Free Rushed by Brian Harmon

brother’s number. 
    “What’s up?” answered Paul. 
    “Hey.  I need a huge favor.”
    “How huge?”
    “Pretty damn inconvenient.”
    “What do you need?”
    “I need you to go pick up my PT Cruiser for me.”
    “Okay.  Where is it?”
    Eric gave him directions on how to find it as he followed the faint trail up the side of a hill.
    “What the hell’s your car doing way out there?”
    “It’s a real long story.”
    “If you say so.  Where are you ?”
    “About fifty miles northwest of where I parked.  I think.”
    “What are you driving?”
    “Didn’t say I was driving.”
    “Wait…what?”
    “I’m out in the woods right now.  Don’t worry about it.  I just need you to pick up the Cruiser.  I think I’m going to have to find another ride when I’m done here.”
    “What the hell are you doing in the woods?”
    “Like I said, it’s a really long story.  Will you do it?”
    “Sure.  Yeah.  I can do it.”
    “Thanks.  I owe you.”
    “Yes you do.  Does Karen know where you are?”
    “Yes, Karen knows where I am.”
    “You’re seriously acting weird today.”
    “You don’t know the half of it.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing.”
    The phone crackled as he approached the top of the hill and he took it away from his ear long enough to look at the display and see that he was again losing the signal.  When he put it back to his ear, Paul was saying something.  His voice stuttered through the static. 
    “What was that?”
    “I said it’ll be a couple of hours before I can drive out there.”
    “That’s okay.”  He hadn’t expected him to leave immediately.  Paul owned his own construction business.  He had the freedom to leave work to run errands, which was why Eric called him instead of having Karen take care of it, but he didn’t expect him to drop everything and go.  “There’s no huge rush.  Listen, my phone’s cutting out so…I’m…”  He trailed off as he crested the top of the hill and looked down off the other side.  “Whoa.”
    “What?”
    Before him lay a landscape vastly different from the cornfields and forests he’d seen so far.  The path continued down the other side of the hill, widening as it went.  The trees thinned.  Rocks jutted up from the ground.  About two hundred yards in front of him, the earth was split by a wide gorge. 
    “Eric?  What’s going on?  Are you still there?”
    “Yeah.  But I’ve got to let you go.  I’m losing my signal.”
    “Okay.  Call me later, though, okay?  Let me know what’s going on.”
    “Yeah.  Sure.” 
    Eric disconnected the call and stood staring at the gorge that blocked his path.  The road led right up to the ledge, where a dangerous-looking rope bridge waited to carry him to the other side. 

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
    Eric made his way down the hill and stood at the end of the bridge.  It was a simple suspension bridge, with old, wooden slats that he wasn’t sure would hold his weight.  But at least the bridge was supported with thick cables and not flimsy ropes, as he’d first thought.  Still, it inspired very little confidence as a means of safe crossing.
    Was he really expected to use this thing?  Grant never said anything about risking his life on a terrifying deathtrap.  That seemed like something that should come up. 
    Several fat crows were perched along the cables of the bridge, a murder of bad omens. 
    He looked down into the gorge.  There was water at the bottom, but if it was a hundred feet deep or only a few inches, he couldn’t tell.  Either way, he had no desire to test his high diving abilities. 
    The terrain here was strikingly different from the farmland he’d become familiar with.  Was this the gray area Grant was talking about?  Or was he looking at some of Wisconsin’s natural glacial features.  The cell phone remained dead, and that odd chill was in the air again, suggesting that he was no longer in the Wisconsin he knew.  At least not