My heart fluttered nervously in my chest as the jet touched down in San Francisco.
Whether I liked it or not, there I was.
Having always exercised absolute control over those around me, I wasn't at all accustomed to the panic and helplessness that I felt. For the first time in my life, I had absolutely no idea what to do or how to do it, and it was not a pleasant experience.
"Enjoy yourself, Miss King," the pilot said simply as we screeched to a stop.
"Thanks," I mumbled as I ran down a ladder to the ground, hoping that rapid movement would provide momentary relief from my frantic state of mind. I looked around me to see other planes landing and people boarding them, an ordinary airport scene. However, something was off.
The people around me seemed completely oblivious of both me and the jet taking off a few yards away. When I took a closer look, I noticed a strange, almost bubble-like film that separated the one runway I had landed on from the rest of the airport. Curious, I reached out to touch it. It rippled like the surface of a lake where my finger made contact with it. Suddenly, I heard a high pitched scream.
"Aaaah! It's a severed finger! It's coming after me!" a woman who had just exited a large plane shrieked as I quickly retracted my finger.
"You might not wanna touch that," came a voice from behind me.
"Jade!" I beamed, turning around. Finally someone to answer my questions. "What the heck am I—"
"Amanda will answer all of your questions at headquarters," the WGO representative interrupted, shaping her lips into a semblance of a smile.
"Hey, and about the invisibility shield," Calvin said sheepishly from behind us. "I think it's a little too late for a warning." He pointed to the woman who had called over two airport police officers and was pointing feverishly in our direction.
All three of us began to laugh incredibly hard at the dumbstruck, entirely disbelieving expressions on all of their faces. However, I stopped awkwardly in the middle of a guffaw, struck with realization.
"Wait...invisibility shield?!" I looked over at Jade for an explanation.
"Yeah, it's what separates WGO area from the rest of San Francisco. To non-Glitches, that whole thing over there looks like part of the airport." She gestured to a group of three black buildings in the distance decorated with large WGO insignias.
"Whoa," I said as I widened my eyes, craning my neck to look up at the shield. It stretched so high into the sky that I literally couldn't see the top. I stood for a few seconds in absolute silence, speechless. The whole invisible shield thing must've taken Glitchwork so abstract and complex, I couldn't even dream of attempting anything like it.
"It has something to do with physics and multiple dimensions and manipulation of reality or something like that." Jade shrugged. "I honestly have no idea exactly how they made it. You'd have to ask the Codies about fancy Code stuff like that. Of course, if you ever asked one of them a Code question, they wouldn't let you leave until you listened to an hour-long lecture, but that's not the point."
"The Codies?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, you'll find out about the positions you can hold in WGO later. I think you'll really like it!" she said. "Oh, and the Cookies are here!" Jade waved excitedly to a sleek, black Mercedes as it pulled over beside us.
"Hop in," Calvin called as he swung one of the doors open.
"Wait...cookies? Like chocolate chip cookies?" I felt totally clueless.
YOU ARE READING
Glitches (Book 1)
Science FictionWATTPAD FEATURED STORY. SOON TO BE PUBLISHED BY THE POLYETHNIC PUBLISHING. Your parents don't exist. Your friends don't exist. Your school doesn't exist. Your life doesn't exist. They are all just computer codes, and you're the glitch. You're th...
