Youth World

Chapter 17 – A Day Off!

"I'll miss you so much, Aidan."

"I'll miss you too, Alexander."

Aidan and I were locked in a tight man hug, unwilling to leave each other.

"I know that you don't want me to leave, but I have to go. Those ships won't build themselves."

I wiped away a tear, letting go of the bearded man. He usually was clean shaven, but there weren't razors in the apocalypse.

Eventually, Aidan departed the camp with his followers, who all swore loyalty to Cascadia since he also did so. I was sad to see him go, but it was necessary for the future of the country.

After this tearful separation, I examined the numerous groups around the camp to see what they were up to. Instead, the only replies I got were complaints that they were overworking and that they were exhausted from around two weeks of work. These were valid complaints. Tired, unhappy workers would not be very effective under any circumstance.

Thus, during lunchtime that day, I decided to make an announcement that would hopefully bring joy to my fellow Cascadians.

"I have seen that everybody has been really exhausted from all the work that we've been doing. That's why I suggest we all take the afternoon off and have some fun! Maybe we'll even have a concert after that. What do you all think about that?"

The crowd erupted into cheers. They were more excited about this than any other speech I had made before. That slightly disappointed me, but whatever. That was to be expected. Doesn't matter if we were in the midst of an apocalypse, kids are kids, and they only care about fun things.

"Judging from that response, I ȧssume you're all on board. I think we should hold a soccer tournament between all the different professions to determine who's the best. We should probably temporarily convert that flat piece of land where the football field once stood that we use as a cafeteria into a soccer field. Soldiers, are you guys here?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Could you guys get started on doing that? Quickly whipping up a soccer field, I mean."

"On it, sir!"

"Thank you. This meeting has officially concluded. Without further ado, may the festivities begin!"

A bunch of the soldiers bolted towards the lumber shed to build a makeshift soccer goal. I also helped them set the whole thing up, nailing three massive logs together to make the goal posts. We also lined up two wooden poles at a 45-degree angle to support the beams on the sides. Now, we had a functioning goal post, and we repeated the same process on the other side of the field. Many of the workers were clearing the field of any rocks or obstacles that may interfere with the proceeding of the game. One of them also brought a spherical soccer ball, made out of pigskin. Wasn't the best material, but it would do.

Right next to the barrier made from pebbles that marked the sidelines of the soccer field, a bunch of people were moving makeshift stools so they could watch the game. I was drawing the tournament bracket on the ground so it could be easily modified, unlike paper which was purely used for extremely important administrative affairs or cardboard.

After an hour or two, everything was set up, with thousands of people spectating the game. However, they weren't the majority, since most people elected to spend their free time doing other things or just chilling on their beds.

"Everybody, please quiet down! I am here to announce the start of the soccer game between the soldiers and the metallurgists. The team captains are Justin Seng for the musketeers and Dionte for the rocketeers. I will serve as umpire for this game. Dionte, since your name comes alphabetically before Justin's, you get to pick heads or tails."

"Heads."

"Good. I'm going to flip this wooden coin, with an H inscribed on one side and a T inscribed on the other. Three, two, one, flip!"

I flicked the coin with my thumb and backed up to allow it ample space to land. After rotating for a while, it smacked the ground and bounced for a while, rolling in a circular motion until it finally stopped moving.

"The result is tails. Justin, you get to elect to either start with the ball the first half or start with the ball the second half. The game is thirty minutes long, or not the tournament would never end."

"I'll go first. You only live once, and since I played wide receiver in football, I like to tackle everything with a speedy approach."

"Very well. I'll place the ball in the middle of the field, and you may commence as soon as I blow the conch."

Both captains returned to their teams, and they began deploying in different formations. Since most of these people were former football players, they didn't really know much about soccer, so a lot of them crowded around the middle. This was for fun, however, so I wouldn't nitpick the rules."

"Are you ready, team rocketeers?"

"We're ready."

"Are you ready, team soldiers?"

"We are."

"Count down with me, everybody!" I screamed.

They did. The commotion they caused reminded me quite a bit of the football games we had back in the day, where we lost to, ironically enough, the high school that was located on that very hill that we burnt down. How the tables turn.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

I blew the conch as hard as I could.

Dionte immediately bull rushed all the way to the ball and kicked it at maximum velocity, sending it soaring over the goal post and into a tree.

