Flat had been wandering the plains for an entire moon cycle, grazing, making eye contact with its various inhabitants, when she heard a new sound. A sound at an altogether different pitch. Frightened though she was, she nevertheless headed in its direction.

As soon as it became visible, Flat remembered her friend’s request – that she must visit his wife here, by the great highway. It lay there, downhill from her, stretched across the land in a straight line. Flat immediately knew she saw it before, long ago, and from a different place. Even though now it unsettled her a great deal more than it did before, she persisted still.

Flat couldn’t know whether she would even find her friend’s wife. Flat didn’t even have any way of knowing how far this highway went on. It could all prove futile. If so, Flat thought, the consolation would be the distantly visible lush green grass that followed along the highway on both sides.

She began making her way down. The wind was swaying the pale grass all the more forcefully as she got closer to the highway. She acutely felt the weight of her body with every downward step she took. Her hooves cracked a pile of twigs – some ants’ creation. They were everywhere, these ants, moving in all directions. Her body felt heavier the closer she got. Her hooves themselves felt crushed under her weight. Not far now.

Nearing the road, the ground had flattened completely. Only the road itself rest upon a minor elevation. At the foot of this elevation, there lay grass greener and denser than anything Flat could recall seeing. However, nearly at the precise point this greener grass was separated from the paler grass, a barbed fence ran. Flat has seen these before, only this one was higher and seemed sturdier. At its base, there was at least some of the lush grass that excited her so. She took a mouthful. Surprisingly, it didn’t satisfy her. She took another mouthful. And another, waiting for it to please as she thought it would. She followed the fence, with her head close to the ground, taking bites, chewing, until her lip got snagged on a razor from the fence. Flat hurriedly retracted her neck and groaned loudly.

She didn’t want to risk hurting herself again. Yet, she still desired to taste more of this lush grass. “I will follow the fence, perhaps I’ll find a gap” she thought “and if I am to find the woman I’m looking for, I might as well choose a direction and stick with it.” And just so, Flat followed the road in a direction that was roughly South-East. She walked a considerable distance, now and then taking the risk in biting some of the grass, when finally, she came to a spot where the fence caved in. Here the grass was also uprooted in streaks and clusters, and many pieces of debris she could not identify lay scattered about. Flat felt a cold burst of misgivings of all kinds. She could not completely understand what she was walking among, she could only sense quite clearly that this was the aftermath of a great force. She was reminded of the lightning and the tree.

Nevertheless, she passed through the gap in the fence and continued along the road, eating all the while, starting to feel quite content and satisfied with this grass. It was not long, although she had covered some distance already, when Flat noticed a rumble in the distance. She looked far back at the caved in fence and felt the same force which caused that scene of destruction must be on its way here now. In the potential case that she was its target, her instincts were to run forward in the hope that that whatever came would merely misjudge her pace and miss her completely. She ran, gradually picking up speed. The rumble became louder, incredibly loud. She was running at her fullest speed, everything turning to a blur. Louder and louder the rumble became as she went head on its direction. Everything a blur. A sense of the end overcame her, yet different from a predator’s chase. It wasn’t simply the first instinct of escape, but a calculative guess of an instinct - both staying in one place and running forward could either lead to her death or keep her alive, there was no certainty she made the right choice. Then, in the blur of her surroundings and her desperate rushing thoughts - a white flash - and the rumble began to recede. Flat let her pace dissipate gradually before coming to a complete halt.

Panting, shaking, Flat looked behind her and saw the rumbling machine, now a white speck, recede further along the measureless highway. She was exhausted, and luckily some trees and dense bushes lay just ahead - a fine spot, she thought, to lay down and be hidden also from any eyes. The day was nearing its end, and Flat couldn’t see herself making any more of it. She would need sleep, and some time to gather her thoughts. Doubts returned to her: Would it be wiser to turn back tomorrow? If not, how long would she continue her search before giving up? What was there to gain, for Flat and for the woman, her friend’s wife, in this meeting? These questions Flat would need to consider long and hard in the hopeful privacy the bushes would afford her.

