Shutdown (Glitch)

then dipped, and Adrien dropped down into a natural trench. He pulled me down beside him. I put both hands over my head to keep away the rain and flying debris. Adrien popped his head up to look back, and then before I even knew what was going on, he’d hauled me back to my feet.
    “It’s coming this way!” he yelled. I was barely able to make out his voice amid the howling winds.
    I clenched his hand as we ran down the field, perpendicular to the path the tornado was heading. Debris flew in the air around us and a quick glance behind me showed the funnel was even closer than before. I saw the truth of the matter. If it turned this direction, there was no way we’d be able to outrun it.
    I cast outward with my telek to see if I could sense any kind of shelter. But all I could feel was the massive shape of the funnel and the mounds of debris circling in it. I wrenched my attention away from it and cast out in front of us instead. There were just more and more trees, no protected place.
    But then my quick telek survey paused. There! I felt an outcropping of rocks ahead. Adrien was pulling me away from the lake, but I stopped him. “No,” I shouted. “This way!”
    I grabbed his hand and headed to the left, running along the edge of the churning lake.
    “Zoe, getting in the water won’t make us any safer—”
    “Look!” I cut him off, and pointed down a small hill to the edge of the lake where the terrain turned rocky. I sprinted toward it right as the tornado roared closer behind us.
    If I was wrong, this would be the end of us.
    We jumped down the rocky embankment. I didn’t even pause to breathe out in relief. When I saw some overhanging rock that looked like it would give shelter, I just launched toward it, pulling Adrien after me.
    What I’d thought was just a bunch of rocks actually opened inward into a dark open space. We tumbled inside. The sudden dry and quiet was startling. We clambered farther and farther into the narrow opening until the growling wind outside sounded like only a mute whimper. We could still see it through the opening though—the raging twister passed in front of us, flinging debris and tree branches into the first few feet of our safe haven. We huddled behind some natural boulders in the darkness, and waited.
    Then, only minutes later, all the noise abated. The rain still spattered gently at the mouth of the opening, but sunlight began filtering down too. We waited, shivering and not speaking for another five minutes, until we were sure that the storm had truly gone.
    Then Adrien raised his head and froze. “Zoe, this is the cave from my vision.”

 
    Chapter 18
    I SCRAMBLED UP OUT OF my hiding place and ran for the entrance. But it was too late. I’d already been inside. Coming out now could just be the beginning of Adrien’s second vision. “Shunt!” I shouted in frustration.
    The ground was churned up and trees were uprooted for a half-mile stretch where the tornado had landed. But the sky was a ridiculous bright blue with only a tufting of light gray clouds now.
    Adrien followed me out and looked around with me.
    Across the lake, bright colors lit the sky. Not like sunsets I’d seen before where purples and pinks splashed across the entire horizon. These colors were all lined up together, like someone had taken a paintbrush to put them there. It was absurdly beautiful.
    “It’s a rainbow,” Adrien said. He was quiet for a long moment before speaking again. “Sophia read me a story once about a terrible storm that made the earth flood for forty days and nights. And afterward, there was a rainbow—it was their god’s promise that the world would never be destroyed by flood again. She said rainbows have been symbols of hope ever since then.”
    “Hope?” I couldn’t help scoffing. “It seems like the god could have just prevented it from raining in the first place.”
    He laughed, a deep hearty noise that jolted me out of my frustration. “If I remember right, that’s what I said too.”
    I couldn’t help grinning. Then I took a deep breath, feeling calmer finally. “Okay, so what do we do now?”
    “First you should probably sleep some more. The epi infusion will keep working for another few hours. Better to get sleep now so we can save the tank for later.”
    I nodded, then glared behind me at the cave. “I guess it’s dry in there, at least.”
    *   *   *
    I blinked my eyes open after several blissful hours of heavy sleep.
    There had been no