Glitch

by Laura Martin

  “Security officers dead ahead,” I called to Regan, and I noticed again the ragtag appearance of our group. We weren’t exactly inconspicuous.

  “Yup,” Regan said, and then to my utter surprise she sprinted straight up to them.

  “Help!” she screamed, and they rushed toward her, their hands poised above the weapons.

  “There’s been an attack!” she cried. “A Butterfly, at my house. You have to go help my mom!” It took the guards a second to recognize who was screaming at them, but I could tell the moment that they did, as they stood up just a hair straighter.

  I watched this performance feeling more than a little impressed. Thanks to the help of the blood covering her chin and shirt from her busted nose, she was pulling off a pretty exceptional damsel in distress.

  “We’ll radio for help,” said the first guard, reaching for his communicator.

  “No, you won’t,” said a voice behind us, and we all turned to see Officer Salzburg striding down the path, looking furious.

  “No way,” I said. “You followed us?” I flashed back to the last image I’d seen before Regan and I had Glitched out of the collapsing mountain. He hadn’t come back into the Glitch room because there was no other way out—he’d come back in so he could stop us.

  “What’s going on?” said one of the guards, looking in confusion from us to Salzburg and back.

  “What’s going on is that these children have been caught red-handed committing crimes against our nation. They are Butterflies,” Salzburg said, his voice ringing out with an icy authority that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “He’s the Butterfly!” Regan said, jabbing a finger at Salzburg. “He installed explosives all over campus.”

  “Lies,” Salzburg said. “Arrest them. Confiscate the bags they are holding. They’ve stolen expensive security equipment in an attempt to weaken the Academy’s defenses.” Regan took a step back and involuntarily the rest of our group huddled together, as though somehow we were going to be able to stop what was about to happen.

  I turned to look back at the clock. We had less than three minutes left. Just then, there was the sound of running feet behind us, and everyone turned to see Serina and Sam sprinting down the path with a pack of security officers in hot pursuit. Maybe it was Serina’s gigantic ball gown that she had hitched up around her waist, or Sam’s gas mask, but I knew in that moment that we were sunk. No one would believe us over an officer like Salzburg.

  It was like I was seeing everything in slow motion. The clock ticking down, Regan still trying desperately to convince the guards that Salzburg was the real criminal here, the wide panicked eyes of the rest of the kids, and the small black explosives that were about to detonate and blast apart the Academy. Regan turned to me then, and I could tell from the desperation on her face that she was out of ideas. My mind scrambled for something, anything, and I found myself flipping through every historical event and Glitch mission I could think of like an old-fashioned Rolodex, searching for something that could save us. Nothing had prepared me for this. Not my studying. Not the classes. Not even the practice simulations I’d done with Regan where the worst-case scenario was that one of us would get annoyed and use our Chaos Cuffs to exit the situation, and then it hit me. This was a mission. I was in the past, and all I needed to get out of here was a set of Chaos Cuffs.

  “Regan!” I called. “Worst-case scenario!” She stopped yelling at the officers to turn to me, and I saw understanding flash across her face as her hand went automatically to her hip, where her own Chaos Cuffs were still clipped. Turning, I rushed for Corban and Blake, hitting the activation button on their cuffs just as Regan hit the activation button on Tess’s and Eliana’s. The officers yelled as they all disappeared.

  “Activate your cuffs!” I yelled to Serina and Sam. I waited a half second to make sure they disappeared before grabbing Regan’s hand just as Salzburg lunged for us. I felt his fingernails scrape skin as everything went black.

  When I opened my eyes, I had no idea where we were going to be. Back inside the mountain? At the Academy Hub? Our jumps had crossed over themselves so much that it all felt like a confusing spiderweb of time travel at this point. But to my relief, I opened my eyes inside the mountain Glitching room with Regan still holding my hand. That relief vanished a moment later when I spotted Salzburg clutching Regan’s arm in a vise grip.

