Glitch

wasn’t
    alone. I thought of Adrien again as a child huddled alone in
    the tunnels and shuddered again.
    “This is crazy” I said. “I’ve lived my whole life believ-
    ing we were a new race of survivors, superior because we’d
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    overcome all our destructive instincts. And you expect me
    to just believe this horrible nightmare, just because you say
    so?” My voice cracked on the last word. The water was
    coming out of my eyes again.
    “Zoe,” he said quietly, looking over at me as we walked.
    His green eyes seemed to glow in the dim luminescence
    of the fl ashlight. “You’ve known something was off for a
    while now. Ever since you started glitching. You know this
    is wrong. The offi
    cials and Uppers, they’re making you all
    slaves.”
    “They tell you when and where you live, where you
    work, when you eat, when you sleep. They pair you with
    ge ne tic partners and create your children in test tubes and
    when you’re no longer useful and productive for them, they
    deactivate you.” He waved the hand not holding the fl ash-
    light to emphasize his words. “You never have a choice. You
    never get to think. All you know is work. They work you ’til
    they wear you out and then you’re deactivated and tossed
    in the incinerator. You’re just tools to the Community, not
    human beings.”
    His voice grew more and more impassioned as he talked.
    His face lit up with a warmth and fi re I’d never seen before.
    Deep down, something new stirred inside me. The way he
    talked about it, it did make our lives seem horrible. It was
    unfair. I’d just never thought about it this way. The deep
    sadness gave way to anger. Cracks were forming, threatening
    to shatter everything I’d ever believed, everything I’d
    thought was absolute. I felt my body shaking.
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    G L I TC H
    Something again splashed loudly behind us. I looked back-
    ward in alarm. “That sounded closer than before.” I gripped
    Adrien’s arm.
    Adrien fl ashed his light beam. “Probably just more rats.
    Don’t worry.” But in spite of his easy words, his voice sounded
    strained, and the arm I held was tense and taut.
    “Don’t worry,” he said again, more relaxed this time and
    he nudged my shoulder. “Sides, they can’t bite through the
    thick rubber of your boots.” The fl ashlight glow bounced
    off his grin.
    “That is not comforting!” I said, but I smiled back.
    I realized I was still holding Adrien’s arm. I let go, sur-
    prised that I’d grabbed him so unself- consciously. I never
    touched anybody in my normal world, but it had just felt
    natural with him. I wondered what other things would be-
    come natural the longer I was disconnected from the Link.
    There were entire worlds to be discovered. The thought
    momentarily awed me: Maybe it will be worth all this confusion.
    A giant rat scurried past me, bumping into my leg as it
    went. I screamed as several more ran by. I looked up at
    Adrien, ready to hear his reassuring words about how this
    was all normal and there was nothing to worry about. But
    his face was tight with alarm. He fl ashed the beam behind us
    and I saw a small army of rats, big fat ones, some a foot long,
    all coming toward us.
    “Cracking hell.” Adrien grabbed my arm and ran, pulling
    me awkwardly along after him until I matched my pace to
    his. We were both in shape and running fast, splashing water
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    Heather Anastasiu
    all over ourselves as we went, but the rats quickly caught up
    with us. The whole ground beneath me was suddenly mov-
    ing, alive under my feet.
    I tripped and went facedown into the water. Horrible rat
    bodies surrounded me, crawling all over me with their tiny
    claws catching on my clothes and hair. Putrid water splashed
    in my nose and mouth. I fl ailed and screamed in desperate
    panic, trying to get to my feet, anything to get away from
    the disgusting matted fur and hissing squeals of the rats. I
    shrieked, a terrifi ed hum raging in my head.
    Suddenly all the rats around me were gone. I looked up
    to see if Adrien had pulled them off but instead saw a wave
    of twisting rat bodies fl ying away from me on all sides like I
    was at the center of an explosion. Adrien had ducked just in
    time to keep from getting hit in the face. The rats hit the
    wall with so much force their squirming bodies were ripped
    apart. I screamed in shock at the bloody sight just as Adrien
    pulled me forward again. The look on his face told me he
    was as surprised. Did that mean