Free Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

tunnel, the only light coming from the car’s headlights, Adrien slowed to a stop.
    “What are you doing?” I asked, glancing back nervously for Guards. “Is something wrong?”
    “This is where we get out.” He clicked the release on my seat belt, then reached across me and popped my door open.
    “Why are we getting out ?” I whispered.
    He got out and hurried around to my door. He pulled it farther open and held out a hand. “Come on, we gotta hurry.”
    I heard the driver’s-side door open, and a strange man stepped in. Fear flushed me, but I managed to squelch the yelp of surprise in my throat. Adrien reached in and grabbed my hand, quickly pulling me farther into the dark.
    “It’s okay. That’s Brandon. He’s going to keep driving the car so it looks like a routine maintenance vehicle continuing on to its destination. If anyone checks satellite images, it won’t seem out of place.”
    “What about cameras? You said they were everywhere.” I walked as quickly as I could behind him in the dim tunnel, feeling exposed even in the darkness. The air felt thick in my throat, like I was breathing through a suffocating blanket. The hallways and tunnels back home were always dry—too dry even, people got nosebleeds sometimes—but it was necessary for the intense air-filtration systems. Or so I’d been told.
    “Don’t worry so much.” He laughed. “Didn’t I tell you we do this all the time? They’ve disabled the cameras, too.”
    He stopped and the metal door scraped as he opened it. A single light panel shone inside, illuminating a dirty stairwell. I went through the door willingly, glad to go anywhere that led underground and out of the reach of atmospheric particulates and the unnerving rain.
    Adrien led me down the stairs and opened a circular service hatch on the floor at the bottom. A ladder led down into shadows.
    “You go first. I’ll follow right behind to secure the hatch. Make sure to get a good hold. It’s a long godlam’d way down, and the ladder can be slippery.”
    I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I dropped my legs into the dark space and got a foothold on the ladder. I descended carefully in the dark, tapping my arm panel for light. I could still only see the ladder and a small area around me. I glanced down but the ladder disappeared after a few feet into the thick darkness.
    I moved down rung by rung, trying not to think about the long drop into the empty space below. It was cooler down here, but it smelled horrible. The ladder was slick with what felt like slime. I tried not to think about the potential of radioactive sludge. Adrien’s footsteps sounded on the ladder above me. I glanced up just as the crescent of light disappeared when he locked the hatch behind us.
    “It should be about forty more feet down or so.” He called down quietly, his voice echoing. “Once I get down, I’ll grab a flashlight from a stash we keep there.”
    I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. I concentrated on getting a good grip on each slick rung. My feet splashed into something wet when I stepped off the ladder.
    “What’s on the floor?” I asked nervously. I waved my arm panel around to try to see better but the ground just looked black. Adrien dropped down the last couple feet beside me. I heard a metallic click and light flooded the space.
    “Oh!” I gasped.
    We were in a huge cathedral-like space, complete with massive concrete supporting arches leading up to the ceiling. But it was the sludgy water I’d landed in that concerned me more. I could feel it soaking through my socks. Huge rats scurried away from the light and I shrieked and jumped back up on the first rung of the ladder.
    “I was going to warn you but I wasn’t sure if you’d come.”
    I glared at him in the dim light.
    “You seem to be doing that a lot!” I whispered. “Next time, just warn me!”
    He held up his hands. “Okay, okay, will do. It’s a little gnangy down here and I’m not denyin’