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I opened my eyes.

And bolts of lightning tore the skies and split the earth. One Infinity. Two Infinity. Three Infinity. Four Infinity. Five Infinity. Six Infinity. Seven Infinity. Eight Infinity. Nine Infinity. Ten Infinity. Eleven Infinity‒‒ The ground moaned in a long and low lament, hit by the first, the second and the third blow in less than a second's interval.

I backed closer to the fir. My trembling hands were gripping my legs and my trembling fingers and nails were digging into my flesh to stop the trembling, but my trembling limbs wouldn't stop trembling. My back was leaning against the black trunk of a dead tree, the sole fir in the forest of firs whose wood had caught fire, the sole fir whose branches and leaves had burnt to ashes, the sole fir whose treehouse had flamed to nothingness.

And another bolt of lightning lit the sky. One Infinity. Two Infinity. Three Infinity. Four Infinity. Five Infinity. Six Infinity. Seven Infinity. Eight Infinity. Nine Infinity‒‒ The echo of a wail reached my ears. Longer. Lower.

I backed closer still to the fir. But its leaves, its branches and its trunk were dead. But the tree was dead. Drops of rain were falling on my face, on my arms, on my hands, tapping, hitting, beating me. More and more drops. More and more blows. More and more pain.

And lightning pierced the darkness again and again and again and again. One Infinity. Two Infinity. Three Infinity. Four Infinity. Five Infinity. Six Infinity. Seven Infinity. Eight Infinity‒‒ Only eight. Only eight Infinity before the earth howled and howled and howled and howled.

I withdrew closer and closer still to the fir. But it didn't protect me anymore, not since it had lost its colours, or since it had lost its house and the inhabitants of its house. The rain battered my body, and the wind cut into into my skin, slashing and slicing my forearms with gashes, slitting me, and— Lightning. One Infinity. Two Infinity. Three Infinity. Four Infinity. Five Infinity. Six Infinity‒‒ Explosion upon explosion upon explosion, coming closer, always closer. But it didn't protect me, I knew it didn't protect me. The tree couldn't— The tree—

I was under a tree in a forest of trees with trees on my left and with trees on my right and with trees before me and with trees behind me. Everywhere. Trees everywhere.

And a thunderstorm above my head.

I leapt away from the burnt trunk and smashed against another trunk, I sprung away and I slammed against another trunk, and another, and another. I staggered, I stumbled and I tripped. I fell to my hands and knees in a puddle of mud. Rain was falling on my back, falling on my clothes and on my hair, and it drenched me from top to bottom, it weighed me down and it pushed and pressed me to the mud, to the wet dirt and the roots and the trunks and the trees, and I had to get away.

I pushed against my hands and my feet, I heaved and hoisted myself up, and I ran.

I ran. I ran. I ran. I ran against the rain blinding me and the wind shoving me against the trunks, and the trunks, and the trunks, and thunderbolts scarred the sky again and again. One Infinity. Two Infinity. Four Infinity. Five Infinity— And thunderclaps wrecked the earth. I ran. I ran. I ran. Thunder burst in my ears, and in my head, and in my entire body, and I couldn't hear my breath, I couldn't hear my calls or my cries. I ran. I ran. I ran. I ran away from the trees, but I wasn't fast enough, I couldn't see anything in front of me, I couldn't hear anything around me, I couldn't feel anything but the drops and drops of rain and the gusts of wind, I was lost, I didn't know where I was but the lightning didn't care where, the lightning was falling everywhere. I ran. I ran. I ran. And I ran out of the forest.

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