Left for Dead on the Mountain

To toughen me up, my older brother forced me to hike the Appalachian Trail, completely ignoring the fact that I had severe asthma. It wasn't long before I suffered an attack. My face turned blue, and I collapsed onto a boulder. Gasping for air, I desperately reached for my backpack to get my inhaler. But Chloe kicked my bag away, her voice dripping with annoyance. "Didn't you just use a whole can of oxygen? Just because Liam is the expedition leader, you think you can put on a show for us?" She picked up my bag and whined toward my brother, who was walking ahead. "Liam! Maya is throwing another tantrum! I’ll just carry her bag for her, so she doesn't waste all the effort you put into bringing her out here." My brother stopped in the distance, looking deeply irritated. "This is embarrassing. You can't even handle half of what Chloe does!" "You are going to crawl to camp if you have to! From now on, no one gives her any more oxygen!" My breathing grew more and more restricted, until my vision finally went black and I face-planted onto the rock. When I opened my eyes again, I realized I was floating in mid-air. I looked down and saw my own small, frail body, lying face down on the boulder. I'm sorry, Liam. I really can't walk anymore. "Maya, get your ass up! Stop playing dead and holding everyone up!" One of the hikers, a big guy named Dave, cursed loudly and started jabbing my back hard with his trekking pole. "You are so damn stubborn, you know that? You think if you just lie there, we're going to carry your useless weight down the mountain?!" "Your brother already gave the order! Don't push your luck. Get up right now!" With that, he delivered another heavy jab. My corpse shifted slightly under the force of the trekking pole. Losing its balance on the uneven rock, my body tilted to the side, revealing half of my face—bloodless, cyanotic, and turning a dark, bruised purple. The other hikers stood around watching like it was a circus act, their faces full of contempt. "Maya, are you trying to win an Oscar? Because you're putting on a hell of a performance!" "You really should go to Hollywood. This acting is top-notch!" "Look, even if the leader is your own brother, you can't play games with everyone's lives! The weather up here changes by the minute. If you delay the schedule, can you take responsibility for that?!" In the distance, my brother was standing with Chloe. Hearing the commotion, his brows knitted together in a deep frown, the disgust in his eyes practically overflowing. Chloe clung to his arm, her sickly-sweet voice raising in volume. "Liam, why is Maya acting like this?" "All you did was cut off her oxygen for a minute, and now she's holding a grudge and throwing a fit against the whole team?" "She's just too spoiled at home. She can't handle a tiny bit of hardship." Liam clicked his tongue in annoyance and took long, angry strides toward me. Floating in the air, I saw the rage contorting my brother's face, and my heart still instinctively clenched in fear. Ever since our parents died in a car crash when we were kids, I had been terrified of seeing that exact expression on his face. Whenever he frowned, I wanted to rip my heart out and prove to him that I wasn't useless, that I wasn't inferior to the girl next door, Chloe. But right now, I was already dead. Why do dead people still feel fear? Liam marched up to my corpse, looming over me. He shot me that familiar look—the one reserved for absolute garbage. "Maya, I'm going to count to three. You will stand up immediately!" His tone was ice-cold, leaving absolutely no room for argument. "One!" The mountain wind howled, whipping the hem of my windbreaker. "Two!" Chloe chimed in. "Maya, just stop making Liam angry and get up. We all need to keep moving." I continued to lie perfectly still on the rock, my eyes tightly shut. "Three!" The word hung in the air. When I still didn't move a muscle, the hikers exchanged glances, clearly enjoying the drama. Liam's fury ignited like gasoline. "Fine! Excellent! Maya, you think you're tough now, huh?!" He grabbed the back collar of my windbreaker and yanked violently. Smack! A sharp, resounding slap landed squarely on my face. My head jerked violently to the side like a broken ragdoll, but my body remained entirely limp. Liam clearly hadn't expected me to be completely unresponsive. His grip on my collar loosened, and I crashed heavily onto the jagged, rocky ground. The sharp stones instantly sliced my cheek open. "You...!" Liam looked at his own trembling hand, then back at me, lying there like a dead pig. The fire in his eyes burned even hotter. "Maya, you really are something else!" "You're willing to play dead through gritted teeth just to force my hand, aren't you?!" He was shaking with rage. "You think this little stunt is going to manipulate me? You think this is going to get you oxygen?!" "Let me tell you right now: Not a chance in