Alive/Andes: A Soccer Evil

A Story by Abishai100

Narrated 'account' of an Andes-ordeal of survival/cannibalism drawing a special 'prayer' of humanity ends.

A prayer-rich adaptation of the excellent survival-film Alive (Ethan Hawke), based on a true story!

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We all had a different method of approaching our special and darkly non-magical ordeal in the Andes mountains of cold snow one winter when our international traveling soccer team was sent on a flight for an exhibition match away from South America but crash-landed when the left-engine failed, rendering our once proud social-media photos of team spirits into a new kind of 'memoir' album for others on social-media to look-up and comment on, regarding survival...and strange courage.

The cold and seemingly unforgiving snowy mountains of the Andes of South America invite a special kind of 'soldier' or survivor, which is precisely what we all learned, as the members of our 'cool' soccer-team were forced to ideate some kind of 'chess-survival' out there in the cold environment and think of ways to ration food-supplies/resources while looking for ways to trek across the peaks to find some sign of civilization/campers-with-phones to get back into humanity.

Our 'Fury' team from South America included a multicultural group, including myself, and were set to perform some 'cool' media-event exhibition game outside the Americas for global-TV in the year of the Qatar Cup, and we each had our own special/favorite symbols or insignias of what made this sportsmanship ideation a great signpost for humanity excellence (wow).

PILOT: I'm the surviving pilot; our co-pilot died in the crash along with, as you may've noted already among your dejected teammates, about half of your South American soccer-squad, and I'm truly sorry for this unpredictable accident, and we're all just going to band together and look for ways to get through this Andes ordeal, and unfortunately, the radio-system is broke, and we've got to find a creative solution now and hopefully by working together, alright?

The pilot offered as best the kind of encouragement-words as he'd muster, given his own sense of shock after losing his co-pilot/pal in the crash, along with the half of our 30-member crew/team of soccer 'excellence' set for media glory. I'd brought my magnet-pocket chess-set, which I used to draw away that nagging sense of human impatience where you feel there's really no God to bail you and your buddies out, and I used the chess to distract my soccer survivor-friends in those harsh Andes conditions, reminding them of the 'cool' of stalemate-chess and why a no-win decision might just remind one of the variances in intelligence that invoke a 'human' sense of focused ambition...the type required for survival/escape.

However, this team tale is not for the faint-hearted, and it turns a note to darkness, as we all had to contemplate the 'basic' human wisdom of cannibalism, in order to survive out there, which is what this journal-expo is all about now. We buried half the team and the co-pilot in the snow and then proceeded to share leadership roles in administering medical attention, words of religion, friendship-counsel, ideas to trek through the mountains in search of civilization rescue without signs of hope, and finally how to ration the limited food-supply. When the food ran out, it was I who recommended we cut up the dead in the snow and begin to cook the flesh for meat...to get through the ordeal while urgently motivating our freezing souls to trek through the Andes to find a rescue option. This was no photo-opp.

It was I who'd been declared the final leader/captain of this Andes ordeal, when it seemed simply that no one wanted this 'brand' of stinky spiritual burden (hmm). The other team-members tried their best to don the mantle, and as we rotated leadership, true signs of human greatness did shine through, and various temp-leaders were offering temp-signs of engineering genius, food wisdom, and prayers, but I had to suggest the cannibal action and then to find the trek-method of 'young valor' to trek through the mountains so we'd not continue to 'endure' as cannibals out there in the Andes and rather to use that 'raw survival' chess-decision/option simply and purely to motivate our souls to trek through the dangerous peaks/valleys of the mountains, and most of us had no such experience in anything like this, and this would hopefully be the only type of this type of survival journal (wow).

TEAM-MATE: I see the signs of campers in those valleys, man!
ME: Oh, goodness, thank goodness; we've trekked through these peaks/valleys of these foreboding Andes like pilgrims, man.

TEAM-MATE: I'll never fly again, man!

ME: Stay cool; let's make contact now, and we'll keep our 'dark' secret (for now) and just get back to society, friend.

TEAM-MATE: Hey...thanks for that surprising leadership-quality, man...none of us thought you had the 'right-stuff' for this.

ME: It's cool...let's make contact (and get home!).

When we were rescued, after making contact with that lush-valley camp-group after that miracle-trek in those unforgiving Andes, crawling out of that 'nest' of cannibalism for survival and with the 'chess' like mind of stalemated humility in seeking forms of varied life-choices to just 'forget' the requirements of human hunger and life, we'd all remember what made all of Earth, and honestly/specifically those snowy white Andes a 'tower' of heaven/hell.

When I got back into civilization, I quit soccer and became a schoolteacher in New England (United States), and I'd never forget that cannibalism-ordeal in those foreboding Andes with my soccer-mates who saw that great miracle of teamwork out there in the cold. I got married (eventually!) and my wife now makes us wonderful seafood-quiche, and I enjoy it with prayers of thanksgiving when I remember precisely what I got us through in those Andes and what I myself now dream of when I think of the 'magic' of eating...or chess (ha). Incidentally, I'm now also an 'avid-fan' of science-fiction comics, thinking of the 'human' quality of the imagination/story of 'species' excellence.