The night sky was bright with color. Cold air gently glided along the snow floor. After a long two minutes of laying in snow, Vena picked herself up onto her knees and rested on her butt. The action around her quieted down immensely giving off an eerie silence. The street in front of her was empty, no cars, no people. The empty field on the other side of the street was dark with no lights. The freeway on the other side of the field was the same: no cars, no people, no lights.

Grunting, Vena got to her feet while talking to herself, “Alright, I think I need to actually do something.” She wiped off smut and wet snow from her pants and face and looked around.

Why the hell is it so damn creepy out here? It’s so freakin quiet. No birds. No bugs. It IS winter. Maybe this is just how it feels with no people around. Where are all the people? And that fire...

She got a little sad thinking.

That poor little girl. I can’t believe I couldn’t have saved her.

Vena walked into the street exploring to the right then left. On the right she could see the outline of some factory against the galaxy colored sky. Her eyes light up.

God damn it, this sky is so fucking beautiful! I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it!

She stood there admiring the sky and stars. As the moment passed, realization crept into her mind.

Wait. Sure, I’ve never seen this before. I’ve never seen ANY of this before. Where the hell am I?

She tried reaching into her memories for the last thing she remembered. Nothing. She just woke up in a fire. Momentary shock hit her face.

What the hell!?

She couldn’t remember anything. No last meals, drinks, TV shows, friends.

Wait a minute, I remember a kid...

She had memories of living with a child, a little boy. He looked to be at least ten years of age. She remembered taking care of him; He laughed, cried, played. He called her Ven and called her Vena when whining. That made he smile for a moment. Memories of getting him from different schools made it clear that their last names are Serafini. They had the same last name, and their living situations always seemed temporary.

Vena Serafini…

She gave off a little smile again.

I like it. I guess everywhere we lived was temporary, so we were only passing through? To where? Where were we going? Why? Where’s the boy? I hope he wasn’t in that fire. I didn’t see anybody else by me. Granted, I didn’t look very hard.

She pondered in the dark for a very long time. She had so many questions. The little girl she tried to save spoke Russian and Vena spoke back. In the memories with the boy, they spoke French to each other. So she spoke Russian and French.

I’m definitely somewhere in the Northeast. Explains the snow.

She glanced back to the two directions the road lead. With no way of telling where the left goes, she started walking towards the factory silhouette.

That fire. Her memories. Her family. Her strength. Absorbing fire? How dark this night is. Not feeling cold. No hunger. No thirst. What about that voice she heard when she woke up?

After walking and thinking for only a couple minutes, she was walking across a bridge. She could hear running water beneath the bridge and felt the breeze that followed. She glanced at the water out of curiosity. It was black due to the absence of sunlight. She thought about how terrifying it would be in the water, making her illogically nervous walking along the paved road of the bridge.

At the end of the bridge was a nice archway of trees. She thought it was a shame the trees looked so barren, they must look really pretty in the spring. Goosebumps ran up her spine as she passed beneath the branches stopping her in her tracks. She was having an ominous feeling, a feeling like the trees could fall over or something was watching and waiting among the branches. She made her way very nervously and cautiously beneath the trees, not taking her eyes off them for even a moment.

After a minute of walking backwards, she reached a sidewalk. Being at least fifty meters away from the trees she still felt a strange suspicion towards them. She relaxed her gaze, took a breath and slowly turned to her right

Jesus, what the hell. What was that? Am I paranoid? My heart was racing!

Taking a quick glance behind her, she saw a lone tree just as bare as the others positioned to the front-left of a gate. Not nearly as intimidating, but still creepy.

Am I really scared of trees? Do I have a phobia of trees!?

She annoyingly turned back around and glanced to her right, “FUCKING, FUCK!” She almost fell over at the sight of a big memorial with with three soldiers.

It must be the dark. The dark is messing with me. That’s probably all it is. Fuck, man!

She told herself to relax as she rubbed her eyes. She took a deep breathe and kept walking. She could see an entrance up ahead on her right.

That must be the entrance to the plant.

On her left along the road and river were more trees, a lot more trees. She’s no tree expert but these trees looked like they should be thriving even in the winter. They’re skeletons though, not one pine needle on any branch. It was a really strange site.

Seeing the gate left wide open on her right, Vena continued towards the entrance of the plant. Past the gate the road curved left between buildings and trees. Small, malnourished trees were strewn about on the left side of the road. Paths towards rest areas, or maybe a visitor’s center curved around the plants. Other small structures hide amongst the trees along the walkways.

