Shutdown (Glitch)

granted that he’d make it back fine. But we didn’t know how these new visions worked. I should never have let him go.
    What if someone saw him sneaking into the city or trying to steal the oxy tanks? Oxy tanks were bulky. What if they slowed him down so much he couldn’t escape? What if cameras caught his face and the recognition software set off an alarm? The city’s Regulators would be on him in seconds. There were a hundred other things that could have gone wrong too—
    “Zoe.”
    I whipped around, sure it was just my imagination playing tricks.
    But no, it was really him.
    He stood right inside the entrance of the cave, so dirty I barely recognized him. I ran toward him and threw my arms around him, ignoring the crusted-over grime that coated his entire body. Pressing my head to his chest, I listened to his heartbeat as if to reassure myself he was real.
    His arms slowly curled around me. I clutched him tight and willed him not to pull away. Not this time.
    He didn’t. Instead, his arms tightened ever so slightly, pulling me in closer. The feel of his arms so secure and warm around me made all my fears finally begin to subside. He was here. He was safe. I whispered the two phrases inside my head like a mantra. He was here. He was safe.
    He finally pulled back from me. There were deep shadows under his eyes. “I couldn’t get any oxy tanks, Zoe. I’m so sorry.”
    “What happened? Why did it take so long? And what on earth is that smell ?” I wrinkled my nose in distaste.
    He cracked a grin at my last comment, but it was gone quickly as he sat down by the wall near the entrance.
    “I snuck into the steel foundry because I knew they’d have oxy tanks. But once I got inside, I realized they were all too big for me to carry, much less sneak out of the city. So I spent the day sleeping in a maintenance closet and then tried to break into a medical facility the next night.”
    “Adrien,” I hissed, “you promised you wouldn’t try anything so risky!”
    He shrugged off my worry and massaged his temple. “I had trouble getting in. I could have hacked the security codes if I’d just had the right equipment!” The frustration was clear on his face. “I kept thinking of the oxy tanks that were stored right behind the flimsy clinic walls. So I took an ax I’d brought from the foundry—”
    “You didn’t!”
    “—and hacked through the door,” he continued, ignoring me. “The alarms went off, of course. I thought I might still have enough time to get in and grab a couple oxy tanks or epi infusers at least, but the clinic was in a more densely populated area. Regs were there in half a minute. I barely managed to slip out through the back door. I had to spend the next couple days hiding in the sewers until they stopped patrolling and I was clear to come back. I just went about it all wrong.” He shook his head. “But I had to come back and make sure you’re okay. When I go back in, I’ll be more careful.”
    “No,” I said firmly.
    He looked up, obviously confused. “No, I shouldn’t be more careful?”
    “No, as in, you are not going back.”
    “Of course I’m going back. I didn’t get any oxy tanks, and you still need—”
    “What I need ,” I interrupted, “is for you to stay alive and safe. I won’t let you risk your life for me. I shouldn’t have let you go in the first place.”
    “But you have to sleep.” He looked at me as if I was making no sense. “And to sleep you need oxy tanks.”
    “We’ll figure it out in the morning,” I said. I had a feeling he’d just fight me on it if I told him what I really thought. Tomorrow, one way or another, we were leaving this cave. He looked like he might say something else, so I held up a protein bar, the second to last one left. “I bet you’re hungry. And,” I said, scrunching up my face, “maybe you could use a bath in the lake.”
    He laughed. “Judging by the look on your face, it must be bad. After the first night in the sewer I got kind of immune to it all.”
    I smiled and said sarcastically, “Well, not all of us have had such luxury.”
    “Okay.” He held up his hands. “Bath first. Food second.”
    I handed him the coolant harness and the tube of soap.
    When he came back in a fresh tunic, I couldn’t stop looking at him. Having him back again after the long, seemingly endless past few days was like a gift.
    I watched his hands as he snapped off a quarter section of protein bar and rewrapped the rest. I