Override (Glitch)

asked.
    His smile faded. “No.”
    “Was anyone else there?”
    “No.”
    “Oh.”
    In the future I was all alone and running into danger. Great.
    “But that’s not what’s important. It’s gotta mean we’ll figure out a way around your allergies someday.”
    I nodded, but didn’t feel very reassured. “Okay,” I said finally, “will you tell me another one? Maybe one that’s not so far off?”
    He looked down. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because the more I learn about how the visions work…” He shook his head. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.” The look on his face made it sound final.
    Before I could say anything, Xona stomped into the kitchen. She reached down to seal the strap closed on her shoes before hiking her foot up onto the counter beside the coffeemaker.
    She noticed us sitting at the table. “Sorry, counter’s got the best height for stretching.”
    She looked between me and Adrien like she was gauging the level of tension between us. “I’m going for a run.” She kept stretching, then looked back at me. “You can come if you want. There’s some extra shoes by the door.”
    “Really?” I asked. She’d seemed so gruff before, I was surprised by the offer.
    She paused to look at me more critically. “Well, if you can keep up.”
    Adrien was still holding my hand. “Look Zoe, we can talk about this more—”
    “No,” I pushed back my chair abruptly. I didn’t want to keep pressing Adrien to tell me about the future when he obviously didn’t want to. “A run sounds great right now. Besides,” I looked back at Adrien and tried to smile. I felt upset about our conversation, but I didn’t want to take it out on him. “You said I’ll be strong in the future. How else am I going to make that happen unless I train now?”
    The early morning sun shone down through the layers of trees and leaves, but a lot of the ground was still in shadow. Only a few leaves were lit up bright green where the sunlight managed to break through.
    “I’ve got a route I usually run,” Xona said, jumping up and down a few times to warm her limbs. She looked over at me. “I’m not going to slow down for you.”
    I nodded, fixated on all the green in the forest around us. It was still astonishing and unnerving. It wasn’t just green, it was a hundred different shades, from the deeper green of the leaves hidden in shadow to the bright, almost neon green moss that covered the rocks and the bottoms of the trees.
    “Ex-drones,” Xona said under her breath with a smirk. “You guys always get so cracked about the Surface.” Then before I could respond, she took off, racing into the forest. I followed as fast as I could, not wanting to lose sight of her in the vast green maze.
    It felt good to run. The suit stretched easily with every step I took until I barely noticed I had it on. Running had always calmed me, both in my Community days and in the lab alcove. But running on the Surface was far different from running on a treadmill. On the treadmill, you could lose yourself in thought as the regular pounding of your footfalls provided a hypnotic rhythm. Out here, you had to constantly watch where you were going. The forest floor was springy and uneven, and I kept my eyes trained on the ground to make sure I didn’t trip over tree roots or bushes as we went.
    But the exertion did feel good. It was a relief to forget about all the insanity of the past few days and think only about where my foot would land next.
    “Thanks,” I said to Xona, huffing from the incline we had just run up. “I really needed a good run.”
    She looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she continued jogging, clearly impressed that I’d managed to catch up to her. She didn’t seem winded at all. The path was wider so we jogged side by side.
    “Seemed like things were intense between you two back there. Then again,” she cocked her head, “Adrien was always an intense guy. That brooding stare of his used to drive all the Rez girls wild.”
    She looked at me like she was waiting for a reaction.
    “Yeah?” I asked, not taking the bait. “Jilia said you knew each other growing up?”
    “From when he was fourteen. He ran away and joined up with the Rez unit my dad led. ’Course his mom got all crazy when she found out where he’d run away to. She came into the compound where we were staying, yelling and screaming about how he was too young. My dad talked her