The Bridge to Tanasi

Chapter 7A

"Ow," Tali said. The rope net had caught her up in such a way that she was swinging in the net half upside-down, her head above her feet, with her lower back taking most of her weight. Her shirt had been pulled up so far her bra was probably showing, and rope burns all over her bare back were very likely.

"Tali!" Ethan's frantic voice came from below her. "Are you okay?"

Tali grunted, trying to right herself. "Yeah, 'okay' is relative, but yeah, I'm okay." Getting herself upright was a lot more difficult than she anticipated, especially since every time she tried to use her feet to push herself into a sitting position she only succeeded in making the net swing back and forth.

"You just hang tight, okay?" Ethan shouted up to her. "I'm going to try to get you down."

"Considering I can't do anything other than hang right now, I think that shouldn't be a problem." Tali finally wrested her arms behind her a little above her, grabbed onto the rope, and pulled. She managed to pull herself somewhat into a sitting position, although her knees were still in her face, and the act of pulling herself upright made the ropes rub against her back even more, making her skin burn terribly. She yanked her shirt back down so at least her the front of her bra was covered, but the back of her shirt was tangled in the net and refused to budge without threatening to tear.

Suddenly she was flooded by a bright light shining up from the ground, making her blink. "Wow," Ethan said. "This is going to be interesting."

"Since when did you have a flashlight?" Tali asked.

"It's on my phone," Ethan said from behind the light, effectively invisible from this side of the phone.

"And you couldn't use that earlier when I was tripping over everything?" Tali couldn't help sounding grumpy; she was, after all, caught in a rope net.

"Then we wouldn't have been able to see the fireflies," Ethan explained as he shone the light on the ground, sweeping it back and forth.

Tali sighed. That was true. Still, it would have been nice to have seen where she was going, as she could have avoided the current situation.

Ethan pointed the flashlight upward at the tree the net was hanging from. "Dang it, it's set up so you have to climb the tree to release it. This may take a bit," he said.

"Oh, no hurry," Tali said, leaning back and looking up at nothing. "It's not like I'm going anywhere."

Ethan chuckled. "It's good to know you still have a sense of humor despite all that's happened."

"How about less talk, more climb?" Tali said. "My back is getting stiff."

"Oui, mon Capitaine," Ethan said, giving her a salute. He slipped the phone into his pants pocket so the flashlight was just barely sticking out. He backed up a few paces, then took a running start before jumping up and grabbing the lowest branch. The light from the flashlight bounced and swung wildly, looking like an erratic searchlight in the total darkness of the jungle. He grunted, adjusted his grip on the branch, then swung himself toward the trunk, gripping the bark with the soles of his boots. He carefully inched his way, alternating between shifting his hands closer to the trunk and shuffling his feet up the trunk.

The phone slid out of his pocket, the light spinning round and round before the phone landed screen-up, plunging the jungle back into darkness. "Shoot." Ethan dropped back to the jungle floor with a crunch as he landed on a plant, and he stumbled a bit before regaining his balance. He hissed in pain.

"You okay?" Tali asked.

"Yeah, just twisted my ankle a bit. I'll be fine," he said. "Let me just find my phone."