As Annika and Lorem walked along the barely visible trail in the thickest of woods, the summer heat and humidity sapped the liveliness from their steps. As the day dragged on, the forest became thicker and more difficult to traverse. Along with the bugs, the heat wasn’t the only challenge they’d face that day. In the distance, Lorem heard a low pitched rumble. He froze mid step to listen more closely. He raised his finger as if to interrupt their nonexistent conversation to make a point. The sound was gone. Annika instinctively stopped too when Lorem did, yet lingered longer than him. She then heard the low, booming rumble for herself but it was faint and hard to identify. Was it an explosion? The war had dragged on for years and claimed many lives but hadn’t made its way into the remote depths of America yet. No, it couldn’t be an explosion. It was too indistinct to know what the sound was. The pair finally reached a break in the forest where they could see the sky directly above them. Nothing. Overhead was nothing but big, blue sky. They continued with their journey through the Ouachita National Forest, hoping to reach a service road before nightfall. Then as suddenly as they had heard the rumble, a blinding flash of light burst through the sky followed by an immediate explosion of bark and limbs as lightning struck the tree directly ahead of them. The boom of thunder was just as frightening as the explosion and the couple threw themselves to the ground in a feeble attempt to protect themselves from what seemed like the wrath of God in the end times. As they slowly opened their eyes and regained their composure, the crisp air now carried the overpowering scent of the dismantled long needle pine and oddly, the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil…