The trees were different. Not dramatically so. Not in any way she could definitively prove.
Like someone had taken the forest and moved each element slightly to the left, or rotated everything by a few degrees, or rearranged the pieces in a way that almost—but not quite—matched the original.
Selene's eyes caught on a tree with three distinctive branches reaching upward like grasping fingers.
'I've seen this before. Recently, within the last hundred paces. But we've already crossed it…didn't we?'
"...Seventy-eight. Seventy-nine. Eighty..."
'Maybe there is multiple clones of trees. Only the symbol that Moon left will finally tell us…if it's not there…then nothing about this is a coincidence.' Her own breathing sounded too loud in her ears. Selene tried to quiet it, to focus, but her heart rate kept climbing despite her best efforts.
