Moments later she felt the familiar jolt and the springy give of the rope catching, then her feet were back on solid rock. Her right foot slipped and as her knee banged painfully against the rock she wished again that she was wearing her climbing shoes with the sticky rubber soles instead of a pair of worn hiking boots she'd picked up at the last minute at a second-hand shop in L.A.

She moved quickly to establish a sound foothold, not wanting to rely on the rope for support any longer than necessary.

What the hell had happened? She never used oval carabiners, preferring the more modern "D" shaped ones that kept the rope more consistently away form the spring latch, but still the ones Brogan provided were standard equipment, even if they were a bit outdated. She resolved to climb back down later and try to find the one that failed and figure out what had gone wrong.

She considered for a moment whether she had been careless in wedging the chock into the cliff wall, but disregarded that possibility. Despite the inherently risky nature of rock climbing, Alison prided herself on never taking chances. Each move was carefully calculated, each piece of gear checked and rechecked. She climbed rocks like she lived her life – always careful to make sure a back up plan was in place.

By coming to Reality Island to search for Gwen, she realized, she was traveling without a self-constructed safety net for the first time in her adult life.

She gave Travis a thumbs-up to indicate she was ok, and then carefully chose a path that kept her to the side of the impassable section she'd encountered before. Her knee ached where it had banged into the rocks, scraping off several layers of skin, but other than that she seemed none the worse for her mishap.

Alison reached the top, pulled herself over, then stood up and looked around, taking a few deep breaths. The sky was clear, and from her vantage point she could see over the trees to the coastline, an expanse of white sand giving way to a series of rocky protrusions. From here at least, the water looked calm. Peaceful.

She reluctantly pulled her focus back to the task at hand, looking around to see if there was anything she could use as an anchor. There were no trees close enough to the edge – and no permanent anchor drilled into the rock – so she pulled a sturdy, steel spike with a ring on one end out of her backpack, then lay on her stomach, leaning back over the edge.

She'd seen a suitable crevice near the end of her climb, only a few feet from the top – one that angled downward into the rock face and would therefore get the spike more deeply embedded when the weight of a climber was applied to the rope. She wedged the anchor in as far as she could, then ran the end of the rope through it, then tied the second rope to the first one so it would be long enough for Travis to belay the rest of the group from the bottom.

She tossed the loose end back down, and watched as Daryl retrieved it, hooked up and started his climb. As far as she could tell, Daryl was moving up the face of the rock below her with relative ease, and she hoped that was a good sign for the other contestants.

In no time, Daryl's head appeared over the edge. After reassuring him that she was fine, they sent the rope down for the next person.

Billy Ray attacked the climb in a macho and overly zealous manner that had him wheezing by the time he passed the halfway point, making the typical male novice mistake of trying to pull himself up the climb using upper arm strength alone. Once he reached the top, he didn't object as both Daryl and Alison grabbed him under the armpits and helped haul him over the last few feet. He grunted, then moved away from the edge, stretching out flat on his back and breathing deeply.

"I'm going to rap back down and talk the rest of them through it from the bottom," Alison said to Daryl, "if you want to keep an eye out from here and help them over the last part."

"Sure."

It made sense, but wasn't her only reason. Alison was hoping while she was down there she could find the carabiner that had flown off, and see if she had missed a defect when she checked the gear, or if it was just one of those freaky things that happens.

"Oh my God, I thought you were dead for sure," Miranda said as soon as Alison was on the ground, throwing her arms around her.

"It looked worse than it was," Alison reassured her. "I must just not have wedged that chock in far enough." Both Travis and Luke were looking at her, and she shook off a prickly feeling on the back of her neck.

"Anyway, it's perfectly safe now. You just climb up slowly and don't look down. Travis's got you with that end of the rope," she said, gesturing, "so there's no way you can fall. Your weight will be on the anchor at the top, and I promise that's not going to give out."

Jolene volunteered to go next, and Alison strapped her into the remaining harness, and coached her on technique.

"Remember to use your legs," she told her. "If you try to haul yourself up using your arm muscles, you'll be exhausted before you make it that first ledge. Use handholds to guide you, but let your legs do most of the work."

Jolene nodded and began climbing. She slipped once, and the group below held their collective breath, but she fell only a foot or so, and Alison was relieved to see that Travis was doing a more than competent job on the belay. Jolene turned and waved reassuringly to them, a cocky grin on her face, then continued up the surface of the rock.

Clarice went next, and Alison was surprised to see that beneath the polished, urban exterior she was really very athletic. In her khaki shorts that stopped at cuffs mid-thigh and her white, brushed cotton t-shirt, she still looked more like participant in a corporate teambuilding retreat than a contestant on a Survivor-style TV show, but at least it was an improvement. And a pleasant contrast to the jean shorts Jolene was wearing, cut off so short that it was a miracle the seam between the legs held together, and a t-shirt with a scoop neckline so low it looked like her breasts could pop out of it at any moment.

If Clarice's clothes were a bit too tailored, at least none of the guys would lose their footing and fall off the rock face trying to get a glimpse down her shirt.

Clarice reached the top, ignored Daryl's extended hand, and pulled herself over the last few feet beyond the anchor.

As Alison strapped Miranda into a harness, she saw that the girl's face had gone from pale to almost green.

"I don't think I can do this," Miranda whispered.

Alison put both hands on her shoulders, and looked directly into her eyes.

"Miranda. You didn't come here to give up on the first challenge." She knew there was no point trying to tell Miranda the climb was easy, or the cliff not that high. The girl was terrified.

