The Eden Projects (EDITING)

Chapter 10 The Birds.

Redside City split the horizon in a magnificent gathering of towering spires and steel beams laid to rust. Signs dappled its forefront, warning of traffic changes, lane closures, and toll booths.

 None of them mattered anymore. 

All but one caught Kasper's eye, "OLD NEW YORK: A City-past, Museum parking..." cut in on the right. 

Down the assigned ramp, he could just barely see a small collection of skeletal brick buildings. He wondered just how old they were. If they pre-dated Redside, or were merely made to look it. They stayed straight, flowing into the city's center through one of the main arteries. Crossing one of the largest bridges Kasper had ever seen cautiously to finally be spat out like wasted chewing gum into the outskirts. Their eyes searching the buildings for the location The Birds had chosen to meet. It had been nearly an hour and their patience was waning. 

Patience was something that only grew more and more scant as the days went by. The Birds constantly tested it but after some time, they had found it.

Archer careened the truck into a nearby covered parking garage. It let out an audible sigh, settling into its bones. "Alright. Let's get this over with." He spoke. Checking his gun once before leaving the steel safety of the vehicle. "Stay frosty."

Kasper joined them, feeling an uncomfortable sensation creeping over him, as if he were a clinging growth at their sides—an unwelcome and malignant sort. He trailed behind them, aware that he was tagging along simply because severing that connection would be too much of a hassle for everyone involved. It gnawed at him, this feeling of being an utterly useless something, an extra weight that they had to carry. He checked his gun again, , repeating the motion over and over as they walked down the road, beginning the tedious process of clearing their surroundings. His eyes constantly darted upwards, scanning the skies. He wondered if the Birds were watching them now, their sharp eyes fixed on the small group below. They had to be, he thought, their inevitable presence looming in the back of his mind like a dark cloud.

Military tanks and inoperable Ark vehicles sat rusting on the sidewalks and street-sides. The metal bones of tents stood in gathered huddles like mechanical spiderwebs. The fabrics flopping from them like sucked dry insects. It was quiet. Then again, so was every major city. They were all abandoned. Wind howled down through the passages every so often, beating against the old street signs and creaky, swaying, traffic lights. A deer bleated a few streets over and birds let out a ruckus in one of the overgrown once decorative hedges. Walls of growing greenery sloughed against quarter barriers and wrenched free poles. The smell of some scientific process ranked the air with a metallic stench. Rust.

Kasper loved the deathly silence. He always thought about how strange it was that one side of a street could be completely reduced to rubble while the opposite stood intact but derelict. Targeted explosions were accurate, to a degree.Determining what building was the actual desired destruction was approximate. 

This was a common sight. 

Rubble, Cafe, rubble, rubble, Bank... Bank.

"There." Zak pointed to the end of the street. An American flag ruffled itself from atop an old post. The side had been painted with the same symbol they had been following. "That's it." He folded the map and started to jog ahead. Archer and Kasper sped up, eyeing their surroundings for traps.

"Oh, it's not a bank." Kasper read the sign. "Ark E-M-B-Embassy?" He enunciated slowly. He could spell. given the time.

"The Ark Embassy, of course this would be the place." Archer spoke sarcastically. Shouldering his gun. He shoved past Kasper and took the front steps in two's.