AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ICY SLIDE LIES the final bridge. Whether or not it’s actually the last is irrelevant—it’s the last bridge I will cross before I succumb to hypothermia. My strength is all but spent.
The bridge, like everything else, is made of ice. It spans a massive pit, and from those depths howls the cold wind. The bridge slopes in a gentle arc as it crosses the chasm, and long icicles drip down its length to hang suspended above the void.
I see now that the silver light illuminating my path comes from within the ice. The bridge glows like a sword cutting through shadows. Below the bridge—as above—lies only darkness.
To hell with it. On I go.
The wind hits me with the strength of a gale. It threatens to rip me from the bridge and fling me into the abyss. So I force my way forward on my frozen hands and knees instead. Needles rack every sluggish limb as I crawl and my fingertips burn against the ice.
Halfway across the chasm, I’m struck by a new fear that the bridge will break. When I began my crossing, the bridge was a metre thick or more. Here, it’s only scant centimetres, and still the wind howls. What’s more, it suddenly seems to me that the bridge isn’t made of ice at all, but brittle glass.
I look down and see my haggard reflection staring back at me. My cheeks are sallow and my hair is greasy and streaked with grey. My beard, unkempt and white with frost, bristles out from my face. My eyes are sunken in and bruised navy blue.
I’ve grown old. When did that happen?
I’m paralyzed for long heartbeats—terrified by the stranger staring up at me and my sudden certainty that the bridge will collapse. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t crack or quiver or creak, despite my weight and the wind screaming up from below. After long seconds suspended there, I realize that only my frozen body is at any risk of giving out before the end.
So I crawl forward. I crawl to the end of the bridge, where I see another wall of ice. This one stretches away into the darkness, sheerer and taller than the last. I sit, staring up at this impassable obstacle, and I know that I don’t have the strength to climb it.
So maybe this is it. The final chapter. What a disappointing end.