The Wallflower Game

Chapter Twenty

“I hate this mountain, I swear.” 

“You’ve been saying that nonstop. Everyone knows.”

“I still wanna say it again.”

“We’ve been trekking since dawn. Everyone hates this mountain now, not just you.”

The whole batch trekked up the mountain together. Everyone on Emily’s team was panting and complaining, but since Emily had no one to talk to, she just kept climbing steadily. The entire journey was just walking up the slope, actually. Just that the slope got steeper, it got colder, somehow their bags felt heavier and they got tired. They just mechanically kept trekking, avoiding the muddy areas. The trees were spread out rather neatly, standing tall, but became denser at they went on.

They just reached the last checkpoint, where they could either stop or proceed. 

“I’m stopping here, guys.”

“I died.”

Emily’s team members collapsed on the floor, still moaning and grumbling. She put her bags down near a log some distance away as the rest of the students began to crowd the area. She sat down to rest her legs, took out her water bottle and drank up. She heard someone walk towards her and heard a faint greeting “hi Keith” from someone behind her. A pair of hands touched her shoulders and started to massage her. She smiled, knowing who it was. 

“What’re you doing here? You have to be with your team,” she said with her eyes closed. 

“My team wants to stop here,” Keith explained. “I still want to continue. They’ll send an expert with us if we want to continue, so I’ll be climbing up in about fifteen minutes.”

“I want to go on too,” Emily turned to look at him with a smile on her face. 

“We can climb up together,” Keith grinned. “It’s not much, actually. My senior said that there’s no extreme mountaineering whatsoever, just that it may get steep and slippery at places.”

“I feel cold now, actually,” Emily admitted as a shiver went through her. “We won’t be going to the peak, right?”

“Nope,” Keith shook his head. “We’ll be going till somewhere along the scree then beyond that is too dangerous.”

“Okay.” Emily didn’t know what a scree meant but she was too tired to ask. She pushed away the hair stuck to her neck and face and drank more water.

“See you,” Keith said, then headed back to his group quickly. The teachers were getting everyone to settle down. The teacher-in-charge then gave an announcement asking those who wanted to proceed to move to one side, while the rest could stay at the checkpoint to rest. Students were still walking about, rearranging themselves in their various groups since everyone had gotten mixed up during the trek. 

Emily moved to the side and saw Keith waiting there. They smiled at each other and waited for the other students who wanted to climb on to join them. A mountain climber was sent to lead the smaller team. 

“That’s all o’ you?” the climber asked in a faint accent Emily couldn’t recognise. Emily looked around and realised that there were only two of them. She looked to Keith, worried, but Keith didn’t seem to think much of it. 

“The entire student body will be waiting for us two to climb up?” Emily whispered to Keith. “I don’t think we should do this.”

Keith shrugged. “I want to trek on, doesn’t really matter what they think. They’d be happy to have a longer rest anyway.” 

After five minutes of waiting, about twenty more students joined them and Emily visibly relaxed.

An agonising hour later, they had reached the last checkpoint. 

All the pain was worth it.

Everyone cheered when they reached. Even now, they were still grinning as they sat on the rocky ground and looked down. There was a thin spread of clouds below, and more above them. They were above the clouds, nonetheless, and this thrilled Emily to the core. After about seven hours of trekking, they had finally reached the last checkpoint. They didn’t have the equipment to scale the mountain, and even that would take about two days to complete, but to Emily, this was the pinnacle. The satisfaction felt like it, anyway. 

Keith sat down next to Emily. 

“I feel like I rule the world,” he grinned.

“Join the club,” Emily smiled back. 

They were quiet as they looked on at the large expanse of sky. The sky was so blue and infinite, the clouds so white and pure. The sun was up but it was cold because of the altitude. In the distance there were hills and valleys and what seemed to be a river. The trees covered the earth like a blanket. It was one of those rare places on earth which could change a person forever; where someone could be truly free of all burdens. 

The feeling of having conquered such a great height made Emily feel victorious. She took a deep breath of the sweet, cold air and let all her physical pain leave her for that moment. Everyone was quiet after the initial chatter and she felt peace deep in her heart. This continued for a long time; nobody wanted to leave despite the cold.

“Drink your fill, kids,” the mountain climber finally said, “‘cos we’re leavin’.”

Weak protests sounded but they still got up and carried their bags again. Emily took her time leaving. Keith waited for her and observed her expression. She looked as though she had reached a decision of some sort and was happy with it. He didn’t know what she was thinking about, and he didn’t prod, because he knew that some things were meant to be personal and some things had to be dealt with alone. He knew he would be there for her if she asked for him.

Emily and Keith were at the back of the team as they descended because they couldn’t bear to leave the place so they stayed staring at the view longer. This time, Emily reached out to take Keith’s hand and squeezed it before letting go again when they needed to trek down. 

As Emily walked away, she felt a heavy part of her detach itself from her heart and stay behind there. There was still this small, nagging feeling inside her that wouldn’t go away, but it had shrunk, so that was good. She felt herself changing, becoming that better person she wanted to be, and she was glad to have been to this checkpoint and glad to leave it without looking back once more, without the chance of her coming back again.