  He stood frozen as he took in the empty Glitch platform and the inside of the mountain.

  “What did you do?” he asked. I looked over at Regan, who had the same wide-eyed look of horror as Salzburg.

  “Where is everyone?” Regan asked, whirling away from Salzburg’s grip to look behind herself at the eerily empty Glitch platform.

  My heart did a funny hiccup in my chest as I realized that the rest of our friends and the bombs they’d been carrying were nowhere to be seen. What had happened?

  I didn’t have time to think about it, though, because Salzburg chose that moment to launch himself off the platform and race for the bank of computers. Before I could stop her, Regan threw herself after him. She landed on his back like a monkey and wrapped her arms around his neck. I stood frozen as he dug his fingernails mercilessly into her arm.

  “Elliot!” Regan yelled. “Do something!” But I had no idea what to do. I was holding a bag of bombs that were set to detonate at any moment, and my partner had the guy responsible for them in a headlock. What should I do first? Bombs. I decided. The bombs were the priority here. Leaving my bag of explosives on the platform, I jumped off it and rushed past Regan and Salzburg, heading for the computers.

  “Thanks for the help!” Regan yelled after me, but I ignored her as I quickly typed a few key words into the computer’s state-of-the-art history search engine. I needed somewhere I could ditch a bag of explosives without it causing major damage to the past. The first thing that came to mind was Chernobyl, but I almost immediately dismissed the idea. It was nuclear, which always involved a lot of equipment and prep work, and besides that, we really couldn’t mess with Ukraine’s history without a sanction from their Glitch department.

  What I needed was a big explosion that didn’t kill anyone, and that was tricky. I looked up to ask Regan, but she had her hands more than full with the flailing Salzburg. I shut my eyes, thinking hard. There was a test in New Mexico in 1985. If I remembered correctly, and I almost always remembered correctly, it was called Minor Scale, and it was the largest nonnuclear explosion ever detonated.

  It would have to work. We were out of time. I quickly punched in the correct coordinates and raced for the platform as the clock above it started counting down. I skidded to a stop on the platform to collect the odd bundle of explosives like some kind of terrible Santa Claus and turned to see Regan leap off Salzburg’s back and roll clear as he came up swinging. I’d forgotten just how good she was at hand-to-hand combat when she didn’t have a hoop skirt in her way.

  Regan looked up then, and I saw the horror register on her face as she realized why I was still standing there. Someone was going to have to take the bombs to their final resting place, and that someone was going to be me. I tried to smile what I hoped was a reassuring smile, but the tears I felt streaming down my cheeks ruined the effect as I prepared for my final Glitch in this lifetime.

  Regan stood frozen, watching me for another heartbeat before sprinting for the platform.

  “Stay back,” I yelled, but when had Regan ever listened to me? With one second left to go on the countdown clock, she grabbed my hand as everything went black.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Regan

  We opened up our eyes in the desert. I looked around, expecting there to be a big pile of explosives sitting somewhere, but all I saw was what looked like an aboveground pool about ten feet in front of us. Whatever, it didn’t matter now, we were down to seconds before these things exploded, and I had no intention of exploding with them. Elliot was still holding the bag of explosives, and I ripped it off his shoul
der and dropped it on the ground.

  “Let’s go,” he said just as we heard a plane overhead. We turned to see that it was carrying something large and rocket shaped.

  “It’s heading toward that pool,” I said.

  “That’s no pool,” Elliot said. I grabbed his hand, and together we activated our cuffs just as the plane dropped its rocket onto the thing that wasn’t a pool and everything went black.

  I was pretty sure that we weren’t dead, that we’d activated our cuffs in the nick of time, but it was still a relief to open up my eyes in the mountain again.

  “Where’s Salzburg?” Elliot asked.

  “There,” I said as I spotted him on the Glitch platform directly across from us. Above his head, the Glitch timer was counting down quickly from ten. There was no way I was going to let that slimeball escape. I was mid-leap off the platform when I felt Elliot grab my arm and yank me backward.

