Advent Tournament

On a day like any other, in nowhere, Kansas… a baby boy is born in the backseat of a taxicab. The cab was sold to the family as a means of transportation. Phil, the town’s only driver, retired two years ago and had no need for the thing anymore. The cab sits in the backyard of the Winders trailer, sandwiched between overgrown lawn and a fence that the family has been meaning to fix for a decade now. Their neighbour, Wilson, and his mail order bride wife, Felicity, swear to the God above that they will have their way with the family if they don’t fix their damn fence. Maeve, the mother, with tangled brown hair that houses all kinds of pests, decides she wants to name the child ‘Toby’, because it reminds her of a man she once fancied. Darryl, the father, wants to name him ‘Curtis’, because that name sounds majestical to him. It reminds him of them ancient Greeks and Romans. Their eldest son, Jimmy, thinks ‘Clobber’ sounds greatest, because someone with the same name has won this year’s championship in the ‘Advent Tournament’ in Utah. The parents settle with ‘Mikael’, because it sounds basic and nice… except they spelt his name wrong. Now he sounds like a gay Swede, according to Darryl.

Mikael grows up alongside his siblings, Jimmy, Candice and Sid. Jimmy loves to watch TV all day as his parents slave away trying to keep him fed. Candice and Sid run around the yard all day pretending to be contestants in Advent Tournament. Candice often makes fun of Mikael’s large forehead and lazy eye, saying that he will never be able to shoot a gun properly as she runs laps around the young boy. Sid likes to poke holes in his teddy bears and take them around the back of the shed. Darryl and Maeve work at the only gas station their town has. They struggle to make ends meet as on-comers decide to stay at the town over instead of theirs. They get the wacky oddball every now and then that decides to stop his or hers hunk of junk over to exchange old people banter about how much times have changed, and how much they miss the old days… but that’s about it. Most nights in the trailer are cold and wearisome as the old furnace struggles to maintain its heat in a trailer with awful insulation. Maeve cooks and cleans, serving mostly her family favourite fried SPAM burgers, topped with melted mozzarella, shaved carrots, iceberg lettuce, and an assortment of toppings that could kill a herd of cows. They all go crazy for them, Jimmy especially. As years go by, Mikael develops rather crooked teeth and poor eyesight. His parents are only losing more money than they are making trying to keep up with demands. Darryl has taken a second job at a retail store, stocking shelves and working unholy hours. Maeve works part-time at a gas station in Colby, struggling to make new friends and getting by only because she can dissociate at will.

Jimmy has left home, running away with a girl he knocked up. He claimed they were destined for each other, and that the chips will fall where they may. Candice tends to the garden and cooks for the family these days to take a load off for them, singing songs about love and heartbreak as she does. Sid has been sent to prison for the murder of a young boy he was friends with. He says he ‘looked at him wrong’, and his frequent spurts of paranoia only got the best of him. He was diagnosed with a personality disorder when he arrived there. Mikael has joined with the Marines. He desires a sense of ‘brotherhood’, and he wants to shoot ‘bad guys’. All things he definitely didn’t say to his recruiter, even though that’s basically what they want to hear. Mikael stays with them for nine years, until the ripe age of 29, where he decided he wanted to return home to help his struggling family pay the bills. Mikael learnt not only how to shoot, but how to scare… to intimidate, and to properly communicate. He became one of the greatest riflemen in the past decade, butchering as many as 107 casualties in Greater Oceania, all for the cause of water. The water wars are only gaining more momentum as of late, but Mikael, nor his family can do anything about it.

Mikael watches Advent Tournament with his parents every night, looking at the game broadcasted on national television, thinking to himself that he may now be a worthy contestant. He’s young, fit, able-bodied, and in desperate need for the cash. Darryl and Maeve absolutely do not agree. They think he’s suicidal, and a damn maniac. This years champion looks like it’s going to be a woman named Celia Marshall, aka, ‘DaBitch’ – a 23 year old blondie with pig-tails, an upper thigh tattoo, and a face made for war. She’s on her way to winning $10,000,000, as well as an opportunity to become an ‘All-Star’, one of Advent Tournaments greatest contestants, who will make their way to the ‘All-Stars Brawl’ in 2060. Mikael persists in asking about the tournament from time to time as he works as a farm hand, but his parents continue to look upon his desires with only frowns and angry outbursts. One sullen day, Candice decides to take her own life, slitting her throat with an old meat knife. The note she left was dry and barren. She claims that nobody ever cared about her, and that her dreams and aspirations were unrealistic. She blames the world for her struggle, so she leaves this life behind for the next. Her family don’t know whether to be furious or remorseful for never giving her the attention she so craved. They bury her in their backyard because they cannot afford a formal burial. Darryl uses his woodworking abilities to craft a wooden cross and engrave her name on it. Maeve sticks her favourite photo of her on the cross, the one where she was smiling amongst all us siblings on a bright summers day, without a care in the world.

