Super Glitches 5: The Soldier's Vow

Prisoners

When I opened my eyes again I was in a prison cell. Chains attached me to the wall and straw scattered over my feet, irritating me like I was a bee inside a glass jar.

"Ow," I groaned, feeling various cuts and bruises over my torso rub as I shifted my weight. My wrists were broken and my legs were dead, blood supply cut off by thick shackles.

"Finally, someone to talk to," a voice said gloomily. I noticed for the first time that there was someone else in my cell with me. Twisting my head to try and see them advancing I smiled weakly. A familiar freckled face was staring back at me from where it was sat on the floor. I say it - I mean the body attached to the head.

"Why? Where are the others?" I asked, ignoring the pain that wracked my body whenever I spoke.

"Sophie's dead," Georgina said sadly. "Nosmo killed her because she kept on screeching."

"And Rebecca?"

"Currently being tortured."

"What's the deal with everyone wanting to kill us?" I grumbled, sitting on the floor and moving the chains with my foot. Georgina wrapped her arms around her knees and shrugged. Her metal arm was rusting and cracked, dried blood around the edges where the material met the skin.

"We're dangerous," she explained. "We could easily beat Nosmo's forces and so they want rid of us."

"Has anyone tried explaining that we're not working for Rainfall any more?" I said tiredly.

"I'm not volunteering for this kind of interrogation," Georgina snapped. "You can but I'm in enough pain."

Only then did I realise that her trenchcoat was shredded, the material hanging off her in strips. Her shirt had dark blood stains in various places and her trousers were ripped and torn, grazes visible through the stringy thread. Her blue eyes were pale and she seemed to be on the verge of tears, shivers sending her entire frame into a violent jerking fit every so often.

All the pain I was in was insignificant compared to the hurt she was going through. It was clear on her face, in her eyes, written across her forehead that she wanted nothing more to do with the Super Glitch life. Her friend - dammit, my friend - had died, a second was being tortured because of us and a third had probably organised that torture. Everything was going wrong and she wanted out.

"Hey," I said softly, shuffling closer so that I could nudge her with my shoulder. She winced and immediately I felt bad.

"Sorry," I apologised, resting my head on top of hers and continuing my speech. "What I was going to say is that I know you're fed up. I know you want to just have a normal life that doesn't glitch. I can read it in your face.

'But hey, none of us can have a normal life after this. We've been soldiers, we've been prisoners of war, we've had friends, we've had foes, we've been ambushed and we've had a few fights. We can't go back to being school children now! Not that I ever was, of course..." I tailed off, thinking back to my past.

*

I was hugging my books to my chest, looking around anxiously. The new child halfway through the school year. Never a good start, especially not in Year Seven.

"Hi there!" a voice called. A bouncy girl with bubblegum pink hair jumped over to me, grabbing my hand and tugging me away. My schoolbooks fell to the floor and I looked at them in dismay.

"Oh, sorry," she said, bending down and picking them all up. Her skirt was more of a belt than a skirt and her blazer was rolled up on the sleeves. One foot dragged slightly behind her and hence she limped.

We were both the mockery of the class. Me because of my big eyes and intelligence, her because of her hair and her limp. We became closer and closer throughout the school year until we were inseparable.

People called us names. People scorned us and pushed us over in the corridors. We were bruised, battered but we had a laugh. She would spring straight back up and if I were ever told to shut up because of the way I phrased things I would immediately adopt that person's voice, repeating everything they said a split second after they said it.

We were annoying, me and her. It was as if we could read one another's thoughts and we came up with all sorts of schemes. Teachers hated us, pupils hated us, but we loved us.

"The two troubles," she would say, "ready to destroy the universe!"

That would always make me laugh. She was the only one who could make me laugh, at that point in time. She was bubbly and infectious whereas I was glum and shy.

And then one day she just vanished. Never came back to school. I waited for days, weeks, hoping that she would come back or at least leave me a message. She never did and so I went around to her house.

I was eleven years old and very, very small. I was trembling with fear and anticipation as I used a basic invention of mine to reach the doorbell. I waited on the step for several seconds before pressing it again.

The wooden door swung open and her dad stood there, red around his eyes. He sniffed and started crying when he saw me, wrapping me up into a hug.

"They took her," he wailed. "Rainfall took her!"

Her dad killed himself shortly after. Her mum was long dead, like my parents. She was just like a sister to me but no one had thought to tell me that she had gone.

I was determined to find her and so I packed my rucksack and set off. Using GPS satellite imaging and a load more inventions I followed her trail, walking for weeks. Eventually I made it, stood outside the headquarters of Rainfall.

They didn't let me in to see her. Instead I was re-directed to another centre where I was trained up and given all the equipment I could ever want or need. There I became a doctor, a scientist and an inventor.

But all that time I never forgot. I knew I needed to look for her but just before the Super Glitches arrived something happened. Everyone was given a fresh start, a new memory. I refused it at first and so instead they brought her to me.

I was overjoyed to see her after such a long time. I cried with happiness and then my tears dried as I realised she was... wrong.

Her leg was healed but it was fixed in place with a metal support. The rest of her was made of reinforced steel and as I looked her over in horror noxious gas pumped from her hand, directly into my face. I barely had time to inject myself with an anti-gas before I passed out.

Hours later I woke up again. I could remember everything about myself, my name, my age, my past. Everything apart from one thing.

Her name.

*

I blinked back to reality when the door to our cell was opened. Rebecca was thrown in, unconscious, spitting electricity and blood. The guard bent down to pick up Georgina and a shockwave rippled across the floor, knocking him off his feet. He gave an angry shout and there was a crack as his wooden staff broke her ankles. She said nothing, instead just curling up closer to my side. I realised with some amusement that she was asleep.

"Leave her," a voice said quietly. I looked up and felt my heart freeze over. Shaade was stood in the doorway, hands behind his back. He no longer wore the 'uniform' of a Rainfall agent - instead he was back to wearing a waistcoat, bowtie and smart clothes.

"But Nosmo said-"

"Leave her, I say!"

The guard retreated and Shaade stepped into the cell. Georgina's arm fired up briefly, whirring and casting a blue glow over everything a few inches off the ground.

Shaade took another hesitant pace forwards and Georgina's eyes snapped open. Her arm flew out and Shaade stumbled, falling headfirst towards the stone floor. A second before impact he was thrown backwards, smashing through the stone wall and tumbling to the ground below.

"Good," Georgina murmured, flinching as her arm turned off and her ankles rubbed on the floor. "Irritating child."