Glitch

by Brenda Pandos

  Landon and Elle blinked at me and for a minute, I reveled in their response.

  “Focus.” I snapped in front of their faces. “Problem is I can’t control it. And the last time was ugly, so—” I pointed to Landon. “You have to take me to Kaden’s cell, now, before I jump again. And whatever you do, don’t touch your younger self.”

  Elle frowned. “You said you weren’t born yet, so… technically, neither am I.”

  “Touch my younger self…?” Landon’s face wrinkled in disgust.

  “Oh, geez.” I puckered out my lips. “That’s not what I meant… gross. Never mind,” I shook my head. “You’re a toddler anyway.”

  “I don’t know if I should be offended or…” Landon pitched his brow upward. “The Oracle. That’s impressive.”

  “You can fan girl me later.” I pulled on both their hands. “Let’s go.”

  Landon stumbled forward, then quickly took the lead. Building Two was practically identical to One and the location of the future cells were relatively in the same place.

  He walked into the furthest room and studied the walls. “Here, I think. Why aren’t there bars?”

  “Whoever decides to make this into a jail hasn’t done so yet.” I walked inside and bit my lip. Elle and Landon stared at me as if I were about to grow another head. “I’m not a freak, okay, so stop looking at me like that.”

  “I’m not saying you are, it’s just….” Landon’s eyes lit with amusement and I wanted to punch him.

  “How does it work?” Elle asked.

  “At first, the future came like dreams and then, I had a horrible headache and woke up in a field with zombies, talk about a rude awakening. Each time it’s been a little easier…”

  Landon shifted his weight and his eyes narrowed.

  Elle leaned forward, eyes wide. “Then what happened?”

  “I jumped before they could attack me.” I sucked in a deep breath and studied the cement floor, deeply conflicted. I’d brought the virus to our timeline through Declan, somehow. I was responsible.

  “So that’s it? You just get a headache and jump?” He eyed me suspiciously.

  “Yeah, for the most part.”

  Landon shoved his hands in his pockets. He wasn’t in the hall when I’d returned with Vice President Declan. Was he watching elsewhere on a monitor? I still didn’t trust him.

  Elle looked around, kneading her hands. “Now what?”

  “We wait for a headache, I guess.” I slid to the floor and sat. Should I tell them stress of some sort would help speed up the process?

  Elle joined me and held my hands. “I knew you weren’t dead. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  I bit my lip to stay back the tears. “I worried about you every day. Thanks for the secret messages. What did you mean by, ‘they know’?”

  “Oh,” Elle smirked. “They found the muffs, the paper and… they said you’d run away. That you’d defected.”

  I sighed. There was too much to explain and I didn’t know how much time I had before I jumped again.

  Landon leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Field with zombies, huh?”

  My gaze swung to his. He wasn’t buying this. “Yeah. Got a problem with it?”

  He cocked his head while working his jaw. Did he know zombies weren’t in our time? That I’d brought them here?

  “Are they everywhere?” Elle interrupted, turning to her brother. “What about Mom and Dad?”

  My eyes flickered upward to Landon. He lifted his chin. “They’re fine, Elle. The outbreak happened in the precinct which I’m sure is torched by now and that concerns me. How do we return, Abby?”

  My heart dropped. Torched the place? “What about Kaden?” I asked, breathless.

  Landon shrugged. “He’s collateral damage.”

  My chest heaved and I stood. “What?”

  “He brought in the virus, Abby.” Landon waved his hand noncommittally. “Or did you?”

  “He didn’t bring the virus,” I said between my teeth.

  “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and we should go back. I take it we should go outside, though.”

  “No!” I clenched my hands. “Until today, there’s never been a zombie. Not here. Not in the zombie zone. Nowhere. It was all lies.”

  Headache, come now.

  “What?” Elle got to her feet.

  I wondered how long it would take before she caught on. We’d been taught in net school that the virus was transmitted only through saliva and was difficult to catch unless you were bitten. But that was for a faked virus, one that had never been unleashed on the world. Who knew how the real one worked exactly, except the fact that the Vice President had been exposed long enough to contract it.

