Shutdown (Glitch)

high into the sky. I sighed, tired even thinking about it. I was only getting the hang of flying because of all the things surrounding us. Having objects on all four sides meant I had a lot of solid points of references I could then maneuver us through. But the open sky?
    Adrien came near and I stumbled as I tried to get to my feet. He held out a hand to help me, but again my vision blurred and it looked like two hands. I shook my head and held on to the tree instead as I finally got my feet under me. Adrien didn’t say anything, just wrapped his arms around me from behind. I took a deep breath, then I raised us up off the ground again.
    Or rather, I tried. Each time I lifted off now, it took longer and longer for my power to buzz to life. I used to be able to easily split my concentration between focusing on my mast cells and on external objects, but it was getting more and more difficult with each passing hour. Not to mention that without sleep, I was running through my supply of telek energy. We could only hope that I was able to get us to the rendezvous site before I was totally depleted.
    We rose in the air, higher and higher. The solid shape of the ground beneath us got farther away. My heart beat faster with every foot we rose. The sudden adrenaline sharpened my focus and cleared away some of the fog in my brain.
    “Just a little farther,” Adrien said, “then we should be clear.”
    But the ground was already so far away. I struggled to find something to hold on to, some shape or object I could use as a guide to steady us.
    All I felt was emptiness, all around.
    I lost my grip.
    We tumbled forward suddenly, then dropped like a stone.
    “Find the ground,” Adrien shouted in my ear. “Use that to focus your telek!”
    I cast outward again and finally found the floor beneath us. The trees swayed in the wind, but they were firm. I tried to feel all the way down to their roots planted in the unmoving earth.
    I finally caught us again and held us steady. I could feel the pumping of Adrien’s chest behind me as he tried to catch his breath. Neither of us said anything though, and we began to rise again. I kept my concentration firmly rooted in the ground with the trees.
    After a few more seconds, Adrien said, his voice still unsteady, “We’re high enough. Now go north.”
    “Which way is north?”
    He lifted his arm panel, looking over my shoulder to see it. His breath was hot on my neck and I shivered. “To your left.”
    I nodded, closing my eyes. The stars were bright and I didn’t think I could handle seeing just how far we had to drop if I faltered. I gritted my teeth, then pushed us forward in the direction Adrien had indicated.
    We flew fast. Far faster than we had when we stayed below the tree line. Up here there were no obstructions, nothing to block my path and nothing I had to be careful to maneuver around. It seemed like only a second later when Adrien said we’d cleared the fence without any problem.
    I nodded my head but didn’t say anything else. In my determination to fight through my exhaustion, I’d pierced my bottom lip with my teeth. I tasted blood, but I wasn’t about to stop now. This was the only way we’d have a hope of making up the distance to the rendezvous site before I collapsed from exhaustion.
    I pressed forward through the night sky. The wind got louder and louder in my ears as we gathered speed until it was all I could hear. The contours of the trees below blurred together as I pushed faster still. I cut out all other thought and feeling and sensation. I was an arrow in the wind.
    “It’s almost morning,” Adrien said in my ear after a long while.
    I opened my eyes in surprise and saw the sky around us had turned from solid black to a murky gray. A heavy morning fog coated the ground below us. I’d gone into almost a trance as I flew, thinking of nothing except pushing forward.
    Our forward motion hiccupped, and I lost control again.
    Adrien’s body was ripped away from mine and we both plummeted down through the foggy clouds, end over end. I had no idea which was up and which was down.
    “Zoe!” Adrien shouted.
    I cast outward to where I thought the ground should be, but it was only more air. I tried another direction—still just the endless sky. I must have drifted up far higher than I’d meant to without realizing it.
    “Zoe!”
    There! I felt the ground. I threw all my telek force at it and managed to catch hold again. Our bodies were yanked up