Free Glitch by Heather Anastasiu Page A

get in
    with the hacks.”
    I nodded in the darkness and didn’t ask any more ques-
    tions. I didn’t want to think about what kinds of things
    Regulators did that would be horrifi c enough to cause the
    kind of glitching Adrien was talking about.
    69

    Heather Anastasiu
    The tunnel we drove through was longer than I’d ex-
    pected, not that I’d exactly been able to gauge the distance
    well as we approached. I was so ner vous, every second felt
    like an eternity. After we’d gone about three hundred feet
    into the black tunnel, the only light coming from the car’s
    headlights, Adrien slowed to a stop.
    “What are you doing?” I asked, glancing back ner vous ly
    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 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 fl ushed 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 continu-
    ing 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 suff ocating blan-
    ket. The hallways and tunnels back home were always dry—
    too dry even, people got nosebleeds sometimes— but it was
    a necessary evil of the intense air- fi ltration systems. Or so
    I’d been told.
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    G L I TC H
    “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 partic-
    ulates and the unnerving rain.
    Adrien led me down the stairs and opened a circular ser-
    vice hatch on the fl oor at the bottom. A ladder led down into
    shadows.
    “You go fi rst. 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 de-
    scended 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 disap-
    peared 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 fl ashlight from a stash we keep there.”
    71

    Heather Anastasiu
    I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. I con-
    centrated 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 fl oor?” I asked ner vous ly. 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 fl ooded the