Rope

A rope, and at each end people, pulling for all their apparent worth. A tug of war. But then someone sets fire to the middle of the rope, the flames begin to spread towards the ends so who’s going to want to hold on and pull now? Admittedly maybe the people at the ends will be happy to keep going for a while and see where things go, but the ones closer to the middle probably won’t be so keen. Maybe though they’re hoping the people on the other end will let go first. We’ll see what happens. Though I suppose just cos someone lets go doesn’t mean that’s an end to things. Maybe it will go all the way to the ends and the last persons standing, but then again one side may, the flames approaching, give in long before then.