Chapter 6

Dove and Glitch – Part 1

THE MORNING OF THE ATTACK ON SOL CITY

“But why do I have to drive him?” His elder sister squealed from inside the kitchen while Aiden Greene sat curled up on the couch with his Nintendo Switch in hand.

He pretended to be engrossed in his game, indifferent to the goings-on in the kitchen.

“Because he’s your brother, Lucy,” their mom said firmly. “And he cannot drive himself.”

“He’s almost twenty!” she continued to protest. “I got my license at sixteen!”

“It is what it is,” said Mom. “Unless you want him to take the other car by himself and drive it into the wall, or fly it off a bridge, or run over the neighbor’s dog like he almost did the last time!”

“Ugh!” Lucy stormed out of the kitchen. “Come on, you little pipsqueak,” she said to Aiden as she flew past him.

“Don’t call me that,” said Aiden, shoving his hand-held console inside his backpack as he rose from the couch.

“Don’t call him that!” their mother yelled from the kitchen.

Lucy practically sprinted through the lawn and hurriedly got into the driver’s seat. Aiden tried to keep up but struggled with his entangled shoe laces, which he decided he’ll sort out once he’s inside the car.

Since it was a real threat that Lucy might just leave without him.

Aiden shut the car door after him and dropped his backpack in the back seat. He then bent forward to untangle his shoe laces as Lucy rolled the car out. Then, she suddenly hit the brakes, causing Aiden to bang his head on the dashboard ahead of him.

“Seatbelt!” yelped Lucy. “I don’t see why all this—” she made a circular gesture around the steering wheel “—is so difficult for you.”

“I can’t see well past the steering wheel,” Aiden explained as he pulled himself up and put the seatbelt on; his shoe laces remained ignored. “It’s a big car and it’s not meant for shor—well, um… someone my height…”

“Don’t you know about this?” Lucy pressed a button hidden from Aiden that adjusted the seat’s height.

“Yeah, well…” said Aiden. He didn’t know car seats could do that. “Still... There are other factors…”

“I don’t wanna know,” said Lucy as she hit the gas pedal and zoomed out their driveway. “What I do wanna know is why do you have to go to Sol City today? And why today of all days?”

“I have got to be at the arena today,” said Aiden. “They’ve got the new Zelda in and it’s on—”

“Never mind, I don’t wanna know that either.”

They drove in silence for a while. Aiden rested his head on the window, blankly staring at the suburban houses flying past them, desperately waiting for the grey concrete scenery to change into something greener.

He had always liked the drive from their house to Sol City because it led through the nature reserve. Aiden enjoyed catching glimpses of rare and colorful birds, who would often squeak in such rhythmic patterns that it was better than actual music. He once caught a deer chewing on something merrily while a couple birds sat on each of its antlers and delivered a full-blown concert to an audience of squirrels.

How he’d love to come to the reserve every day.

If only he could drive.

Let’s face it, Aiden thought to himself. That ship has long sailed.

He was grateful that Lucy had chosen to drive him to the city, despite throwing a tantrum about it. Fortunately she was home for winter break, just in time for the arena event.

But she obviously hadn’t done it just for him.

“Why are you headed to the city today anyway? Shouldn’t you be preparing for your birthday tomorrow?” Aiden asked Lucy. She had told mom that she was heading to a friend’s party in the city, but Aiden knew there was more to that story.

“None of your business!” Lucy squeaked.

“It’s Dean again, isn’t it?” Aiden probed. “He’s just going to stand you up like last time.”

“It’ll be the last thing he ever does…” Lucy muttered through gritted teeth.

“He’d never dare after he sees this version of you,” Aiden said softly.

“What did you say?!” Lucy yelped.

“Nothing!” said Aiden.

He rested his head back on the window again and glared out in silence since the landscape was now all tall green trees. They were already inside the nature reserve. He frantically scanned the scene with eyes popped wide, hoping to see something miraculous once again.

“Can we take a brief detour and… I don’t know… halt here for a while?” Aiden asked hopefully.

“No way,” said Lucy. “You do that when you get here by yourself once you are old enough to drive. Oh wait!”

“Or I can just wait until you get stood up again and have to drive me around the park to kill time, since mom won’t believe how you’re back from your friends’ fake party so soon!”

“I can leave you in the middle of this forest right now if you like!”

“I can walk!”

Aiden sunk back on his seat and now stared out the window with his arms folded. Lucy gripped the steering wheel tighter as she increased speed.

She nearly missed two bikers that suddenly emerged from a blind curve, headed in the opposite direction. “Dammit! Are they blind?” Lucy exploded.

She was so on edge today.

Aiden knew that Lucy was hiding it from mom that she had been on a couple dates with Dean. Their mom knew the guy’s parents from church and would obviously never approve of him.