A factory building could be seen to the right of the road accompanied with a smaller building, both surrounded by more sad trees. Pipes could be seen entering and leaving the factory curving around the building, leading towards other buildings and pathways. An overhead walkway passed over the smaller building and trees connecting the factory to another building further right of the entrance.

I guess that’s the entrance to this plant.

Vena decided to walk beneath the overhead walkway, following a couple pipes that lead between the smaller building and the entrance building. Vena admired the look and architecture of the buildings, noting the windows and entrances. Following the walkway outlined with pipes, she was lead to the sea. The crisp sea breeze brushed her face. Water could be heard gently rocking to and fro. A flat ship was resting on the sea next to the walkway, “Huh…”

Never seen a boat like that. Never seen a boat parked like that either.

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Continuing, Vena found another entrance to the factory building on the left as the pipes along the walkway ended into the ground. The building entrance was gated with a well worn dirt path leading towards the gate’s opening. Reaching the back of the factory, moonlight highlighted a giant pile of dark gravel. Some sort of processing structure obstructed the full view.

At that moment, another wave of goosebumps crawled up and down Vena’s spine. She swiftly turned around out of fear and found nothing. Only partially relieved, she stood there analyzing the scene. Nothing was there but she felt like something was wrong. She didn’t know what, but it had to be something.

She looked at the building to the left, the factory building on the right, and finally the small center building. Then she started looking for details on and around the buildings and pathway. It was like looking for differences in a before and after photo. After a long focus on the three buildings, her heart sank. She finally saw it, the anomaly: the trees. The frail, leafless trees that surrounded the buildings were gone. She couldn’t move, she was frozen in fear.

What… What is this? Fucking trees. They’re gone. I didn’t hear anything. What’s happening? Am I going crazy? Is it the phobia?

It was a strange feeling, this fear; The fear of the unnatural, the fear of the unknown. The fear of if she did anything, it may trigger something equal to pain or death. This had to do with something more than just trees, it was way more complicated than that. The courage and fortitude needed for Vena to take even a single step was immense, but she managed. She felt like she was frozen forever out of fear but she finally took a step. Her breathing became heavy as her heart raced.

Should I go over there? See what happened? What if something’s over there? I’m safe over here. It’s not like I’m scared of a fight, but this isn’t normal. This has nothing to do with a person. I’m not stupid, I don’t know what’s over there. I’m not going over there. Why the hell am I feeling all this now! So sudden!

Vena was frustrated. She didn’t know what was driving these emotions, all she knew was she didn’t want to turn her back on the ominous area. She felt doing so would mean certain death, like turning your back on a tiger.

Am I crazy? It’s normal to feel this way, right? I don’t care, I’m all by myself. It doesn’t matter how weird I look.

Vena took a few steps back and took a deep breathe in preparation. She has made a decision: she was going to run for it. She was going to run as fast as she could. She quickly turned and thrust into a sprint. And as time itself seemed to slow to a crawl, the giant pile of gravel nearby erupted into dust and flying rocks.

It was hard to comprehend, only having seconds of a glance to observe. Creatures covered in tendrils, camouflaged in the dark of night, bursted out of the hill. She couldn’t get a good look but she saw lots of them, at least a dozen and could hear even more. She held in a squeal and focus on running; surviving.

She was amazed how fast she was, cutting through the frigid air. Despite her incredible speed, the creatures kept up with her following close behind. She saw others jumping across rooftops, running along pipes, and scaling walls parallel to her. She wasn’t gaining any distance between them.

The creatures on her tail let out a foreign sound, a creepy bark or howl. The sound reflected the creature’s giant size: a deep roar followed by a high pitch squeal, something like a cross between a lion’s roar, a dog’s bark and a hyena’s laugh, a sound she’s never heard before. The sound caused Vena to let out the squeal she was holding in. The surrounding animals mimicked the noise, letting Vena know just how many of them there were: too many. They were everywhere, it seemed like they were throughout the whole city and gathering.

Vena didn’t think, she just kept running. She kept to the sea on her right jumping over the ditches and drains that lead to the sea. Unbelievably, she was able to clear a twenty-five meter ditch filled with water off of a single jump. She must have ran at least several football fields in seconds, but amazement of this had to be left for later.

The terrain changed from dirt paths to marshy lands and then white stone. Vena’s thoughts went to the factory, it must have been a mining operation. With such a clear terrain around her, she was finally able to clearly see the animals running parallel to her.

They were four legged and ran like cheetahs. Their bodies were thin but despite that and the fact they were running on four legs, they were easily as tall or even taller than her. What she initially thought were tendrils could now be seen as being roots or wood, twisted together with a the color of dry blood. Small, stiff, hazardous branches spiked from the back of the creatures.