The soldiers' goalie, Julius, picked up the ball and punted it all the way back to the middle of the field. The guy was being recruited by a bunch of top-notch colleges before the apocalypse struck, which made sense given that the ball floated in the air for over five seconds before it finally struck an unsuspecting metallurgist in the knee. However, the metallurgist forward suċkėd it up and dribbled around the soldiers' midfielder. This didn't really make much sense since everybody was all over the place, but whatever. Let them have fun.

The metallurgist was making good progress, juking and evading the soldiers' defenders, until Julius pounced on the ball and sent the metallurgist flying due to the sheer impact. Julius was so strong that he could squat the combined weight of two grown men, but he was relatively weak during the first few days of the apocalypse's beginning since he slacked off during the football offseason. As soon as he did a lot of army training, he got back into shape. And that was terrifying.

I blew the conch, signifying a penalty.

"Julius, you can't tackle the guy. This means he gets a penalty kick on you."

"Oh, right. Forgot this wasn't football."

"It's fine, we all make mistakes. Here, give me the ball."

I set the ball two dozen paces away from the goal and told the metallurgist to line up in front of it. I blew the conch to signify that he could begin. He ran headfirst into the ball, blasting it just a smidge over the goalpost.

This game went back and forth, violating many of the rules of soccer, until Julius got so bored that he took the ball from his own goal all the way to the opponent's goal, and kicked the ball so hard it sent the goalie right through the goal, causing the crowd to go into an uproar.

"The soldiers win! On to the next game of the tournament!"

The rest of the tournament went on as planned, with the more physical professions defeating the less physical ones. Eventually, the soldiers came out on top, defeating the carpenters by a score of 10 to 1. The soldiers completely dominated the tournament, since many of them were former athletes themselves.

"And so, the tournament has concluded! I am glad to announce that the soldiers have won! Here is your trophy!"

A wooden bowl painted yellow that was nailed to a brick was handed to Julius. He wasn't too impressed with it, but he accepted it, nevertheless. He hoisted it into the air, waving it left and right, kissing it, and then he passed it on to his teammates who did the same thing. It was common school sports team tradition to do so, for whatever reason. I never really looked into it.

I helped everybody clean up the field and move aside the goal posts to allow room for people to eat during the upcoming concert. I had no idea what was going to happen, or who was going to sing, but it was going to be fun and the whole purpose of this day off was to serve as a morale booster for the tired people.

The chefs whipped up an extra special meal tonight, consisting of many different types of meats, fish and fruits. We had acquired a lot of food from hunting lately, at the great expense of neighboring tribes who could not find much to eat and generally migrated away from us as a result. Many of them had tried to contest us over the nearby hunting grounds, but we easily warded them off with arrows and rockets. Ammunition was precious, so we didn't use guns for such weak enemy detachments.

After everybody got their food, most people were talking to each other and mostly hung out in their respective cliques. Even after the apocalypse, the friend groups hadn't changed that much, though many new friends were made through the numerous professions and the need to work with each other.

I waited about an hour or so to allow everybody sufficient time to eat dinner and chat with their friends. Then, I walked to the middle of the field and let out a deafening roar, causing all heads to turn in my direction.

"Who's ready for a concert????"

"We are!!!!"

The crowd was rather enthusiastic. I was expecting for them to cringe or not want to participate, but I guess anything is better than working. However, I needed the crowd to get even more excited. Oh, this will probably do the trick.

"Also," I spoke with the most announcer sounding voice imaginable, "Winner gets a day off!"

A lot of people stepped up, performing numerous pop songs and other forms of music. Most of them were quite decent, and the choir members absolutely excelled. One outlier was Julius, who sang absolutely amazingly despite looking like a complete jock. After most of the willing participants sang on stage, each of them encouraged by the relative success of the people going before them, it was now my turn to impress the crowd.

I had two of my friends from the band and the orchestra play the drums and xylophone, both absolutely necessary to my performance. The xylophone was made from defective steel from the metallurgists while the drums had been used for a week by now.

The xylophonist and the drummer began playing their parts, leading the crowd to immediately recognize what I was going to sing.

"Hey! That's Somebody that I Used to Know!"

"Who wrote that?"

"I don't know."

"I think his name was Gotye? He stopped making music after the song's release."

Singing over the jabbering crowd, I proceeded to sing the song, which caused the crowd to cheer in jubilation.

"Now and then I think of when we were together,"

The crowd finished that line for me.

"Like when you said you felt so happy you could die."

After finishing my song, the crowd unanimously voted me the winner of the singing contest. Sadly, that meant nobody would get a day off.

Drifting to sleep in my mossy bed that very night, I couldn't help but think that that was the most enjoyable day of the post-apocalypse.