The Seventh Glitch

by Ronel van Tonder

  Flashes of hot and cold, interspersed with whip-crack lines of electricity ran over her skin.

  Every new wave brought more pain, but also numbed her. It was as if the pain was boring into her flesh, reaching into her bones and splitting them open to reap the marrow nestled inside. Her skin was peeling back, abandoning her dying body. Her eyes were fizzing, expanding and expanding until they were ready to pop open from the pressure.

  Lucy grabbed her shoulder. A steel bar sliced through the air in front of her, moving in a blissful state of precision. She studied it, marvelling at the textures on its surface. Then another speared through the air beside it, and another — this one closer.

  Her body shifted, Lucy’s weight bearing her down, sliding her toward the floor of the impaled car. There was a sudden, hot, fizzing core of pain in her hip. Kitty tried to scream, realised she was still screaming.

  Lucy’s head knocked against hers as he jerked her down over the gear shift. The knob drove into her spine, becoming the focal point of another series of sharp, ice-hot spears of pain.

  More bullets flew through the air. Their ping-ping-ping as they struck various surfaces filled the auto workshop with noise. Rubber smoke tainted the air. The car’s shuddering twirl came to a halt as the last iron rod pierced the chassis of the car. Its sharp metal point stopped a centimetre away from her face.

  Kitty blinked at it.

  Time fell down on her in buckets of noise, pain, and lung-freezing terror. Kitty’s mouth finally clamped down over her ridiculous scream as she pushed herself to the side, her eyes filling with a plethora of hot tears as she stared at the rod that had nearly ended her.

  A last bullet snapped into the headrest of the driver’s seat, puffing out foam and leather. Metal popped as it cooled. A few shards of glass tinkled down to join their friends on the diamond-littered floor.

  Kitty felt something move in her hand and stared down at Lucy’s fingers, mashed through her own. His skin was too white against the dark leather of his fingerless gloves. Her eyes moved to his, and he gave her a suggestion of a smile, his lips trembling.

  “You okay?” His voice was ragged.

  Her own smile was as faint and tremulous as his had been.

  “I just pissed myself,” she whispered.

  Lucy gave an abrupt bark of laughter and released her hand. He peered carefully over the glass-dusted dashboard and grimaced faintly.

  “Good,” he said. “’Cos if you hadn’t yet, you would have now.” His dark eyes shone when he glanced back at her. “They’ve just set fire to your William.”

  . . .

  He’d been expecting it, but his hands still clasped nothing but air when Lucy made a grab for Kitty as she leapt out of the torn-open windscreen of the Nissan. He heard himself shouting after her, his voice a croak, barely recognisable.

  Then his pistol was in his hand, trained toward the distant group of Torque gang members. They had to be players, not NPC’s — or perhaps players turned NPC, who the fuck knew these days? Lucy hauled himself onto the bonnet of the car, trying to force his eyes way from Kitty’s neon pink hair, trying to assess which of the gang members turning their way was going to shoot at her first.

  None did. They watched, calmly and implacably, as Kitty hurtled forward. Then she slid to a halt, lifting her hands against the heat of the flames. Somewhere inside the inferno, something moved. But it moved with a feeble, jerking twitch, as if the movement was wrought of blackened skin tightening, manipulating the flesh beneath like a novice puppet master.

  Lucy slowed, hanging back, studying the faces that stared toward Kitty. They were slack, emotionless: not the expression of players who’d just torched another player. But not those of NPC’s either, with the zeal of their programmed quests burning white-hot inside them.

  “Kitty,” Lucy murmured, drawing close enough to the girl to catch hold of her arm.

  She shook him off of course, but he snagged her jacket. He tugged, gently but insistently, until she turned her staring eyes on him.

  “Back up,” Lucy said. “But slow. Like real fucking slow.”

  Her mouth opened, the start of a protest pouting her lips, but Lucy gave her a tiny shake of his head, not taking his eyes off the players in front of them. She blinked up at him, glancing back at the stilling shadow inside the flames. Then she took a slow step backward. And, after a tug on her sleeve, another.

  “Was he on his last life?” Lucy asked, eyes not fixing on Kitty, but scanning the impassive watchers.