No sane person would. Dean was nothing but a colossal mess. Aiden was sure Lucy didn’t see anything in him. As per what he’d gathered from eavesdropping on her calls—accidentally, of course—he knew that this was about proving to another delusional friend of hers that Dean wasn’t exactly loyal to her. Still, even though Lucy may not really be into him, she had been extremely offended on being stood up.

Because that’s just Lucy.

Aiden couldn’t care less. His sister’s dating drama was the last thing he was bothered about. He had only eavesdropped on her calls to make sure she wasn’t getting herself into any real trouble.

And to gather valuable intel to use against her the next time she refused to drive him to the gaming arena.

They were soon out of the nature reserve and approached the east entrance to Sol City.

Lucy noticed a dense crowd around the entrance that had slowed down traffic. “What is going on?” she muttered.

“Founding Day,” Aiden reminded her. “This is why it’s so important for me to get to the arena today. They have a special program planned and everything—”

“Again, I don’t want to know!” Lucy reminded him. She slowly squeezed through the narrow gaps and bolted past the other side once she had a little space.

Aiden was impressed with how well she could drive in tight spots. It killed his motivation to go to the driving instructor even more, because of course he’d never be as good as her.

After cruising through the unofficial carnival headed toward the city center, Lucy took a few fast and sharp turns to get to the gaming arena via a shortcut that Aiden didn’t know existed until now.

She stopped the car in front of the gaming arena’s entrance and Aiden got out.

“Now listen up!” called Lucy from inside the car. Aiden poked his neck through the open window. “I’ll see you here in two hours,” she said. “I’m dropping the car at the Jonas Burgers parking lot since it’s impossible to drive in this crowd. And I’ll be at Caeser’s—you know, the fancy café five blocks down the road. I’m only telling you all this in case there’s an emergency, okay?”

“Okay,” said Aiden.

“Two hours, you understand?”

“I’m not a child!” Aiden snapped.

“Yeah, right,” Lucy mocked. “Just an adult who can’t drive and walks around with a broken phone. How is anyone supposed to call you?”

“It works fine on Wi-Fi.”

“And that’s totally acceptable to you because you never get out of the house anyway!”

Aiden turned around to leave but Lucy stopped him. “Remember: Two hours.” Aiden gave a quick nod and started walking away as Lucy shouted after him. “And don’t get lost! We both know you have a tendency to lose yourself in big crowds.”

“I won’t!” Aiden shouted over his shoulder.

***

Lucy drummed her fingers on the steering wheel in frustration. The car could only move at snail’s pace owing to the dense crowd. Trying to push through without accidentally running someone over was torture.

Founding Day, dammit. How could she forget it was Founding Day?

She would have asked Dean to meet anywhere else if she’d remembered; as long as it was public, and frequented by people from her university. She needed witnesses.

Carol wasn’t even going to believe video evidence in this day and age. “It must be a deep fake!” she’d say, parroting Dean’s excuses.

Gosh she was so naïve.

But she was her friend. Lucy wasn’t one to stand by as some douchebag player-wannabe takes her for a ride.

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Not on her watch.

Somehow she managed to reach the parking lot next to Jonas Burgers and squeezed through the narrow entrance. It was a miracle that she hadn’t crushed a foot or two.

Lucy loved being around people. But a crowd this big was just unwelcome anxiety.

Which is why she also avoided big outdoor music festivals. She didn’t want to explode on some stranger for accidentally messing up her perfectly-done hair.

The only bright side was that it should all clear soon. Founding Day celebrations rarely lasted the whole day, and it would all soon be concentrated around the central park anyway.

She dropped the car and quickly made her way toward the café where she was supposed to meet Dean. Ironically, she was much faster on foot. Her slender and athletic form allowed her to cut through the thick crowd like knife through butter.

It also helped that she’d preferred a cropped tank top underneath a cute baggy jacket and ankle-high jeans over long, flowy dresses, even when on fancy dates. Imagine running through this crowd in a tight dress and heels!

She entered the café and dropped her jacket on the table before heading straight to the ladies’ room.

She checked her hair and make-up carefully; both needed some fixing-up since all the running had made her sweat a little.

She made sure her eyeshadow perfectly complemented her bright brown eyes. She ran her fingers through her long, dark blonde hair to set them back in shape. She absolutely loved how they looked now, after she’d recently added some streaks of black here and there.

She now looked starkly different from Aiden with his golden blond hair and misty green eyes.

Regardless of the new hair color though, they looked nothing alike!

She wouldn’t be surprised to later find out that he was actually adopted.

She checked her face one last time. The golden edges of her dove-shaped pendant, that she’d worn around her neck since she was nine, gleamed against the bright yellow lights.

She neatly tucked her kit back inside her fanny pack and she exited the ladies’ room. Then, she calmly sat back on her table and checked her phone.

