We might have been walking for around a mile already when I looked at my watch again. It showed the exact time of 09.00 a.m., and I still had yet to begin to hear any rushing river sounds in the distance. The sun definitely continued to keep on rising above us, and I also felt that the temperature around me was getting a little warmer.
Perhaps it was thanks to the tall trees that surrounded us that I only felt a little increase on the heat, and it surely was a blessing to be walking around in the mountainous area since I was very sure that I would soak myself with my own sweat if there were no mountainous wind that blew towards us gently every once in a while at that hours. To keep my minds off from the slowly increasing heat, I decided to ask Billy about the bridge that we would have to across later on.
"This hanging bridge that you mentioned earlier…" I asked Billy, "How old do you think it is?"
"You mean, do I know if the hanging bridge has been there since the time of the Dutch colonization or not?" Billy answered me with his own question, "No. I do not."
"Well… then let us just hope that the bridge would at least be able to hold each of us in getting across the river…" I responded to his answer.
Billy did not say anything to my words and he kept on walking straight. Shortly after, Jessica turned her head towards me for a little while, looking at me straight in my eyes before she turned to in front of her again. She probably wanted to signal me about something on her mind, but in the end she kept it for herself for the time being perhaps due to unfavorable timing.
That being said, I still had yet to know if Jessica could swim. For the worst case scenario that suddenly popped up in my mind, should the hanging bridge suddenly collapsed and bringing any or even all three of us down to the river, then it would mean that the three of us must have the ability to swim, or else we will drown quickly due to the fast stream of the river. If it would give anyone with a good swimming ability a great struggle in swimming to the shore of a rushing river, then those who could not swim would definitely have barely any to no chance at all of making it across the river.
About ten minutes later, I began to hear a faint sound of rushing water. As we continued on going ahead, the sound just keep on getting more vivid little by little, until eventually Billy told us that he could then began to see what seemed to be a hanging bridge in the distance. Very shortly after, both Jessica and I could also see the bridge, and when we finally arrived right in front it, I could look in more details of the bridge that we must use to get across the river.
The first thing that I looked first was not how strong or tough the bridge was, but instead how deep below we would fall to the river if the bridge was to collapse when any or all of us were getting across the bridge. We were probably about thirty to thirty five feet apart from the surface of the river below from the where we were currently standing.
At first, I was wondering how could there be such a great distance between us and the river, but then I also recalled that we were always seemed to be going up to a higher level of elevation when we were walking earlier albeit little by little. It also made me concerned that the river was surrounded by a straight and steep cliff, instead of a more sloping ground, meaning that if we were to fall down, it would be extremely difficult for us to climb up again.
Then, when I finished looking at what we had to get across, I proceeded by looking at the thing that we must use to do it, the hanging bridge, with the length of possibly about forty feet. I had to admit that I was at least a little relieved to see that most if not all of the hanging ropes of the bridge seemed to be still attached to it. However, there were two things that also concerned me.
The first one was that many of the wood planks seemed to be rotted pretty badly, indicating that it most likely had yet to be maintained for decades. If I had to guess, perhaps the bridge itself had not been used much since the early 1950s, resulting in total neglect of its maintenance. However, even so it also seemed that there was no holes whatsoever between each of the wooden planks of the bridge.
The second one was that each wooden planks serving as the ground of the bridge seemed to be connected by a couple of small ropes. My concern was none other than to think if the small ropes would break at any second right after any of us stood on any of the wooden planks. I also noticed that the ropes somehow also seemed to be connected to the rope handle of the bridge.
"Really?" Jessica sighed, "This is the bridge that we must use to get across?"
"There is no other way…" I responded to her, and gulped once.
The three of us stared blankly towards the bridge and the river below us, not sure on who had to go first, until Billy spoke his mind out.
"Travis…" Billy said as he paused for a little moment, "How much do you weight?"
"A hundred and forty five pounds." I responded to him, a little bit confused. "Are you thinking that those with the lighter weight should go first?"
"A little bit below sixty six kilos, huh?" Billy said, "Last I checked last month, mine was sixty two and a half. And yes, more or less, assuming all of our backpacks all had the roughly same weight."
"Bill…" Jessica asked him, "Kita harus ninggalin tas kita sebelum nyebrang?" asking if all of us had to leave our backpacks behind to get across the river.
"Nggak… nggak mungkin ninggalin…" Billy answered her as he shooked his head, "Justru gue sedikit khawatir barang-barang di tas kita masih lumayan kurang…" telling her that it would be impossible for us to leave our backpacks, especially since he was also concerned that we were bringing an insufficient amount of necessary things.
After the both of them had finished talking, I asked Billy again, trying to confirm if it would be him who would be crossing the river by using the bridge first.
"So… is it going to be you, who will get across first, Bill?" I asked him.
"Yes… apparently…" He responded me as he sighed.
