CODES

T H I R T Y - F I V E

I didn't think we'd make it to New York as the sun shined. But we did. And as our three cars pulled into a parking lot closest to the "Now Entering Provincial New York" sign, I held my breath. I remembered what New York once looked like; it wasn't this. There was nothing against the future I lived in, but the one weekend I came up here from Georgia and visited the family with my dad—the world was alive. Maybe it was because the Codes took over. Civilians probably feared leaving their homes.

The eerie quiet reminded me of the silent New Chicago we just left.

When Matthews stirred awake in his passenger seat and opened his side door, a wind entered the car. Wind paired with a quiet buzzing. Static. I pressed one finger into my right ear and shook my head. Maybe it was me. My nervousness could've manifested itself to the surface. Matthews didn't seem bothered by the sound. Then again... maybe he couldn't hear it.

I glance back at the rearview window and see Xerses' and Erica stepping out of their car. Hugh and Zack did the same. The rest of the party walked into the parking lot, leaving their doors open. I did the same.

"Hey," leaning against my car door, I looked back at everyone, "do you guys hear that?"

Xerses slowly nodded, poking at his ear. "I do. It's like flies."

That was the perfect description. A quiet buzzing lik a hoard of insects beating against each other in the air. Only there was nothing there. The clouds were full but reddening with the light of early morning. Birds swam through the purple and orange light.

But no insects. No disturbances other than life.

Erica spun in a slow circle, pushing a look strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't hear anything," she said.

I looked at Matthews. He nodded and shrugged; Hugh and Zack did the same. If only Xerses and I heard the noise, that meant it wasn't for humans to hear. I heard it because I was a Code by creation. And Xerses? Could it have been his time locked in the void, having been "possessed" by Zara's digital code?

The sound was only for machines to hear. Was this an attack? Or a calling?

As annoying as it was, I couldn't focus on it. We were wasting time looking up at the sky. "X," I lowered my gaze back to my friend, "did Prime tell you where exactly these computers are here?"

"At the bottom of the statue," he said, looking down the street. "I think we're an hour from Liberty Island."

"Right." I closed my door and stepped out into the street. Scanning the area, I drew up the map of the city in my head. We were about an hour away and if we floored it, we could make it before shit went down. This, only assuming, the flies were negative. I couldn't see them any other way.

Xerses stood beside me. "They built it the same way the data hive was stored under the domes," he looked at me, "where every Code was stored."

I raised my brows. Wow. The Province took from the past; and took the worst part. An area where the memories and lives of every soldier who fought in WWIII were stored... and purposely forgotten. Back then, no one thought of synthetic possibilities. Awful crime and digital war aside, If it hadn't been for Zara and Polk... Codes wouldn't exist.

Polk was using that fact to his advantage,

And Zara had that entrance to control Clara.

"I understand the world changed, and the United States no longer exists," I glanced over at Xerses, "but they did construction inside of a building over one hundred years old?"

He nodded and sighed. "Looks like it."

I sighed. I wasn't sure what was worse—playing down the past or twisting it to one's advantage.