Ash Roads

When the world's first quantum blackout erases every digital record, identity itself collapses. Bank accounts, passports, birth certificates - gone. In the chaos, five strangers are forced together: Selene, the scientist whose work may have caused it. Kieran, the soldier whose scar is his only truth. Aya, the artist who refuses to stop recording faces. Lena, the mother searching for a daughter no one else can prove exists.
Simon, the corporate survivor who may know more than he admits. Hunted by militias, cast out of "Safe Zones, " and stalked by betrayal within their own circle, they discover that proof burns - but memory scars. To survive, they must choose what to carry: truth, lies, or each other. Ash Roads is a near-future thriller of survival, betrayal, and the fragile rebellion of remembering when the world demands forgetting.