  “Um… No. I don’t think so. He still had two or three in Chimera. I can’t r-remember.” Kitty clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes squeezing shut. “I don’t—”

  “All right, relax. He’ll be all right. Just follow me. Nice and slow. Real slow.” Lucy glanced over his shoulder. Beside the now wrecked Nissan, there was nothing much in the way of furnishing inside the garage. But between the still smoking wreck and the grease-slimed wall was a narrow metal door. Above it, a sign flickered.

  “We’re going to get out of here, okay?”

  He stared at Kitty until she nodded at him. Then he drew her out after him, the metal icy beneath his gloved hand. The inert gang members hadn’t offered a word of explanation, but neither had any of them made a move to stop Lucy and Kitty’s departure. Lucy tried to put the sight of their lifeless eyes out of his mind until he was sure they were safe.

  Outside, rain drummed down on them, wet and relentless. Out here on the small peninsula of the island of Torque, there were hardly any street lamps or neon signs to illuminate the night. Instead, rain blanketed them in a diaphanous veil, gathering in vast puddles that reflected only the midnight clouds above with their occasional glimmers of lightning.

  Lucy splashed over the road, ducking under the crude barriers constructed over the single lane entrance to the isolated auto-workshop. From this angle, it looked possible for them to have reached the area via the road, until the eye was drawn further up the dark surface to where it ended in jagged chunks of masonry.

  “William…” Kitty bleated, the sound of her voice jerking Lucy’s head around. She came to a halt, spinning around, straining against the grip he had on her wrist. “We can’t just—”

  “Soon as The Game has processed his death, he’ll be popping out at the closest respawn point. That’s in town.” Kitty’s face turned back, rain-slicked, her green eyes catching a hidden illumination. “Try sending him a message.”

  Kitty nodded, her eyes dashing to the side. Lucy walked on, gripping her wrist until he was sure she would complain about the pressure. They reached the torn-apart road, Kitty hesitating when Lucy spun around and began descending a rickety metal ladder leading into the choppy waters below.

  “He answer?” Lucy asked, pausing.

  “Not yet. How long till he spawns?”

  “Should have already. Maybe he’s still in shock. After what they fucking did…” Lucy cut off the sentence when Kitty’s mouth tightened. “Come on, K. Nothing like a little skinny dip to get your mind off things.”

  He waited at the bottom of the ladder until he saw Kitty’s foot arrive, hesitantly, on the first rung. Then he let himself splash into the icy water of the ocean battering against Torque’s pristine beaches. Kitty arrived seconds later.

  “Fuck me!” Kitty spluttered, splashing with her arms. “It’s fucking cold!”

  “Come on,” Lucy called. “We can’t stay in the water for too long. Hypothermia and all that shit.”

  He began to swim. Behind him, he heard Kitty follow. A few minutes later, he dragged himself onto the sand, his feet struggling through the slush of ocean and shore. Kitty emerged after, pink hair plastered over her face and clothes hanging from her limbs.

  “Damn,” she said, her teeth chattering. “Really wishing this fucking game suit wasn’t so fucking sophisticated right now.”

  Lucy dipped his chin. “Let’s get a move on. The faster we walk, the quicker we dry.”

  “Why’s he not saying anything?” Ki
tty asked as they trudged up a gentle dune. “I mean, he must have spawned already.”

  “Like I said, he’s no doubt in shock. What’s his username, let me see if I can add him.”

  “DASHING_WILLIAM_19,” Kitty said, her voice struggling to emerge between clattering teeth.

  Lucy thought out the username, adding it to the list of several other players on his contact list. He didn’t send a friend request: he didn’t have to.

  LUCY_FUR_666: U THERE?

  There was no reply.

  LUCY_FUR_666: U SPWN YET?

  Still nothing.

  LUCY_FUR_666: WHERE RU?

  Just as Lucy was about to close his chat console, a message came through.

  DASHING_WILLIAM_19: WHO THE FUCK IS THIS?

  LUCY_FUR_666: KITTYS FRIEND. LOOKING 4 U. WHERE U @?

  DASHING_WILLIAM_19: LITTLE JIGGLER

  LUCY_FUR_666: GOT IT

  Lucy closed the console. It looked like Kitty was trying to stare a hole through his head. He lifted his chin.

  “Found him. Let’s go.”

  “Why didn’t he speak to me?”

  “Shit, K. It's possible that he literally just re-spawned. Relax, you’ll be with your William before you can say ‘I have a need for speed.’”

  “I would never say that. I fucking hate this rift.”

  “You reckon you’ve been here long enough to establish some form of fucking opinion?”

