilling collection of sci-fi horror.

Greenfall is coming—and the forest remembers.