The bank is threatening to reclaim the house. The gas station has finally given into the times. The economy is only inflating, and Mikael brings up his desire to join the tournament once again. Maeve and Darryl are hesitant, but with a little push and shove, Mikael persuades them to let him join, promising only glory and wealth to his family if they give him their blessings. They decide that this is probably the only thing they can do to stay afloat in today’s world. Darryl gives Mikael his old truck he used back in the early 2020s that runs on batteries, ordering him to come back on it or in it, confusing Mikael by saying this. It was supposed to be something the Spartans of old used to say as their wives watched their men go to war. Mikael thinks he’s a delusional and senile old nut. Mikael drives the truck to the outskirts of Utah, bringing only the essentials with him, leaving his old life behind for one less ordinary. The truck is old and battered by the weather. The batteries need to be replaced, and there’s a smell in it that reminds Mikael of how Sid’s teddy bears used to smell.

Mikael arrives at the tournament plaza, just outside the Utah border, where the line is long and the tensions are high. He meets all kinds of people in the line, all wearing their own armour, masks, with burdens and tearjerking stories draped over their shoulders. He meets a woman who says she’s only there because she can’t afford medical bills for her sons cancer treatment, as well as a man with a prosthetic leg and an eyepatch who says he wants to be in it for the thrill alone. Mikael signs his name on the dotted line, selling his soul to the tournament, leaving behind a world that never wanted him. Contestants are provided with a small arsenal of weapons before entrance, and they must have one nights rest in the camp as a cooling off period. Mikael uses this opportunity to get a head start. He murders three men, two teenagers, and the woman who was there for her sick child.

Two weeks later, and the tournament has closed off its walls to further contestants. Mikael is still alive, with a body count of 32. He has a gang of followers, most of which are ex-military members, as well as corrupt cops who seek to get their thrills within the bloodied walls in Utah. They settled in Moab, just near the Colorado River, building a stronghold of old metal pieces they stole from urban areas in their hijacked trucks. They are, according to the billboards scattered around the landscape, among the top three gangs within the tournament, and now well on their way to claiming their promised prize of $10,000,000. One of their members, Rivet, says that he’s going to use the money for charity and to start his business. He wants to make his own brand of motorcycles, and he reckons they’ll be better than Harley Davidsons. Another member, Trident, a man with half his hair missing, says that he wants to build a bridge over Utah so tourists can watch the tournament safely from above. He says it’ll be a great tourist attraction.

The tournament is down to only a handful of contestants. Some members of Mikael’s gang, including Rivet, were blown up from a block of landmines two nights ago, on a cargo run back to their stronghold in Moab. Things were never the same since then. Mikael has betrayed everyone in his gang, successfully manipulating them so that he may claim his prize. There is only one person left for Mikael to defeat until he can become an All-Star, and according to the support drones, they are residing somewhere in Price. Mikael finds the last contestant, hiding under rubble and bone. An older man, named Percival, begs for mercy as Mikael holds him on the bitter end of his shotgun. Percival says that Mikael can take more of the money, but he does not know that there can only be one. People will say anything to stay alive these days, but Mikael always wonders why that is.

Mikael becomes an Advent Tournament ‘All-Star’, claiming his hefty sum of money, making his mother and father back at home proud as they watch their war-torn son hold up the beefy cup on live TV. He tells the nation that they need to take better care of their veterans, and that we need to support local businesses more instead of mega corporations that are inflating our ways of life. He says all kinds of maniacal things, before being pushed aside so the commentator can speak again. Mikael doesn’t go back home, and Sid is on parole for good behaviour. Jimmy and his now wife have a family of 20, residing somewhere in Nashville, getting fat on butter and oil on toast. Mikael has sent his parents most of the money, but he has no interest in returning to them to see how things are going. His reasonings are private, but everyone knows that war only changes a man. Once blood is on our hands, we need a lot more than soap and water to shed it from our souls. At least that’s what Mikael’s doctor tells him.

The world is only growing dimmer and bleaker. More and more people are signing up for the tournament, and Mikael has long since died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head because the ghosts of his past inevitably caught up to him. Darryl ended up spending most of the money on a business idea that went under in the first year. He wanted to make tyres for cars that could change colours every couple of minutes. Nobody gave a shit. Maeve lost her battle with colon cancer a few years back, leaving no legacy behind, nor a carcass that even the flies wanted to feast on. Jimmy now has 30 children. Candice’s grave has become a parking lot, and Sid is back in prison for dating a minor. Darryl points his finger at society, not the other way round.