PLAY BALL!

A Calavera Adventure.





The sun rose over the horizon of the Calavera beach. It was the morning after Tribal Council, where Jenn had just been unanimously voted out, and the rest of the tribe was enjoying some much needed rest. Cuddled into the shelter were current inhabitants of the island, formerly complete strangers, now tribemates in the game of Survivor. Everyone lay in the shelter, except for one.

Daniel Lue, the most physically gifted member of the tribe, had woken up much earlier than his tribemates, and not being able to go back to sleep, he decided to go into the jungle to look for firewood. Supplies were getting low and they needed wood fast, or else they would freeze themselves sick during the night.

As he gathered many different branches and tucked them underneath his arms, something on the ground caught his attention. A weirdly colored rock that had no business being in this part of the jungle. As the realization of what this meant dawned on Daniel, he went to grab the rock and see if it was covering anything.

“Oh man, oh man, oh man...is it really what I think it is?” he asked to himself.

Indeed it was. Underneath the weirdly colored rock was the famed Hidden Immunity Idol that everyone else at camp was so desperately craving. The idol took the form of a necklace, resembling an ancient Aztec ring with a tiny hole in the center. Daniel took the idol and put it on his neck. He tried to read the instructions that came with the idol, but due to the shade from the trees he could not read a single word. Still wanting to know how the idol worked, he stuffed the instructions in his pocket, picked up the branches, and began walking back to camp.

Back at camp, the rest of the tribe was up and getting a read of treemail to get an idea of what the upcoming challenge would be.

“Has anyone seen Daniel?” Ashley asked.

“Nope, he wasn’t near me in the shelter like he usually is. I think he might’ve gone out.” said JT.

“Well wherever he is he needs to get back here or else we’ll be late for the challenge.” Ami said in an annoyed tone.

Just as Ami said this, Daniel emerged from the jungle, his branches in hand.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late…” he said. “...I woke up early and decided to go get wood.” He began to notice his tribemates staring at his neck.

“Ummm, Daniel…” Fairplay said, “...what’s that thing on your neck, and why is it glowing?”

Before Daniel could even notice what Fairplay was talking about, the tribe was sucked away from camp in a blinding light and when they came to, they were in what appeared to be an ancient Aztec court, surrounded by angry, screaming Aztecs.

“Uhh guys, I don’t think we’re on Calavera anymore…” Amber whispered.

At the head of the court stood what appeared to be the chief of the Aztecs, who with one motion of his hand ordered the rest into silence, before screaming a language indecipherable to everyone...except Colton.

“Guys, I can speak this language...he’s saying we’re fools for falling into his trap, that he knew one of us would find the cursed idol.” he said.

“Colton, can I ask WHY you know this?” asked Ashley.

“Girl I’m a superfan, when I knew were going to Mexico I did ALL the research. All of it.” he replied.

The chief continued yelling at the tribe.

“He’s saying that he plans to sacrifice all of us to the gods so that the sun may continue to rise and fall as it is now,” Colton translated.

“Oh yeah? Well tell him he’s a fucking idiot who doesn’t understand how the solar system works!” Dan Lembo exclaimed. Colton repeated this to the chief in the ancient language and the chief responded in kind.

“He’s calling us hypocrites, saying 'Didn’t you sacrifice one of your own last night?'” said Colton.

“Well shit, what are we gonna do?” asked Amber. Colton began to think quickly, and noticing what kind of court they were in, he began speaking to the chief. What he was saying actually managed to make the chief think for a moment.

“What did you ask him?” asked Fairplay.

“Do you know what type of court this is? This is a court where they play Ullamaliztli! Knowing these bitches love to gamble, I’m hoping we can see if we can wager our freedom in a ball game. It’s our only shot of getting back to camp.”

The chief gathered his various advisers around him to discuss the potential wager. After a lengthy discussion the chief rose up again and spoke.

“He accepts the wager!” said Colton.

“Awesome!” said JT. “So how do we play?”

“Okay, so you see those rings at the end of the court with the circle in the center? We gotta get a nine pound ball across the court, away from possession of the other team and into the circle. And we can’t touch the ball with our hands, we can only use our elbows, knees, hips, and heads to move it.”

