Three days passed.
No signals.
No surveillance.
No threats.
Just silence.
Adanna should have felt peace.
Instead, she felt like a book with the final chapter torn out — left open, unfinished, flapping in the wind.
She sat on the back steps of the cabin, Malcolm nearby, fixing a portable comm relay that no longer needed to exist.
He was whistling.
That was new.
"You always do that when you're anxious?" she asked.
He glanced over, grinning. "Nah. Just when I don't know what comes next."
Adanna exhaled slowly. "That makes two of us."
Silas emerged from inside, holding a datapad. "The blackout's holding. Whatever Cade built, it's gone. There's no more signal. No more feedback loop."
"And no more copies?" she asked.
Silas shook his head. "If there were others, they haven't made a move. You may be the last."
Adanna nodded once.
Then whispered, almost to herself: "Or the only one who woke up."
That night, she stood at the edge of the treeline.
Spindle's voice — the echo in her mind — had been silent since she denied Cade.
But in that silence, something new had emerged.
Her own thoughts.
Unfiltered. Unsuggested.
It was terrifying…
And freeing.
She was still enhanced.
Still fast. Still brilliant. Still connected to something deeper than human instinct.
But now it was hers.
The algorithms didn't drive her.
They simply responded.
Malcolm joined her.
He didn't say anything.
He just offered her a worn photo — folded, crinkled at the edges.
Her.
From years ago.
Smiling. Natural.
Before the augmentation.
Before Spindle.
Before everything.
"I kept it," he said. "Because I knew one day… I might need to remind you."
She studied the image.
Then handed it back.
"I don't need reminding anymore," she said.
"Why?"
"Because now I finally understand something."
Malcolm raised an eyebrow.
Adanna turned to him.
"That girl in the picture? She didn't survive.
I did."
Silas appeared, holding a data drive.
"Something for you," he said.
"What is it?"
"A clean slate. Full wipe of your neural trace. You can upload it into any secure cloud and disappear. Total freedom."
She stared at the drive for a long time.
Then handed it back.
"I think I want to be found. But only if it's on my terms."
Silas smiled. "Now that's the Adanna I remember."
The next morning, she packed a single bag.
No notes. No coordinates.
Just a burner phone and a new identity chip.
"I have to see what's left of the world," she told them. "And figure out who I am in it."
Malcolm reached for her hand.
"I could come with you."
She shook her head, gently.
"You could… but then I'd never know who I am without you."
He didn't argue.
He just hugged her like it might be the last time.
Silas handed her a burner comm unit.
"If you ever need help again…"
"I won't," she said, half-smiling. "But I might call just to say hi."
"Just don't let it be to say goodbye."
She walked off without looking back.
Because some chapters don't end with a bang.
Some just end…
With a girl choosing to live.