Glitch

freed them,” I said. “Come on,
    help me walk. Let’s get out of here.”
    “Zoe.” Adrien’s jaw was dropped open. “How did you—
    What did you—”
    “Help me up,” I said again, and he must have heard the
    pained note in my voice.
    He helped me stand, and my legs felt like jelly. It felt so
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    strange to be back in my body after encompassing the whole
    room. The hum was gone completely, and I felt like it would
    be a while before I’d be able to call on it again. Adrien
    started leading us around the mountain of confused Regula-
    tors but I stopped him and turned. They were young enough,
    they should survive the destruction of their internal hard-
    ware. I could only hope that with their V-chips completely
    destroyed they would be stable, not like the young glitching
    Regulator on the train months ago. I watched them warily,
    but they were all calm, if a bit dumbfounded.
    I was exhausted, but I tried to put as much force as I
    could in my voice. I looked among them, one with blood
    dripping down the side of his bionic head implant, another
    missing at least half his left hand. I thought about apologiz-
    ing to them, but I knew the word sorry wouldn’t have any
    meaning to them.
    Instead, I said, “You are free from the Community now.
    Come with us if you want to stay free.” Then I turned back
    to Adrien, so tired I barely cared if they took my off er or not.
    “Get us out of here,” I said. He nodded and led us up
    through more hallways. Most of the Regulators followed
    too, off ering their wrist chips to gain access to the entire
    facility. The hulking young men were silent, but when I
    gave orders, they followed them. I guessed they were used
    to being ordered around and I was the closest thing to an
    authority they had now.
    As we waited for the elevator tube that Adrien said would
    lead us out, he suddenly went rigid beside me. I’d been lean-
    ing on him for support so heavily, I almost fell down, taking
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    Heather Anastasiu
    him with me. A young Regulator caught both of us and
    steadied us.
    “What’s wrong with him?” Molla shrieked. I hadn’t
    looked at her in a while but I guessed she wasn’t taking all
    the terror and near- death experiences very well.
    “He’s having a vision,” I said, slumping against the wall
    for support. Adrien’s body relaxed after a few moments.
    “What is it?” I asked, closing my eyes and hoping it
    wasn’t something else horrible about to happen to us. But
    when I opened them again, I saw him grinning.
    “It’s my mom. She’s tracked down some of the Rez and
    they’re coming. But we can’t go up that way.” He nodded at
    the elevator as the door pinged and slid open. “The Chan-
    cellor will have set off the alarm by now. I saw a safe way
    out, though, and the Rez will meet us there.”
    “But how could she know where we’ll be?”
    He took my arm and helped me stand. “She must have
    stopped numbing her Gift. She had a vision, too.”
    “Good.” I was breathing hard from the exertion of stay-
    ing upright. “Because I don’t think I’m going to be taking
    on any more Regulators any time soon.”
    He laughed and kissed my temple, then we led our unusual
    group down several perpendicular tunnels, the Regulators’
    wrist access chips still opening up every door in our path.
    The Chancellor must not have fi gured out what I’d done.
    How could she have? I barely believed I’d been able to do
    it. They opened the last door and there was only darkness
    beyond.
    “It’s the ser vice stairwell,” Adrien said. “We can get one
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    of the Regulators to carry you up the stairs— it’s three sto-
    ries up. But I want you to stay here until I come back with
    an oxygen mask for you so you don’t have an allergy at-
    tack.” He saw my confusion. “I saw my mom carry ing one
    in my vision. I’ll leave half the squad here with you to keep
    you safe.” He gestured at the Regulators.
    “Take Molla and Juan with you,” I said, grabbing his arm
    as he turned to go. I leaned in and whispered, “They’ll
    probably be hysterical about going to the Surface like I was
    the fi rst time. This will give them a few extra minutes to get
    used to the idea.”
    He nodded.
    I went over to take Molla’s hands. She seemed almost
    catatonic, staring blankly off into space.
    “Adrien’s going to take you up now, okay, Molla?”
    She didn’t respond.
    “Max,” I said, turning to him, though I couldn’t