By the time we left the coast, the network had a name on everyone’s lips The Protocol.
Not “system,” not “Core.” People avoided those words like curses. Protocol sounded gentler, cooperative. A tool, not a god.
Hi
Three days west of the settlement we caught the first open broadcast. A faint pulse in the static of the emergency band, layered with code I half-recognized.
Seventeen. It had spread faster than we’d moved.
Kira killed the radio and looked at me. “Still think it’s harmless?”
I didn’t answer.
---
The highway we followed had turned into a riverbed during the storms. We walked the edges, boots crunching on glass and old signage. Every few miles we saw evidence of reconstruction solar rigs, small gardens, even hand-painted road markers pointing to new towns.
Humans d
