Super Glitches 5: The Soldier's Vow

Revelations

"Shaade!" Georgina yelled, twisting in her seat to first slap her friend and then give him a hug. I grabbed the steering wheel to stop us from driving into the side of Nosmo's palace. Somehow we'd only driven a very short distance yet gone very, very fast - Georgina had driven us in circles.

"Rebecca, pull him into the back," I ordered, having difficulty seeing past Georgina's head. Rebecca did as she was asked but instead used electricity. A current passed through Shaade and therefore to Georgina and therefore to the steering wheel, something she'd just snatched, and therefore to me. I slumped back in my seat and stared out of the window. There had always been tension between Shaade and I, most likely because I never liked Josh much. He - sorry, Burn - was the one who had damaged Georgina's arm. Shaade would do anything to protect Josh and hence, I didn't trust either of them.

"If he would protect him at any cost then how come Josh died, eh?" I muttered to myself, wiping my sleeve over the misted up window to see outside. It had got dark rapidly and stars started to twinkle in the sky.

"Are you staying or just dropping in, Shaade?" Georgina asked with a grin, glancing at him in the rear view mirror. Shaade gave a weak laugh and pulled himself out of Rebecca's vicious hug.

"Staying," he replied. I felt eyes burrow into the back of my neck. "Hopefully."

"Great!" Georgina cried, jumping up and down in her seat and sending the speed haywire. "I'll drive us to a hotel or something, somewhere we can rest for a while."

"You could always go to my house," I offered quietly. At first I thought nobody heard me but then Georgina spoke.

"You have a house?" she said in surprise. I turned my head and twitched my nose in annoyance. She was frowning but her eyes kept on shooting back towards Shaade.

"Yes," I said, looking out of the window again. "I haven't been back in years, though. It was my parent's house really, left to me, but I-"

"We'll go there then," Georgina decided. She stopped the car and opened her door, climbing over the roof of the car and then opening my door. She beckoned for me to move over into the driver's seat and I scrambled over the gearstick with difficulty, ignoring the sniggers from the back of the car as I twisted my body at all angles to avoid the lever from sticking into my crotch. Eventually I was sat in the driving seat and turning us around, old memories returning.

*

"Are we nearly there yet?" I whined, bouncing up and down in my seat. The social worker glared at me in the rear view mirror and said nothing, accelerating sharply. My face hit the seat in front and I started to cry, rubbing my nose.

"Get over it," she growled.

Some social worker, I thought grumpily, settling into a horizontal position across all three back seats. That earned me another death stare and so I reluctantly sat up.

"Here," came the grunt from the front seat. "Get out and come back in at minimum four hours. No less." She promptly got out her phone and started texting someone. I stuck my tongue out at her back and pulled myself out of the window.

The house that faced me was more of a mansion than a house. Scrap that - it was a skyscraper! About twenty levels high, made of shimmering glass, metal and other materials I couldn't identify, the tower was an imposing structure but fitted in perfectly with the busy city life.

I walked forwards, head craned back in awe. My mouth fell open as the front doors swung open at my approach. I was eight years old and hadn't seen what an automatic door was before then.

"Awesome," I breathed, eyes wide. I grinned and ran over to the lifts, jumping up and hitting the button. The lift appeared almost instantly and the man inside doffed his peaked cap to me before walking out. I recognised his peculiar, jerking gait and knew that he was a robot.