  “Yeah.” The girl stuck her chin out at him. “I came, I saw, then Will got torched.” Her eyes were pinpoints of green fire. “I think I’ve experienced enough to have a fucking opinion.”

  They crested the dune and climbed over the barrier running the length of the double-lane road that curved along the shoreline. In the distance, lights flickered.

  Lucy stuck out his thumb. Kitty’s hand wrapped around his arm as she dropped her entire weight on his limb. His arm dipped, but he straightened again, sparing her a quick frown.

  “What the fuck you doin’?” Lucy snapped.

  “It’s them!” Kitty’s voice was frantic. “The Merc from earlier. Get your fucking hand down before—”

  The approaching AMG squealed to a halt, its driver putting it into a spin that ended it with the driver’s side door facing Lucy and Kitty. Kitty dropped from his arm and took a hurried step back.

  A silver-tinted window rolled down. A girl with bright blue hair stuck her head out of the window, her arm grabbing hold of the door as she leaned out. She wore dark glasses, about seven facial piercings, and a leering grin. Her yellow-manicured fingernails tipped the glasses to her forehead as she draped herself over the windowsill of the driver door, her other hand gripping the roof.

  “Hey, gorgeous.” The girl’s eyes flickered toward Kitty, disregarding her in an instant before returning to his.

  “My diary’s got like a whole fucking page devoted to you.” The girl let out a snorting giggle. “Got stuff like: ‘Lucy don’t love me no more’ and ‘Why ain’t Lucy called me back yet?’ and shit written in it. Grab your bitch and get in the back. You’re fucking late.”

  Kitty started making an angry sound, but Lucy had her around the waist and in the back seat of the AMG before she got anything out. She flung him a scathing glare, but he shook his head at her, lifting his eyebrows in a meaningful way that she seemed oblivious too, and dove in after her just as the girl slammed her foot down on the accelerator.

  Lucy tumbled into Kitty. They reclaimed their limbs, Kitty straightening her hair with trembling fingers. And then she kicked him in the shin, blinking innocently when he frowned at her.

  “Thanks, Ilyena,” Lucy said, intensifying his frown at Kitty.

  “Bitch don’t want no thanks,” a voice grumbled from the passenger seat. “All this bitch be wanting is more races. I tell you, Luce—” a face appeared from the darkness of the passenger seat “—what’s a guy to do to get a little peace and quiet around here?”

  “Tyre strip, mate,” Lucy said. “That, or a fucking explosive device connected to this thing’s starter. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, drones fitted with machine guns work well, but they’ll take longer setting up and shit.”

  The man seated beside Ilyena guffawed with laughter, delivering a slap to Ilyena’s thigh. She grunted, and geared down the car, slamming the Mercedes into a turn that had Lucy sliding toward Kitty again. He hastily grabbed the chicken bar, moving his legs out of range of the girl’s boots, just in case. Her look of furious expectation hadn’t simmered yet. Her mouth pulled into a nasty, twitching line.

  “Why am I not in the least bit surprised you know them?” Kitty asked, sounding like she was trying to speak through her teeth.

  “What, you haven’t told your girlfriend about us, Lucy?” Ilyena gave Lucy an unfriendly grin in the rear-view mirror. “Tsk, tsk. I thought we had something special goin’.”

  Lucy rolled his eyes, hoping Ilyena noticed the gesture. She gave a husky laugh and turned her eyes back to the road just in time to avoid slamming into the sidewalk.

  “Kitty, meet Ilyena. Ilyena, Kitty. Ilyena’s my gaming partner from way-back-when.” He stabbed a thumb toward the passenger seat. “And that’s Borris, who’s technically left Ilyena, but then decided to hang around until they levelled up.”

  Ilyena laughed again. “That what you telling players these days?”

  Lucy threw her a furious glare, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore.

  “Don’t you get taken in by his lies, little pussy cat,” Ilyena said. “This one’s a wolf pretending to be a lap dog. And he’s gonna eat you up and spit out the bones and fluff when he’s done.”

  Beside her, Borris growled. “Shut it, bitch.”

  “Who you calling a bitch, you man-whore?” Ilyena said. Then she leaned across to Borris, running a hand over his thigh. “I’m sorry pookie-bear. I didn’t mean to snap.”

  Lucy let out a long sigh, pressing his forehead into the arm dangling from the chicken bar. He could feel Kitty’s eyes auguring into him again.

