Override (Glitch)

light. I didn’t know how long I could keep this up. When the next wave hit, Eli stumbled backward, dropping me.
    Then suddenly the girl in front of us sank to the ground. I scrambled to sit up, looking around.
    Stunned, I saw Tyryn standing behind her, holding a tranq gun steady. He must have shot her in the split second after she’d released the orb, before she could build another one. She’d been so distracted watching me, she hadn’t even seen him come up behind her. Three tranq rounds stuck out of her neck.
    I got to my feet, gritting my teeth against the roaring pain in my ankle, and hobbled into the huge room. We’d gotten here at the end of the fight. Rand, City, and Tyryn were the only ones left standing. The ex-Reg, Wytt, slowly got to his feet, part of his chest plate scorched black.
    Bodies were strewn all over the ground. And so much blood. Some wore the gray and green of the Rez fighters. A few others I didn’t recognize, but they looked like teenagers. Glitchers, no doubt. Smoke filled the air. Weapon racks on the ceiling were melted and still burned orange. A few molten drops dripped onto the ground below. Clearly Rand’s handiwork. Half of the left wall was cut up by laser fire, exposing the steel support beams.
    “We’ve got to go!” I shouted. Still my voice made no sound.
    I’d thought the girl with the orb had also been controlling the silence, but she was knocked out, and no more glitchers were standing. At least that we could see. I felt my heartbeat ratchet up a notch. Ginni had said there were ten glitchers here. Three were on the floor, so where were the others?
    City and Rand helped a fallen Rez fighter to his feet. I closed my eyes and concentrated, but between my exhaustion and the silence that quieted the buzz I usually used as a guide, my connection to my telek was unsteady. When it cut in again, I felt the whole room in my head. I grabbed it and tried to hold on. For a moment I managed, and expanded farther beyond the wall.
    And that’s when I felt them. There were people huddled in tiny cells beyond the wall, no bigger than the room I’d been closed in for months at the research lab. The bodies were too small to be Regs. They had to be the Chancellor’s other glitchers.
    I hesitated for a moment. The girl with the orb was clearly working for the Chancellor voluntarily. But if these glitchers were a danger, wouldn’t they have attacked already? I steeled myself. We had failed part of our mission, but we could still accomplish this objective. I had to try.
    Adrien appeared beside me. He made wild gestures with his hands and waved at us to follow him. At least that meant the transport must be fixed. He wouldn’t have come back otherwise.
    I pointed at the wall behind us, putting my palms up and trying to show he needed to stop and give me a second to try to get to the other glitchers. But of course he had no idea what I meant. Adrien shook his head, pulling at my arm to get me to follow him. I tugged away from his grasp, barely managing to stay upright by putting my weight on my unhurt foot.
    Others hurried past us. City and Rand held an unconscious Rez soldier between them. Cole carried a limp girl in his arms; I couldn’t see her face to tell who it was. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, straining to concentrate in the chaos.
    I felt Eli pick me up, the metal of his recently fired forearm weapons warm against my skin. He started to carry me out of the room in the opposite direction from the glitchers. I didn’t waste any energy trying to protest. For a moment, the flicker of the projected room rose in my mind. Before I could lose it again, I quickly latched on and tore the wall away.
    I opened my eyes right as Eli and I neared the exit. The small cells across from us were exposed and a few figures slowly rose to their feet. One short, thin boy stepped out and looked straight at me. I waved frantically over Eli’s shoulder for the glitchers to follow us, but half of them weren’t even looking my way.
    The few who did see me ran across the room toward us. A couple of the others saw them and followed. In the cell on the end, I could see a blond boy lying on the ground. He looked unconscious and his legs were bound. My vision bounced with each of Eli’s heavy steps, but I squinted to look closer.
    And then my heart stopped in my chest.
    I knew that rumpled blond hair and the tilt of that nose well.
    Max.
    I screamed, but still no sound came out.
    Eli kept running,