  “There’s no containing the virus now that’s it been unleashed and you know it.” I moved toward Landon.

  “No, Abby. Kaden is a carrier and he infected the precinct and only the precinct. It’s better that he die.”

  “NO!” I screamed and attempted to lunge at him.

  With another pop, his body disappeared and bars emerged in his place. I grabbed ahold to stop myself from smacking into them when something growled and leaped at me from the other side. Something pulled my shoulders backward and I narrowly avoided bloodied hands ready to tear into me. A piece of aluminum pipe came down on its head and it crumbled to the floor.

  I swiveled around and stared up into blue eyes. The bluest I’d ever seen. “Kaden! You’re alive!”

  Kaden’s lips found mine, crashing into me. Our body’s trembled, giving in. I wanted to forget everything. Just to feel his hands, his lips, his arms… to remain forever here and feel safe once more. He peppered my face with kisses and I leaned in, hungry for more, until I remembered I was a carrier.

  I pushed away. “Wait.”

  “What?” he asked breathless while he smoothed my hair away from my face, holding the sides of my cheeks. His eyes held something I’d never seen before—admiration mixed with desire. “Look at you… you’re just so… amazing.”

  “No, I’m not,” I stuttered as the tears filled my eyes. “I’m carrying the virus.” I sucked in a sob and pushed away from him. “And I didn’t bring what you asked.”

  His forehead creased as he eyed the gun. “I don’t understand?”

  “Declan… he was fine. Then he became one of them and there are no more bullets and they’re going to torch the place.”

  “Whoa.” Kaden pulled me to him. “One thing at a time. You jumped, right?” Amazement danced in his eyes. “Then go back, get another round, or another gun.”

  My body swayed as reality hit. I’d left Landon and Elle behind. Were they still in the past? Or dead?

  “What’s wrong?”

  A shudder rippled down my body. “I took people with me. They came accidentally.”

  “Even better. Take me.”

  “No.” My voice shook. “I took Declan because he made me and somehow he returned too early and… he’s a zombie now.” Stars twinkled over my vision from my hyperventilating. “Now Elle and Landon are stuck in the past and the zombies are here. And now you’re infected. And they’re going to torch this place.”

  Kaden took ahold of my shoulders. “Focus, Abby. You didn’t create this nightmare. I know someone who will know what to do about this zombie mess, so we have to jump. It’s our only way out.”

  Tears fell down my cheeks. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t.”

  From somewhere in the building, a siren blared, and red lights flashed on the walls. A computer voice rang from above. “Decontamination commencing in one minute. Please exit through illuminated doorways.”

  Down the hall, a green light flashed EXIT over the door.

  “Jump, Abby!”

  My entire body shook. We didn’t have a choice. I needed to jump and take Kaden with me.

  “Come on, Abby. I believe in you.” His voice was low and determined.

  I took another deep breath as t
he computer voice counted down, but the headache wouldn’t come.

  “I don’t know how. I can’t control it!”

  Kaden squeezed me tight and rocked me slightly. “Don’t listen to the voice. Concentrate.”

  I held my breath and tensed my body. Headache, come, please. Nothing would happen. “It’s not working.”

  “You can do it.”

  “Ten, nine, eight, seven…” the computer voice continued.

  “It’s not working!” I yelled.

  “You can. I know you can,” he said, voice pained.

  I stared up into his eyes as tears streaked down both out faces. This was it. We were about to die, and Anna would perish, too.

  “I love you,” Kaden whispered into my ear as he held me tight.

  “One.”

  The pink paper fluttered through my mind.

  “Wait!” I screamed, knowing Austin had to be listening in. “I’m the Oracle, and if you kill me, you’ll kill your one chance to save humanity!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  I braced for the flames, for the gas, for whatever was about to consume us. Something shunted in the building and a soft shushing sound followed. The alarms and flashing lights stopped, too.

  “We’re listening,” Austin said overhead.

