The Empties (The Glitches Series Book 2)

by Ramona Finn

  Alis’s voice startles me back to the present. I glance down towards her as she heads back to me. When I look to the screen again, it’s gone.

  “You ready to go?” Alis asks when she reaches me.

  I stare at the air where the screen was just moments ago, but I nod my head. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Missions once more become the regular. Since our group returned successfully with the water after that supply run, Wolf has eased up and so has Bird. Maybe they’re both still a little cautious because of the deaths, and maybe Bird is still suspicious of me, but at least they’ve reinstated regular trips to the Outside. Even if they’re only supply trips.

  “If you’re going to the Empties again or something,” Crow tells me as we deposit the goods from our most recent mission in the store room to be checked in by Tiger, “let me know. No sense in you going alone.”

  I make a noncommittal sound and watch as he walks away. But I’m frowning.

  “For a Rogue, he’s not half bad,” Alis comments. Before I can answer, she motions for me to follow. “C’mon. Let’s get to work on the biogear. It didn’t help at all in the virtual world.”

  We walk to the Tech Room, talking about how my biogear works versus the effectiveness of hers. We still can’t come up with the definitive reason for why hers is less effective, which makes me ever more convinced that it has something to do with me and not the design.

  As we enter the room, Alis heads over to Dat, who’s tinkering with something that looks more like a toy than a weapon or the biogear we’ve all been focusing on. It has legs and arms, but not really a face—just a round, red light that flickers every so often. It creeps me out, sending shivers down my spine. I look away from it.

  Since returning from our mission nearly two weeks ago, I’ve been thinking about the virtual world. More specifically, that video that played for me. Did I summon that? No, I don’t think so. Calling up information requires concentration and focus, and while I can do it with ease now, that doesn’t mean I can do it subconsciously. And why would I have asked for that? How would I have even known about it? Which meant that someone else brought it up… or something else brought it up.

  Did the AI show me that? Why?

  I ponder this question, because I realize that it’s important. The AI is clever—and patient. If she was showing me that video, she had a purpose, but what was it? It has to be part of some long game she’s playing—a video that’s supposed to act as a catalyst or a trigger for something else.

  But what?

  I need to get back into the Norm. I’ve been planning on it anyway, because I’m convinced that Raj is alive. Wishful thinking, maybe, but it’s better than the alternative. But now I have another reason. To figure out what’s really going on with the AI and why she seems so unwilling to completely let me go.

  After talking with Dat for a while, Alis eventually comes back over to me. The room is mostly empty today. I think everyone was waiting to see how the mission went and they’re probably all out congratulating everyone on doing such a good job. Or on not dying. Either way, I’m kind of grateful for the space. I have too many thoughts rolling around in my head to deal with people—and I want a little privacy to talk with Alis.

  Leaning past the redhead, I check to see that Dat is still engrossed in his creepy toy. He is. It’s not that I don’t trust Dat, but it’s difficult when he’s still so young. I don’t want to risk him in anything unnecessarily—and what I’m going to bring up with Alis will probably be risky.

  Redirecting my focus back on Alis, I say as casually as possible, “Have you thought about going back to the Norm?”

  Alis jerks her head to the side, fixing me with a surprised look. “What? Going back? We can’t go back. That’s kind of the point of being a Glitch, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. But have you thought about it?”

  She frowns a little, but considers the question. For a while, she’s silent. I start to think she’s not interested in answering me, but eventually she says, “Yeah, I have. We all have, Lib. It’s hard not to. That place was our home for a long time and you don’t just forget that.” She flushes as soon as she’s said it and winces a little. “Sorry, I mean, most of us don’t forget that. I know you’re kind of a special case.”

  I wave her off like it’s not a big deal, but of course it is. Especially now. The need to know who I am… It’s starting to eat me up inside. “No, I understand.”