Immediately after that, both Jessica and I took three steps back as Billy slowly took his first step towards the first wooden plank. Whether it was only my feeling or it was real, I also felt like he took a deep breath, rather nervously as he stepped his foot on the bridge. For his first ten steps, I felt a serious tense inside my mind, fearing if the bridge would collapse on any second. However, when the eleventh and then twelfth step had been taken, I began to feel like the bridge perhaps still had its toughness more than I gave it a credit for, giving me another slight relieve as well.
As Billy had covered about one third of the distance, I looked at Jessica who seemed to be still tense, looking at him and concerned about his safety. It was at that point that I decided to give her a little relief in order to calm her mind down.
"If he can make it across without any problem, do not worry." I said to her. "You will also make it too."
Jessica only nodded once, before she began to slowly looking down and gave out a sigh.
"You know…" Jessica said, before she paused, "I… cannot swim…" as she looked like she gritted her teeth behind her closed lips.
It was at that moment when my mind began to buzz and I was in a total loss for words. My concern from earlier turned out to be true, yet by the looks of the bridge condition, there was no way it could hold the weight of two persons. The worse thing was that my attempt on calming her down only seemed to make her more afraid instead. At that point, I noticed that Billy had made it across and was giving me a signal to follow him, which would make Jessica the last person to get across.
"You will make it across. Trust me, okay?" I said to her as I held her shoulders gently and looked her straight in her eyes.
She only looked at my eyes, without any other responses. Not wanting to waste any more time, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, before I opened it again and took my first step on the bridge. My heart suddenly pounded fast when I took my second, third, and fourth step on the bridge as I was still extremely concerned on its toughness, despite looking someone else had managed to get across safely.
I also felt like sweat running down on my back as I kept on moving forward slowly and looked down towards the river for once in a while. Before I knew it, I had covered half of the distance on the bridge when I looked back to see how Jessica was doing. It also seemed like both Billy and her were very nervous to see me getting across the bridge.
'creak creak creak'
I immediately stopped once I heard that noise coming down straight from the wooden plank I was standing on. Apparently, the other two also heard it as they looked like they had just gasped and had their eyes locked at my direction with extreme intense. I breathed very fast as I held my position still on where I was standing since the bridge seemed to be shaking quite mildly.
Thankfully, after a short moment later the shaking began to stop, and I could begin to proceed ahead again. When I arrived on the other side, I gave out a very loud sigh and breathed very fast as Billy gave me a pat in the back. I closed my eyes for a little while as I was relieved on not having to deal with any sudden danger.
Billy then signaled Jessica to get across while I was still calming myself down. I could not see her clearly, but I somehow felt like she seemed to be somewhat reluctant in crossing the river, so I gave her a nod twice. Whether it was only my feeling or it was real, it made her finally willing to begin stepping her foot on the bridge, and unlike both Billy and I, it looked like she was able to proceed faster than the two of us, most probably due to her weight. It did not take too long before she already covered roughly two thirds of the distance, and then three quarters.
'creak CREAK CREAK PTEW'
"IYAAARGGHHH!!" Jessica screamed as the bridge suddenly collapsed into two parts.
"JESSICA!" both Billy and I screamed as we rushed to the edge of the cliff to see where she was.
I was both very relieved and panicked to see that she was literally hanging by the bridge rope roughly nine feet from the edge of the cliff. I quickly released my backpack and put my submachine gun down as I also struggled to think how to lift her up. I was also left in complete shock to see that most of the wooden planks had gone, leaving only five planks still hanging from the ropes, and none of the ropes were connected anymore.
"You pull the rope! I will help you pull from behind! Quick!" Billy shouted to me as he rushed towards the rope Jessica was desperately holding.
I pulled the rather moldy rope as hard as I could, with Billy right on my back while I kept on telling Jessica to hang in there as loud as I could. With each few pulls, my heart beat faster as I was thinking what if she could not make it, if she did not have any more strength for herself to hang on. I could not express how relieved I was to see her right hand touching the cliff edge after I felt like pulling the rope for forever.
"There! Her hand!" I said to Billy loudly.
"Get her! I will hold the rope!" He responded to me just before I rushed towards her.
I reached her right hand and pulled her up as fast I could. When she finally managed to completely reach the cliff she looked like she could barely stand from the shock, and hugged me very tightly. I could feel her tremble as she held me within her arms, but thankfully she was not crying.
"Hey, hey. It is okay. It is all okay." I said to her as soft as I could. "You made it, right? You are here in one piece. That is good."
Perhaps it took around ten or almost fifteen minutes before all three of us had regained our composure again, as she was not the only one scarred for a moment earlier, but both Billy and I also had our mental pretty much exhausted due to the sudden accident. Billy then said something to the two of us as he apparently had become ready to proceed again.
"Next… we are going to have to head for the dam…" Billy said.
"About one kilometer from here, you said?" I asked him for confirmation.
"Yes, supposedly." He answered to me, before he slowly turned to the north direction. "Assuming the dam had not completely gone yet…"
I quickly went up, and helped Jessica to do the same thing. We then began to proceed for the dam, with the hopes of finding any sort of stairs or ladders to use to get to the higher grounds. As we walked, I just hoped to myself that we would not have to face any sudden threat along our way and inside the dam…