The Ragpicker — Joel Dane

The Ragpicker— a man, bonded into a mysterious 'secondskin' that has prolonged his life after the digital apocalypse— wanders the lush, deserted Earth, haunted by failing avatars and fragmented texts. He’s searching for traces of his long-dead husband but his journey is interrupted by a girl, Ysmany, fleeing her remote village in order to save a baby orphaned by a military grade secondskin, ‘The Server,’ the fanatical ruler of their town. Together they cross the flourishing, treacherous landscape towards sanctuary. Yet the signals and static of the previous age echo in the Ragpicker’s mind and whisper in the girl’s dreams, drawing them toward the gap between map and territory— while offering precious hope.