  We’re quiet for a moment as I try to figure out how to say what I need to say now. I look at Dat again. He’s all but ignoring us. “You didn’t know Raj,” I blurt, starting with the explanation and then moving to the thing I’m explaining.

  “No. Obviously he was before my time.”

  “And you didn’t know him in the Norm?”

  She thinks about it a moment, and then shakes her head. “No, at least not that I can recall. The Norm is a lot bigger than most people really think, honestly. Though it’s a dome, it isn’t a small town or anything. Everyone doesn’t know everyone, even though it seems like we should. And since we mostly keep to ourselves individually unless our jobs require otherwise, we don’t get to know people that well. Even picking a partner doesn’t require meeting people, necessarily. The AI does genetic matching, so really we just end up with whoever’s our best genetic match.”

  I frown. On some level, I think maybe this is smart. There’s a limited number of supplies within the dome. Some are renewable; some aren’t. But people can easily reproduce without much requirement, outside of having two individuals to participate. By controlling who gets together with who, then you reduce the number of surprise pregnancies, and possibly even deformities or disease brought on by an unlucky roll of the genetic dice.

  Still, I can’t shake the other feeling within me. That this is wrong. That choice is important, and that to not have one at all is… terrible, even if it’s practical.

  “Did you get matched?” I ask cautiously.

  She gives me a wan smile. “No. You get matched at approximately twenty-one, which is apparently the optimal breeding age. Any younger and the mind hasn’t finished developing; any older and people are less likely to get pregnant or to produce healthy offspring. I had a couple of years still.”

  “How do you know so much about it?” I ask curiously, momentarily derailing myself from what I really want to talk about.

  She shrugs her shoulders casually and looks away, but I can read beneath her nonchalance. There’s a line of tension in her shoulders and a twitching muscle in her jaw. “It’s not like any of that was a secret,” she mumbles by way of an answer.

  Which I believe is true. But her reaction to the question tells me that she knows maybe more than most. “Right. But why do you know so much?”

  Alis’s shoulders slump and she sighs. “That was kind of what I did, finding matches.”

  “You paired people?” I ask a little incredulously. Why would anyone but the AI be pairing people? Especially a girl who wasn’t old enough to even be paired herself.

  She shakes her head quickly. “No. The AI was the one who made the ultimate calls in that department. But I helped to tweak the algorithm that detailed compatibility. I worked mostly with code and used streams of data to determine the outcomes of certain unions.” She shrugs. “Honestly, most of the code was already there. I just adjusted it for the current conditions.”

  For a moment we’re silent, and then I ask the question that’s made me more than a little curious—the one I want to ask every Glitch I’ve ever met. “Why did you leave the Norm?”

  “It’s not like I asked to leave, you know.”

  I shake my head. “I know, but what was the reason that you were… well, you know.”

  “Kicked out?”

  I wince, but nod.

  She waits a heartbeat, then turns back to the table with the pieces of gear laid out in front of us. She finally answers. “I tried to tweak the algorithm. I tried to dis
solve a perfect match.”

  My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “What? Why?”

  Her cheeks redden, the freckles darkening as a result, and she tells me, “Because my brother was in love with a girl, but she was a year younger. He was matched the day I was booted from the Norm, and it wasn’t to her.”

  In that moment, I realize that sometimes the defects the AI gets rid of us for aren’t necessarily just things like seizures. The AI gets rid of anything that doesn’t conform.

  I picture the Norm with its perfect green trees and its white marble homes. I picture the happy, smiling people, and then I picture them turning into an angry mob that tore and ripped at Raj. It’s hard to think of them as real people with lives and families, capable of things like love. They seemed so… so lifeless, robotic even. But I realize now that Alis was one of those people, and now she’s not.

  We’re all human, I remind myself, but in my heart, I’m not entirely sure I believe it anymore.

  We fall silent and focus on working. I still think about the Norm and the need to rescue Raj. And if I’m going to do it, I’ll need help. Help from people like Alis.

