She heard her own voice faintly. So she wasn't deaf.

More lightnings grumbled and flashed in the distance. She pushed herself away from the sizzling metal of her bike and dug herself into the sand. She kept as low as she could, remembering something about lightning striking the tallest objects in a field.

But she needed to put as much distance between her and her bike as possible. The melted metal bike was death. She winced at every crack of thunder, recalling the static coursing over her skin just a few moments earlier. The lights in the sky and in the water battled on, slashing in the darkness and cutting open the bloated clouds.

Zoe forced her body to crawl. The rain pounded down on her. Her eardrums wailed. She felt numb and half-alive, but she crawled on through the sand.