Glitch

Whoever
    they were.
    I made the mistake of looking over at the man on the bed
    one last time. My hands were trembling. “Was he about to
    deactivate me?”
    I felt something moist on my face. I looked up instinc-
    tively to see if the ceiling was leaking somehow. Then I
    touched my face and realized the water was coming from my
    eyes. I pulled my hand back and stared at it in bewilderment.
    I couldn’t handle another malfunction. Not today.
    “Come on, Zoe,” Adrien said, his voice gentle. “We gotta
    get the crackin’ hell out of here. I’ll explain everything later.
    I promise.”
    Panic seized my chest again. How did he know my name?
    Not just my name, but the shortened name I used in my pri-
    vate thoughts? I’d chosen it for myself when I was looking
    through the old texts and found out it meant life. But he
    couldn’t know that.
    “Why did you just call me that?”
    He smiled distantly. “It’s a better fi t.”
    He held out his hand. I hesitated, looking fi rst at the
    strong hand he held out to me and then at the sincere ex-
    pression on his face. And then, with a jolt of surprise, I real-
    ized that he must be able to feel emotions. That was what I
    was seeing on his face. I wasn’t imagining things this time.
    He was diff erent from any person I’d ever met— his easy
    confi dence, the life in his voice, the strange words he used.
    He was awake, alive.
    I didn’t know him, didn’t trust him, but I knew with all of
    44

    G L I TC H
    these anomalies and what had just happened with the offi
    -
    cial, I’d be deactivated for sure if I stayed. My lungs squeezed
    at the thought. I didn’t want that. The gray of being Linked
    was bad enough, but what was beyond the gray? What was
    death like? I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the terror of
    the thought.
    “Zoe.” His voice was quiet, but I thought I could hear fear
    behind it.
    I opened my eyes and grabbed his hand fi rmly.
    “Okay.”
    Adrien shut the door quietly behind us. He looked both
    ways down the dim hallways, then pulled me hard to the
    right, away from the elevator. I kept watch over my shoul-
    der, as if any second someone would burst out into the hall-
    way and catch us.
    And then what would happen? Every moment it sank in
    more deeply that I had no clue how the world really worked.
    I was in too deep now and the only thing that gave me the
    courage to keep moving forward was the slight pressure of
    Adrien’s hand pulling mine. His touch was intentional and
    somehow, it made me feel safe.
    We came to a dimly lit dead end. We’d passed several
    closed doors as we went down the hallway— doors that could
    open any minute, and we’d be spotted immediately as anom-
    alous. Still holding one of my hands, Adrien reached down
    into the crevice in the corner between two concrete slab
    walls. His fi ngers seemed to fi nd something in the darkness,
    a button or catch of some kind. Then he whispered, “Open
    45

    Heather Anastasiu
    Sublevel One, manual override verifi cation code 999452385.”
    I held my breath, having no idea what to expect now.
    I almost jumped at the sudden grating noise behind us.
    A jolt of energy rushed down my arm, tingling in my hands.
    My head was still buzzing with fear.
    “What was that?”
    He slowly turned us around.
    “Our way out.” In the dim light, I could see a small smile
    on his face. He nodded toward the wall. My eyes followed
    his and I saw with amazement there wasn’t a wall there any-
    more. I stepped forward to examine it and could see that the
    wall had slid back on a track and then rolled to one side.
    It was pitch black in the tunnel beyond. My trembling
    started up again but I kept going anyway. I kept a fi rm grip
    on Adrien’s hand as he paused to close the panel behind us.
    The darkness was so dense and complete, it made the air feel
    heavy— I could feel it pressing down on me. It smelled strange
    too, kind of damp and sour, like spoiled milk. Nothing like
    the antiseptic clean of the Academy hallways.
    I touched my forearm panel and it lit up a small sphere in
    the darkness. I could barely make out two narrow walls lead-
    ing forward into the black.
    “Good idea.” Adrien touched his arm panel as well. “Come
    on.” There was only room for one person at a time, so Adrien
    led the way. I was used to small spaces, but squeezing through
    the two- foot- wide tunnel was unnerving, even for me. I
    lifted my arm panel for light but could only see the outline of
    Adrien’s back.