The moment of truth, she thought. He better be here soon.

There were no messages from Dean.

If he stands her up again after all the trouble she’d went through setting this up, she was gonna kill him.

Yeah, straight up. He’s dead if he doesn’t show up.

She looked around and was pleased with the ambience. It was a nice little café, three storeys above ground; cozy but not creepy. Plenty of classy people around. And amongst them, a group of snobbish college girls from Carol’s course.

Perfect.

She then spotted a middle-aged man in an expensive-looking suit huddled in a corner seat with a twenty-something blonde, who may just be his wife. But definitely not his daughter. She sipped from a huge cup of hot latte as he gently touched her hair.

There was an adorable senior couple here as well, all donned in Founding Day celebration merch; the hats, the small flags, even the miniature trumpets. They seemed happy together.

She should consider this place for a real date.

Maybe some day.

She checked her phone again. Lots of Instagram notifications. But no new messages from Dean.

She was starting to get annoyed.

Maybe she should just call him. Even at the risk of seeming desperate.

Lucy was irked by the thought.

Maybe he was held up by the traffic. Or maybe Carol had warned him off. She somehow may have gotten wind of the trap...

Possible?

She should call her just to be sure—

Lucy suddenly caught her breath. The whole place shook as if something really big had bumped into the building from outside.

Was it just her?

She looked around. The entire café was silent. Everybody had a concerned expression on their faces, as if they were trying to listen carefully for a faint, distant noise. The cute blonde with the hot latte looked straight up. The middle-aged man in the expensive suit beside her looked like he wanted to speak with the manager. The adorable senior couple looked worried. The college girls weren’t sure whether it was time to start screaming yet.

The customers were all seated still. The servers stopped in their tracks.

Everyone had definitely felt something.

A long couple of minutes passed in complete silence. Lucy was confused. Maybe it was just a tremor, that had come and gone. Nothing to really worry about.

It was no small tremor though.

But then, it happened again. This time it was far more intense. The whole building shook violently for a few seconds, as though it would collapse any moment. Someone in the café yelled: “Earthquake!”

And panic ensued.

The cute blonde splashed her hot latte all over the rich old guy’s shirt, who screamed in pain. The college girls’ table had flipped over as they scrambled to get out, screaming on top of their lungs. The senior couple had vanished. Perhaps they’d left well in advance, sensing something was off.

Lucy got off her table to look for them, but they were nowhere to be found. She hoped they’d gotten out safe.

It was time for her to bolt.

She was closest to the exit so was able to get out fairly quickly. The other guests soon crowded the exit. Right before she exited into the lobby, she peeked out the huge glass window and saw that sunlight was quickly fading.

Grey clouds? Was the tremor caused by a lightning strike?

She got her answers soon enough.

As soon as she was out on the street, she looked up to find dark grey clouds cover the sky as far as the eyes could see. And, not too far in the direction of the city center, she saw a bright red bolt of lightning strike vertically at the ground from dense black clouds hovering just above.

Nothing about this felt normal. Unlike normal lightning that disappeared in a flash, this one appeared to be stable. Like it had claimed the sky.

There was panic on the streets now. The huge crowd of people that were marching merrily toward the city center just half an hour ago, were now running away from it with terror-stricken faces and horrified screams.

Something terrible was going on. She had to go get Aiden!

She got her phone out to call him. The dumbass didn’t have phone service on his end—of course—but maybe he was connected to public Wi-Fi somewhere.

Shit. There was no service on her phone either.

The cell phone towers must be down.

She must run!

Lucy bolted through the crowd as fast as she could, once again thankful for choosing sneakers over heels.

She jumped over a bench and glided over a bike stand by grabbing onto a pole and running along a wall, parallel to the ground. Due to her parkour skills, she was able to maneuver through the crowded sidewalk with ease, and take paths that most others could not.

Her heart began to pump faster as she thought of the only thing that mattered to her right now: Aiden’s safety. He must still be at the arena.

Because she had told him to wait for her there. She’d told him that she’ll come get him.

What if he’d been forced to run away?

As she sprinted through, she saw a young girl fall to the ground. Her hand outstretched, presumably because it was held by her mother just a few seconds ago. She began to cry as she couldn’t see her mother anymore, who had probably disappeared into the crowd.

Lucy stopped. She wasn’t sure whether she had the time to help random strangers.

The girl looked completely helpless. Her knees were glued to the ground and she was crying as loud as she could, hoping that her mother would hear her.

If she didn’t move out of the way soon… she would be trampled.

“Damn it,” said Lucy loudly. She backtracked a few paces and swiftly grabbed the child by her waist.

The girl threw a tantrum and rapidly struck Lucy on the head with her small hands, clearly wanting to be let go of.

