[
 {
  "chunk": 10,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "A man with bound hands and a noose round his neck stands on planks laid across a railroad bridge, attended by two soldiers and a sergeant, while a captain watches and sentinels close both ends.",
  "predicament": "Someone bound and condemned stands at the edge of their own death while the people carrying it out go calmly about it."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 11,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "A fort commands the bridge and a company of infantry stands motionless in line to witness the hanging; nobody moves, as military etiquette requires in the presence of death.",
  "predicament": "A condemned person faces a silent crowd drawn up to watch, and not one of them will move to help."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 12,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "The condemned man is a well-dressed civilian planter of about thirty-five with a kindly face, plainly no common criminal.",
  "predicament": "A respectable person, plainly no common criminal, is about to be put to death for something done in a cause."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 13,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "The plank he stands on is now held only by the sergeant's weight; unblindfolded, he stares at the water and watches a piece of driftwood that seems to move very slowly.",
  "predicament": "Someone whose life hangs on another's single step waits for the signal, and finds their mind drifting to trifles."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 14,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "Trying to think of his wife and children, he is tormented by the loud ticking of his watch; he imagines freeing his hands, diving and escaping home, and the captain nods to the sergeant.",
  "predicament": "Someone about to die tries to fix their last thoughts on their family, and instead finds themselves planning a desperate escape."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 15,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "In a flashback, the planter, an ardent secessionist kept out of the army, longs for distinction; a grey-clad rider tells him that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad will be hanged.",
  "predicament": "Someone who has longed to prove themselves in a cause is told of a dangerous chance to do it, and a harsh penalty."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 16,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "The rider tells him the bridge is lightly guarded and that dry driftwood lodged against it would burn; the planter is tempted, and the rider turns out to be an enemy scout.",
  "predicament": "A friendly stranger hands someone eager to prove themselves an easy chance at glory, and it is really a trap."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 17,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "Falling through the bridge, he feels agony and swinging, then plunges into the water; he believes the rope has broken and rises toward the surface, determined not to be shot.",
  "predicament": "Someone who should already be dead believes they have been given an impossible second chance, and grabs at it."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 18,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "His hands seem to free themselves and tear off the noose; in agony, he surfaces and draws a great shrieking breath.",
  "predicament": "Someone whose body fights to live against their own will struggles to the surface in unbearable pain."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 19,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "His senses are unnaturally sharp; he sees every leaf and insect, and turning, sees his executioners on the bridge pointing and shouting at him.",
  "predicament": "Someone escaping death sees the world with impossible clarity, and sees the people who meant to kill them pointing at them."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 20,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "The sentinels fire and miss; a lieutenant calmly orders a volley, and he dives deep as the bullets sink around him.",
  "predicament": "Someone fleeing for their life hears the calm order that will send a volley after them, and has only seconds to hide."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 21,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "He swims downstream, reasoning coolly about the next volley, as the fort's cannon sends a shot plunging near him; he resolves to watch the gun's smoke.",
  "predicament": "Someone hunted by a far stronger force keeps their head and tries to reason out the enemy's next move."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 22,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "A whirlpool flings him ashore out of sight; he weeps with joy, then grapeshot sends him running into a forest that seems endless and uncanny.",
  "predicament": "Someone who seems to have escaped certain death is overwhelmed with joy, then finds the familiar world strangely changed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 23,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "Exhausted and starving, he follows a strange straight road under unfamiliar stars, hearing whispers in an unknown tongue, his neck swollen and his feet no longer feeling the ground.",
  "predicament": "Someone struggling home to their family finds the road and the stars wrong, and their own body failing them."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 24,
  "story": 1,
  "summary": "He reaches his home and his wife comes smiling to meet him, but as he reaches for her there is a blow and blinding light; he was hanged, and his body swings beneath the bridge.",
  "predicament": "Someone reaches home and the person they love at last, only for it all to prove a dying dream."
 }
]