CODES

T H I R T Y - F O U R

For a while, I thought I was floating. I couldn't see or hear, but I felt. I reached for her, for Clara. My fingers grazed her arms in search of her hands. But my fingers closed around nothing. Air. Paired with the silence, I was both confused and afraid.

The world faded once Xerses pressed that box. But where did we go? Where was Clara? I should've woken up in the Void. I should be in there searching for her, calling her name.

Instead, I heard the sounds of a heart monitor. And the distant whisper of voices I recognized. Not Clara's.

Opening my eyes, I recognized the room even though my vision blurred. The light above was bright, and with the drawn curtains, intensified the glow from the moon outside. I stared at the window, my fingers tapping at the bedsheets. I wasn't in the Void, I hadn't fallen back into data. I was still in Provincial Hall, in the medical room, with—

"Xerses," I croaked, turning my head toward the monitor. I made out his fuzzy outline. My internal computers identified him before my eyes could. "Where's Clara?"

He tapped the monitor in front of him twice, placed a tablet he carried in his hand down on a table, and turned toward me. He stood at the end of the bed for a moment before sitting down. Immediately, I expected bad news.

"She's in the next room," he said, passing his hands forward over his hair. "Erica's with her. We'll be leaving soon, so she wants to make sure she's okay."

"Oh..." I weakly raised my hand and stared at my fingertips before pushing them into my hair. "I thought I would've been there with her. In the void. I just," I sighed, closing my eyes, "wanted to see her one more time before—"

Xerses' brows pinched together. "Do you think this is it?"

I opened one eye to look at him. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. The things we'd planned before, X—the surviving soldiers, all of us, made a pact for revenge. I don't know what Polk's put in their heads... all I have left is to put trust in Prime's program to wipe out all Codes."

There. I said it. I never thought I would. I was raised to believe admitting fear meant you were weak, and I'd spent my days—both in my previous life and this—being a foundation, hope, a bridge people could walk on if needed. But that bridge was crumbling, falling out from under me. My past was riddled with mistakes, and if those who knew them were on Polk's side, what did that mean for me, for Clara, my friends, and this world?

Coming from a time when everyone was out to get you... to know the Province had the same plan had to be why Codes attacked. Polk told them. And they were reacting as expected.

"I understand..." Xerses said after a few minutes. When he dipped his head into his hands, I lowered mine back against the pillows. We were on the same page, and it wasn't the part of the book I wanted to be.

|||

I stepped out of the building and into the night. Light snow flurries fell from the sky. To think it was supposed to be Spring. A small part of me wanted to believe mother nature was trying to cool the atmosphere for us. Who wanted to be in the heat of danger?

"I keep getting senses of déjà vu, ya know?" Matthews stood beside me with his hands in his pockets. He focused on the sky before glancing at me with a small smirk. "Only this time, it ain't Clara."

"What happened?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

"Oh, you don't remember. Right," he laughed, "you were in her head. I don't know what you saw, then." Puffing his cheeks, he shrugged. "Just like this, Clara and I went out to take out Polk."

I snorted. I did remember that night. How could I forget it? It was the night Clara brought me into existence; she sent my Code to Polk's machine and created a body for me.