• Why me?!, Maggie thought sadly. It was time to climb the mountain and all she could about was the pain it would bring to her broken finger and the bleeding gash in the back of her head. And to make things worse: The snowy world was still a deep crimson color.
    As she grasped the cliff, it's icy coldness shocked her. If she jumped off the ledge right now, this could all me over. No! She had to get back to her father, Tristan. She weaved onto the rock using mostly her good hand and her strong legs, all the while trying to keep her head steady. Survival training had to pay off.
    The mountain was like any other. The holds were easy enough to find. If she wasn't in the same state as a run-over bear (mulling up the surface in clumsy chunks of movement), it would only have taken her 10 minutes to get to the next fair-sized ledge, 50 feet up. As she continued on the painful climb, several people crossed her mind. Her father and his team; They were so loving... If only the rope had been sturdy. Her mother, who had moved to Australia to 'find herself'... and died of a disease. And last, Max. She'd loved him for about a year and the day she began this devastating expedition, she'd take an rain-check their first date. Guilt washed through her.
    Thoughts of the misery she... no, the rope... had caused the people she cared about passed her time and by the time she had reached the next ledge, the bleeding had temporarily stopped. As she reached up to pull herself onto it, her broken finger shoved against an out-jutting point. She screamed in shear pain and shouted at the sky.
    "Dammit God! Leave. Me. Alone!" She didn't know if he'd heard her, but her mind was made up: She was going to live. And better still: She was going to be a hero, an inspiration to the world. She smiled and pulled herself onto the ledge. Only 100 more feet until a 55 mile hike.