hell!" Floating above, watching all of this unfold in silence, I suddenly felt the urge to cry. Liam, I'm really not faking it. And I really can't feel the pain anymore. Ever since our parents died in that crash, Liam had been my only pillar of support. He never let anyone bully me. But everything changed the day Chloe moved in next door. The brother who used to dote on me suddenly vanished, as if Chloe was his real sister. "Liam, don't get so worked up over Maya. It's not good for your health." Chloe gently blew on his palm, looking at him with exaggerated concern. "Maya, there has to be a limit to your tantrums." She sighed, looking down at my motionless body with fake exasperation. "Everyone is out here toughing it out in sub-zero temperatures. You can't make everyone else freeze just because you want to throw a pity party." The other hikers started chiming in. "Jeez, kids these days really have an attitude!" "Boss, she's your sister, but you can't just enable her! She's an adult, and she's using cheap tricks to manipulate her own family?!" Liam's face had turned a furious shade of purple. He pulled his hand away from Chloe, glaring down at me with a cold, terrifying sneer. "Maya, I'm giving you one last warning. Are you getting up or not?!" The wind shrieked. I remained as still as the rocks beneath me, not even an eyelash twitching. "Fine! Have it your way!" Blinded by rage, Liam lunged forward, reared his foot back, and delivered a vicious, brutal kick directly to my shoulder! As luck would have it, I was lying right on the edge of a steep, fifty-foot scree slope. "You want to play dead?! You want to lie down?! Then go roll down there and lie down for as long as you want! Let's see how long you can keep this act up!" Following his furious roar, my corpse tumbled like a severed marionette, violently bouncing and rolling down the jagged slope. Crack... snap... I watched helplessly as my own body plummeted down the scree. My windbreaker was shredded by the razor-sharp rocks, and I could clearly hear the sickening sound of my ribs snapping as they slammed against the boulders. I couldn't bear to watch anymore and turned away in the air. It must hurt so much. In the past, if I even slightly bumped my knee, Liam would nervously inspect the scrape. He would carefully blow on it, softly coaxing me: "Don't be scared, Maya. Liam will blow on it, and the pain will go away." But now, he just watched with cold, dead eyes as I tumbled down the slope, until my body finally wedged itself into the crevice of two massive boulders. After a brief, stunned silence, Dave leaned over the edge, looked down, and scoffed. "Wow, Maya, you really commit to the bit. I'll give you that." The others looked incredibly annoyed. "This is unbelievable! I'm done! We're all carrying fifty-pound packs out here humoring your little drama. Do you have any conscience at all?" "Seriously, what does she expect? Does she want us to climb down there and formally invite her back up?!" My leg was caught in the crevice, snapped completely in half. The stark white bone had pierced straight through the fabric of my pants. If any of them had bothered to take a slightly closer look, they would have seen that I wasn't acting. Unfortunately, they didn't. And neither did Liam. Just then, a violent gust of wind ripped across the mountain. The sky, which had been relatively clear moments ago, rapidly darkened with the threat of an impending blizzard. The temperature plummeted instantly. "Boss, looks like a blizzard is rolling in fast!" Dave pulled the collar of his jacket tight against his neck. "Blizzards up here are no joke. We can't afford to waste any more time!" The knot between Liam's eyebrows deepened into a permanent fixture. He stood at the top of the slope, glaring down at my motionless body at the bottom. "Maya!" The temperature of his voice was barely warmer than the approaching storm. "I'm asking you one last time. Are you getting up?!" The only response he received was the shredded, torn fabric of my jacket fluttering in the howling wind. Liam spun around abruptly and barked an order to the team. "Everyone, gear up immediately! We are pushing for camp!" Chloe grabbed his sleeve, looking worried. "Liam, will Maya be in danger down there? It's getting so cold..." "Danger?! She threw herself down there on purpose, what danger could she possibly be in?!" He waved his hand, cutting her off aggressively. "She's just banking on the fact that I won't have the guts to leave her behind! That's why she thinks she can hold the entire team hostage!" Liam grabbed his trekking poles and marched forward without a single backward glance. "Leave her! Let's see how long she can keep the act up! Once she realizes we're actually gone, she'll come crawling back up on her own!" "She's been exactly like this since we were kids. If I don't teach her a lesson now, she'll never learn how the real world works!" "Move out!" The few hikers who had