BREAKING AWAY
A quiet patch of field, cold in the still morning light, already stirred awake by the cold morning wind. A rosy hue is bunching up in the horizon, a newborn morning, lighting the field with hues of gold, when suddenly the earth splits in twain, a subtle crack, a quiet moan, and begins to slowly tear further and further apart. Had it not been for the bells in the trees, strung along braided strands of wire, the breaking ground would have gone unnoticed.
A flurry of bells begin to jump and scream, webbed along a half mile to one central outpost built on the trunks of trees, seemingly entangled in nests of rope, and to one central bell which pulls the farther away the breaking piece of land pulls, and gives a startlingly loud gong.
In one of the loosely built huts, stapled along the tree's girth and stretched out like a hammock, one of its inhabitants jumps up from her bed too fast and ends up flipping up and out of her hammock. With a loud inhale, she falls on her back, and gets up as others fall to the earth around her, jumping up from their hammocks and, donning ropes as they, in orderly panic, rush along the line of ringing bells.
MAITE
No, no, no!
Getting up, her tail swinging erect behind her, Maite scrambles up from the ground, running as fast as her legs can sweep her after her fellow bridge makers, rope clumsily thrown over her neck and gathered in her arms.
MAITE
Where, this time? Where is it breaking?
Several others, all with curled monkey tails similar to Maite's own, are uncurling themselves and hopping into action from their separate stations and hammocks. Others are already untying their ropes and are hurling themselves onto the rope of bells, climbing frantically to get to the breaking piece of land. None of them stop by Maite to tell her what's going on, mechanically shouting at one another instructions. Workers the farthest ahead on the rope swing wildly around the fluttering rope, the trunk it was tied on on the breaking piece of land giving way against the pulling force.
One, just barely clinging to the edge of the rope, loses strength and is immediately jostled from his place. He shouts and plummets into the empty cloud of sky below him, where patches of white clear and reveal a crisp and blue ocean. There is a moment of silence, some frenzied shouting, but someone else takes the fallen man's place and they continue with frantically juggling each other rope.
While Maite is stumbling away from her hammock into the working crowd, Kail roughly brushes against her shoulder, a small bit of fruit clenched between his teeth. While he's downing the rest of the fruit he glances back at Maite, brows furrowed, but he adjusts the rope around his shoulder and starts to sprint toward the separating land.
Just as Kail hops onto the rope, someone shoves past Maite and shouts,
woman
This is h-- get those people off of the ropeline! We don't have enough rope for this, it's too late!
Maite, thrown forward again onto her knees by Kail, is still struggling to pick herself up when the woman shouts to her. She has her rope finally coiled into some kind of organized away around her arms and she's running forward at the back of the group, her eyes frantically darting from rope to rope, judging each one and her fellows upon it before she jumps onto another piece of rope which is pulling taut.
WOMAN
Maite! Maite! What are you thinking, get back on land! Maite!
MAITE
I got this!
Throwing the rope from around her neck, hanging upside down on the tether with her arm looped about the side, Maite bites down on some of the rope as she pulls it straight and begins weaving the rope together in a complicated support knot. She waits for the rope to snap, bouncing as she nearly falls off from the spring, but then, with a few moments to spare from the support knot, she manages to tie the support rope to one end of the severed rope, and rushes to tie the other before it gives way. She bites her lip, sweat beading on her brow as she works upside down, others screaming at her, others scrambling back to safety, and other ropes snapping, but she refuses to give up until with the successful yank of her arms, the knot is tied in place. She's managed to hold her own rope, but it still isn't enough to hold the severed piece of land in place. The rope jumps again, sending Maite to adjust her hold as she tries to scramble back.
WOMAN
MAITE!
Maite, at that moment, breathing hard and looking down, spots the clouds drifting apart where the other member of their group fell, and she sees the blue of the distant ocean. Her breath catches, and she freezes up, just realizing her dumb decision a few moments too late.
