Maybe the rope ladder worked for Meredith, but she weighs what, a hundred pounds soaking wet? You aren't about to take that same chance, so instead you find a pair of small protrusions on the rock and pull yourself up, your boot scraping against the surface until your toe finds something it can step on. With this first successful step, you look up and identify a route to the top where the rock is angled fifty degrees or so — very steep to be sure, but not so steep as to be impossible to climb.


The going is slow, though, as there is no room for error on a climbing route this exposed. The wall of rock is only maybe fifty feet tall, but if you were to lose your grip there would be nothing to stop your fall. Slowly you work the rock directly in front of you, looking up from time to time, but never looking down, maintaining three points of contact at all times. Before moving the next hand or foot, you test your grip with your other appendages to reassure yourself you're not about to slip off the mountain.


It is a long and tiring process, though, during which you imagine Meredith getting far ahead of you, perhaps even finding some kind of hidden passageway leading up to the temple ruins where the Stone of Vul-Kar awaits. When you last saw Walter Berringer on board the Big Papi you thought maybe his anger towards Meredith had eclipsed his desire to obtain the gem. Now that Meredith has passed you on the trail, you're starting to feel the same way.


Although it only takes ten minutes to reach the top, it feels more like thirty. The slope doesn't taper at the top like you had hoped, so there is one more delay as you are forced to find something else to grab onto so you can pull yourself over the edge, finally coming to rest on a small terrace of level ground.


You are torn by the competing interests of stopping to rest and continuing your chase, when the sound of running footsteps makes the choice for you. Although all four of your limbs feeling limp from the exertion of the climb, adrenaline takes over as you charge around a boulder to where you thought you heard the noise.


Here you find the top of the rope ladder, anchored by a pair of stout wooden stakes wedged into a crevice in the rock. Nobody is there, but you do see a familiar green object lying on the ground. Picking it up, you recognize it immediately as a six-inch survival knife you've owned for so long you don't even remember where you got it. This was one of the items that was in the REI backpack that Meredith stole… meaning she was right here! She was waiting for you to climb the ladder so she could cut the ropes on you — not just trying to block your path, but intentionally waiting for an opportunity to cause you grave harm!


Looking around, you don't see her — but that proves nothing because you have reached an area of irregular topography, a restless summit strewn with boulders and indented by alcoves and large crevices. There is a maze-like quality to the area, almost, and it occurs to you that Meredith could be anywhere here. You listen, but you hear no further footsteps. Either she has gotten away, or she is hiding here somewhere among the rocks.


Tucking your trusty old knife under your belt, you set out to search this strange summit. Much of Woban Island spreads out below you, although the summit is so broad and cluttered that you never have the full 360° view. However, you are so close to the main summit that it looms above the rock formations surrounding you. For the first time you can clearly see the summit ruins on its top.


What you're looking for is Meredith's whereabouts. You'd call her name, but that would make you feel like you're searching for a lost puppy. It would also broadcast your location to your quarry. No, it would be better to let her stew for a moment, wondering where you are. But in the process of looking for her, you circle around to the far side of the summit where you find something completely unexpected: a rope bridge spanning a massive gulf. The near end is anchored to large wooden poles, similar to the ladder but on a larger scale. Five hundred feet away, the far end of the bridge is tethered to a narrow ledge on the side of the steep main summit, with a tunnel leading into the mountain. In between is a chasm hundreds of feet deep, with a botton full of talus. Looking down into the depths, you can see the remains of an earlier version of the bridge rotting away on the rocks below. Are those human bones that you see down there, too?


So did Meredith cross the bridge, or is she lying in wait somewhere on this side, hidden among the rocks? It's frustrating to consider the possibilities: either she is already climbing up to the temple ruins, on her way to to grab the Stone of Vul-Kar before you; or she's poised to sabotage you again by cutting the ropes once you are halfway across the bridge.


But that wouldn't make sense; if she's here to get the stone, then she needs that bridge just as much as you do.


__________________________________________________

You cross the bridge.

The thought that Meredith might be lurking behind you is sheer paranoia, especially since it appears the bridge is the only way to get to the main summit. If she destroys the bridge just to kill you, then how would she get across? You're just overthinking a simple problem. Like everyone else, she's here to grab the Stone of Vul-Kar so she can claim a reward and get rich. If you don't act fast, she may find it before you do.


However, you have the same hesitation about the bridge as you did about the rope ladder, in terms of its structural adequacy. The bridge is merely a combination of four fibrous ropes with dozens of wood slabs to step on. It seems like a very primitive contraption for such an ambitious span, and structural failure would result in certain death. Do the Wobans have any civil engineers among them? How often do they inspect this thing? How did the previous bridge fail, and whose skeleton is that down on the rocks?


But here's another way of looking at it: this bridge was presumably built by Woban natives, who are seven feet tall and significantly heavier than a typical human. If the bridge can carry one of them safely across, what are you so worried about?


So you approach the bridge, grab the two waist-high ropes that serve as handrails, take a deep breath, and step onto the first wood slab. The bridge shimmies under your weight, but it holds. So you take the next step, then the next, and then the next, one at a time. You have to watch where you are placing your feet, so you have no choice but to look down lest you slip a boot through the gap between the slats; Philippe Petit you are not. The vast space below you is terrifying, so you choose to focus instead on the craftmanship of the bridge: the strength of rust-colored rope, the evenness of the wood slabs, the knots that hold everything together. It's quite the piece of work.


When you are just a third of the way across, you are startled to hear a voice call out behind you.


"Give my regards to Walter."


You turn carefully and see Meredith kneeling at the beginning of the bridge, at the place you reasoned she wouldn't be. She no longer has your knife, but she is holding a handgun to one of the two lower ropes.


"Meredith, wh—" you start to say, but she's not interested in small talk. She fires, the bullet severing the rope just as handily as a knife. The walkway of wood slabs drops away like a trap door, and in a desperate act to catch yourself you throw your arms around the two handrails. This leaves you dangling in space by your armpits.


Seeing that you're still holding onto the bridge, she stands and shoots the upper rope on the opposite side of the bridge. The right handrail falls away, leaving your feet grasping for purchase on the one bottom rope that still remains, and your arms holding onto the last handrail. Meredith doesn't even wait to see you fall; she shoulders your green backpack and disappears among the rocks, apparently having no interest in crossing the bridge.


THE END