  I looked upward at the hidden camera. “I can jump through time. You saw me do it already.”

  Kaden’s hand wove around my waist, strong and tight. His courage melded with mine, bolstering my strength.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you can save humanity?” Austin asked.

  My heart rate rocked through my body, hoping they wouldn’t question the huge lie I was about to tell. “True, but I know who has the cure.”

  Austin said, “Who?”

  Mom in the other timeline had said Dad was working on a cure and Dr. Declan had freaked over my blood. Maybe I held the secret. I had to hope, otherwise humanity was truly lost and it didn’t matter if we all died today, or not. But I wouldn’t take Kaden with me. I wouldn’t risk his life again. “It’s in the other timeline, but I’ll only go get it if you let Kaden go free.”

  His hand tightened on my hip. “No. I’m not leaving without you.”

  “Trust me…” I breathed.

  At the ruckus, a crowd of undead filed into the room from around the corner, all the hissing and moaning, I didn’t know if Austin could hear me anymore. My eyes fell on a girl, the EA girl at the counter who’d given me such a hard time before my meeting. She actually looked better as a zombie.

  Suddenly, the DOD watches on the zombies’ wrists flashed red zeros and they stiffened. Then in unison, they crumbled to the floor as if they were dead. My mouth fell opened. They’d had the power to stop them all along? The bastards!

  “I don’t believe you,” a voice said from the hall.

  Kaden and I panned to the left. A bald Declan stood before us, older and even more wrinkled than the one I’d accidentally turned into a zombie. How could he still be alive? And how did he travel to my timeline?

  I gasped and moved backward against Kaden’s body.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” Declan said quickly and motioned to someone.

  An officer walked around the corner with a gun trained on a boy roughly the age of eight. He trembled under the officer’s grasp.

  “Mom? Dad?”

  My chest heaved. He looked like the both of us—blue eyes, dark hair, my nose, Kaden’s lips. My eyes watered.

  “Meet Sawyer,” Declan said. “Your son.”

  I blinked in disbelief at first, then swallowed down my vitriol in the form of bile. The reason Anna wanted him dead made total sense now.

  “You son of a bitch!” Kaden stiffened behind me and pushed me forward.

  “Jump and he’s gone. Cooperate and we’ll work out a deal.” Declan’s lips rose in a sickening smile.

  My heart pounded as I watched the terror in Sawyer’s eyes.

  “How’d you get here?”

  He laughed and then sighed, dragging out his response on purpose. “Anna, of course. Right, Sawyer?”

  The boy nodded and whimpered in terror.

  “Hurt him, and I’ll…” Kaden threatened.

  “What, Kaden? You’re trapped in a cage and aren’t important to me.” He leaned in. “I’ll do what I want.”

  “What do you want?” I interrupted.

  “Now, that’s what I want to hear.” Declan sighed. “I want what’s mine.”

  I blinked at him in confusion. “And what’s that?”

  “Fine,” he drawled. “I guess I need to explain. Do you know what it’s like to invest an entire year of your life and groom your younger self for leadership? Imbibe all your knowledge and wisdom in order to create a perfect society? To create a place where everyone can know what the future holds? Where there’s peace and freedom and the criminals are made to suffer? No, because if you did, you wouldn’t have so cheaply destroyed everything.” His lips thinned. “I have the right mind to make you watch on while I feed your son and your lover to the undead as sweet revenge—”

  Sawyer gasped and all I wanted to do was run to him, wrap him in my arms, and tell him I’d never let anything bad happen to him.

  “But I need you to fix this first,” he seethed between his yellow teeth. “Where’s the cure, Abby?”

  I lifted my chin. How dare he accuse me of ruining everything? His younger, smarter Vice President self was the one who’d made me jump. He didn’t retain much. “Like I said, it’s not here.”

  Declan’s eyes bounced between us. “Fine, but I want to be sure you don’t get any creative ideas.”

