"Which way, Frank?" Gary asked.
"Looked like down a little ways," Frank said, pointing back the way they had come. "Take the next right, and it should be only a couple of blocks away."
"Well," Annie said, trying to sound positive, "let’s go find out."
They piled back into the Jeeps, and after some careful maneuvering, managed to turn them around and head back the way they had come. Frank made the next right and started down the street, while Gary and John, as well as Annie, watched for a bridge on the side Streets that bisected the one they were on. Frank had just slowed to cross a set of rail road tracks, when Annie suddenly yelled out.
"There!" she shouted, pointing down the tracks.
Frank looked in the direction she had pointed, which happened to be down the tracks.
"Shit, that figures," he said, "a rail road trestle".
The trestle was a newer one, and the sides were enclosed steel with concrete reinforcements. Probably why I didn't realize it was a train trestle, he thought, and then said aloud. "Well that blows that, but there ought to be other bridges. This can't be the only one."
"Actually," Gary said, from behind him, "it ain't necessarily bad news."
"What do you mean?" Frank said, staring back down the tracks at the bridge.
"Well, just what I said. It's still a bridge ain't it? It's not a rickety old wooden one either, solid steel and concrete, it'll hold us, and it does cross the river right?"
Frank looked at the bridge doubtfully. "I suppose so, but... You think we could fit across it?"
"I've seen cars and trucks both on trains," Annie exclaimed, "they would have to fit, or else how could they carry them on the trains without smashing the hell out of them?"
"Good point," Gary said, "how about you park this buggy, Frank, and we go take a look at the bridge."
The other two Jeeps parked, and all of them walked off down the tracks to look the bridge over.
The wooden ties, and the tracks that lay upon them, were well supported. Heavy steel girders ran the length of the bridge, and were supported by massive concrete pilings sunk into the river bed far below. Frank peered down through the ties at the concrete. It was cracked in a few places, but all of the pilings seemed still to be firmly anchored in the river bed. "Do you really think it would hold us?" he asked.
"If it will hold a train, Frank, it will hold us," Gary replied.
"I mean the cracks, wise ass," Frank said. "The pilings are cracked. They seem to still be solid, but... I don't know," he finished lamely.
"Tell you what. You drive one, and John and I will drive the other two. Everybody else can walk across. I'll go first even. If it looks the least bit shaky we call it off, and search for something else, Okay?" Gary argued.
Frank thought for a moment before he replied. It might be a good idea after all. Where else were they likely to find a bridge that wasn't blocked off with traffic? The bridge did seem solid, and it couldn't hurt to try he supposed.
"Okay, but I'll start out. You watch, and you damn well better let me know real quick if she starts to go. I'll be pretty pissed if you dump me and my new truck in the river," Frank finished, smiling widely.
"Wouldn't think of it," Gary said, solemnly.
"See you on the other side," Annie said.
Before Frank could reply she quickly kissed him. "For luck," she said, a bit breathless. Annie turned, and along with the others started walking across the bridge.
Frank watched her go. The kiss had taken him by surprise.
"Ahh, Frank," Gary said grinning, "better close your mouth before the bugs start flying in." Frank closed his mouth with a snap, and looking a bit embarrassed, walked off towards the Jeep.
John threw Gary a wink, and they both walked out onto the bridge to wait. Frank started the Jeep, backed around, and drove slowly over the ties towards the bridge, straddling the rails as he went, and he was still thinking of the kiss as he edged slowly out onto the bridge. He looked across and saw Annie waving from the other side. He waved back and then brought his attention back to the truck.
"How's she look, Gary," he asked out the open window, as he inched cautiously out onto the trestle.
"You might scratch the paint a little, but the deck didn't budge a bit when you eased on to her," Gary replied. "I don't think they brought too many auto-carriers across this deck though, more like freight cars. You only got a couple of inches on either side."
"Well here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath as he moved further out onto the bridge. "Still okay?" he asked.
"Good as gold," Gary replied. Frank was not entirely blocking the bridge, and Gary and John squeezed by on one side of the truck. "We'll be behind you," Gary said, as he paused at Frank's window. "I'll wait until you're off, and John will wait until I'm off." Gary looked at both men as they nodded their heads.
"Let’s do it," Frank said.
He eased off the gas and let the Jeep idle its way across the bridge. When he reached the other side he angled off the tracks, parked, and walked back
