It was in the year of 2021 in a sunny, beautiful morning that Xavier, his older brother Chris and her older sister Carla and her boyfriend Dan, had gone for the long-awaited yearly excursion. This year they would climb the Taillon. One of the easiest 3,000-meter mountains in the Spanish Pyrenees. It had to be relatively easy, because even though Chris was a strong young man, with a passion for sports and climbing up mountains, the same could not be said from his siblings. Carla wasn’t exactly a sportswoman, but she let herself be dragged into Chris’s initiatives. Be it for she had nothing better to do or because his boyfriend loved this kind of things as well, was unclear. As for Xavier, he didn’t particularly like the climbing part, but he had come to love the feeling of reaching the summit, when all the sweat he had put forth finally bore fruit. Personally though, he was very much regarded as a master procrastinator. Someone with multiple interests, but he rarely managed to come through with his goals, losing interest eventually and moving on to the next thing.

Today though, he would definitely reach the summit. One step after another, aided by his trusted mountain sticks, he led the way through the rocky road. After 2 hours of marching, he could hear the ragged breaths of his siblings. Long gone where the friendly banter and games they played at the beginning, not having energy for anything else now, as they finally reached the first of the milestones of their little excursion. A plateau opened before them, with a small creek crossing from one side to the other, flowing from the last remnants of snow in the higher peaks.

He heard a small thump from behind, and turned to see her sister Carla laying in the ground drawing short breaths with her face flushed red.

Chris approached her and extended his arm holding a water bottle and an energy bar in his hand.

“Here, take this, small sips though”.

“Thank you, Chris. At least someone cares for my well-being” she said as she threw a half-hurt half-mocking glance to his boyfriend Dan.

“What do you mean? You are in better shape than me!” interjected Dan as he held his knees and took deep breaths.

Carla threw him an incredulous look. Seeing as Dan just looked at her back with a blank face she sighted and closed her eyes.

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Xavier, who was watching the familiar scene with a small smile in his face, suddenly seemed to remember something as he asked Chris.

“That’s right, brother, how are we on the clock?”

“Uhm, let me see” answered Chirs as he took out his GPS and checked his watch. “We have covered the first part considerably faster than what I had initially estimated. We should be about three hours away if we manage to keep the same speed until now, four if we don’t.”

“Luckily we woke up 6 am or we might have lost the light on the way back” said Dan cheerfully.

“Yeah, such a great decision, thank you for that Chirs” muttered Xavier, as he recalled the feeling of his warm bed and how he was now almost 2,000 feet away from it.

“C’mon, stop whining so much, I know you love it deep down” Chris said as he patted his shoulder and started walking again.

Some complaining after that, and they were once again on the road. Following Chris as if he was a big momma duck and the rest his little ducklings, struggling to keep up. Soon they left the plateau and started to gain altitude as the surroundings lost their last vestiges of green. Their backs became more hunched over and the mountain sticks in their hands became heavier. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a couple of voices reached them from behind. What surprised Xavier the most wasn’t the excited tone of their conversation but the sound of their voices. They sounded…old, cracked. Slowly he turned back, and sure enough, a couple in what he could only guess where their 80s, was coming towards them at an impressive speed.

He turned and kept walking. He knew that there where a lot of French people of a high age that loved hiking and had a remarkable level of fitness. But still, so old, he thought again. In the end he couldn’t take it anymore and turned once again. Finally, he discovered what didn’t feel right with him at first. Not their age, or their pace, but their clothes. As far as he was concerned this people where more dressed for a picnic than to climb a 3,000 feet mountain.

Where did they come from? He thought. It was impossible for them to come from the same place, they would be sweating like crazy, or worse, dead from a stroke. No doubt that was in the cards as well.

At that moment, as if God himself got tired of toying with him, a reflection of the sun got his eye. Looking closer he realized what he was looking at. A windshield, from a car. And next to it, another, and another. A whole parking lot almost halfway up the mountain. They could have started from there and cut the past two hours.

They could’ve slept two more hours! His mind screamed at him.

Slowly his face started to contort in anger as he turned and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Chris! What the fuck!”