Me: Why should all three of us be lost
Arjun: We’re not lost. And we won’t get lost. Just stop arguing and tell us which way the school spun for you
I close my eyes and try to remember. It happened so fast that I was too busy trying not to slide around and face-plant to pay attention to which way the world beneath me was turning. But I remember feeling like if I was going to fall, it was going to be on my face, so I definitely spun backward.And I remember the amphitheater vanishing behind me, to the left instead of to the right.
I text that to my friends, and Arjun answers a few seconds later.
Arjun: You went southwest, so we’re heading that way now
Arjun: To get back to us, you should go northeast
That would be great, if I knew what direction northeast was. But again, my navigation app is down, the sky is too cloudy to see the sun, and all these trees look the same. There’s no way to tell which way is north.
Although…if I go back to my original spot, I could just go backward and to the right from there. Eventually I should end up somewhere in the vicinity of my friends.
It’s not a brilliant plan—or even a good plan, considering heading back that way leaves me totally exposed to the lightning and thunder that continue to fill the sky all around me. But I’ve got a logic exam to take and no other ideas, so it will have to do.
Me: I’m heading back in the direction I came in
Me: We should run into each other before too long
Me: Be careful of the lightning. It looks dangerous right now
Fifi: Is it still going on where you are?
Fifi: How far away are you?
Fifi: What is going on?!?!?!?!
Okay, this is getting weird. I mean, yeah, we’re in different parts of the school, but that shouldn’t matter. Anaximander’sis big, but it’s not different-weather-in-different-parts big. Especially since this lightning is streaking across the entire sky, as far as I can see. How can it not be doing the same wherever Fifi and Arjun are?
The anxious feeling that’s been stalking me since this whole thing started gets way worse as I start running back across the clearing. Dense trees surround the grassy meadow I’m in, so I’ll be safe if I can just get to them without getting struck by lightning.
How hard could that be?
Unfortunately, it turns out to be very, very hard.
I tuck my cell phone into the front pocket of my backpack, then take off running. But the second I step foot into the clearing, the storm goes wild all around me. Lightning slams into the ground over and over again. Thunder booms across the sky. And at just that moment, the dark clouds above me open up and rain starts pouring down.
I keep running—I don’t know what else to do at this point—my eyes on the huge copse of trees ahead of me. I just need to get there. I just need to get there. I just need—
All of a sudden lightning hits the ground directly in front of me. The impact of it sends me soaring backward, tumbling head over tennis shoes as I fly through the air.
I have one moment to think that if I actually survive this, it had better count as my lightning storm labor. Then I crash into the ground so hard my teeth rattle in my head. My chest feels like it’s been stepped on by a Titan, and pain shoots through my entire body.
I try to take a breath, but my lungs won’t work, and panic explodes inside me. The rain is coming down in huge, heavy sheets now, and I turn my head, trying not to let water fill up my nose and mouth as I continue to try to breathe.
But my lungs won’t inflate, no matter how hard I try to make them.
The panic grows worse, making my skin itch and my heart feel like it’s going to explode even as I tell myself that I’m okay. That I just had the wind knocked out of me. That I’ll be able to breathe in just a—
All of a sudden my lungs reinflate. Pain stabs through me, but as air—wonderful, miraculous air—fills my chest, I don’t care. All that matters is I can breathe.
I suck in a second breath and then a third before staggering to my feet as lightning continues to sizzle through the sky.
The wind has picked up too, slamming rain and leaves in shades of red and orange and yellow into my face and eyes as I try to get my bearings. As I try to figure out which way to run now that I’ve lost whatever small sense of direction I had.
But in the middle of the storm all the trees look the same, and I have no idea which way to head.
