Something Wrong with the System?
We hid in the thick roots of an old tree, where
we could see the tall tower far away. The air
made that quiet humming sound again,
reminding us of the invisible net all around us.
For days, we had been watching carefully,
trying to understand the secrets of these quiet
towers.
A government drone, shiny and
scary, flew into view, its metal eye looking at
the ground. We saw these patrols often,
showing us they were in charge. Usually, they
just fly in a dark shape in the sky.
But this time, something was
different. As the drone got close to the tower, I
saw it again – that strange blurry look, like hot
air moving on hot ground, but wavy and not
normal. It flickered around the drone, just for a
second, then it was gone.
"Did you see that?" I whispered to
Jax, pushing his arm. He was playing with an
old radio he found, something from the old
world that he had somehow fixed.
He frowned, turning a knob. "See what?
Another metal bug?" He still didn't trust their
machines.
"No, around the drone. A… shimmer.
Like before." I had seen this strange blurry
thing once before when we saw some
Enforcers near another tower far away, but I
thought it was just the light or me being tired.
Seeing it again, near a tower, made me feel
uneasy.
Just then, Jax's eyebrows went
down. He held the radio closer to his ear, his
eyes getting a little wider. "Wait… I'm hearing
something. Static… quiet, but it's there."
I could barely hear the crackling sound, but
how Jax reacted told me it was important. He
had spent many hours fixing old radios, so his
ears were good at hearing quiet sounds.
The blurry look around the drone
went away as it flew further from the tower,
and the quiet static on Jax's radio stopped
too. It was clear they were connected.
"It happened again," I said, my mind
thinking fast. "The shimmer around the drone,
and then you hear static… near the tower."
Jax put down the radio, looking at the tower
far away. He looked a little curious, maybe
even a little hopeful. "Could it be… something
blocking the signal?"
Blocking the signal. The words felt
important. Could these towers, the main part
of their control system, also be weak spots?
Could there be something wrong with their
system, a mistake we could use? The strange
static, which was just weird before, now
seemed connected to the network, a clue we
might be able to follow.
"Maybe," Lyra's quiet voice said, her
eyes looking at the tower. "The energy from
the tower might be messing with the drone's
systems, making it look blurry and causing
the electric noise."
"But why only sometimes?" Jax
wondered, scratching his beard. "Why not all
the time?"
"Maybe it has to be close?" I said. "Maybe it
only happens when it's near the tower."
We spent the rest of the day
watching, now looking more carefully, waiting
to see the strange thing happen again. More
drones flew by, but it wasn't until late in the
day that we saw it again. A different drone,
flying closer to the tower than the others, had
the same blurry look, and Jax said he heard
another short burst of static.
I started to feel a little excited, but
also careful. Could this be our way in? A
weakness in their system that seemed so
strong? The suspense got stronger with each
time we saw it, the idea of using these weird
things hanging in the air.
"Lyra," I said, my mind already
making a plan. "Can you look at the energy
from the towers? See if there are any changes,
anything strange that happens when we see
these… glitches."
Lyra started working right away, her inside
computer whirring as she looked at the data
she had been collecting. Hours passed, and
the only sounds were the bugs at night and
Lyra's quiet machines.
"I'm seeing energy spikes coming
from the towers sometimes," she finally said.
"They are short and don't happen regularly,
but they happen at the same time we see the
blurry look and hear the static."
Energy spikes. Could this be the answer?
What was causing them, and could we
somehow make them happen, make them
stronger?
"Jax," I said, my voice feeling more
urgent. "You and I need to get closer to one of
these towers. We need to see if we can make
these glitches happen ourselves."
Jax's doubt had gone, replaced by a strong
feeling to do something. The chance of
finding a weakness, a way to fight back
against their strong control, had made him a
little hopeful.
Under the cover of night, we moved
towards a tower in a quiet area. The closer we
got, the stronger the quiet humming energy
felt, like a pressure in the air.
We reached the bottom of the tower,
its metal legs going high above us like the
bones of a tree. The air felt like it had a faint
electric buzz. Jax held the old radio, his hand
steady.
"Anything?" I whispered, my senses
sharp, looking for any guards.
"Nothing yet," he answered, his ear on the
radio.
We waited, the quiet only broken by the wind
going through the tower. Minutes felt like
forever. Just when I started to doubt, the air
around the top of the tower looked blurry, a
faint shimmer against the stars.
At the same time, Jax's eyes got
wide. "I'm getting it! Stronger this time!" A
loud burst of static came from the radio, then
some strange electronic clicks and whirs.
We had made it happen. Being close to the
tower, or maybe something else was causing
these glitches. But how could we use this?
As the static stopped, we heard a
new sound – the clear whirring of many
drones coming fast. They had felt the energy
spike.
"They know we're here!" Jax hissed,
grabbing his sword.
We ran for cover as the drones came down,
their weapons ready. But as they got near the
tower, the blurry look around them got
stronger, and the static on Jax's radio got
louder. The drones started moving strangely,
jerky, and not together. One of them even
crashed into the tower, making sparks fly.
A crazy idea came to me. If the
towers caused these glitches, could we
somehow use them as weapons? Could we
turn their system against them? The drones
were affected, but how far did this go? And
could we make it stronger?
Suddenly, the ground under us
started shaking. A low, deep growl echoed
through the night, closer than any drone. Jax's
eyes got wide with fear.
"That's not one of theirs," he
whispered, holding his sword tighter.
From the dark shadows of the trees around
us, a pair of glowing eyes appeared, followed
by a big, strong shape that wasn't like any
werewolf we had seen before. It was bigger,
its muscles stronger, and its eyes burned with
a strange, smart anger. And it was looking
right at us, its teeth showing in a quiet growl.
Had we messing with the tower brought
something much more dangerous? The
problems in the system might be bigger and
bring more attention than we ever thought.
Our small hope of using a weakness had just
run into a scary new danger.