  After a while, I speak again. “What if I told you that I needed to go back?”

  Alis pauses in her work. I see her eyes dart over to Dat, who’s fallen asleep. “You can’t go back. None of us can.”

  I shake my head and drop my voice lower, not wanting to wake Dat. “I don’t want to reintegrate or anything,” I explain. “But the AI—” has Raj, I want to say, but don’t. Instead I say, “—is dangerous. We need to get back in there and get real intel on her. Maybe even figure out how to take her down from the inside before she gets the chance to take us out.” It’s partially true. In fact, it was the original plan I and Raj had when we first went in.

  Except, that plan failed. Twice.

  Alis thinks about this a moment, and I think she’s going to tell me that I’m crazy. And maybe I am. But then she leans over and whispers, “Wolf’s never going to go for it. He’s being really cautious right now and we’re lucky we’re even going out for supplies. I heard he was against it.”

  I’m surprised. Though I knew that he was being cautious, I didn’t realize that he would be opposed to more missions like that. He told me the decision for no missions was about settling people, appeasing them. Now I can taste the lie.

  Not that it matters. I knew when I first decided I wanted to get back into the Norm that Wolf was never going to let me go. I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to tell him.”

  Alis gets a glint in her eye that tells me she approves of that much. “But how are we going to do it if he doesn’t know? It’s not like he’s just going to let us walk out of here with supplies and a half-hatched plan to break into the Norm.”

  She’s right, of course, but I’ve been thinking about it and, in the end, it was Crow that gave me the idea. “But what if we treated it like any old mission? Just said it was a supply run.”

  She frowns. “Okay, but the Rogues won’t go along with it. As soon as they realize that we’re not doing a regular run, they’ll come back and tell Wolf.”

  A small smile slides over my lips. “Not if we pick the right Rogues.”

  “What do you mean, the right Rogues?”

  Leaning closer and dropping my voice further, I quickly explain my plan. “There are some Rogues that, like you and me, think biogear and taking down the drones are the right courses to follow.” I think of my small group of volunteers, specifically Crow. Maybe if I’d met him a little sooner, I wouldn’t have felt so isolated.

  “Okay, but won’t they tell Wolf…?”

  I shrug. It’s a very real possibility. But maybe if I can convince them to go on this mission with me, they’ll agree to keep it a secret? It’s a long shot. “Maybe not. Not if we explain it to them.”

  For a second, she thinks it over. She doesn’t seem wholly convinced. “I don’t know. He’s the clan leader. They take that pretty seriously.”

  But I shake my head, convinced now that I’m right. “I’ve had a Rogue tell me that he’d follow me, that he thought this whole ban on missions and the fact that we’re not going after drones is ridiculous. I think he’s not the only one.”

  “Why don’t we just make it all Glitches? You, me, Skye—at least we know we can trust each other.”

  I purse my lips together. I don’t tell her that I’m not so sure that Skye would go along with this either, but I do say, “We can’t have an all Glitch team. Wolf would know something was up. We have to make it as normal as possible, or otherwise we’re just going to have to accept that, when we leave, there probably won’t be a place for us to come back to.”

  A long silence stretches between us as Alis digests this bit of information. This place isn’t a prison. We’re free to come and go as we please. But for the safety of the group, we must be cautious. Which means that, though we have freedom, we also have rules. And I have a feeling that if we break this one, Wolf won’t welcome us back with open arms. Not again.

  Finally, Alis says, “Alright. I think I know a couple of Rogues we can ask. They’re in here all the time. I don’t know if we can trust them—” She breaks off and shrugs her shoulders.

  “It’s a risk, but we’ve got to take it. Otherwise, we’re doing this on our own.”

  She nods. “When should we plan for it?”

  “Next month. I don’t want Wolf to be suspicious. And besides, I want to do some recon first.”