“RELAX!” Lucy snapped at her. “I’m taking you to your mommy!”

The girl instantly relaxed.

Lucy had a fair idea where she’d find her mother. She should be running the exact way back, if she was coming back for her child.

Soon enough, she spotted a woman desperately trying to run against the crowd in tears, but getting overwhelmed. The girl in Lucy’s arms spotted her too and called, “Mommy!”

Lucy ran to her and handed the girl over to her mother. The mom spat a quick but heartfelt “Thank you!” before running away with the crowd, now carrying her little girl in her arms.

The girl looked back over her mother’s shoulder and smiled at Lucy.

Lucy smiled back and waved, before quickly resuming her sprint.

She was at the gaming arena’s entrance in no time. She climbed on top of a bench and looked around.

He should be here. I told him to wait for me here!

Lucy is typically calm during a crisis. But she could feel the panic slowly setting in.

Aiden was nowhere to be seen.

Why did he always get lost?

Why couldn’t he just listen to her, for once?!

Lucy’s mind flashed back to that incident from their childhood… when Aiden had disappeared into the woods, and not been found for five whole days…

All the fear from back then now returned anew. And her heart began to pound.

“Calm down, Lucy,” she reminded herself. “Focus on finding him. It’s true that he often gets lost. But he always finds his way back, doesn’t he?”

He’ll find his way back again.

Won’t he?

Lucy looked for Aiden amongst the crowd, which showed no signs of thinning. The sky was getting even darker, but there was no rain or thunder.

And what the hell was that red lightning even?!

Was Aiden already in some kind of danger?

Lucy shook her head, reminding herself to focus. She needs to find him soon!

Think, Lucy. Where would he go in a situation like this? He obviously won’t stay inside the building.

Where then?

The car!

Aiden knew where she’d parked the car!

Lucy bolted toward the Jonas Burgers parking lot, which was only a few blocks down the street in the direction that the crowd was running. She climbed a set of railings on her left and entered a narrow alley to avoid the crowd. Then she took a sharp right and jumped over a garden gate, through a house’s open back door and out the front, emerging into a narrow lane. The Jonas Burgers parking lot was dead ahead.

The lane was fairly empty since the crowd—now a stampede—came running from the city center and was headed toward the east exit. There was no reason for them to detour into this short and narrow lane that connected two parallel paths to the exit. Unless they wanted to visit Jonas Burgers.

And absolutely no one was in the mood for burgers right now.

Lucy scanned the empty parking lot carefully. Most of the staff from the burger joint had already took off.

She looked for her car at the far end of the parking lot, but saw that it was missing.

Maybe Aiden had taken the car?

Impossible. She was the one with the keys. And he couldn’t drive to save his life.

She looked around a little more and finally found her car parked on the wall to her right, close to the main street. She didn’t remember parking it there.

A small underground explosion erupted right behind the car. Perhaps a gas pipe had burst. The force gently pushed the car forward, and it began to roll.

Lucy realized she must have forgotten to put the parking brakes.

The car continued to roll from right to left, and Lucy’s eyes followed it. It came to a halt directly in front of her, so could see through the smashed windows to finally confirm that there was no one inside.

But as she looked on, her gaze pierced right through the broken windows and landed at the far end of the parking lot to find—

Aiden!

He stared right back at her through the broken car windows. The skin on his face looked scathed, but he otherwise seemed unharmed.

Lucy breathed a huge sigh of relief. She’d found him!

Aiden smiled and waved as he spotted her. Lucy gestured him to wait right where he was. She was coming to get him.

But before she could take a single step toward him, the ground right behind their car cracked open.

A long and slender red metal pipe pierced through the ground and made its way up, bending at an angle once it was about five feet above the car’s height.

Upon a closer look, Lucy could tell that this was no pipe. A pipe didn’t have small hairy tentacles sticking out the side, wriggling like disgusting black worms.

It was a leg.

The long and slender leg landed right on top of their car, crushing it beneath its massive weight. The fuel tank exploded under pressure, but the leg was undeterred by the fire.

Whatever the leg belonged to pulled its body up through the cracked ground. A massive round head broke through the concrete, along with several identical legs.

A spider.

A gigantic, monstrous spider the likes of which Lucy, or anyone else for that matter, had never seen before.

And it now stood exactly between her and Aiden.

She caught Aiden’s eye as they both realized the same thing: No way could they run to each other through that!

Lucy’s legs felt glued to the ground, just like that little girl’s had from earlier. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This was totally bizarre. She was must be dreaming.

The monstrous spider was now completely free from his underground confines and slowly turned his twenty-eyed gaze at Lucy.

Cold fear ran up her feet and through her spine, freezing her in place.

She caught Aiden’s eyes once again. He seemed to be repeatedly shouting just one word at her:

“Run!”