  “I don’t have the energy,” he said, directing his voice toward Kitty.

  “The truth really that tiring?” Kitty snapped. “Or is it because you’re just not used to telling it like it is?”

  Lucy ignored her. He released the chicken bar and drew himself between the two front seats. Opening his inventory, Lucy took out a pair of keys with a two fluffy dice dangling from the key chain. He shoved them into Ilyena’s inventory and dipped his head forward.

  “You know what to do,” he said, trying to whisper into her ear without Kitty hearing.

  Ilyena gave him a side-long glance. “Yeah. Just not sure how much I fucking want to, anymore,” she said warily.

  “You have responsibilities, Ilyena.”

  The girl shifted against the seat, flicking a clump of blue hair from her eyes.

  “These glitches are really fucking things up. What if—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lucy said. “You know that. Do this, and we can all call it a day, yeah?”

  “We’d like to,” Ilyena replied in a sing-song voice. “But we can’t exactly exit the fucking game, now can we? What if we get stuck? Like for-e-ver?”

  “Can’t help you out there, can I?” Lucy said, forcing a grin onto his face. “Now you gonna do what needs doin’, or do I have to go and remind you why we’re all here?”

  Ilyena snorted. “Don’t you fucking lecture me, Lucy.” She cocked her chin to him. “I said I’ll do it. So I’ll do it. And even if I don’t do it, Borris here will.” She gave her partner a quick sneer. “He’s real committed like.”

  Lucy opened his mouth for a reply, but a new message on his console stalled him.

  ILYENA_462: HOW MUCH DOES UR LITTLE FRIEND KNOW?

  Lucy jerked his mouth to the side, glaring at Ilyena despite the fact that she refused to look at him in the mirror.

  LUCY_FUR_666: 0

  ILYENA_432: HOW SAFE IS CHAT?

  LUCY_FUR_666: NOTHINGS SAFE

  ILYENA_4
32: SO 3/7 SO FAR? AND 3 GLITCHES - COINCIDENCE?

  LUCY_FUR_666: NO COINCIDENCE. DONT MEAN U CAN QUIT

  ILYENA_432: HEARD CECILS GONE THE WAY OF THE DODO

  LUCY_FUR_666: MORE LIKE THE WAY OF THE CRIMINALLY INSANE. EVEN HE COULD STILL PERFORM HIS DUTIES

  “Fuck you, Lucy,” Ilyena spat.

  “Ilye—”

  “Of all of them, we’re the only two that are still a team. You hear me? Everyone’s gone AWOL, so good fucking luck getting anywhere after Torque.”

  Lucy drew in a deep breath, his fingers touching Ilyena’s shoulder. She jerked her avatar away and her fingers tightened over the steering wheel again.

  “Why do you think I have my doubts?” Lucy asked. “Everyone’s losing it, and you and Borris are still here? Still loyal? You think I’m putting my cock on a block without checking your moral fucking compasses first?”

  “Lucy?” came a querulous voice from the back seat. “What’s going on?”

  “Fifteen minutes, Ilyena” Lucy said, but she ignored him, her lips pursed in a scowl.

  Lucy tapped Borris on the shoulder. “Get Kitty to the Little Jiggler. Her co-op’s waiting there for her.”

  Borris nodded, his gray eyes narrowing. “Will do.”

  ILYENA_462: NOT THE PLAN

  LUCY_FUR_666: IM DONE DRAGGING HER WITH ME

  ILYENA_462: THATS NOT THE PLAN. THE PLAN WAS 2 STAY WITH HER. U NEED THE COVER

  LUCY_FUR_666: NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION

  “When the fuck did you start caring about sheeple?” Ilyena’s eyes flashed to Lucy in the rear-view mirror.

  Lucy opened his mouth, but Ilyena slammed on the brakes and his words emerged as a breathless grunt.

  “Lucy?” Kitty asked again, sounding angry. “What’s happening?”

  He didn’t look at her, his eyes fixed instead on Ilyena’s in the mirror.

  The blue-haired girl wiggled her fingers at him and mouthed: “Bye, bye.”

  Lucy’s hands fumbled until they found the handle and he half-slid, half-fell out of the car. His chest was on fire; the pain he’d felt in Helical returning to stab him through and through with ice. He slammed the door, Kitty’s pink hair the last blur of colour he saw until the mirrored glass separated them.