Override (Glitch)

the wall where we’d been standing only moments before.
    Adrien closed the door behind us. The door was made of reinforced steel, meant to seal shut in case of any pathogen leaks or disruptions to the ventilation system. But even though it shut with a satisfyingly heavy clang, I knew it wouldn’t stop the Regulators for long.
    “What now?” Adrien asked, clicking the button for the lock mechanism.
    “The waste chute,” I said, nodding toward the wall where a small door was embedded in the wall. We were eight stories underground, and the lab had a separate waste-disposal system for the hazardous materials they dealt with.
    This was the central disposal room. Bottles of thick liquids lined the walls, full of acids to break down organic matter before it was loaded into disposal barrels and sent up the chute. The whole place smelled like antiseptic and lye. “Milton, can you get it open?”
    Milton’s whole body shook, his face pale. He gave a quick nod and went to the control panel beside the small door. His fingers tapped quickly on the interface. Adrien slid another energy tube into the bottom of his gun handle and aimed it at the door to the hallway. He didn’t have to wait long.
    A sizzling noise sounded as a bright molten line appeared from the Regs’ laser weapons, firing from the other side.
    “Hurry,” I said to Milton, who was still typing furiously.
    “Got it!” He let out a triumphant whoop as the chute door slid sideways into the wall. My eyes were on the chute—it was a rounded chamber three feet in diameter, meant for sending barrels of waste up to the trash room by the loading bay.
    “You two first,” Adrien said, walking backward across the room toward us, his weapon still trained at the door. He pushed me toward the opening.
    Then the door to the hallway blew inward and the Regs charged into the room one after another.
    Adrien fired, blasting one straight in the chest. The laser round knocked the Reg backward, but he got back to his feet with only a singe on the front of his metal breastplate.
    The other Reg lunged toward Milton and me. I stumbled backward, tripping over the heavy suit and landing half in the chute. I pulled my legs inside.
    “Come on, Milton!” I screamed. But when I looked up again, the Regulator had clapped his hands on both sides of Milton’s head. In an instant, he crushed Milton’s skull like an overripe watermelon. I stared in shock as Milton slumped to the floor.
    A shriek of grief and terror ripped its way out of me, and suddenly all the bottles lining the wall started vibrating. Adrien dropped to the ground and rolled behind several barrels stacked beside the counter as the bottles exploded. The acid spray from the broken containers hit the three Regulators straight in the face.
    They stumbled blindly, one falling into the other until they tumbled into a heap. Adrien took the moment of confusion and launched past them. He pushed me to my feet and squeezed into the chute with me. The chute door closed right as a Regulator climbed to his knees and aimed his weapon.
    Adrien wrapped his arms around me as a deafening rush of air surrounded us, and then we were sucked upward with nauseating speed. But the chute was meant for barrels, not people. Adrien and I bounced painfully back and forth between the walls. Within a few heartbeats, another chute door opened and we tumbled out into a trash container half-filled with barrels labeled H AZARDOUS W ASTE . The back of Adrien’s tunic was ripped up and the skin underneath looked scraped raw. He got to his feet as if he didn’t feel it and hurried over to me.
    “Oh god, Zoe, your suit.”
    I looked down dazedly and saw that part of my suit hung in shredded ribbons off my arm. Adrien grabbed my left arm to check the diagnostic readout, his face a mask of fear. After a moment he let out the breath he’d been holding. “Only two layers were breached. You’re okay. Come on.”
    “We’ve got to go back,” I said, finally finding my voice. “We need to get Milton to a medic—”
    Adrien shook his head, his jaw tensed. “He’s dead, Zo. But the Regs aren’t, and they’ll stop at nothing. We’ve gotta go.”
    “But—”
    He took my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eye. “It’s how we survive in the Rez. The living matter, not the dead.”
    It made me sick to my stomach, but I knew he was right. My mind seemed to finally catch up with what was happening. Milton was dead, and every second I