Glitch 03 - Shutdown by Heather Anastasiu

Author:Heather Anastasiu [Anastasiu, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 1250003016
Publisher: Griffin
Published: 2013-07-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

THE THUNDER BOOMED AGAIN, so loud it seemed to shake the ground beneath us. The wind roared even louder, and the next time it thundered, lightning split the air at almost the same moment.

Adrien grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. “We’ve gotta go,” he shouted. “Now!”

“Where?” I yelled back, but let him drag me forward anyway.

“There’s a clearing just a little farther around the lake,” he called over his shoulder. I could barely make out his words. “There was a ditch there where we might be safe.”

I nodded, abandoning trying to talk anymore.

Thunder boomed overhead, several loud rumbling punches, followed by lightning. The rain was harder after we burst out from under the tree coverage. It pelted us in diagonal sheets. I could barely see a foot in front of me. The only other time I’d seen a storm anything like this was back in the Community when I’d been in one of the few Sublevel 0 rooms that had thick triple-paned windows to the Surface. The growling thunder and splattering rain had given me nightmares for weeks.

Now there was no glass separating me from it, no elevator to take back underground to safety. And that storm hadn’t been nearly as powerful as this.

“Put your arm over your face,” Adrien yelled. I tried, but it barely mattered. The rain and wind blew so hard that I had a hard time staying on my feet. My hair whipped around me until I felt sure it would be yanked out by the roots. Adrien, tall and thin, bent his head into the wind and tried trudging forward, but he was having as much difficulty as I was.

“Shunting hell, it’s a tornado!” he suddenly yelled, looking off to the left. I followed his gaze, my hand cupped above my eyes so I could see.

I’d never heard of a tornado, but I saw what he meant. The sky seemed to drop down until a portion of dark gray-green cloud touched the ground in a wide funnel. The wind around us whipped even harder, and the noise of the storm became a monstrous roar.

Adrien screamed something I couldn’t hear and we ran across the clearing as the storm continued gathering force behind us.

The clearing rose and 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.

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