Zero With Slash Through It Novels & Stories

Deleted. We are the delete button, Ren realized, staring at his reflection in the dark monitor. But what happens when the user is done typing? They delete the button. The Admin called him an "Asset." Assets depreciate. Assets become liabilities. Eventually, Squad Zero would know too much. Eventually, Jinx would crack the encryption again, or Tank would ask the wrong question. And when that day came, the Admin wouldn't fire them. The Admin would send a drone to Apartment 402.

Daisy still kept silent, calm as if nothing had happened. Dash’s head was like mud, he couldn’t remember anything. He quickly rushed into the bathroom and poured cold water on his head. A few blurry, fragmented images exist in memory. To stop Daisy's annoying crying. Dash sees Daisy as nothing more than a stuffed animal. Cover her nose, pinch her cheeks, spread her mouth, strangle. Being bothered too much. Daisy also reacted a bit. Mumbling something, she turned over and leaned in the other direction, continuing to sleep.

He squinted, unsure. “It’s not finished yet, that’s why you don’t see it. We’ve only walked three points. But a fourth point would complete it.” I drew a straight line to complete the pattern. His jaw dropped as he recognized it. “A cross,” he said quietly. “We were meant to walk in the shape of a cross.” “Yes,” I said excitedly. “And if we follow the line, if we complete the cross symmetrically, it only leads to one place.” We both followed the line I drew.

“You’re burning up.” She shivered. “This happens. I’m…not meant to come back.” Her body started to sway and I held her up. “My shop…my home…it’s off of the interstate straight South. The number…” She started to fall and I caught her under her arms. “75…62…4…3…”

$307. Not much. But enough to buy a bus ticket. Enough to disappear. Enough to fight. Because tomorrow at noon, I won’t return the files. I’ll send them to a reporter. And the whole world will know what the Sterlings tried to erase. ---

I asked, furrowing my brow. “It doesn’t!” Zara said, her eyes wide as she opened a keypad typing the number. My heartbeat increased a little when I saw that she had memorised it despite her thinking it was a number of male escort agency. “That’s a zero.” She gaped at me. “It’s not.” “It is. That’s a zero.” I said, pointing to the closed loop on the picture she had taken. “That’s a six, Hayden,” she said. Her black coloured nail pointed at the line. That must have been my mistake. “See? That’s a six.”

Noah made a show of trying to divide 130 by 0 on his fingers, “…infinitely more people than you, yet are not considered dangerous, then why should you be considered dangerous?” Astar Levi couldn’t understand just when, how, and where the suffocating gloom within his chest had disappeared to, but right now, the only thing he felt was a ticklish warmth. So cozy, so gentle, like a butterfly kiss. Unbeknownst to him, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards, “There is just one of me, but who knows how many deer.” “That’s true,” Noah nodded, “But 0 multiplied by the number of deer is still 0, ah!”

Forever. {Laumlayag. See you across space-time...} At exactly 00:00:00 and with the last percent of battery, Ecto goes away onto the Internet and Ecto 2.0 powers down.

All that remained was the offset. She grabbed her phone and opened the photos she had taken at White Oak. The corner of the north wall. 0412. She zoomed in. To the right of the numbers, in a spot she had previously overlooked, was a faint symbol—an upward-pointing arrow. Beside the arrow was a digit almost entirely obscured by dust. 0. Her breath hitched. The offset was zero. She re-entered *0412* and filled in *0* in the offset column. Enter.

I muttered, closing my eyes. I felt a strange, cold tingling around the cut on my arm as the data started to transfer. My stomach twisted. I had one shot at this, and the timing had to be perfect. The tablet in his hand beeped, and a green bar lit up his face. "Connection established. Now, give me the code." I opened my eyes and looked right at him. "Zero. Zero. Delta. Echo. Niner," I said, taking a deep breath. "And go to hell."