The Seventh Glitch

by Ronel van Tonder

  Then he faced forward again, his strides lengthening.

  He turned back after a few seconds, calling out to her: “And hurry. There’s an apocalypse coming, in case you missed the announcement.”

  Kitty waited until he was out of sight behind the curve of the mountain before shaking her head.

  “Frotz.” She growled and ran after him.

  . . .

  BAD_KITTY_69: RU OK?

  BAD_KITTY_69: WHY WONT U ANSWER ME?

  BAD_KITTY_69: STILL IN POLARIS, GETTING OUT SOON

  BAD_KITTY_69: RU THERE?

  “He’s not answering me,” Kitty said, closing her chat console.

  Lucy gave her a single-shouldered shrug.

  “There’s nothing more we can do, except what we’re doing right now.” His eyes scanned ahead. “If it’s not fast enough, then it’s not fast enough.”

  Kitty clenched her jaw to avoid shouting at the man; it had had no effect up to now, so why waste the energy? Anyway, she was feeling less and less confrontational ever since her outburst at Carnage Mountain. It had taken only a few minutes for reality to settle on her while they trudged through the bleak yet pretty wastelands of Polaris’s ebony surface.

  Lucy was right, of course. He was her only hope. Her’s and William’s. There was nothing to be done except what they were already doing. She’d threatened to go on her own, but she knew she’d never make it to William by herself. She was a back-up player: the medic or the healer, shying from the front lines to clean up behind everyone else.

  She shook her head. Man up and shut up.

  Lucy had slowed, his head whipping from left to right.

  “What are you looking for?” Kitty asked.

  “A sign…” Lucy murmured.

  “Like a glowing, neon one? Or just your regular, ‘smote me down if I’m wrong’ kind of sign?” Kitty asked. Lucy didn’t seem to notice her sarcasm. “Any idea what the supposed sign says? I can help you look.”

  “Not a literal sign.” Lucy gave her a sidelong glance. “Bonzo said he’d leave something out in the open so we’d know where he’s waiting.”

  Kitty gazed around for a few seconds. “Wouldn’t be that gigantic pile of crap over there, then?”

  She pointed toward one of a hundred metallic mounds of waste surrounding them. They’d been threading through the make-shift hills for over ten minutes already.

  Lucy didn’t look. “No. I reckon it would be something that would look out of place. Easily spotted, if you were looking for it. Usually—” Lucy broke off and pointed. “Something like that.”

  His finger indicated a distant flutter of white.

  Where did Polaris’s illumination came from? There was no sun in the sky. No moon. Could starlight really be responsible for the way the black desert sparkled underfoot? Probably just illogical game development.

  They headed for the scrap of white.

  Kitty tried to keep her stride smooth, but it was growing increasingly difficult. The pressure she’d felt earlier had returned, as if lack of excitement had given her real-world body time to renew its pleas on her sleeping mind.

  She really, really needed to pee. Like, badly.

  The white flutter turned out to be a piece of cloth. To the casual observer, it seemed to have been caught on a length of wire protruding from an insignificant mound of rubbish. Just a passer-by’s shirt, snagged as he or she made their way across the lonely desert.

  Except it wasn’t, of course. As they drew near, Kitty saw tremors in the air close to the scrap of cloth. Heat cascaded up from a hidden vent, striking the cloth just right, causing it to flutter in the thermals.

  Lucy walked around the side of the small mound, and beckoned her to follow.

  “Here we are.” He crouched and began dragging away sheets of corrugated iron.

  The noise was ridiculous. Kitty wrapped her arms around herself and threw glances over her shoulders, twisting to make sure no one was coming to investigate the hubbub. It had been ages since they’d last seen another player or NPC, but in this place…

  “You coming?”

  “Huh?” Kitty swung back to Lucy. He was on his stomach, half-submerged in the sand, his fingers flicking at her to follow. “We’re going in there?”

  “Wouldn’t be a secret passage if it was wide enough for a spaceship to do a three point turn in, would it?”

  She squared her shoulders and crouched down, waiting for Lucy to move out of her way before sliding her legs into the narrow chamber. Several sharp, pointy things snagged at her robe as she sank down. Lucy waited less than a metre inside, Kitty going rigid when her feet touched his shoulders.

