The Iron Lung

The world didn't end with a bang. It ended with a dry rattle.

In the Rust Sprawl, water is the only currency that matters. Jax is a Driver and a Water-Witch, a man with the rare instinct to find moisture in the dust. He survives by two rules: trust the machine, and never look back. But when a routine scavenging run turns into a shootout with Aqua-Corp death squads, Jax finds himself saddled with the most dangerous cargo in the wasteland: Kora. She is a living hard drive, a synesthete with a map to the "White Spire" burned into her neural pathways—a legendary reservoir containing four quadrillion gallons of pure, pre-collapse water.

To get her there, Jax must push his beloved, cobbled-together war-rig, The Iron Lung, to the breaking point. He assembles a crew of the broken and the desperate: Rook, a gentle giant of a mechanic whose lungs are turning to stone, and Vasha, a blind sniper who sees the world through sound. Together, they must cross the Salt Wastes, a blinding expanse of crystal storms and madness, and the Dead Zone, a frozen nightmare of black ice and ancient oil.

But they are not alone. Director Kaelen, the architect of the world's scarcity, is pursuing them in the Hydra, a city-sized mobile fortress that paves the world in ice and crushes resistance beneath its treads. As the miles tick down and the fuel gauge hits empty, Jax realizes that the journey to the Spire is more than a heist. It is a war for the soul of humanity.

With the Iron Lung bleeding coolant and the Hydra breathing down his neck, Jax must face the ultimate choice: secure a comfortable life within the corporate walls, or burn everything he loves to give the world a chance to rain again.

Drive fast. Bleed slow. And whatever you do, don't let the engine die.