Shutdown (Glitch)

the way people don’t notice breathing or blinking because it’s something they just do .
    A couple hours later, the jet decreased speed and started to drop altitude. I looked out the windows even though I still couldn’t see much in the nighttime. We’d passed by lit-up cities occasionally, but there hadn’t been any lights below for at least half an hour.
    I leaned forward in my seat restraints. “Where are we?”
    “Southwest part of the Sector,” Henk said.
    Our forward motion stopped, and then we dropped directly down. “Don’t need runways with this dove.” Henk patted the console deck appreciatively.
    He held his hands back from the controls completely as we touched down gently to the ground.
    “She self-parks too,” Henk said.
    “We get it.” Adrien managed a half smile. “You built a good transport, Henk.”
    Henk stared at him for a moment. He seemed as surprised to see the smile on Adrien’s face as I had been a week and a half ago.
    The outer door released and slid up in its tracks.
    Xona woke up the moment the door opened. “Don’t forget coolant harnesses,” she said, stopping me from stepping out of the open hatch. “Out here there’s nothing to cover you. Can’t take any chances.”
    We all draped the harnesses around our shoulders and waists without bothering to clip them in, then headed down the short ladder one by one.
    I jumped down the few steps and landed on the ground. Adrien was waiting there for me, his mouth tensed and his gray eyes dark. For one tiny second his mask slipped and I could see the grief written on his face. He was thinking about his mom. I stepped as close to him as I could without touching him. He might push me away if I reached for him, but maybe if I just stood by him he could soak up some comfort anyway.
    Henk clicked a button on a remote thumb-sized device, and a tarp lifted out and over, slowly covering the jet.
    The morning sun peaked over the horizon and I could see for what felt like forever in every direction. The landscape was so flat and, other than a few giant rock formations jutting up out of the ground, almost nothing seemed to grow in the arid plane. Just a few scrub plants here and there that looked like they barely managed to eke out an existence. The earth underneath our feet was strange too. The ground was dry and cracked, a sandy red orange color I’d never seen before. Out of everywhere I’d been on the Surface, this felt the most alien.
    “What is this place?”
    Henk laughed. “Welcome to the desert.” He led us to a small outcropping of rocks. I frowned, having no idea where he was going. I stayed close to Adrien as we walked. There didn’t seem to be any structures for miles around. But I did notice that my mast cells weren’t as active. In such a dry climate, there were far fewer allergens to set them off.
    Henk kicked at the ground in a few places. I didn’t know what he was doing until he kicked at a slightly different spot and I heard a hollow thunk .
    He reached down and cleared away the dust and sand with his hand until I could see a small circular hunk of metal with a handle in the middle. Henk grabbed hold and twisted. With a few grunting tugs, he got it to twist open.
    “This bloomin’ thing was near impossible to open when we first got here, but we been workin’ her in.”
    After a few more twists, the metal plate came off completely. Henk dropped it to the ground and gestured toward the hole. “Ladies first.”
    Xona dropped down inside, nimbly climbing down the ladder through what looked like a long tube. I looked down after her but couldn’t see anything below.
    “What’s down here?” I asked Henk.
    He grinned. “Generations of us Kioleskis have been paranoid bastards. My great-great-great-great-great grandpappy had this place built. Said he’d survive the end of the world down here if he had to. Everyone thought he was crazy,” Henk turned his head sideways, “till D-Day happened and some of the big cities got hit. Him and his kin hunkered down here for years during the takeover and the first waves of drone implants. Eventually he hooked up with some other survivors and they were the first generation of Rez fighters. Me mum thought it was crazy when she married into the family and heard all the stories. Took me to live with her family across the ocean in Sector One when dad died, but I lit out back here just as soon as I turned eighteen.”
    I looked down at the dark hole. “So was this place