  “Can you move?” she said.

  That same infernal light was streaming into the passage mouth, gleaming from his eyes as he frowned up at her. She had an overwhelming urge to grip the edges of her robe around her ankles.

  “I need to hide the entrance,” Lucy said.

  They shuffled around each other: Kitty muttering curses under her breath and Lucy offering murmured suggestions about where she should locate various bits of her anatomy in order for them to move past each other.

  When they’d swapped places, Lucy glanced at her over his shoulder.

  “What’s gotten into you?”

  “Me?” Kitty forced her lips into a crescent. “Oh, I don’t know. Various lies. Hordes of untruths. Loons and liars and a glorky game. You know, just everything.”

  She snapped her mouth closed. Lucy lowered his eyebrows and turned away from her with a soft whistle, scrambling out of the tunnel and disappearing for a few moments. He reversed back into the hole, dragging a sheet of metal with him. Then he turned, dusted his hands, and made a shooing motion toward her.

  “Onward,” he said.

  And onward she went. The passage kept narrowing the further they descended, forcing Kitty to crouch and then lie belly down pulling herself along with her elbows.

  Somewhere on planet Earth, her body was beginning to quiver.

  “How far is it?” she whispered.

  “No idea. Just keep going.”

  She paused. Lucy bumped into her feet.

  “I don’t know if I can,” she whispered. Her cheeks were on fire, her entire body vibrating.

  “All right, but we can’t turn around, so there’s really—”

  “I have to—” A sob cut off the sentence.

  “What the frack’s going on, mate?”

  “I can’t—”

  “Just keep going. We’re almost there.”

  Trying to bring her sobs under control, Kitty stuck out her elbow and dragged herself along.

  “Lucy…” her voice was less than a murmur. She came to a halt again. “I can’t do this.”

  “You claustrophobic or something?”

  “I have to… it’s been too long… I need to—”

  “Spit it out!” the snap in Lucy’s voice made her jerk.

  “I have to pee.” She dragged the words out, her head sinking into her arms. “I can’t—”

  There was a pause from behind her. Lucy’s fingers wrapped around her ankle.

  “Best just to get it over with. Trust me.”

  She sniffed, pressing her fingers over her eyes. Back on Earth, waves of burning shame crashed over her. Her body ached and stung, bound into utter servitude by what it thought was her slumbering mind. Her organs were in sleep mode, but soon she would have to wake up. Soon she would have to—

  Kitty shook her head. No. Not now. Not here.

  She squeezed her mouth closed and forged ahead, elbow in front of elbow. The grip on her ankle disappeared. She blinked. Ahead, a pinprick of light wavered. She moved a little faster, pumping her elbows. Her teeth ground together as she bared them at the expanding circle of light.

  Almost tumbling head-first into the cavern below, Kitty yelped and grabbed the lip of the tunnel. Lucy’s face appeared above her, his eyes widening at sight of the drop.

  “What the frack?” Kitty wailed.

 
“It’s okay.” Lucy’s eyes roved, settling on a point to her left. “Swing that way. There’s a rope.”

  Kitty stared at the rope. It was three metres away from her. She glared up at Lucy.

  “What do I look like? Lara fracking Croft?”

  Lucy compressed his lips, blinking a few times as he stared at the ceiling. Then he slid out of the tunnel, scrabbling for purchase centimeters from her hands.

  “Move over,” he said.

  “Ja, because there’s just so much space—”

  “Just move.”

  Kitty edged her fingers along the lip of the tunnel, trying to ignore the sense of gravity tugging at her.

  It had to be in her mind, after all. There was no way a body suit could possibly project a feeling of gravity on a recumbent body. And yet, in dreams, gravity always existed. Except those where you flew. But this wasn’t one of them. Here, the dream was bound to the logic of The Game. There were parameters that couldn’t be surpassed. Rules had to be adhered to.

  Lucy began to swing. After a few passes, his legs began crashing into hers. She tried moving further away, but she’d run out of tunnel mouth to sidle her fingers along. She drew her legs up, slowly, trying simultaneously not to wet herself and not to plummet to her death.

