Thunder cracked as I raised my head, as if it knew I was coming. Clouds circled about an invisible axis in the distance, the barrier right below that veil. The city spread out before me, and was just as broken as before, if not more so.
Towers touched the clouds above, and smoke billowed from the largest ones. This happened often enough, as apparently a fire built up in the skyscrapers. People didn’t know how to control a simple fire, allowing it to spread from the base and beyond. Before anyone could put it out, the flames traveled up the walls and through the windows, where they were fueled with open air. Soon enough, cloud-touching buildings could become raging infernos, expelling multiple families.
I felt something watching from the darkness beyond. Thunder spoke again while a shaft of lightning rippled throughout the mass. Waves of dizziness swayed my thoughts and threatened to throw me off the cliff, to turn me one of those accidental deaths. I quickly dropped my eyes to my feet, begging my legs to steady. The world rocked beneath me before it finally grew steady.
A rumbling alerted me back to the center of the city, but I dared not look back. It wanted me to stare into the darkness, to draw me in and not let go. Not willing to give the gloom that sort of pleasure, I turned and focused on the expressway. It wove straight into the heart of the city, exactly the way I was going.
My feet carried on without me. I was lost to the environment as the superhighway materialized before me. It was littered with wreckage. Cars looked glued together they were nuzzled so close.
I glided towards what I recalled being a fire truck. The word fire stayed with me as I witnessed the sure and total destruction of the vehicle. It was faded red while constantly assaulted by the weather. The windows were broken, and the driver’s side door was ripped off. Its sides were marked with war stories. As always, there was no driver, no bones to mark a final resting place, no trace of blood. It was as if the vehicle simply drove itself here and died.
I walked on, passing by cars, trucks, ambulances, police caravans, a motorcycle laying on its side, and even a helicopter that appeared to have crashed and exploded in the middle of it all. I looked at the ‘copter and saw a logo stenciled into the fuselage:—“Bennis Industries” it read. I wondered what type of company that was, but it didn’t really matter.
I dipped and zigzagged through the onslaught of stationary traffic, making my way passed the cluster. It was never an easy journey on the highway. It felt like miles and miles of twisted metal stretched on forever. At one point I had to start jumping from rooftop to rooftop since the cars were piled on top of one another.
Why the highway? I could hear Kyle ask. It was an argument I’d heard time and again. It was a shorter route, but far more dangerous. There was a path that traveled downhill from the cliff, a little trail cut into the woods that twisted and turned until it dropped right into the heart of the city just near the barrier. That path took much longer, though, and added time to a journey I didn’t want to make in the first place. It didn’t need to be dragged out any longer.
Jumping down from an overturned, faded blue sedan, I saw that The Fall awaited me, a twenty-five foot portion that had crumbled away. The opening was too big to jump across obviously. Instead, someone had pieced together a bridge.
It was only a few pieces of rope, one for the feet, two for the hands, and a whole lot of nerve to cross the thing. The ends for the handles were tied off to huge chunks of cement boulders that had broken off from the bridge. The rope for the feet was attached to rusted metal rods that protruded out of the street. I had forgotten The Fall and its rope bridge, as stupid as it was, and dared the idea of backtracking and taking the extra time. This gap in the highway caused several deaths. Too many tried to cross the bridge at once a few months back. Their graves line the asphalt below.
Taking a step towards the bridge, I causally gave the two hand ropes a tug to test their strength. They were taut and unwavering. Swallowing hard, I promised myself I wouldn’t look down. I focused on the far side and moved out into open space. My feet moved one in front of the other, feeling the rope without having to look at it. It was a slow process.
A crack of thunder erupted just above me, though the storm was far away. It took my attention off the rope walkway for a second, but it was a second too long. A scream barely left my throat as both my feet slipped off the rope and I plummeted downward.
Chapter 6: Glasses
Only the instinct to swing my arms up stopped my fall as my right hand found the rope. I dangled over a fifty foot drop, straight onto broken concert.
So much for not looking down.
I gripped the rope with both hands. Swinging up my left leg, I managed to embrace it and get a firm hold. Blood started rushing to my head, and I was already dizzy from exhaustion. Sleep depravity was keeping me weak. How was I going to get to the other side like this? I risked the idea of falling as it would have been so much easier.
“You alright buddy?” a shout erupted from the other side of the bridge. I turned and saw someone on the causeway. Several people surrounded the shouter. I was upside down, though, and couldn’t distinguish appearances or identify the voice.
I didn’t say a word, not sure if they’d recognize me or not. There was maybe five of them, though my double vision likely multiplied the figures. The leader was wearing a black jacket that dropped almost to his knees. He wore a pair of sunglasses too. Beyond that, and from this distance, I couldn’t make out any other features.
“Just hang tight, my man! I’ll get you outta there!” the leader shouted and near immediately took to the bridge. He walked across the ropes with the speed of a man who’d treaded them many times a day. It swayed side to side, seeming likely to give out any second.
“Whoa...” I moaned. The rope walkway shivered. It was already hard enough to stay latched, and knew I couldn’t dangle like this for long. This man was almost running, throwing the ropes, and me, into havoc.
“Deep breathes, upside down man. We built this bridge, it’ll hold. You just keep yourself right there,” the man in black instructed as he stopped just above me. He looked roughly the same age as me, though much more rugged. A full beard and several scars covered his face, while the sunglasses hid his eyes. He stood there with an outstretched hand.
“Wait a second…” he said, nearly stunned. “Well, I’ll be damned!”
“Jackson, is that you?” he whispered.
He knew me, even upside down, but I was getting too dizzy to remember anything about him. I looked back at the others but nothing came to mind. A hand awaited by my face, opened and inviting. I looked back up at him and his smile sought my attention. Even if this was awkward, I couldn’t help but take his hand. If this was a ploy, and he were to let go, only open air and concrete below would stop the fall. But he lifted me back to the walkway as promised.
“Jackson,” he whispered.
My arms trembled with fatigue, but my mind was working overtime now. Should I know him? Out of the hundreds of people who call this place home, his face wasn’t one I could recall. I had so few friends left, and only knew of the ones that lived close to me.
This man was from Downtown, and that was where everyone learned to hate me. I knew that the hate still lived there. It didn’t just go away. However, it wasn’t detestation that streamed off his tongue, or through that smile.