Paradise Thriller

The Rope Bridge

"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.