  “If this doesn’t work—” Lucy shouted “—then I really hope you get out, one way or the other.”

  “What?” Kitty watched as Lucy let go.

  He soared through the air, the perfect gender-swap cosplay of a robed Lara Croft, and then he was clutching the rope. And then he was sliding down the rope, seemingly unable to stop his rapid descent.

  “Ow, frack, shit.” Lucy came to a halt a few metres down, his silhouette nearly invisible in the darkness.

  He climbed back up the rope, wincing every few seconds.

  Then he held out his hand for her.

  Kitty made her way along the ledge, her fingers complaining passionately about the weight they had to bear and their abominable working conditions. Then she stared at Lucy, wide-eyed.

  “I need your hand,” he prompted. He glanced down, eyes returning aflame. “Like now.” He slid down a centimetre, his teeth gleaming as he gritted them. “Now, Kitty.”

  She took a deep breath, but her fingers refused to let go.

  “Now, Kitty!” he slid again. “Now!” His voice was a bellow.

  Kitty leapt.

  . . .

  Kitty’s avatar let out an oomph when she collided with Lucy. For a moment, they scrabbled at each other as if overcome by passion. Then they soared down the rope. Kitty found a grip on Lucy’s robe, Lucy’s free hand caught her under her arm, and he slowed their descent by dragging his boots against the wall behind her. They hung for a few seconds, the chasm below swallowing the sounds of their heavy breathing.

  Kitty glanced up. “Shit. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s all right.” Lucy's breath hissed through clenched teeth. “It’s all right. It’s just my hand. I’m all right.”

  His health bar had dropped past half point. They swung for a few more seconds, bumping against the wall, before Lucy hoisted her up, adjusting his grip on her.

  “You got me?” he asked.

  “Think so.”

  “Then I’m going to let go. I need both hands.”

  Kitty nodded. Then, “Ja, ja. Okay.”

  He released her. She clung to him, burrowing her head into his robe, as they inched down the rope.

  “You do it?” he asked.

  Kitty glanced up. His face was close to hers, but his concentration was focused solely on his hands. He left blood on the rope.

  “No.” Kitty fought back a blush. “I manned up.”

  “Should have done it,” he said. “Feels better, after.”

  She looked away, pressing her cheek against his chest. Below, the darkness seemed infinite.

  “I couldn’t. Not… there.”

  He didn’t reply. Kitty blinked, straining to find something in the darkness that would suggest that they were reaching the end of the chasm. Another point of light appeared. It flickered.

  “I see something.”

  “Ground, I hope.” There was strain in Lucy’s voice. “My stamina’s just about to give out.”

  “A light… It’s… it’s a candle. Or a torch.”

  “Thank the void,” Lucy breathed. “How far?”

  “Five, ten metres, maybe.”

  “Okay. I’m going to—”

  Lucy’s hands slipped.

  They came to a halt with a violent jerk, crashing into the wall. A jutting piece of metal scraped over Kitty’s thigh. She tried to suppress a cry as The Game’s bodysuit pelted her with more electricity.

  “Kitty?”

  “Frotz…”

  “Are you—”

  “I think so.” She glanced up. She definitely had the rope in both hands. Lucy had his hand around her ankle. “I don’t know if I can take us down, though. If I let go—”

  “Don’t let go!” Lucy took a deep breath, his voice reaching her a touch more calm than before. “Don’t let go. I think I see the ground. I just want to make sure before either of us does anything rash.”

  A moment later, the weight around her foot was gone.

  “Lucy!” Kitty bumped against the wall. “Lucy!”

  “It’s all right,” came his voice. “I was practically on the ground already. You can probably let go without breaking anything.”

  “Probably?” Kitty eased her fingers, wrapping the rope around one of her legs.

  She slid a few centimeters, bumping into the wall and receiving another scratch and flash of pain for her efforts. A few minutes later, she was standing beside Lucy on the spongy ground of a cavern floor.

  “Reminds me of Chimera’s caves,” she said, working her hands.