“...oh.” JT said, much less excited for the game he was about to play.

After getting fitted for their deerskin armor, the Calavera team walked onto the court, with hundreds of spectators looking on and booing them heavily. Then suddenly screaming was heard from within the audience, as the other team, a group of heavily muscled jocks in their own deerskin guards emerged from the crowd and took their spot on the court.

“This...is gonna hurt.” Fairplay said. As he said this, he and his teammates began to notice the skull rack above the court, which as they were told by their uniform fitters, was adorned with the skulls of past victims of sacrifice who had lost the game. Knowing that this would be their fate if they lost was what motivated them to win.

The opening to the game was extremely rough on the team. Getting used to not using your hands to carry a large rubber ball was difficult, and the tribe incurred many penalties early on. Even when they began to get the hang of things, the other team was often very violent with them, sending them crashing to the hard, concrete ground. Yet no one was able to get the ball into the circle, so the game continued.

The tribe huddled together during a time out to strategize.

“Man, what the hell are they feeding these guys? They’re monsters out there!” exclaimed Dan

“I dunno man, but we gotta think of something, and FAST!” said Fairplay.

“Wait a minute guys...I think I have a plan.” said Amber.

“Well what are you waiting for? Spill it!” said Ashley.

“Here’s what we gotta do. Guys, when we get the ball, take it to our side of the court and dribble it behind the girls. We’re gonna run the Osten Taylor memorial play.”

“What does that even mean?” asked Colton.

“You’ll see.” Amber said, winking at the boys. “Trust me, I think this can actually work.”

“Well I don’t see anyone else suggesting anything, so I say let’s go for it.” said Fairplay.

The tribe broke the huddle and not long after play resumed. Just as was hoped, the ball soon came to the tribe’s side of the court. Knowing the time was now, Amber yelled out to the girls “ALL RIGHT GIRLS, OT PLAY, GO!”

Seeing the rush of players coming straight towards them, the three girls quickly formed a straight line across the court and before the other team could get to the ball, all lifted up their deerskin guards they were wearing, catching the other team off guard and sending them crashing into each other. Soon almost half the team was down.



“Nice!” said Lembo.

Now knowing what they had to do, the men began to dribble the ball in the air towards the other side of the court. Colton had the ball all the way up until the center line, where he passed it off to Lembo, who caught it flawlessly. As he bounced the ball on his elbow, a straggler from the other team rushed to knock him down, but was stopped dead in his tracks by a tackling Fairplay and JT, who both sent him down to the ground hard and helped keep Lembo safe. Finally, as Daniel Lue was in range of the circle, Lembo passed to him, and with one spike of the ball from his elbow, Daniel, who had gotten the tribe into this whole mess, scored the goal that would end up saving them from certain death.



The crowd began to go wild. Not many matches actually came down to victory this quickly, and the match itself was one of the most exciting ones they had ever seen. The Calavera tribe basked in it, taking the time to enjoy their victory, even noticing small children adorning the skull rack with little puppets in their likeness, to commemorate this impressive victory.



As the crowd died down,, the chief approached the victorious tribe and tossed them an idol identical to the one Daniel had found in the jungle, and spoke to them in a congratulatory tone.

“He’s saying that after the game we played today, we deserve our lives, and that hopefully the idol he placed on Divinita beach is found soon.” said Colton. This made the tribe laugh together as Daniel held the idol to the sun, and with that, the tribe returned home.

Now back at camp, the tribe began to celebrate...but not for long.

“Holy shit we still have a challenge to compete in!” said JT.

“Let’s hope it’s one of those ‘make a flag’ challenges.” said Ashley.

After a short hike, the tribe arrived to their mat at the site of the immunity challenge...the exact same court they had just escaped from. Hosts Lex and Brett stood at the front of the court, while Divinita stood opposite of Calavera.

“Oh no…” said Amber, realizing what was happening.

“Welcome to your next immunity challenge guys!” said Host Lex. “I hope you’re ready to get rough, because today we’re playing an ancient Aztec sport called Ullamaliztli!”