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Twenty four hours ago, Matt worked a CAD workstation in an air conditioned office. His chair was ergonomic and a strange Chinese brand of orange Coca-Cola fizzed on the edge of his desk. Currently he was climbing a precipitous mountain’s rock face high above the Yangtze river. Hired just over a year ago to train workers on the new 3D capabilities of the latest software, the money indicated it was a dream job. Hearing the ubiquitous roar of water rushing by below, and the high probability of death turned his experience into a nightmare.

“Isn’t this great?!”, Jerry cried out, roughly fifty feet higher in elevation. “Just breathe it in, Matt!” He was no longer ascending, but having locked his legs in the rock face, was taking in the scenery. Matt could barely see him, the irregular surface made visibility poor or nonexistent even to tandem climbers. The tree covered mountains of the Three Gorges spread out as far as the eye could see. Where there wasn’t trees, there was rock, with the odd home or building dotting the landscape. “Pretty soon, we build that dam, and this will all change.”

“Urrnggg.” Matt’s guttural reply made it clear sight-seeing was not on his agenda.

“Come on Matt, keep going!”, Kelly called out from well below him. Nearly six foot tall, perfectly tan, toned and blonde, her blue eyes sparkled when she offered Matt the third spot in their climbing trio. “We can’t do it without you.” She had said. The pout on her lips would have made Kings cry, and thusly Matt agreed. So despite having never climbed on anything higher than a bar stood, Matt found himself inches from death, or at least a really cold bath. Once he got in the harness, the straps unforgiving and tight, his pants making a rather unseemly bulge in the crotch area, there was no turning back.

To his surprise, the first thirty feet were not that difficult. He had followed Jerry’s path, and used his legs for all the heavy lifting. Matt was no athlete but he did spend enough time in the gym back home to avoid ‘computer gut’ the spare tire usually awarded to anyone, like himself, who spent over nine hours a day in front of a computer. Now, another two dozen feet higher than that, his arms ached, and he was moving slower. They weren’t even half way up. He was considering complaining, or demanding to descend, when he heard from above “ROCK SLIDE!”

Matt looked skyward, a mistake, and dirt sprayed in his eyes. He dared not voice his discomfort. Instead he clung to the surface. He did not fulfill his responsibility, being that he’d never done this before, and did not call down to Kelly a warning. He heard over the tumbling fist sized rocks something along the lines of “oh!” or “ow!” but could not see anything at the moment. When the slide ended, and he could blink away the grit, Matt dared look down again. Aside from the vertigo inducing heights, he felt his stomach flush cold as Kelly’s limp body swung freeform.

“JERRY!”, Matt screamed without meaning to, the shriek left his mouth involuntarily.

“What?”

“It’s Kelly, she’s…”

Jerry mumbled something, perhaps cursing, as he descended. He was alongside Matt in less than three minutes. “I’m going down there. You have to stay here. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I don’t even feel her weight.” Matt said.

“That because of the pulley below you, don’t come down, or she’ll go up, and perhaps hit again. Gawd, didn’t you tell her?”, Jerry continued downward, not really needing an answer. He reached her level with ease, and tried to rouse her, but nothing worked.

“I’m going to have to go get help. Matt, you have to stay there. I’ve put her on a shelf, so she shouldn’t be pulling on you. Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Matt said, “I can’t see her though.”

“Don’t worry about that, just wait here until I bring back help.”

|| Two Days Later ||

Walking into Glo-bow-tec Engineering Systems, Matt’s face lacked emotion. His body did not lack a fine covering of dirt. Sitting in their cubical sat a snickering Kelly and Jerry.