  Everything inside me wanted to scratch his freaking eyes out. He ticked his head forward and two more guards appeared. They each held a DOD watch, but they weren’t the kind you could take off—they were the permanent ones meant for criminals. They could kill us at will if we allowed them to infuse them on us.

  Declan moved closer to Sawyer and ruffled his hair. “Sawyer and I have had wonderful talks about his family and his mama… and imagine my surprise when Kaden here mentions my good ole’ friend Jebediah.”

  “Stay away from my son,” I growled.

  “Or you’ll what? Kill me?” He laughed again, an evil biting sound. He grabbed onto Sawyers hair and yanked. Sawyer squealed and stifled a sob.

  “Stop it!” My head began to pound and I willed myself not to jump.

  “Don’t touch him,” Kaden demanded.

  “I’ll do whatever I want.” Declan waved his hand and the guards moved forward.

  The lock to the bars clicked and the door of our cell swung open. I pressed harder into Kaden’s chest, feeling his protective arms around me. We couldn’t let them put the watches on, but I couldn’t jump either, for Sawyers sake.

  Kaden’s hand found mine and he squeezed tightly. His lips brushed my ear. “I trust you.”

  The guards moved forward when a groan sounded from around the corner. They all turned and Declan’s shoulders slumped.

  “Dammit,” he whispered. The officer holding Sawyer lifted his gun and aimed at what I assumed to be another zombie.

  “Hold your fire!” Declan cried. “That’s me!”

  My body tensed. This was it, the distraction we needed.

  “Now,” Kaden said in my ear.

  I relaxed and let go, feeling the familiar momentary weightlessness and rush. We reappeared on the other side with a pop. Landon and Elle stood wide-eyed and stared as Kaden kissed my temple before he released my hand and pushed me forward.

  “Go get him, Abby. Now!”

  I darted over to the spot I believed to be directly behind the officer and focused on relaxing. Jumping seemed so much smoother when I didn’t stress over it. Elle started to say something, but their world faded before I heard what she’d said.

  With the same pop, I returned to utter chaos. The two guards who’d held the DOD’s were now trying to wrangle in zombie-Declan, and the officer with Sawyer kept moving his gun to anything that
moved. Luckily, he didn’t see me reappear in the shadows behind him.

  “She jumped!” Declan screamed. “Get the boy!”

  His demands were too late. My hand had formed into Sawyers tiny grip and we were fading—slower this time for some reason.

  “I’ve got you baby,” I whispered with a smile.

  Relief covered his sweet face.

  My eyes locked on Declan. I smiled and lifted my shoulder in a consolatory shrug. He wasn’t going to win today.

  Anger burned on his wrinkled face. Then his ugly yellowed teeth mouthed, “I have Anna!”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  We tumbled into the room and Sawyer grabbed onto my torso with all his might. With shaking arms, I held him tightly back.

  “We’re safe now,” was all I could get out.

  “What the?” a man said.

  A clatter of metal hit the floor and Kaden tackled someone to our left, and then punched him. Landon scurried to get the gun.

  “I surrender!” the officer yelled.

  Landon stood over him, gun pointed at his chest, and then he lowered it. “Jim?”

  “Landon. What’s going on?” Jim sat up and rubbed his chin. Then he scanned the room. “Where is everyone?”

  Landon sighed and rubbed his temples before he went into a quick explanation.

  My eyes slid shut as exhaustion settled in. Sleep sounded so enticing. Jim must have been holding onto Sawyer when I took him. That grew the total to five people and I had no idea how I’d return them home. Then I remembered what Declan had mouthed.

  Kaden came to my side and pulled us to our feet, then slid his arms around us. I didn’t want to think about anything else beyond being together and protecting Sawyer, but I couldn’t deny what could happen if I didn’t do something.

  “He’s got Anna,” I breathed.

  “Who’s Anna?” Kaden studied my face

  “It’s future-me’s real name.”

  His eyes widened, then he nodded in understanding. “Oh, hell.”

  Sawyer started sobbing.

  “What’s going on in Brighton?” Landon demanded of Jim.