The Glitch (The Glitches Series Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  I also know if I tell Wolf the truth, he won’t understand. I cannot tell any of the Rouges about my encounter with the AI. If they thought I was bad luck before, they will think I am even worse if they hear my purpose might well be the AI’s purpose, too.

  So I lie.

  “Raj and I wanted to try a bigger connect—and a hack. We thought we could get not just access to the Norm, but a larger supply of water. And…and food.” I remember the fruit in my pouch. I pull out one now and hold it up between us, offering it to Wolf.

  He leans back, stares at it, and then pulls me closer so my hands and the fruit are caught between our bodies. “If Bird hadn’t had her vision—” He breaks off.

  “Vision? What do you mean? We…we just wanted to be…be useful.”

  His eyes narrow. “Two Glitches on their own. How long would you last out there? That’s not being useful to throw your life away. That’s being a stupid, broken Glitch!”

  The words sting. I don’t know what to say to him.

  He lets out a shuddering breath, and I catch a glimpse of worry in his eyes.

  I bite my lower lip and try to push the fruit up higher so he will see it. “We got food—fruit.”

  He drops his hands from me and says, “I want a promise you’ll never try a connect again with just you and another Glitch.”

  I bite my lip. His voice holds so much intensity. But I cannot make that promise. I’ve already told Raj we will go back to the Norm, and we can’t do that with Rogues. With Wolf looking at me now, his eyes so dark and hopeful, I want to tell him what he wants to hear. Should I lie again? And keep it up—over and over?

  I shake my head. “I need to be useful. You said I’m a Glitch. That means I need to make connects. You won’t survive out here. Glitches won’t survive. We all do what we have to.”

  He shakes his head, but the corner of his mouth lifts into the tiniest of smiles. “Yeah. Then you’re going to have to learn to survive in the Outside.”

  I blink at him and tighten my hand around the fruit. I wasn’t expecting this.

  He steps back and folds his arms across his broad chest. “And I’m going to teach you.”

  I swallow hard. Somehow, Wolf doesn’t make that sound like it is going to be fun—or easy.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Wolf doesn’t make it easy on Raj, either.

  Raj is still meant to rest due to Croc’s orders. But Raj and Wolf share yells that are so loud, they echo down the tunnels. Wolf’s deep growl says something about Raj leaving, and almost everyone hears Raj say, “You don’t own me and half the time you don’t even want the Glitches here.”

  It gets quiet after that. I glance at Skye, but she presses her lips tightly and will not say anything.

  I head over to see Raj. Wolf is gone. Raj will be able to self-repair, but his bruises look terrible in shades of black and purple with edges of yellow that don’t blend with his smooth skin tone. The other Glitches, Chandra and Marq, come by and ask to hear everything about the Norm. I am more than happy to slip away and let Raj tell them. Because I have to train.

  Training for me begins with two young Rogues—both girls with dark hair and eyes—who look at me like I must be stupid to be my age and need to be taught things.

  Wolf meets me and the two young Rogues in the main room. He glances at the young ones, nods to me, and heads down one of the tunnels that lead to an exit. Wolf wears the dark pants and same black boots as always, but his shirt is different. It is cloth and hugs his wide shoulders and chest, showing off his muscles. He looks like he did in my dream last night.

  The dream had Wolf and Raj in it, and an animal that howls its last breath into the night. I don’t understand it, but am grateful it was not the image of blackness that swallows up everyone.

  I let the two young Rogues follow Wolf, and I follow them. When I climb up the rope and step into the Outside, the heat makes me want to turn around and go back. But Wolf is already walking ahead of us, followed by the two young Rogues.

  Just like always, no one speaks. I don’t mind. No one—except the other Glitches—asks about the Norm, and I don’t want to talk about it. I worry now that the Rogues will find out somehow that the AI gave me a purpose—to find the Glitches. I worry even more that once I do, it is not going to be for a good reason. But who can I tell?

  The AI seems to be everyone’s enemy—except Conie did not send Techs after me. What does that mean?

  Keeping my eyes on the ground, I follow the Rogues. Wolf stops and so do the young ones. I almost bump into them. Wolf shakes his head and says, “You need to walk softly. Quietly. Walk toe first.” He hesitates then says, “We’re not going far, so practice.”

  The two young Rogues swap smiles and one snorts out a breath. I frown at them. I can do what Wolf asks. I nod to show I’m listening.

  Wolf starts walking.

  We trail after him, single file. Walking toe first makes my steps quiet, but soon my calves and feet ache. Sweat makes my tunic stick to my back. The sun beats down hot and hard. I have to squint to see. I realize no one has any pouch. No one has any water skin.

  Looking up, I call out, “Wolf, did you forget the water?”

  The two young Rogues snort again, and Wolf glances back. “We’ll find what we need.”

  That doesn’t sound encouraging. What if I find nothing?

  We reach the boulders, and I know what to expect now. Wolf pulls the cloth off one boulder, turning it from a huge rock into a cage vehicle—an AT like the one Bird rode to find me and Raj. Wolf rolls up the cloth rock and stuffs it into a bag strapped to the back of the vehicle. I won’t have to hold on to Wolf like I’d had to do with Raj, and disappointment creeps into me. I shake my head. I don’t need this attraction to Wolf, and neither does he.

  Wolf hands out headsets that we all put on. Once we’re all in our seats, Wolf starts the AT and heads off, making his own road it seems. His voice sounds metallic over the headsets. “The wastelands are just what they sound like. There is little but waste in them, and they don’t forgive you for wasting anything either. The Norm uses up just about everything—water, plants, animals for food. But the AI’s drones miss things. They see nothing but rock and sand.”

  “And they look for us.” This comes from one of the young ones.

  I try to ignore them, but Wolf nods and says, “That’s right, Mouse. Sometimes, they’re so busy looking for us—or for water—they miss the animals that know how to hide. They fly over the plants that horde water like we do. Everything you need is here—if you know how to find it.”

  “That is a very large if,” I mutter.

  The headset picks it up, but Wolf just grins at me. It’s the first time I have seen a grin on him. He is enjoying this. I stiffen my back and stare straight ahead. I am not going to keep asking stupid questions.

  Wolf stops the AT near yet another outcropping of rocks. This one seems to be some distance from the Norm. I cannot see its walls. He pulls the rock-colored cloth from the bag and covers the AT. Glancing at the Rouges, and then me, he says, “A drone looks for what doesn’t belong. We need the AT to look like a rock. We need to look like we belong, too.”

  “What about the tracks?” I gesture back to the lines left in the dust by the AT.

  Wolf straightens. “Watch.”

  As I do, the wind comes up. It slips across the line left by the AT. In a short time, there are no more tracks. Frowning, I glance at Wolf. “If the wind does that, why not leave the ATs closer to the tunnels? Why walk so much.”

  One of the Rogues—Mouse again, I think—says, “The drones don’t just look for tracks—they’ll scan for power sources, too. If they get a hit off an AT, we don’t want it near us. It has to look abandoned.”

  Wolf nods and puts a hand on Mouse’s head. “When are drone out?”

  “Night,” I answer.

  Both young Rouges give me pitying glances, and the other one says, “Mostly night. But the AI isn’t stupid. If drones aren’t finding us or G
litches at night, it’ll start sending out drones in the day. We have to keep changing it. Keep moving. Law is we protect the clan.”

  With a sharp nod, Wolf smiles. “That’s right Mole.” Wolf checks that the cloth is tied down over the AT so it can’t blow away. He straightens, glances around, and checks the sky before motioning for us to follow. He slips down a rocky slope, half sliding. Mouse and Mole follow him as if it is easy. I scrape my hands and hear cloth tear, but I get my boot on the ground. Wolf crouches low. Mouse and Mole copy him. I do, too, but I crane to see why we are doing this.

  Grabbing the hem of my tunic, Wolf tugs me even lower and over next to him, so we are shielded by low rocks and spindly bushes. He points ahead with his other hand and whispers, “See it?”

  His breath tickles my ear. It’s warm and sweet. I want to shift away, but I can’t. Next to me, Mouse and Mole each nod. I squint into the bright day.

  At first, I see sand, rocks, more bushes as brown as the ground. Irritation claws at me, mixing with disappointment. I am failing, and it is too early to fail. But a flicker of movement—a quick shift in the tans and browns—catches my eye. I stare at that one spot. My eyes start to water. I can barely breathe. It moves again—a small, skinny animal of some kind with a tail and four legs and its belly on the ground.

  “I see it,” I whisper. A touch of pride flickers through me.

  Wolf keeps his voice low and soft. “That’s just a small thing. A lizard. But the lizard is clever. He comes out in morning to drink dew from the plants and finds shade during the day. Then he finds bugs to eat at night.”

  Mouse nods and says, “Lizard is determined. My brother’s named Lizard.”

  Her voice startles the lizard into running away and disappearing into a hole. Mole slaps Mouse’s arm. Wolf stands and puts his hands on his hips. “Lizard is smarter than you, Mouse. Lizard knows to lose his tail to keep his life. He changes color to blend in with the world.” Turning, he holds out a hand. “Look not just with your eyes. Be like lizard. Smell the world. Taste the wind. Listen for what moves.”

  Slowly, I stand. I brush at the dust and try to do as Wolf asks. But how do you taste wind? I only taste dust. How do you smell things? I look around us until my eyes sting. My throat is dry. I kick at a rock with my boot. “I don’t see anything.”

  “I see a tree?” Mole says. Mouse nods and points.

  I look and behind the scrubs there is a tree, its bark so pale that it seems dead. It has twined itself between the rocks until it looks more like lines on the rock than a plant. I remember the fruit trees in the Norm. They were tall and straight and dark green. Nothing like this. Shaking my head, I say, “It’s dead.”

  “No, it’s not.” Mouse gives me another of her pitying looks. It takes everything in me not to reach over and pull at her dark hair.

  “It’s a great trick,” Mole says. “Look dead and no one looks at you twice.”

  Wolf shakes his head. “Not everything. We scavenge—others do, too. Some animals are happy to clean up the dead.”

  Crossing my arms, I glance at the tree again. “If it’s alive, it needs water.” I know this much is fact. The trees and grass in the Norm are alive because the AI takes the water. That is why it is so green in the Norm. But why does the AI need all the water?

  A small smile tugs on Wolf’s mouth. My skin warms for I put it there. “Now you are looking. Trees will lead you to water. So will the lizard and other animals if you go follow them. We have to be like this tree. We store as much as we can, use as little as we need, and wait for the next rain.”

  “Or the next hack.”

  Now Mouse and Mole stare at me, eyes narrowed—as if they are thinking I am not so stupid.

  I close my eyes and lift my head to pull in a breath. I can smell the tree better than I can see it. It has a dry, sharp scent. What else can I smell? With my eyes closed, I hear a distant cry—a bird maybe. I open my eyes and look around. I still see so very little. Has the AI taken everything? Why does it need so much?

  Wolf leads us from the lizard to another area and points out more survivors. He uses his knife to cut open a cactus for water. It tastes funny and it’s warm. But it wets my lips. Now I want a knife like Wolf’s. I see that Mouse and Mole each have their own knives, and they dig out white flesh from inside the cactus and eat it. Wolf takes us to a rabbit den. We wait for a long time but nothing comes out of the small hole. An animal that looks like a wolf but smaller pads over to the rabbit hole and looks in. Wolf calls it a coyote.

  When the coyote leaves, we follow its tracks. Mouse tells me that a coyote is clever enough to live off almost anything—plants or animals. “Rogues are like coyotes.”

  Wolf stops us near more rocky hills but still a distance from the AT. I wait, sweat on my forehead and upper lip, looking around, trying to smell and hear and figure out what Wolf sees. He stares at the rocks. Mouse and Mole edge closer to each other. The back of my neck tingles and I look up a little.

  An animal that is like the wolf, but not at all like it, sits up on the rocks. It has a black face and a tan body and a long tail that flicks with what looks like irritation to me. It gets up and slinks away. Mouse lets out a breath and mutters, “Mountain cat. Good eating if they don’t eat you first.”

  Wolf glances at Mouse. “What’s the law?”

  She frowns and shuffles a foot into the dirt. “Kill only when the clan must eat and waste nothing.”

  He gives a small nod. I think again about all the fruit in the Norm. There was more than enough to feed everyone I saw in the Norm—and have some left. It suddenly seems so unfair that the Techs have so much and the Rogues so little.

  And where do the Glitches fit into this?

  They were Techs, but now they’re living more like Rogues. Do they have to learn the Rogues’ law? Do they follow it?

  The sun is starting down. Wolf keeps us out to see the animals start to come out from hiding from the sun. We see both a mouse and a mole, and they are nothing like the two Rogue girls with us, but the girls grin to have seen the animals they were named for. Wolf tells stories in that deep voice of his, how the mole can find its way in any tunnel and how the mouse has to be smart enough to avoid the great birds that hunt at night.

  My stomach grumbles a little. We have had nothing to eat. Wolf tells us to find plants for our meal. Mouse and Mole run off to do just that. I can only think of the cactus, but there are none here. Sitting down, I wonder if I could go back and catch that poor, little lizard. My stomach tightens, but I would eat it if I had nothing else. And if I could catch it.

  “Why don’t we hunt something?” I ask, looking up at Wolf.

  He sits down next to me. “You want to hunt with your bare hands? Besides, we have meat back at the clan. This is about what to do if you’re out here with nothing.”

  I nod and glance around. I want the fruit that is back in my pouch at the tunnels.

  I hear a tearing and glance over to see Wolf pulling up a small clump of grass. He brushes off the roots and pulls one off. “Try this. Learn what is good by smell and rub it on your skin. If it burns, doesn’t smell sweet or smells like a drone, it’s bad.”

  After staring at the root, I take it. Wolf pops a root into his mouth. I do the same. It is sweet. I am ready to eat more, but Wolf only gives me one root at a time. “Chew slow. Waste nothing.”

  We have eaten all the grass roots by the time Mouse and Mole get back. They have a green pod that Wolf throws toward the rabbit hole, saying, “Not ripe.” He approves of the flowers they pick—they are bright orange and taste bitter, but I like them.

  In the distance, I hear a soft hum. Everyone holds very still. The hum goes away, and Wolf stands. He says nothing, just starts to walk. Going back to the ATs, I hope. I am certain the hum came from a drone. We get back to the AT without hearing another drone. The night seems far more alive than the day. I hear distant howls and the sound of bird wings flapping. The wind brings the smell of something sweet nearby.

  H
ow long will it take me to learn the names of everything?

  Near the AT, I stop and stare out over the land. It looks different with the stars to light it—softer and more alive. I see the flash of an animal’s eyes as it watches us. I can see why the Rogues would rather come out at night—so would most things. But drones are out, too. I see another distant flash, this one in the sky. A light blinks—steady on and off. That is a drone from the AI scanning the hills where we were today.

  Wolf starts the AT. This time we don’t wear headsets, and no one seems to want to talk. I think maybe Mouse and Mole are as tired as I am. The trip back is bumpy. Wind brushes sand into my face. This time I try to taste it to see what it will tell me, but it only tells me I am thirsty. The AT stops and I blink. Are we back? But no—we have to walk yet. Wolf covers up the AT, and then we walk back to the tunnels. I am too tired to practice being silent, and I hope Wolf is too tired to notice. But he glances back at me now and I am certain he is frowning, even though I can’t see his expression.

  I make a face at him and hear a muffled giggle from Mouse. She makes a face back, so I make one at her again. That gets us both another glance from Wolf.

  Walking, staying a couple of steps behind the others, I watch Wolf’s back. His stride is long, but not so long that Mouse, Mole and I can’t keep up. He is making sure of that. He’s so big. How can he be so quiet? Sometimes—like now—he seems so much older than me. But he’s not. It is only when he gives that rare grin that he looks young.

  But I can see why the Rogues follow him. I feel that pull, that desire to please, to get one of those smiles of his.

  Heading down the tunnels, Mouse and Mole run ahead of us. I hear the patter of their boots on the stone of the tunnel. Wolf stays with me.

  When we walk into the main room, it seems as if the Rogues all glance at me. Is that suspicion in their eyes? Did they hear about me and the AI? Do they know my purpose is to find the Glitches for the AI?

  I shiver and wrap my arms around myself.

  Wolf’s large hand rests against the small of my back. Startled, I look up and see him staring back at the Rogues. He seems to be saying something. The others look away.