Before the Glitches (Book 0)

8 Years Later...

Kate pulled her thick brown hair into a bun slowly and solemnly, the grime in her fingernails sticking to her sweaty locks. There had been a time in her life where she would consider this 'gross', but now, she was beyond caring.

It had been exactly two days since her father, Lucas, had died of the Plague, leaving her the last human on Earth. Well, the last one if you didn't count the Glitches.

Pulling a faded hoodie over her head, she walked down the metal stairs to the Command Center one more time, drawing her hand over the thick walls as she went. She had grown quite attached to these walls, despite their drab appearance. Within them, she had become a teenager and then an adult. Within them sat humanity's last chance.

The screens of the Command Center were relatively quiet. It was evening. Most of the cameras showed the various Glitches in their rooms at the organization they had formed within the Program, the one they called WGO. She smiled, there was Claire, and her and her fake 'brother' Justin.

Though they didn't even know she existed, she had been watching these kids live their lives ever since they entered the Program eight years ago. She knew them better than they knew themselves.

Before she could get lost in the world of the Glitches, she heard a scuffle of boots above her. Lessaenite patrols. She heard them scouting the area occasionally, making sure everything in the area was dead. Turning on the Module's surface cameras, she decided to investigate. Not that they were a threat to the Module, they usually came at night and were either too drunk or too sleepy to notice anything out of the ordinary. She mainly did it out of curiosity. She had never seen an actual alien before.

The camera hadn't been used in over year and the feed was a bit grainy, but she could clearly make out the shapes of five humanoid creatures. They wore bulky blue suits which Kate knew were insulated to keep their temperature below zero. The Lessaenites' bodies couldn't stand Earth temperatures, especially after the Scorching, as they had adapted to a frozen planet far from its sun.

"Hold up! What's that?" One of the patrols whipped a weird, pulsating blue gun out of his belt and began pointing it in random directions.

"Stop overreacting, you fool! It's just the wind," came an icy and authoritative voice from behind him. Kate moved the camera to get a look at the speaker to see a tall Lessaenite woman with sharp features and a tiny snowflake tattoo on her collarbone.

Her breath caught in her throat. That kind of tattoo on a Lessaenite could only mean one thing. An Iceheart. The Icehearts were the Lessaenite Queen's personal advisors, and tended to act like royalty themselves, traveling with large entourages and dressing in pure finery. Kate didn't have any idea what one of them was doing on a barren planet with only five clumsy men to guard her.

"No, I really do believe there's something here," one of the patrols shouted enthusiastically.

"No, it's here!" The others piped in, and soon they were all scurrying around the dry wasteland in circles with the flustered Iceheart in the center.

"All of you, stop running around like animals and come here. The real 'thing' as you call it is here," she pointed to the Module's entrance, rolling her eyes. "It's so obvious, I don't know why idiots like you are even allowed to be in Her Majesty's military."

Kate gasped and quickly shut off the camera, not wanting to allow further movement on the surface. She ran to the emergency shelter deep under the Module and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, when she heard the footsteps start to fade into the distance, she slowly reemerged.

However, her relief was short lived. The moment she sat once again in the Command Center's chair, her arms and legs began to itch terribly. Rolling up her sleeves, she almost screamed in horror and shock at the gruesome rashes and scabs that covered her limbs. The Plague.

She knew this day was coming, the Lessaenite-engineered Plague was too smart to stay away for long, but it's impossible to prepare for the knowledge that you have half a day, tops, to live.

That's when the real problem struck her. The Program and the Glitches. Without her regularly monitoring and redoing parts of it, the Program would degenerate rapidly. The Glitches had less than two years to get out of it or they would fade away into nothingness with it. That was almost three whole years less than what Lucas had originally planned for!

And if they did escape, who would explain the situation to them? They would be clueless, and would perish in the Module too. An idea quickly flashed through her brain.

"Open Program settings," she spoke clearly and deliberately so that the computer would comprehend.

"Password?" It replied.

"Kitkat2997," I stated. The password was fairly simple, my childhood nickname followed by the year of my birth, but it wasn't like my dad had to worry about anyone hacking into the system. There wasn't anyone to hack into the system.

"Password accepted. What action would you like to perform in Program settings?"

"Record new media," I said.

"Preparing to record media," the computer replied, and a camera flipped out of its wall socket, facing me and whirring to life.

"Ready to record. Recording in 3...2...1..."

At the sound of a long beep and a flashing light, Kate turned looked up at the camera, tried her best to feign a pleasant smile, and took a deep breath.

"Hi, I'm Kate Williamson," she began. Though it wasn't necessary and time was of the essence, she wanted the Glitches to know her name. She wanted someone to remember her. "By the time you receive this, I'll probably be dead, but the information I'm about to give you is crucial to your survival so listen carefully. First of all, the year isn't 2015, it's 3015..."

Kate continued, explaining everything from the Lessaenites to the Program to what they had to do next. When she was finally done, she told the camera to stop recording and returned to Program settings.

"Would you like to save your media?" the computer asked.

"Yes. Activate motion sensors."

"Motion sensors activated."

"Play media when motion is detected near electric portal," Kate managed to croak out as her voice grew hoarse. She was going away a lot faster than she had expected.

Looking down, she blinked the water out of her eyes long enough to get one last good look into the Program. Her favorite Glitch, Claire, was giving her sullen Sloppie Glitchketball team a pep talk. Claire's bright eyes and sweet face made Kate smile. There was something special about that girl, a drive nobody could ever take from her.

Better watch out, you old witch, Kate smiled, thinking of the ruler of the Lessaenites. You've skirted Death many times to reach the ripe old age of 340, but not anymore. My little Claire's coming for you.

And with that thought in her head, Kate closed her eyes forever, a blissful expression still on her face.

THE END