"Isn't this trail getting a little steep?" Miranda said, stopping a moment to rest on a wide rock.

Alison had noticed for the past few minutes that the vegetation was getting a little sparser, and the trail decidedly steeper.

"Tell you what," Travis said, "why don't I walk up ahead a few hundred yards and see if I can get any bearings on where we are. You three can take a break for a few minutes."

"Yeah, well, I'll scout ahead next time," Billy Ray said. It was taking him considerable effort at this point, Alison thought, to conceal the fact that the continued uphill climb was starting to leave him out of breath. Of course, what did he expect when, from the looks of him, he typically paid more attention to how many beers he could lift than any sort of aerobic exercise.

Travis looked back at them once, then continued up the incline.

Billy Ray sat down on the rock and took the last drink of water from his bottle, then tossed the empty one into the shrubbery.

Alison looked at him in annoyance. "Gee, in pristine surroundings like this, why not litter?"

"Did you see a trash can around here, sweetheart?"

"My name's Alison."

"Right."

Miranda looked back and forth between them and shrugged. She picked at the frayed edge of her cut-offs, pulled her own water bottle out of the waistband and took a long drink, then laid back flat on the rock.

They sat there in silence, Miranda's cap shading her eyes at she watched clouds like giant cotton move slowly across the blue sky. Billy Ray watched the trail where Travis had disappeared, his hand occasionally moving to his pocket as if checking that the gun was still there.

She'd been on the Island now for three days. Was she getting any closer to solving the mystery of her sister's disappearance? There had to be something else Alison could do. Something besides just following along on the plans for the contestants. So far there'd been no opportunity to visit the compound set up for the director and cameramen and whoever else happened to be on hand. It was almost diabolical the way Brogan managed to keep the cast and crew completely separate. There had to be something he was hiding.

Of course there was something he was hiding. He was hiding the reason her sister never came home. Alison was sure of it.

"You'd all better come and take a look at this."

Travis was back, and he didn't look pleased with whatever he'd found on the trail ahead.

* * *

"Well I'll be damned." Billy Ray stood facing the rope bridge that spanned a distance of about 150 feet across a narrow ravine. They could hear the rushing water below them flowing over rocks as it headed toward the sea.

"That can't be safe," Miranda said.

"I guess we know now what Brogan meant by "swingers," Alison said.

The bridge consisted of a single thick rope with two thinner waist-high side ropes, presumably serving as handrails, anchored vertically to the main rope every six feet or so. It was knotted and appeared frayed in parts, whether from age or from some attempt at cinematic authenticity, they couldn't be certain. Rather than being tautly suspended, the bridge appeared to dip in the middle, and swayed in the wind. An overhang jutted out on the other side, with a few craggy limbs finding purchase in the crevices on small ledges between the rock walls.

"You think it will hold?" Miranda was looking at it skeptically, and Alison remembered how terrified she'd be when they were rock climbing. That "challenge" paled by comparison to this one.

Travis pulled hard on the rope, testing it, and the bridge swayed. It was secured to a metal post that had been driven into the rocky soil. There was no way to determine what held it on the other side.

"There's no way to tell without one of us going across."

"I say we try it," Alison said, gesturing toward the bridge. She wasn't about to back away from a challenge and risk being eliminated from the competition. Not when finding out what happened to Gwen was at stake.

Travis looked at Alison and nodded. "The question is, who goes first?"

"I can't do it," Miranda said. "I'm getting dizzy just looking at it."

"The trick is not to look down," Travis said.

"Oh, God."

"Well, I'm not going to turn back," Billy Ray said. "And I don't much feel like walking all the way back down that trail." He started forward, but Travis put a restraining hand on his arm.

"No offense, but you're the heaviest one of us. I don't think you should be the first one to step on it."

"Since Miranda's terrified of heights, looks like I'm elected." Alison moved cautiously onto the bridge.

"Take it easy," Travis said.

"Don't worry, I've actually walked these before in fitness classes. You just have to keep your balance, move slowly, and focus on a point at the other side."

Alison started across, feeling the sway of the thick rope under her feet. She kept her hand on the guide ropes and moved slowly, cautiously. The wind picked up slightly and she closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating. She opened her eyes and looked down at the water. Unlike Miranda, she had never been afraid of heights. She found the rush of the water below almost reassuring.

