CODES

T W E N T Y

Being on the outside of my memory was strange. It didn't feel as real as the other uploads. More like a strange déjà vu. But the reentry was flawless. Painless. I didn't feel sick as my feet landed within the void. Nothing about me felt heavy, uneasy. I was relaxed.

I kicked my foot forward as the floor beneath my feet shifted. The white tile seemed cracked. Uneven black lines divided what was once pristine, perfect. But I wasn't here to see how the Void had changed. I was here to see what Polk had been hinting at.

It was more than WWIII, more than the crimes I had committed when I was alive. There had to be something deeper.

"How far am I going?" Xerses' voice echoed in my head. There was static, a little unclear, but I heard him just enough to glance up at the Void's 'sky.' What moved resembled storm clouds. That was new.

I focused on a patch of white and grey as I stood still. "My final moments of life," I said, then gulped. "Is there a record of that?"

There were soft beeps, and motions. The static increased before dimming down into subtle white noise. I heard Xerses' "Hm," before he said anything.

I looked ahead at the pixels in the air. "If there isn't anything, then—"

"No, there's something," he said. "I don't know if it's your final moments, but it's one of the last files. Don't know why this was locked and secured. If you were alive—"

"I must have done something." Pulling my hands out of the pockets of my pants, I stared down at my fingers before sucking in a breath. It was weird seeing myself like this. This had been my life; solid, yet translucent, alive, yet digital. Without reliving a memory, I felt like a ghost. "And if I'd done something, they would've stored it away to hide my crimes."

"A crime right before you died?" Xerses snorted, but it was annoyed and frustrated. "What could you have done?"

"Don't know." I lowered my hands and looked ahead. "But Polk knows."

"Right..."

Xerses must have selected the data file before the Void had begun to change. The floor shifted, like spilling paint, into a dark, wooden floor. Walls appeared, beds surrounded by curtains and wires. It swayed like an image in water, but it was clear enough for me to see doctors, to see people, patients, us. I recognized the soldiers clutching their IVs.

"You said Polk was releasing data to find Zara, right?" Xerses asked.

As I stepped into the data file, I nodded and looked around. The soldiers were hunched over their beds. Wires were connected to their heads, electrical currents pulsed through them. I wondered if that was visible then... the blue and white around the chords. Or was it because I wasn't truly there right now?

"Hey," Xerses said suddenly, "do you think him releasing all of this data is what caused the Malfunctioners? Not Erica and Clara?"

I stopped right beside a bed. What he said made sense. Creating Codes in bulk was a bad call, but for all of them to become Malfuctioners was a bit of a stretch. I mean, at the time, there wasn't anything else to blame. But now... with Polk in the picture...

"He's got something to do with it, that's for sure." I glanced at the bed to my right. Someone sat with his back towards me. His spine was visible, slightly protruding from under his shirt. He clutched an IV stand in his hand while a nurse stroked his cheek. I eyed them closely, waiting for something.

"Has to be," Xerses muttered. "We spent how long with those Malfuctioners and their just not clearing up. And you—"

Pivoting, I faced the bed and watched as the nurse placed her hand on the man's bony shoulder. It was when he moved that I released he wasn't just any man... but me. I was the sickly soldier sitting on this bed. And this nurse... I couldn't remember her name, but I remember her kindness. I had memories past that. But this data file?