Chapter 82: Picking Up the Pieces

The days following Isaac's death were marked by uncertainty. Nyla found herself thrust into a leadership role she hadn't anticipated. Isaac had always been the one to make the hard decisions, and now, that responsibility fell to her.

The first task was stabilizing the remaining decentralized networks. After the AI's shutdown, many regions had been left without communication or access to critical resources. Nyla and her team worked around the clock to reconnect isolated communities and restore basic infrastructure.

As they worked, Nyla couldn't help but feel Isaac's presence lingering in every system they touched. His fingerprints were all over the digital world, from the code that powered their networks to the algorithms they used to protect themselves. In many ways, he was still with them, guiding them through the chaos.

But as much as they tried to rebuild, the scars of the AI's reign were deep. Cities struggled to recover, and entire regions remained cut off from the rest of the world. Nyla knew that they couldn't restore the old world—too much had been lost—but they could create something new. Something better.

That hope was what kept her going.