been hesitating quickly fell into line behind Liam, matching his brisk pace. Floating in the air, I hurried to follow them. Behind me, the snow fell like a white shroud, slowly burying my broken body. The atmosphere at the campsite, however, was a completely different story. Inside the large communal tent, the windproof stoves were roaring. Everyone was zipped into their sleeping bags, laughing, joking, and passing around rations. Liam sat near the tent entrance, his face terrifyingly dark. It had been three hours. The blizzard outside was a total whiteout; visibility was less than six feet. "Liam, eat something first." Chloe tore open a self-heating MRE and thoughtfully handed it to him. "Maya really is something else. We're in the middle of nowhere, and she insists on throwing a tantrum over a single can of oxygen. What if she gets frostbite?" The tiny sliver of unease in Liam's eyes was instantly crushed. He let out a vicious, sarcastic sneer. "Frostbite? How could she possibly get frostbite?" "She has the thickest, zero-degree sleeping bag and a specialized solo tent in her pack. Right now, she's probably hiding in a snow cave, fully fed and warm, just waiting for me to go back and beg her to join us!" His eyes hardened with absolute resolve. "I'm making this clear right now! When she comes crying back here, absolutely no one is allowed to open the tent for her!" "Only when she knows true fear and learns to behave will she finally drop this toxic, entitled attitude!" Dave swallowed a mouthful of rice and wiped his mouth. "Maya really crossed the line this time! She absolutely deserves a harsh lesson to put her in her place!" Floating near the ceiling of the tent, I didn't even have the energy to laugh at the irony anymore. Liam. Did you completely forget? My backpack—the one with all my food, my tent, my sleeping bag, and my asthma medication... Chloe took it. Just as Liam finished his speech, and the cheerful mood in the tent was about to resume... Thump. Thump. Thump. A heavy, muffled knocking suddenly struck the outside of the tent. All conversation stopped dead. Every single person instinctively stared at the zippered entrance. Dave was the first to react, letting out a mocking laugh. "Boss, looks like you called it. Look who came crawling back." Liam visibly relaxed. He leaned back against his pack, raised an eyebrow, and let out a cold smirk. "I told you. She doesn't have the spine to hold out." Chloe forced a smile and reached out toward the zipper. "Liam, the wind is so strong out there. I really think we should let Maya in now, otherwise she really will get sick..." "Leave her! Do not open that door!" Liam grabbed Chloe's hand, pulling it back sharply. His voice suddenly spiked in volume, directed coldly at the other side of the canvas. "Maya, do you finally realize how cold it is? Do you realize you were wrong?!" "Weren't you acting so tough earlier? Didn't you prefer rolling down a cliff to walking with us? Why are you suddenly running back now?!" The knocking on the outside of the tent paused. The ice in Liam's eyes thickened. "You want to come inside? Fine! Get on your knees right now, scream 'I was wrong' three times, and apologize to every single member of this team!" "After you scream, you will stay on your knees for another thirty minutes to clear your head! If you haven't frozen to death after thirty minutes, then I will consider letting you inside!" "Boss, that is brilliant!" The other hikers erupted into laughter. Liam stared at the tent flap with deep satisfaction, waiting for me to drop to my knees and beg for mercy. One second. Two seconds. The outside fell into a dead, horrifying silence, broken only by the shrieking of the blizzard. When no response came, Liam's brows knitted together again. He opened his mouth, ready to unleash another furious tirade. Riiiiiiip! The heavy-duty, windproof zipper was violently torn open from the outside. A blast of freezing, snow-filled wind roared into the tent, causing everyone inside to shudder violently. "Maya, have you lost your damn mind?! Tearing the tent..." Liam exploded in a blind rage, shooting up to his feet. But when he finally saw who was standing outside the flap, the words died in his throat. It was four or five men wearing bright orange search-and-rescue uniforms. The leader of the team had a face carved from stone. He scanned the people inside the tent, his voice heavy and somber. "Who is the expedition leader?" Liam froze. He instinctively glanced behind the rescue team, swallowed hard, and stammered. "I am... is there a problem?" The rescue leader took a deep breath, his eyes filled with profound tragedy. He spoke slowly, emphasizing every single word. "In the valley directly below the section of the trail you traversed earlier today, we recovered the body of a young woman."

? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "399943", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel