Glitch

by Brenda Pandos

  I stared at the screen, anxious to see where Blue Eyes went. Besides the occasional rustle of a bush from the breeze, or skittering animal, there was nothing. “Why is he taking so long?”

  Elle yawned. “Maybe he does live in Brighton?”

  “How?” I whispered, exasperated. “They would find him eventually. Especially with those eyes—” that melt my soul and haunt my dreams.

  “True.” Elle shrugged and hit the fast forward button. A clump of leaves slowly shimmied like a snake across the ground and out of view.

  Elle gasped. “Did you see that?”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, afraid to agree with her.

  Elle swiveled around and grabbed my arm. “Do you know what this means?”

  I gulped and looked at her. A plethora of things zipped through my brain, but the biggest one was that I was right. Blue Eyes had come from the zombie zone and somehow knew about my meeting. Terrified, I nodded.

  She kept plunking away, rewinding and fast forwarding through the frames, studying each part. Eventually, she rewound far enough to catch the gun being hit with my grand slam ball. I smiled, amazed at the distance when a quick blur of something large flew past.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  She rewound and played the clip in slow motion. We watched in silence as a large hairy figure that looked like a bear ambled into the frame and looked up when my grand slam ball hit the gun turret. Then it stood on two legs and ran out of sight. Elle rewound the footage and froze the tape on the body of the hairy man. We both gasped.

  “What is that?” I asked, my voice trembling.

  “I don’t know,” Elle said, “but it’s definitely not human.”

  “Zombie?”

  “No… I don’t think so.”

  At the same moment, somewhere inside a door slammed.

  My heart practically leapt out of my chest. Elle and I stared at one another. Then she scrambled to unplug her flat screen and hit the power button on the computer. I sat gawking, to which she whispered, “Hide!”

  Somewhere, the signal to move finally hit my frozen limbs and I clambered to find my things. Unable to think, I headed for the first place of shelter available: Landon’s closet.

  In the dark, Landon’s scent overwhelmed me as I shimmied behind his hanging clothes, waiting for Elle to join me. My heart pounded and I instinctively reached for my DOD watch, remembering I’d left it in the car. I knew once I’d put it back on, the spikes in my timeline would tip off the EA for sure.

  I peeked through the crack. Where was Elle?

  She looked back at me from the bathroom, motioning for me to follow. A woman’s giggle in the hall froze me in panic. Then, in a twisted ball of limbs and moans, Landon and the girl flopped onto the bed. Slobbery kisses punctuated the air and my stomach dropped. I slowly slid the pocket door shut, in disbelief this was happening. Hell, I was in hell.

  I smashed my hands to my ears and pressed my eyes shut, trying to block out what I knew they were about to do, when a fluffy, black ball of fur brushed past my leg. I stifled a yelp.

  The cat sniffed at the closet door, then to my horror began scratching at the wood. I reached forward and attempted to help kitty escape, when the noises in the room stopped.

  “Wait, wait, wait…” the girl said, out of breath. “What’s that?”

  “Huh?” Landon said.

  The cat scratched at the door again, letting out a soft meow.

  “It’s just Charlie. Hold on.”

  I heard the bedsprings squeak and the girl’s voice pitch. “It better be. I’m terrified of mice.”

  Landon laughed and the closet door opened. I pushed back into the clothes, but couldn’t be hidden from him. Squinting up at him only wearing boxers, I waited, petrified he would haul me out by the scruff of my shirt.

  “Oh,” he said, before cracking a mischievous grin. “What do we have here?”

  “Is it?” the girl shrieked. “Is it a mouse?”

  “It’s small and petrified, that’s for sure.”

  “Oh shit!” she shrieked. “I can’t do this, Lanny. Get it out of here. Please!”

  He laughed and closed the closet door. “I think I need a broom,” then I heard a loud, “oof.”

  “Get off me, Cheryl.”

  “No. I refuse to walk on the floor. Take me to the kitchen. Now!”

