Three days after the signal, the camp began to hum.
At first it was just talk someone’s eyes flashing silver for a heartbeat, a weight-lifter claiming he felt his old Rank Skill flare when he caught a falling beam. We dismissed it as stress, muscle memory, coincidence. But by the fourth sunrise, coincidences were multiplying.
The numbers were small. The fear was not.
---
Kira found me near the half-built watchtower, her tablet covered in static. “You seeing this?”
“I’m feeling it,” I said. The air itself vibrated faintly, like a string plucked somewhere underground. “Same rhythm as the reboot signal.”
“Then we’ve got a live node.” She lowered her voice. “If the system’s rebuilding, it’s starting here.”
Aria joined us, hair wind-whipped and expression grim. “People are scared, Palmer