  Lucy was crouched, binding his hands with strips of cloth. From behind, came the sound of urgent feet. Kitty swung around, but Lucy already had his plasma rifle out, his foot pushing against hers as he glared down one of the seven tunnels branching out from the cavern they stood in.

  An orange light brightened the wall of the tunnel. A large, hulking figure ran toward them, its ancient, metallic space suit clanking and rattling.

  “What the—” Kitty began, but Lucy lowered his plasma rifle and gave her a flash of a smile.

  “It’s Bonzo.”

  Bonzo came to a halt a few metres from them, ducking his head when he saw Lucy. The man’s face was lit by a garish green light inside the visor of his space suit. When he grinned, the light gleamed on only a handful of teeth, the rest having been taken by the void.

  “Good to see you again,” Lucy said. He turned to Kitty. “This is Bonzo. He’s an—” Lucy’s voice faltered briefly “—an NPC. He’s going to get us out of here.”

  Kitty found her voice a few minutes later, when the three of them were making their way down the tunnel Bonzo had arrived from.

  “Did you say he’s an NPC?” she whispered.

  “Why does that surprise you?”

  “He’s helping us escape.”

  “Another anomaly, courtesy of the glitch.”

  “Which one?”

  Lucy glanced over his shoulder at her. “The second one, possibly.”

  The hulking NPC drew to a halt. Lucy joined him, slapping a hand on the shoulder of his space suit. It clanged.

  “Where is it?”

  Bonzo pointed down another tunnel, branching off the one they stood in. They’d already passed a handful to reach this point. Just what kind of a labyrinth was down here, anyway? It made her think of an ant farm. On a really, really strange planet.

  “Will I know it when I see it?” Lucy asked.

  At first, Bonzo shrugged. Then he glanced away, his mouth growing slack. Kitty could see a thought strike him, arriving as lazily as dawn on a smoggy morning.

  Bonzo nodded, his visor filling up with a fine mist before clearing an instant later. Lucy clanged his shoulder again.

  “Thank you, frie
nd.” Lucy gestured at Kitty and turned down the tunnel.

  The NPC made a noise. It was something between a grunt and a sob. Lucy twisted back, craning to see past Kitty.

  “What is it?”

  Kitty turned around in time to see Bonzo drop his head, his forehead pressing on the inside of the space suit. Lucy pushed past her, stalking up to the NPC and taking hold of one of the moulded panels attached to the suit’s shoulder.

  “Bonzo, what is it?”

  And then Bonzo enfolded Lucy in a hug. There was a creak of tortured metal, and then Lucy was freed. Bonzo lumbered around and disappeared down the tunnel, making strange keening sounds that echoed hollowly inside his space suit.

  Lucy watched the NPC until he was out of sight. When he turned around, his face was devoid of expression, but his jaw was clenched tight.

  He strode past Kitty, murmuring, “Let’s go,” without pausing.

  It was another exit. Except here, it was nothing but a slit in an otherwise solid rock wall. The aperture was narrower than Lucy’s shoulders, and only a few centimeters taller than him. Inside it, an oily membrane coalesced with a sickly orange hue, its mirror-like surface reflecting everything except them.

  They stared at it until a sound from behind drew their eyes away. Around them, the tunnel began trembling. Dust sprinkled down, coating their hair and robes. Then the trembling died down.

  “What was that?” Kitty asked.

  “Possibly the apocalypse. And our cue to get the frack out of here.”

  “Thank the void for that.”

  They both grimaced.

  Lucy held out his bound-up hand. “Let’s take it slow this time, yeah?”

  “Sounds good to me.” Kitty stepped forward and paused. “What’s next?”

  “Torque.” Lucy put his hands on his hips, taking a long breath. “With more than enough speed freaks to go around. You ready?”

  Then his eyes moved past her, widening. In their dark depths, an inferno churned. Kitty’s head pushed back, her chin burrowing involuntarily into her chest.

  “Lucy?”

  “Run,” he breathed. “Run!”

  Kitty made the mistake of looking around.

  A solid, seething mass of flame and fire and smoke boiled toward them at a speed that couldn’t have been based on the laws of physics. She was still in the process of blinking slowly, stupidly, at her approaching death, when Lucy jerked her backward.