Vena could now see beaches and houses, making it clear that she was out of the factory. This was not any better though. As the creatures barked deeply behind her, the trees ahead of her throughout the town began twisting and moving. Trees lifted themselves out of the ground with their roots. Wood teared apart and twisted together to the creatures she’s been evading. Each creature looked distinctively different. In an effort to slow or stop her, trees fell over or smashed down ahead of her. There were some that abnormally slithered about snake-like trying to catch her, block her path or strike her down. Some twisted into giant arms, trying to crush or grab her.

Vena dodged, hurdled, twisted, flipped and jumped. She was quick, flexible and very fluid. The creatures were intimidating but moved too slow and her situational awareness was infallible. She lost no speed or momentum traversing the complicated onslaught, but it wasn’t getting any easier. The wooden arms stuck in the ground in the distance began extending further. The arms were connected to a body. Asphalt erupted and houses began collapsing. Water lines and fire hydrants exploded open releasing gushing water and mist throughout the air. Vena ran over the giant creature’s submerged head, and back. The creature destroyed the surface of several blocks as it’s shoulders were revealed and it lifted itself out or the ground. Vena did not look back as the creature made it’s full reveal, but the roar the creature made was unexpectedly explosive. Vena felt the impact of the roar shake her to the core causing her to slow for a few seconds. Turbulent, icy winds followed the creature’s roar helping her get back into her sprint.

Vena’s goal was already to get out of this place, but now she felt she definitely needed to get out of the whole city. This was just too crazy. With adrenaline, instincts and resolve now at their peak, she put her head down and ran faster and faster. She was now determined to test her speed and strength; How fast could she run. How long? How high and how far could she run jump?

Vena jumped over fences, jumped over yards, then jumped onto and off of roofs. Soon after, combining her speed with her jump, she was clearing houses without losing speed and staying low.

The violent noises of the creatures were finally dying down and distancing themselves. As she glided through the air, she was able to survey the area ahead of her: she was heading towards an iced over lake.

Could I jump off the lake? Jump over the lake? Would that be stupid? Yeah, that would be stupid. I shouldn’t risk it. Maybe I can just… No, just run around it.

Although she wanted to go over the lake, Vena continued running to the right of the lake. Now sandwiched between the lake and the sea, the cold wind picked up. Following the dirt road, she headed straight towards another section of the city that contained more residential buildings.

Good thing this is a small city. Didn’t take too long to get out of there. Not a lot of tall buildings at all either, if any.

After running a few blocks into this new section of city, she saw the area was still. She slowed down to a jog then a walk. She felt relatively safe for the moment; There was no movement and no roaring. Her senses felt calm. Now finally having some peace, Vena sceptically took in her surroundings.

Jesus, fuck! Is it over!? I think it is. That gut feeling is what started all this. It kept me alive. I’m not feeling it anymore, so, maybe I’m safe? Jeez, that was some next level gut feeling. I don’t know if I’d call it a gut feeling though. Maybe a sense. Jitters? I don’t know. Whatever it was, I don’t think I would have noticed anything was wrong without it.

She twisted around in the direction she came from and admire the distance she covered. She smirked.

And how about that speed!

Vena stopped walking to examine her hands and bare feet. She was amazed. Her leg tight jeans were still dirty and singed from the fire before. Her hands were quite clean, probably because of how wet and cold everything was. Her feet however were slightly brown with mud and nearly completely black on the bottom. Dirt was under both her fingernail and toenails

Gross, but look at that! No scratches, no scrapes! No frostbite and no blisters! No friction burn either! I must have been running at least eighty kilometers per hour! I can’t believe I could move like that too! I’m so flexible, and fast!

She put a hand to her chest and took in a deep, rejuvenative breath, closing her eyes on the inhale and opening them on the exhale. She smiled and giggled to herself.

I haven’t lost any energy! I could run forever! And how about that jump!

She did a quick squat in preparation and executed what she felt was a decent jump. She rocketed into the air with her head being forced down by the air resistance and the wind nearly deafening her hearing. As the resistance faded and the wind quieted, she felt like she was floating. She was about a hundred meters above the ground. She looked around and could see the city sector she came from. Mist surrounded the area and no movement could be seen. She could see what was actually two partitioned lakes as opposed to one. She was glad she avoided that. Turning her head, she could see the next section of the city nearby. Looking a little higher, she stared in awe as the sun peaked over the horizon. She could see everything.

Beautiful...