"Here's what we're going to do. You see that ledge up there?" Alison pointed to the shelf about one-third of the way up, and Miranda nodded.

"I want you to just try to make it that far. Then you can stop, and if you don't want to go any higher, Travis will just lower you back down. Okay?

"All right." She looked over at Travis. "You'll lower me back down if I don't want to go any higher?"

Travis nodded. "Hell, kid it's just a game. You don't want to go up, just take off the harness right now."

"No, I can do it. I didn't come all the way out here to wimp out."

Miranda turned resolutely and began to climb. Travis kept the rope taut so that her weight would be supported as much as possible.

"Just keep looking for the handholds, one at a time," Alison called after her. Don't look down at the ground or get your mind too far ahead of yourself."

Miranda moved slowly up. When she was about six feet off the ground, Alison started to relax. Miranda would probably throw up when she reached the top and realized how high she'd climbed, but with any luck, it looked like she'd be able to make it.

When Miranda reached the first ledge she didn't stop as Alison suggested, but kept going. Probably a good idea. Not giving herself a chance to get cold feet. She kept going until she reached the smooth section where Alison had tried to rappel and fallen, then she froze.

"Just hold onto the rope, Miranda!" Alison shouted. "Remember what I told you. Just brace your feet against the wall and Travis can pull you over this part."

Miranda hung onto the handholds and didn't move.

Travis pulled on the rope, and she screamed, "No! Stop!" She was frozen against the side of the cliff.

"You're more than half-way there, Miranda," Alison called. "You have to go on."

Miranda didn't answer, but she refused to move, and she screamed whenever Travis tried to urge her up with the rope. She looked down once when Alison shouted to her, but that only seemed to make matters worse, because she pressed herself flat against the cliff wall and stayed that way.

"Well, hell," Travis said. "I can't drag her up there if she doesn't at least use her hands and feet to keep herself from scraping against the rocks. And I can't lower her as long as she's hanging on like that – any slack I put in the rope just makes it more likely she'll fall."

Alison saw Luke stoop down and pick something up off the ground, apparently oblivious to what was going on. He studied the object for a moment, then slipped it into his pocket.

Crap. No help from that quarter. Apparently Alison was going to have to find a way to help Miranda herself. She looked around the pile of gear, but there was no other rope. If she could free climb up to the ledge, maybe she could coax Miranda down. Going as high as Miranda was without a rope – and trying to deal with a hysterical climber – would be suicide. She'd just have to go as far as the ledge, and then hope for the best.

She started toward the rock face, when she heard Daryl shouting.

"Hang on, Miranda – I'm coming down for you."

Daryl had hooked his harness on the same top rope. He was walking slowly down the rock face, rather than rappelling. Alison moved closer to Travis – if Daryl fell he'd take Miranda with him, and hopefully she could lend her weight to Travis's and keep the two of them from slamming onto the shelf below – or Travis being hauled up the side of the cliff like an overbalanced counterweight.

But Daryl didn't fall. He reached Miranda, moved behind her and, straddling her, with his own feet braced against the rock face, pried her fingers lose. With one hand working the rope and the other arm firmly around Miranda's waist and gripping the rope for support, he was slowing walking her up the side of the cliff.

After what seemed like forever but was probably really only ten minutes or so, the pair reached the top. Alison saw Clarice reach over to pull Miranda to safety. Daryl gave a cocky wave – and Alison couldn't begrudge him a bit of bravado after that feat – and pulled himself over the top edge of the cliff. A moment later he tossed the end of the rope down to them.

"So who's next?" Alison asked, looking from Travis to Luke.

"You," Travis said, and Alison, suddenly tired, didn't argue. Travis had proved himself competent enough for a novice, and she was certain Luke had experience climbing. Let the two of them figure out how to get themselves up the cliff.

Alison hooked herself back in, and had an uneventful climb. She looked back down to see Travis climbing up cautiously, but surely, with Luke as his belayer. Nice to know the guy was capable of doing something more than look off into space and ignore the rest of them. She wondered what Travis had said to him.

Once Travis reached the top she started to set up a belay from there for Luke, but Travis stopped her before she could throw the rope over, pointing.

Luke was already halfway up, free climbing. The guy either had balls or he was an idiot. She had to admit, he seemed to know what he was doing, and she noticed, startled, that he was removing her chocks as he climbed. An environmentalist? Maybe he was one of those free climbing purists who took "clean" climbing, as well as pushing the boundaries of safety, to the extreme.

With the top rope in place, they wouldn't need the chocks anymore if they had to climb back down. But as she kept watching she saw that instead of carrying the chocks and carabiners with him, he seemed to study each one for a moment after removing them, then toss them on the ground below. So much for the environmentalist theory.

He detoured neatly around the sheer section, then removed the last few chocks, following the same procedure as before, and pulled himself over the top. He stood then and took in the same panoramic view Alison had when she first reached the top, and she had the sense he was looking for something other than the scenery. Whatever it was he apparently didn't find it, because he shrugged and turned away.

He seemed to notice her then, once she sat down next to Miranda, letting the girl lean against her shoulder. Luke reached in his pocket and pulled out a shiny aluminum ring, glinting in the sunshine. He tossed it to her and she caught it, and examined it. The spring lock was broken, and the gate hung loosely.

"Every damn one of them," he said.

Writer's Note

Do you think it was just an accident? Cheap equipment maybe?

What do you think Luke's story is?