  “What are you doing?” I said, whirling to face him.

  “We’ll never get him off that platform in time,” Elliot said. “Look.” I turned to see that there was less than five second left on Salzburg’s clock, and I knew Elliot was right. I felt white-hot anger bubble up inside me at the future version of myself who had let this happen. I’d somehow ensured that I’d beat the Lincoln simulation, but I’d failed to catch the guy responsible for all of this. Suddenly I remembered something. My Swiss cheese brain, the one I’d so often compared to a hole-filled colander, actually remembered something.

  “Elliot,” I shrieked, “your pocket!” He stared at me for a half second in confusion, and then all blood drained from his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the very first bomb we’d found hidden in the fountain. I didn’t even stop to think; there wasn’t time for that. I snatched it from his hand and launched it.

  “Salzburg!” I yelled. “Catch!”

  Salzburg looked up in surprise as the bomb arced through the air and his hands reached up automatically to catch the object zooming at his head. He caught it a half second before his countdown clock hit zero, and he and the bomb disappeared.

  “Don’t forget the one in his pocket,” Elliot said numbly as he sat down hard on the platform beside me. My own legs suddenly felt like wet noodles, and I sank down next to him. Together we stared in disbelief at the empty platform as our raspy breath reverberated around the empty room.

  “I can’t believe we forgot about the one in your pocket,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Almost forgot,” Elliot said.

  “Where do you think Salzburg went?” I said.

  “I have no idea, but since he’s holding a bomb that could explode any second, let’s hope it wasn’t the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We can probably pull up the Glitch history on that computer and figure it out. But I need a second for my heart to climb out of my throat.”

  “But what happened to Sam and Serina and everyone else?” I said. “Why aren’t they here? Did they not make it out of the Academy?” I asked, the very thought sending a ripple of fear down my spine as I pictured them holding their explosives in their ridiculous costumes.

  Elliot shook his head. “Every one of them disappeared before we did. We saw it. They made it out of the Academy. I’m positive.”

  “Then why aren’t they here?” I asked again, looking around the room as though they might be playing a very misguided game of hide-and-seek.

  “Give me a second,” Elliot said, his face furrowed in concentration. “I can figure this out.”

  “Maybe their cuffs malfunctioned?” I said, looking down at the set I still had attached to my belt.

  Elliot snapped his head up and looked at me, his eyes wide. “They didn’t malfunction,” he said. “Their cuffs took them back to where they came from.”

  “You’re going to have to give me more than that,” I said. “We’ve been a lot of places recently.”

  “It’s confusing,” Elliot said, “but you and I Glitched twice, right? Once from the collapsing mountain to the Academy, and then when we found out how many explosives there were, we Glitched back to the mountain to get everyone, and then back to the Academy.”

  “The collapsing mountain,” I said, glancing around the room that was still mercifully intact. “We never warned anyone about Mayhem attacking here!”

  “It wasn’t an attack by Mayhem,” Elliot said, and there was something about the way he said it, a tightness in his voice, that made it clear that I wasn’t going to like what came next.

  “Just spit it out,” I said. “I can handle it.”

  “It’s why Salzburg looked so shocked that night. The attack wasn’t one he planned. He had no idea the mountain was going to collapse around our ears.”

  “Well, if it wasn’t him and Mayhem, then who attacked the mountain?”

  “No one,” Elliot said, looking sick. “There was no attack. There was an accident.”

  “That’s not spitting it out,” I said. “What happened?”

  “I think our friends Glitched back to where we took them from. The dorm room inside the mountain the night after we found out the Academy was destroyed.” My mind raced back to that night, and everything clicked into place. “They brought the bombs back to the mountain,” I said. “So, when we were standing in the Glitch room that night, listening to all the professors debate about what to do . . .”

