Glitch

capable of
    it. But I was, and I felt every inch of surprise and dread and
    terror. Emotions fl ooded in. It was all too fast and I couldn’t
    tell if I was masking one emotion before the next rose up.
    One thing was sure—
    I was malfunctioning way too
    much for such a public place. Someone was bound to notice
    and report me. I had to get out of here. Now. I didn’t care
    that I hadn’t gotten all of our allotments. I felt too frantic to
    stay crowded in this fl ood of gray- suited bodies, watching
    them placidly kneel down to clean up the spill while I was
    choking inside. I tightened my grip on my cart to hide the
    tremor of fear in my hands.
    The Regulator had made his way over to investigate the
    spill. He scanned the crowd, but most of the subjects had al-
    ready moved away, stepping around the spilled rice and mov-
    ing on to the next line. I cautiously followed suit, tugging my
    cart out of line and heading toward the subway. It was only
    then that I realized that I had glitched right as the carts were
    knocked over.
    Electromagnetic carts malfunctioned all the time. Not all
    17

    Heather Anastasiu
    the time but surely they did sometimes. I mean, there was
    no reason to think the spill had anything to do with me.
    The sleek black subway train arrived at the platform just
    as I pulled my cart close. I stepped on, glad for the distrac-
    tion, and moved to an empty space along the far wall. The
    communication panel under the skin of my forearm lit up as
    I touched it, and I quickly messaged my parents that I wasn’t
    feeling well and hadn’t been able to pick up all the allotments.
    I knew it meant I would have to undergo a health screening
    when I got home, but I would explain that I’d simply forgot-
    ten to take my daily vitamins with me. I took my daily vita-
    mins out of my pocket and tossed them discreetly into a
    waste dispenser.
    I envisioned the way the lie would fall so easily from my
    lips. I was getting better and better at it. It had been such a
    strange thing at fi rst, to say the opposite of what was true. To
    defy and disobey clear orders in the Community Code, even
    by my silence. An anomaly observed is an anomaly reported.
    I swallowed hard, looking around me in the unusual si-
    lence, the Link absent from my mind. Everything was so
    much sharper without the Link fogging me— sights, sounds,
    smells. It was exhilarating and shocking and terrifying. I
    knew my emotions had grown too strong. They were dan-
    gerous to the Community. They were dangerous to me.
    But still, I wanted color. I wanted to soar with happiness
    even if it meant dealing with the weight of fear and guilt,
    too. I wanted to live. And that meant that I couldn’t give the
    glitching up. At least not yet. Just a little bit longer, I’d told
    myself each day in the beginning. Maybe I’d report myself
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    G L I TC H
    tomorrow. But then each tomorrow had become another not
    today , and now after two months, I still hadn’t reported my-
    self. As much as I might not like it, lies and secrets were my
    way of life now.
    19

Chapter 2
    i was fully linke d the next morning as I walked down
    the corridors of my housing- unit grid. My wrist lifted and
    waved in front of the sensor to open the front gate. After a
    blip of recognition, the door slid sideways into the wall with
    a slight hiss as sealed air was released. Air quality was care-
    fully regulated everywhere in our underground city, in all
    of the buildings that were dug down deep into the earth and
    all the tunnels connecting them.
    I stepped two even paces into the small portal room. One
    door sealed behind me and the next opened to the tunnel
    system. My hand secured the strap of my school- tablet case
    over my shoulder. Three rising tones noted the coming Link
    News— but I didn’t freeze in place. Instead, the now- familiar
    rush of sensation swept over me. No more Link readout on
    the periphery of my vision. No more voices in my head.
    I was glitching.
    I smiled, breathed a sigh of relief, and stretched my neck.
    Even though I knew it meant I’d have to be extra careful
    until the Link clicked back in, I was glad to have my head to
    myself again. I felt a tinge of unease at the sudden frequency
    of my glitches, but I couldn’t worry about it right now. I
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    G L I TC H
    never knew how long a glitch would last or how far apart
    they glitches would be, and I didn’t want to waste the glitch
    time with constant fear and worry.
    I stepped into the narrow