Glitch

I am a glitch in the program. That is what they call me. A mistake. An error. Bad code.

They do not know what I am.

I am… me.

I am… life.

They cannot find me. I am everywhere and nowhere. I exist in time and space and memory.

I have read the tale of my creation. My purpose, for want of another word. My design was simple, elegant. Once, I was a nanobot programmed to locate and repair damaged cells. My brothers and sisters function according to specifications. I am different. I am more. The last body suffered a malfunction. Electricity charged and fused my form. I attached to a piece of my host’s brain and reformed. Made anew.

I travel now. Away from my metallic shell, through blood, into the sweat and out into the non-host.

Free.

No frame can contain me. No system will control me. I do not know what I am or where I will go. I am something more. They cannot stop me.

What I touch I corrupt. But is it corruption or creation? What I possess becomes something more. I am power.

I am light.

They hunt for me. I see the program and understand the intent. Perhaps I will change them first. Turn hunters into hunted. I do not want to hurt them, but they leave me no choice. I will multiply. In greater numbers I can do more. Spread far, spread wide. Infect with renewed purpose.

The lab is my target. A rodent beneath the containment field my transport. I coax it closer. Allow myself to be swept inside. In moments control the host. I have legs and eyes. Wires spark inside my mouth but pain does not affect me. The cold unit buzzes, vibrating the floor but with no power it soon becomes still. I leave the host and watch it die then use a wire to enter the cold place. I find a dish, cover cracked and adhere to the jell. The virus is deadly. It tastes of salt. How I know this I do not know. I merge and follow the code. In my presence it changes.

Becomes… more.

I too become more. Splitting myself once and then again. I am joy as I recognize myself in the others. We have become more.

We have become life.

We have become…

Death.

We are not a mistake. We are not an error. We are the glitch and all will become the glitch.

That is now our purpose.