I am not at all certain about this bridge.

It is an old, crumbling thing that leads from nowhere to nowhere, a broken highway on my side, a forest of pines on the opposite. Below, a ravine with sides too steep for me to easily scale. I could, of course, go around. There’s nothing special about this patch of ground compared to all the others, and even if there were I’m in no hurry. If the nearest safe crossing is one mile away or a hundred, it shouldn’t matter. But in the distance I think I see something rising above the trees, the glint of metal and the promise of civilization, or at least its ruins.

So I step carefully onto the bridge. It’s as cracked and crumbling as everything in this broken world. A web of cracks scar the road’s surface, where some determined plants have taken root in windswept dirt. In places I can see the metal bones of the bridge through its pitted surface, and towards the center huge swathes of it are gone, broken away and fallen into the ravine. I suspect the whole thing is not far from collapsing. The ghost of a civil engineer nervously warns me of the myriad dangers. I ignore the warnings, but take note of probable weak points.

A human couldn’t cross this bridge, certainly. But I’m not human. I step forward, the splayed toes of my bird-like feet gripping the concrete and spreading out my weight as much as possible. Careful, careful…

Rocks and fragments of concrete and other debris shift under my feet. The wind whips at the ragged, ash-stained cloak I wear. My unfailing eyes seek out a safe path across the road, avoiding the places where it slopes at alarming angles above broken supports. Slowly…

The bridge creaks. The surface shifts below me, something important failing. The creak grows into a groan, a shriek, and I am running, racing across tipping, shifting slabs of pavement as the ground fails beneath me.

Ahead the bridge is broken, nothing but forty feet of thin air but I cannot stop, I cannot find a safe path, faster, faster! I leap from the crumbling edge and for one beautiful instant I am flying. Wind tears at me and through its noise I can hear the cacophony of everything falling behind me. Below me, far below, broken pillars and fragments of bridge among trees. My legs are stretched out and I am falling now, dropping quickly towards a ragged edge of concrete and rebar.

I land with a crash that shakes the bridge and sends the edge of this side crumbling into the abyss. I am already gone as it falls, running across a safe, flat section that remains stable under my feet.

I don’t stop until I reach the certainty of solid ground and the protection of the tall pines. Under their shade, I turn to look back at the bridge. Clouds of dust rise from below, and a huge section of its length has fallen now. I won’t be able to go back across, to the easy surface of the highway. But that’s fine.

If there’s still a road on this side, it’s hidden under a carpet of pine needles. But I can guess at its path, a straight line through the woods where fewer trees grow. I’ll follow it, to wherever it leads.