  “They Glitched back to a dorm room with no way to dispose of the bombs. So, what we thought was an attack on the mountain by Mayhem, was really just our friends . . .”

  “Exploding,” I finished, and it was like I couldn’t breathe. All the blood rushed from my head, and I put my head between my knees as dark spots swam in front of my eyes. I stayed like that for a full minute before raising my head to look at Elliot. “So they’re dead?” I asked.

  “That’s what I don’t know,” Elliot said. “If so, they died in an alternate time, a time that won’t ever happen now since the Academy was never destroyed. What I don’t know is if that act changed the timeline at the mountain enough to save them. So, they might be fine. Or,” he said, and he didn’t need to finish his sentence for me to know what that or meant. I swallowed hard as tears pressed against the backs of my eyes. Had we saved the Academy at the cost of our friends’ lives?

  “Okay,” Elliot said, breaking the sober silence a few seconds later. “We can’t sit here and freak out about something we aren’t even sure has happened. The odds are that they are fine. What we need to focus on now is us. We aren’t out of the woods yet.” It was like his very words had jinxed us, because at that exact moment there was a loud bang on the entrance to the Glitch room. We both turned wide eyes to stare as the sound came again.

  “Cadet Fitz!” came a voice I knew all too well, and I felt Elliot grab my arm and haul me to my feet as my mother’s voice rang out again despite the thick steel door between us.

  “Cadet Fitz!” she called again. “I know you and Cadet Mason are in there. Come out with your hands up and no one will get hurt.” I turned horrified eyes on Elliot. And then, to my utter shock, Elliot Mason shrugged. Shrugged! Like life as we knew it wasn’t over.

  “What was that?” I asked, snapped momentarily out of my panic.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “We saved the Academy, but more importantly, we saved a lot of lives tonight. And”—he shrugged again—“that’s what we became Glitchers for—to protect the future. So it’s okay if they arrest us. It’s worth it.”

  “You’re not mad?” I asked.

  “Not even a little bit. Now come on,” he said. “We are in this together. It’s time to face the music.”

  “Man,” I said, shaking my head. “Who are you and what happened to the Elliot who ripped that letter out of my hand that day in the simulation hall?”

  “Cadet Fitz!” my mom called again, but I barely heard her as Elliot and I turned to look at one another in horror.

  “The letter!” we said at the exact same time.

  “Come out, cadets, or we will b
e forced to come in and take you and your coconspirators down by force,” came my mother’s voice.

  “Coconspirators?” I said, and then shook my head as I realized that she was talking about Tess and Eliana and the rest of the kids we’d brought to the Academy in our attempt to save it. But of course, they weren’t here, and their fate was still unknown.

  “Get the Glitch programmed,” I said to Elliot, glancing around frantically until my eyes landed on a stack of white paper. I grabbed one and turned around to find Elliot holding up an eerily familiar white envelope.

  “Do you remember exactly what the letter said?” he asked.

  “I think so,” I said as I started writing out the letter that would change everything.

  “Please, don’t forget to put the bullet point about the bomb in my pocket,” Elliot said, never taking his eyes off the computer screen in front of him.

  “Cadets! We are giving you to the count of ten, and we are coming in,” yelled Callaway, and I scribbled off the last of the note. There was something about seeing that rushed bullet point list, and finally understanding why it looked that way, that sent a shiver down my spine. I was already turning to the platform when I remembered something, and whirled to write my name in big bold script across the front.

  “Hurry up,” Elliot called, and I glanced up to see him tuck his own envelope in his pocket. But before I could ask him what it was, he’d hit the countdown, and I sprinted for the platform. There was a loud bang from the direction of the door, but I didn’t dare look back. I leaped the final steps and grabbed Elliot’s hand and together we Glitched back to the moment before it all began.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Elliot

  I’d watched hundreds of recaps of myself, and it had never really fazed me. I’d loved analyzing my every move as I darted through history. But this? This was different.