CHAPTER 132 — THE DAY AFTER NOBODY SAVED THEM
The morning after the center failed to return, the world did not celebrate.
It recalculated.
Elena felt it the moment she woke—not as urgency, not as alarm, but as pressure. The kind that pressed outward instead of down. The kind that forced movement rather than obedience.
No one had stepped in.
No one had saved them.
And yet, everything continued.
That unsettled more people than chaos ever could.
From the upper level of the estate, Elena watched the city stretch into the day. There were no banners. No announcements. No declarations of victory or reform. Only the quiet persistence of motion—transport routes reopening under revised agreements, offices lighting up under new leadership rotations, communication channels buzzing with arguments that no longer waited for resolution from above.
The system was alive in a way it had never been under control.
Alive meant unpredictable.
Alive meant dangerous.
Alive meant real.
---