She picked up the pace, still cautious but more certain of her balance now that she was accustomed to the sway of the bridge, and the amount of give in the ropes. She used the waist-high guide ropes on both sides to pull herself along, as well as maintain her balance, using a sliding step with her feet to minimize the bounce. She reached the halfway point and pulled harder on the guide ropes as she worked her way up the incline from the lowest point where the bridge dipped in the middle.

Suddenly the guide rope in her left hand went completely slack and dropped away. Alison struggled to regain her balance, grasping for the rope on the other side, but it was no use. She felt herself falling, and the best she could do was lock her legs around the center rope as she fell.

For a sickening moment the world was upside down and she was swinging wildly. She felt her backpack slip down toward her head as if in slow motion, automatically grasped at it with her hand for a second, then let it go, watching upside down as it fell as if it were being sucked into a warp, shrinking as it receded away from her then landing on a rock before sliding down to be swept away by the rushing water.

Alison closed her eyes, willing the nausea and panic to recede. It's no different that climbing the ropes in the gym. I just need to focus and pull myself back up. She could hear voices, like they are coming from a distance. Someone -- Miranda - was screaming, Then all she could see was the rope up above her and her legs crossed over it, and she strained to hook her ankle around it and anchor herself.

Her legs were starting to cramp already, and she struggled to reach up, grasping the leg of her shorts and trying to get her arm high enough to grab the rope. Something that was easy in the controlled conditions in her gym, a few feet off the mat, was another manner suspended from a swaying rope with the wind whipping around her body.

Miranda's screams had faded away, and she was vaguely conscious of Travis shouting something - she glanced back for a second, and it looked like he was starting across the thick foot rope itself, crawling on his belly, inching himself along hand over hand. She yelled at him stay back, but realized her voice was just carried away on the wind.

He would never make it, and even if he did, she doubted she could hold on with her legs long enough for him to reach her. The light reflected off something metal on the other side of the ravine - probably the post where the rope bridge was anchored, blinding her for a moment. She closed her eyes again, felt the cold sweat on her face. I am not going to die. I am not going to die and never know where Gwen is.

She focused on scrunching up her body, extending her right arm and trying to pull herself up to the rope. One more inch - she was touching it with her fingertips - Her heart was pounding and she can feel adrenaline surging through her body. Concentrate. Concentrate. She gave another push and her hand was around it. She grabbed on with her other arm, pulling her body up as close as possible to the rope and almost dizzy with relief. She had the sudden urge to laugh out loud before reality set back in. Her legs were throbbing and she was exhausted from the effort of regaining her hold on the rope. She was safer, for the moment. But she still had to make it across to the other side.

She looked back, Travis was just a few feet behind her now, pulling the remaining guide rope taut with his right arm while his legs remained clamped around the center rope.

"Alison? Let me get a little closer and we can --"

"It's alright, Travis!" she shouted above the rush of the water. "I think I've got it under con-"

There was a sudden rending sound and the center rope split apart in the middle. Travis held onto the guide rope that was still attached, twisting it around himself, and made a grab for Alison, but just wasn't close enough to catch her. Alison was flying through the air, swinging on the center rope that was still attached to the overhang on the far side of the ravine, but had split apart at the center of the bridge. Travis had both hands and legs around the guide rope now and was climbing as fast as he could toward the other side.

"Try to rappel off the wall!" he shouted. "Get yourself turned around."

But Alison couldn't get control of the rope --- she was careening back and forth. The overhang protected her from smashing directly into the wall on the first pass, but it was all she could do to hold on. She scraped against a rock on the side of the ravine and felt a sharp pain and then warm blood soaking her shirt. Her shoulder started to go numb, and she bounced off that wall and out again, starting to spin, losing her grip for a second and slipping a few feet down the rope.

"There's a ledge! Try to aim for the ledge!" She heard Travis's shout but the meaning of the words didn't register. She smacked into the side of the ravine again and felt herself let go involuntarily. She was falling and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She felt a sharp pain in her head and then everything went black. 

Writer's Note

How bad do you think Alison is hurt? What would have happened if it had been Miranda on the bridge?