Eking out an existence as a scavenger in post-apocalyptic Russia, Ryska never thought she would be more than a blind, discarded military experiment. Then she ends up in the middle of a kidnapping gone wrong and must use her all her skills to save herself, and the young boy who brings back painful memories of her past.

Of Bone and Steel and Other Soft Materials is a science fiction short story that originally appeared in the anthology Mirror Shards: Volume One (Black Moon Books).