Hidden though she was, Flat could not take her mind off the road that lay merely a few steps away on the other side of the bush. Surely enough, the rumble from before did pass now and again and every time it unnerved Flat down to her bones. With the noise also came light which only heightened these shudders of fear. Despite the lights, yellow, white, cutting through the bushes and into her eyes, she held faith in the bushes keeping her safely out of sight. Of course, she knew it would not protect her if that force turned towards her for whatever reason. She could barely sleep. And during these long hours in the dark, haunted by these monstrous gusts of noise and force, it became clear that she could not maintain this course for a full day. She would still follow the road, but would find a spot to cross the fence and keep a safe distance. The sweet green grass was not worth the terror the road inspired in her. As soon as dawn breaks, she would rise and move swiftly to find the crossing she desperately needed.

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This was still some time away. It was quiet for a while and Flat could hear birds singing to her: dawn was nearing. But to her dismay, as dawn approached, the noises only became louder, and the force of their passing became all the more terrifying. There were some throughout the night, but now almost all the passing vehicles were massive things, lorries, whose momentous passing were far beyond Flat’s understanding or experience. She would not dare follow through on her plan if this continued. She would wait it out… or if it came to her, she could make use of a silent few seconds and attempt to jump the fence behind her. After all, she’s seen kudu jump far higher than that. Whether it was really possible for her heavy body to make this jump, she could not tell with any certainty. But staying next to the road any longer felt to her far more torturous than the possibility of falling over the fence.

It was decided, she would jump the fence as soon as the first moment of respite from the lorries’ passing came. And so, it did. Flat readied herself and stormed towards the fence, lifted her front legs and kicked off with her back legs. This was not enough to make it over. She crashed into the fence, ripping two of its sturdy poles out of the ground: The razor wire cut into her, and she laid there, entangled with the fence, in a manner only a dead buffalo can. She kicked her legs aimlessly, let out an intense groan, tried to break loose, but every thrust away felt like it worsened the cuts made into her by the razor wire fence. She knew, nonetheless, that such a thrust was her only way out, no matter how much blood and pain it would cost. All the while cars were passing by, though it was unlikely for any of the drivers to see.

She closed her eyes and tried to bring her breathing to a standstill. She was preparing to employ her full force in this attempt to get free. And so, she did. Some blood splattered on the ground as she pulled away. The pain was immense. She repeatedly shook her body as she took some steps away from the fence. She bellowed as she hurriedly waddled away from the fence and the road, determined to distance herself from this scene – as if this would numb the pain. Her front legs were the most hurt and she needed a moment to lie down in the grass, but not this close to the road. She would rest only once the sound of the highway was no louder than that of the crickets in the veld. During this whole time since she decided to attempt the jump, she did not even realize the ascent of the morning sun, now already high and bright enough to make her blood glimmer on the grass around her.

Flat collapsed not far away. There was nothing on her mind. She felt her whole body was now reduced to nothing more except her aching front legs and her rapidly beating heart. Only very slowly did her heartbeat return to normal and she fell asleep, out in the open, with the insects that were louder than cars.

She awoke at noon under a violent sun. She was dehydrated and the grass around her was dry, dryer than it was that morning. She got up, stiffly, and surveyed the area. Only down by the road, it seemed, the grass held some life in its blades. This temptation she refused outright. Her mind was made up, she would walk until she would be lucky enough to find a stream. She took off, still fighting off shivers of terror from her long night behind the bushes. “I will find her, I will find her, he would’ve help me, perhaps she would do the same, I will find her, I will find her, she might help, I must find her” were the thoughts spinning through her mind, hurting her head while somehow taking the load off her legs.

Luckily, Flat did not walk far before coming across a small stream. There was no running water, but the soil was still damp. The highlands to the side of the road, the plateau she came down from, let down many such streams into this valley. Flat was beyond thankful for these slivers of dampened soil and the nourishing grass surrounding them. She felt even more thankful as more and more trees began to dot the veld along her course. It was still in the heat of the day when she took a rest under one of these trees. Now that Flat finally felt she could remove her focus from the immediacy of escape, she allowed her eyes to wander across the landscape. The sun’s bright light made a light gold of everything - the trees’ green tops only barely resisting this gold coating. And then the dark gray road, starkly slicing through the scene as if it obeyed none of the same powers that carved this land. The lightning and fire that fell the vultures’ tree, that could burn a hillside to ash, would barely affect as much a patch of this highway. For a long time, Flat’s eyes followed the highway, back and forth to both horizontal ends. When she tried to look to the grassy horizon the other side of the road, she was blinded by the gold luster the sun bestowed on it.

When Flat decided to leave the tree’s cover, it was already late in the afternoon. She could still cover much ground before dark. And so, she did.