  Landon huffed and grunted, his voice trailing down the hall. Within seconds Cheryl’s tirade of cuss words preceded the slamming of the front door. Scrambling up onto my feet, I lunged for the bathroom. The flutter of the curtains highlighted Elle’s earlier escape. Before I could think, I hurled myself out of the window, practically killing myself in the process, and hobbled to the oleanders.

  Peeking between the wooden slats of the fence, I watched Cheryl drive off. Then I snuck down the side of Landon’s driveway and ran across the street towards Elle’s car in the parking lot as she feverishly motioned I hurry. Pulling open the car door, I catapulted myself inside.

  “Holy dead walkers,” Elle said, out of breath. “What took you so long?” She tore out of the parking spot, before I could buckle up.

  “Wait!” I yelled, hand outstretched, anxious for my DOD watch. “This is going to screw up the GPS and everything.”

  “You’re driving too fast and I detect too much stress. Overriding manual drive,” the car said, interrupting our freak out.

  “No!” Elle yelled to the car. “Stay in manual.” She hit the steering wheel with the heel of her hand as the car slowed. “Stupid car!”

  I piled into the backseat and grabbed both our watches.

  “I cannot comply, Eleanor Robinson. Your heart rate is 180 beats per minute. Blood pressure elevated. Take a deep breath. I will drive you once all passengers have seatbelts on. Where to, Eleanor Robinson?”

  Elle leaned onto the steering wheel, continuing to argue with the car as I crawled back to the front seat and handed her her DOD watch.

  “We have to put these on,” I said, still breathless.

  “Fine.” Upon opening the box, an electromagnetic charge was emitted over the watches to create a temporary hiccup while we put them back on.

  “Whoa, what was that?” she asked me with a smirk.

  “I don’t know.” I acted along, but didn’t think we’d fool whoever could be listening. “So what were you saying?”

  “Car. Take us home,” Elle said, then chimed in a, “oh, yeah… crazy coincidence to run into what’s-his-name, huh?” without missing a beat.

  I rolled my eyes and collapsed into the seat, wiping sweat from my brow. “I didn’t think he was going to be here, but I guess we were wrong.”

  “No big.” Elle’s eyes gleamed. “He never saw us.”

  I’d wanted so badly to say he did because the next time I did see him, he wasn’t going to let me live it down.

  Just then, Elle’s DOD rang, illuminating the dashboard. She looked at me wide-eyed. “It’s my brother.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Landon’s voice tickled my stomach and burned my cheeks as I remembered him in his boxers. “Hey, Sis. What’s up?”

  “Not much,” Elle said.

  “Abby with you?”

  Her eyes swung toward me. “No, why?”

  “Sure she’s not. You know I can find out.”

  “Whatever,” Elle quipped. “What do you want, Landon?”

  “Pick up first. I hate being on speaker.”

  She sighed and unclipped her watch, putting it to her ear. “Yeah?”

  My stomach knotted as her annoyed expression turned to bewilderment and then surprise; I knew he had told her. What would I say? That I’d planned to tell her later, off record?

  After she hung up, I forced a smile. “What did he want?”

  “It’s like he’s got a sixth sense or something.”

  I chuckled, speechless, waiting for the signal to put on the muffs so she could chew me out. She put her hands on the steering wheel instead. “Car, I’ll drive.”

&nb
sp; “So?”

  Shifting to manual, she studied her reflection in the rear view mirror, making kissy faces as she put on her lip balm. I held my breath. She flipped the mirror up and waggled her brows. “It was nothing important.”

  I internally sighed, until she tapped her lips twice with her index finger, our secret signal that she had something to tell me later. Confused, I wondered what that could be. The EA monitored phone conversations, too, so did Landon tell her or not?

  The silence ticked on and I gnawed on my nail, until Elle clicked the radio on. Music from the 80’s poured out.

  “I love the oldies,” she said, humming along. “Do you want to stay over for dinner?”

  I put my hand in my lap, unsure what to do. Eating with her family would be far better than being under the curious stares of my parents, but then if Elle found out Landon caught me, that would be worse. But with my state of mind, I couldn’t keep from busting into tears once I saw Mom.

  “Sure,” I agreed reluctantly.

  “Good.”

  I quickly sent Mom a text as Elle parked the car in the garage.

  Me: Having dinner with Elle tonight. Is that okay?

  Mom: Sure, but come home right after. I’m dying to know what happened today.

  Me: It went fine.

  I cringed at my lie.

  Mom: That’s great! I’m so proud of you!

  Me: Thanks.

  I shook my head at myself, feeling crappy for my lies. Though Mom followed all the rules like I did, she’d understand if I wanted to talk off record, but how would I tell her I might not ever wear her wedding dress, or give her a grandbaby in the future?

  ~ | ~

  Dinner with Elle’s family was the perfect distraction and afterward, we reconvened in the family room with homemade peach cobbler and an old (EA approved) movie: The Wizard of Oz. I’d wolfed mine down in seconds and Elle’s mom looked over at my empty plate.

  “There’s more in the kitchen if you want,” she whispered.

  I smiled, embarrassed. Mom never let me have seconds, but after today, extra was warranted. I rounded the corner and started to scoop up a helping when I heard a noise behind me.

  “Hey there, mouse.” Landon’s husky voice sent a shiver up my spine.

  The serving spoon clattered into the glass pie plate and I swiveled around. His coy smile pinned me in place. I hadn’t expected to see him so soon. He moved forward, predatorily.

  “Did you leave me any?”

  “There’s plenty,” I said, my voice raspy.

  “I forgot to wish you a Happy Birthday. You’re legal now, right?”

  I smoothed my trembling hands over my pants, remembering him with that girl. Thank God for the cat. But what would I tell him if he asked why I was in his closet? Alone.

  “Yeah,” I parroted.

  He moved next to me, his body brushing up against mine. “I had an interesting visitor today. Know anything about it?”

  I gulped and sidestepped away from the heat building between us.

  He moved closer, whispering, “Not the best way to start out your first days as an adult.”

  “I—I—”

  He put his index finger to my lips and shook his head. “Not now.”

  My heart was sprinting so fast, time had to be zipping off my life. Months for each second. This was so unwatch worthy; he was so unwatch worthy. Why was I standing here?

  With a quick glance at my wrist to see the damage, Landon grabbed my hand and tugged me toward him. He held me there, inches from his face, his full lips smiling down at me.

  “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” he whispered.

  I pulled away from him, my cheeks heating. “It was a dare, just like you thought.”

  “Abby.” Elle’s head popped from around the corner and I jumped out of Landon’s vicinity. She gave him a weird look, then stuck out her tongue at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Nice to see you, too.” He smirked. “Funny thing. You’re cord was attached to my computer today.”

  “Oops.” She laughed. “Come on, Abby. Leave my doofus brother alone. I need to show you something.” She flashed me the sign to steal home, then disappeared. Her heavy footfalls continued up the stairs.

  Landon waggled his eyebrows as he took the spoon from my plate and ate a bite of my cobbler.

  “Hmmm.” He replaced the spoon, then winked before he headed toward the door, stopping one last time. “I’d be good for you, Abby. Remember that.”

  Once alone, I clutched the counter with my free hand, working to regain steady breaths. Sure enough, just like he’d hinted, my DOD had gained three months.

  How does he do that?

  As soon as I entered Elle’s room, she took the plate of cobbler from my hands and snapped a muff over my DOD.

  “Okay,” she said, eyes fiery.

  “I meant to tell you—” I hesitated, anticipating her to yell at me.

  A crease formed between her eyebrows. “Meant to tell me what?”

  I blinked at her, trying to formulate a sentence. “Landon—”

  “I already know you’ve got a crush on him.” She smiled. “But that’s not important now. I have an idea.”

  I coughed, choking on the spit I’d aspirated. “I do not.”

  “Do too.” She leaned forward, eyes bright. Ideas to Elle were like mixing water with hot oil. “I think we should try to arrange a meeting with that blue eyed guy.”

  My mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “It totally came to me just now. If you spend the night here tonight, we can sneak over to the park and check out the hole in the wall. Then—”

  My heart sprinted into overdrive and I crossed my opened palms in rapid succession. “Oh, no. No way. Not with the zombies. Uh-uh.”

  Elle rolled her eyes. “Come on, scaredy cat. I have my brother’s rubber bullet gun and if we dress in black, no one will see us. Once on the other side, we can shimmy across the ground like he did.”

  I held up my hands firmer. “Whoa. Going to the wall is one thing,” if she only knew, “but there is no way I’m going under the wall.”

  “Not even to find out what he knows?” Her brown round eyes poured into me.

  I closed mine tight and shook my head, groaning for affect. She knew which buttons to push, which freaked me out. I did want answers, just not like this, mostly because zombies terrified me and I wasn’t about to sacrifice myself out of curiosity over a stupid note.

  “Look,” she patted my hand, “your friend seemed to get in and out no problem, and I’ve watched the cameras for like a bazillion hours looking for zombies and I’ve never seen even one. Neither has Landon. So, I think we don’t have anything to worry about, besides…” she dragged her teeth over her bottom lip, her excitement far too heightened for my liking, “I have something to show you.”

  She bounced over to her mattress and pulled something from underneath. In the air she waved a small slip of paper.

  “Elle,” I said, breathless, clasping my hand over hers to stop this madness. “Where’d you get this?”

  “I’ve been hoarding it for such a time as this,” she continued with a devilish smile. “If he doesn’t happen to be around, we can leave him a note instead.”

  “A note?” My head wobbled as if tethered in a swing and I had to sit down.

  “We’ll set up a time for us to meet and because it’s on the other side of the wall, it won’t matter if it’s obvious, like pin it to a tree or something. We’ll totally put it out of view of the cameras.”

  I swallowed down the lump growing in my throat. “Doesn’t the EA patrol that part of the zone?”

  “Not that I’ve seen.” She grabbed my hand. “Abby, we have to take a chance. There’s a reason why your blue eyed friend reached out to warn you. Something is going on; something huge. And if you don’t want to go, that’s fine, but I’m going tonight with or without you.”

  I blew out a long breath, afraid of what would happen
to her if I didn’t agree.

  “Nothing is going to happen,” she finished as if reading my mind. I deadpanned her winning smile.

  I wanted to believe in her optimism, but I knew better. This wouldn’t be as simple as leaving him a note. This would be the beginning of something that was over our heads, and if we got caught, we’d never be trusted again. If only I didn’t care. Blue Eyes had reached out to me and knew enough to warn me, and for that, I needed to at least try to reconnect with him, though I’d failed to follow his advice.

  “Uh,” I finally said against my better judgment. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”

  She quietly yelped a “whoo-hoo,” and gave me a huge hug. “I promise this is all going to be worth it.”

  Then the words from my Complement came to mind. Don’t ever leave the walls, Abigail.

  With a wicked smile, I high-fived Elle. Nothing pleased me more than the thought of pissing off my future Complement especially on the eve of my meeting.

  ~|~

  Shortly after 2 AM and dressed from head to toe in black, Elle and I snuck around the trees lining our ball field. The déjà vu couldn’t have hit harder. To my left, Landon’s window glowed; the lone light against the rest of his otherwise dark line of condos. Was he making good on his threat to find out why I’d snuck into his apartment or was he just entertaining another female companion? The thought of the latter made my stomach hurt.

  The pang of guilt forced me to come clean. “I have to tell you something.”

  “Can it wait until after we do this?” Elle said, her voice hushed.

  I stumbled on a rock. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  We clung to each other, maneuvering down the dark ravine. Elle held out her gun, pointing it at anything that moved. Newly upturned dirt filled the night air. The tall grass was mashed down as well.

  “This looks different,” I said, squinting into the darkness. Above us, the light from the turret filtered through the trees, brighter than I’d remembered the night before.

  Once we reached the creek bed, Elle tiptoed to the wall. Then she plastered her body against it with an awkward hug.