Override (Glitch)

popped the lid.
    “Out, out, out. I need to cover it so they can’t catch its heat signature.”
    Adrien jumped nimbly over the side of the duo to the ground, then held up a hand for me. I took it and hurled myself over. I landed much less gracefully, my thick boots thudding into the ground and sinking a few inches in.
    Adrien quickly grabbed the thick cloth in the woman’s hands and they spread it over the vehicle.
    “Were you tracked?” she asked.
    “No. I think our cloak held just long enough.”
    “There,” the woman smiled and let out a breath. Her brown hair was pulled up in a loose bun and she had warm brown eyes. “You took a long time. You don’t know how relieved I was to see the duo’s beacon light. Though I’m surprised it still works, this thing looks so mangled.” She gestured to the ripped-up hood.
    “We barely got away.” Adrien’s said, his voice quiet. “And Milton didn’t make it.”
    Jilia’s eyebrows furrowed together. “I didn’t know him, but I’m sorry.” She pulled Adrien into a loose hug. “It’s so good to see you.” She was so short, the top of her head only reached the middle of his chest. She pulled back and turned to me. “And you must be Zoe. I’m Jilia, but everyone calls me Doc.”
    “Hi.” I tried to take a step toward her, but my boot was stuck. I tugged a little harder and heard a slight suction noise as the ground released it. The bottom half of my boot was covered in a mixture of green and brown sludge. “Ugh,” I muttered, just as I heard a gentle tap, tap, tap on the rounded top of my helmet. I looked up and several drops of water landed on my face mask.
    “That’s springtime for you. Mud and near constant rain. Hurry, let’s get you inside and dry.” She started walking.
    Adrien took my hand and we made our way forward through the woods. My feet suctioned and released with every step. The trees and foliage all blended together, and I didn’t understand how the woman could move so sure-footedly. She weaved around trees and over logs as if she knew exactly where she was going even though everything around us looked the same to me. The rain started to come down harder until little rivulets ran down the faceplate of my helmet. I reached up a hand to wipe the water away, but I only smeared it around and added some mud from my glove to the mix.
    I stumbled on a thick root and pitched forward. Adrien tried to catch me, but I took us both down. A long ripping noise filled the air as we fell.
    The suit.
    I held my breath even though I knew that wouldn’t really matter. With my hyperallergies, any skin contact with the air would trigger a lethal attack. I looked down frantically, but I could barely see a thing through my smudged faceplate. “Is it ripped?”
    Adrien immediately started searching my suit. An agonizing minute passed before he breathed out and held up my forearm where the outer suit material hung almost completely off now.
    “It was just the two top layers that you’d already ripped. The underlayer is still safe. That was too close,” Adrien said, his eyes wide. He reached up and wiped my faceplate clean with the sleeve of his tunic. His hair dripped with water.
    “It’s okay,” I said, my heart still thrumming in my chest. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going and get you out of the rain.”
    He let out a slow breath and nodded. He interlocked his fingers tight in mine as we started forward again.
    After a few more minutes, Jilia announced that we’d arrived.
    I looked ahead and frowned. I didn’t see a building. Just more green. “Where?”
    Jilia laughed. “Right here.” She reached toward one of the trees, but when she touched it, it rippled and moved like a cloth surface. What had looked like a three-dimensional forest was actually a painted curtain.
    “It doesn’t work close up, but we’re deep enough in the forest that it’s camouflaged from any random flyovers. The material’s like the tarp I used on the duo, it covers heat signatures so thermosatellite scans don’t detect us.”
    She gestured for us to step in, and I nudged Adrien ahead of me. I was kept dry by my suit, but he was drenched. I followed him inside to a softly lit, small interior room. Rain spattered loudly on the roof and the walls.
    Adrien’s wet tunic clung to him. His shoulders seemed wider than when I’d last seen him and his wiry arm muscles more sharply cut. But he looked thinner too, and when he turned I could see just how ripped-up his