  …

  Between the two of us, Alis and I have come up with a handful of Rogues that we can trust. Or at least, that we hope we can trust. Crow was the first one I asked and he immediately said yes. He even seemed excited. Now he sends me furtive glances every so often from across the room and winks at me, reminding me that we share a secret. It feels strangely intimate, but I don’t worry about that right now.

  Other than Crow, we have four others who are eager to do more than just make supply runs into a dwindling desert landscape.

  Pike, who likes the tech as much as she likes her henna designs. Penny and Star, who are complete opposites in everything except their hatred of the AI. And Hawk, who doesn’t necessarily care one way or the other, but desperately wants to be where the action is.

  “We’re really not going to ask Skye?” Alis asks for the fourth time in about as many days.

  I shake my head and try not to be irritated that she’s asking again. We really don’t have a lot of Glitches, and while we both agree that Dat is too young to participate in such a dangerous plan, Skye is our age. And she knows this world better than we do. But that’s the problem, I think. She’s been outside with the Rogues too long, and maybe she’s forgotten that part of being a Glitch is dealing with things that aren’t one hundred percent natural.

  “No, we’re really not.”

  Alis looks like she’s about to argue in favor of it again, but I cut her off before she gets the chance.

  “Look, whether she’d do it or not, it’s not fair to ask her,” I say, hedging my real issue with asking her. “It’s a suicide mission. She won’t go for it.”.”

  Alis only nods. She’s clearly disappointed that we won’t be asking Skye to join us, but I think maybe she’s finally willing to stop pushing for it. Especially as, conveniently Skye chooses this moment to walk out from one of the tunnels beside Bird, the two girls chatting animatedly. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I notice Bird glancing over at me. She’s eyeing me shrewdly, making me grateful that none of the Rogues in our little faction are sitting with us.

  We’ve got to keep this under wraps or we’ll get stopped before we even get started.

  While waiting to implement our plan, we make two honest runs for supplies—our whole group—before we finally make a move. And it isn’t into the Norm yet; we aren’t ready for that. But we head in that direction and camp outside the wall that surrounds the dome. We make a small camp a little ways outside of the dome, so that we can watch. Instant
ly, I’m grateful that we’ve taken this step.

  “What are they doing?” Penny asks, her high pitched voice dropped low into a whisper.

  I shake my head, not entirely sure.

  All along the wall, drones hover a few feet away from the actual concrete. They don’t do anything, just floating and watching, their blinking red gazes pointed out into the desert. I worry briefly that they’ll spot us, but we’re pretty well covered. We have blankets that have been peppered with sand, thrown across us, making us look like little more than an outcropping of lumpy rocks atop the hill. We’ve got goggles, too, each dulled so that they don’t send light reflecting where we’re looking, but also dark enough to cover our eyes. It seems to be enough to keep us hidden, because the drones haven’t moved since we’ve arrived.

  But there has been movement.

  “Are they building?” asks Pike, who’s wearing biogear. She’s one of the few Rogues that does, and while it’s not nearly as effective as even Alis’s gear is, it’s useful. She has a display screen covering one eye, built directly into her goggles. It allows her to magnify her vision, so I know she’s getting a better look than most. “And rewiring? Is this repairs or something?”

  “I don’t think so,” I murmur quietly. It’s difficult to tell the specifics of what they’re doing, but I don’t think they’re just repairing.

  All along the edge of the concrete, scabs work on the wall. Creatures that look almost human, if mechanical and skeletal. They are without a face. At first, I thought they were tearing it down, but after several moments of watching them, I’ve begun to realize that they’re expanding it. They’re building some kind of additions onto the wall and the dome, but I can’t quite tell what they’re for yet.

  She’s really doing it, I think, watching as a scab works with what looks like thick copper wiring. He laces it through a large panel that’s been pried open from the wall. She’s making this into a space ship.

  Part of me thought it was crazy, but now I see that she really means it. She’s going to leave earth—and destroy everything she leaves behind.