Total Drama Endless Epilogue, Part 1
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while; you could miss it."
-Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
...
August 30th 2056
Fairview, State of Athabasca, North American Union
...
It was 7:00 am when Huey Lewis's voice came blaring out her alarm clock. Earlier than she'd normally hear it on a day off. Today was going special though, and she had promised Mom she would walk Will to school.
The power of love is a curious thing
Make a one man weep, make another man sing
Change a hawk to a little white dove
More than a feeling, that's the power of love
She let the opening verse of the song play as she fumbled about in her dark room for a decent set of clothing. After a minute she simply settled for the red flannel and worn jeans thrown haphazardly on top of her dresser, then slammed the alarm into silence.
Darting out of her bedroom to her relief she found the bathroom unoccupied, though in a house with five other people that was never the case for long. No use wasting time. She ran in and threw on her clothes, put up her hair in a loose ponytail, splashed some cold water on her face and got a proper look at her self.
From the mirror in the medicine cabinet a girl with strawberry blonde hair starred back at her. The same one that had always been there.
Paisley Elizabeth Parker smiled at her own reflection, and swung the cabinet closed. Just as someone banged on the bathroom door.
"HURRY UP!"
She sighed and opened the door. Kerry, one of her three older brothers was waiting on the other side.
"I was in there for a minute." She insisted.
"A minute in Paisley time or in real people time?" Kerry asked.
"Hardy har har." Paisley said dryly. Her brother twirled her ponytail, unlike her he didn't have the red tinge in his sandy blonde hair.
"What's the rush for anyway Pais? More construction projects on planet nerd?"
She smirked. "Actually, I've got a hot date tonight."
Kerry laughed. "Keep dreaming Pais."
"Eat a dick Kerry."
Her brother grinned and ducked into the washroom. "Mom's made waffles, better get over there soon before Corey eats them all."
She gave him a far more sincere look.
"Thanks."
"And check if Will's awake yet."
"Gotcha."
Kerry disappeared into the washroom. Such were the joys of siblings, adversaries one moment, allies the next.
She made her way down the hall. The Parker residence was a pretty modest affair. One long straight wooden box, barely more than a wide trailer with a tiled roof. Which was still better than most people could afford these days.
She passed the room of another older brother, Dylan. His door open and she could see him sitting on his bed. OASIS visor already on despite the time.
"Hey." She said. He grunted at her in acknowledgement. She didn't expect much more from him. He was in 'The zone' as he called it.
She snuck over to bedroom next door and gently stuck her head in.
"Will..." She whispered.
It took her a second to spot him, he wasn't in his bed, but before even a ghost of panic had set in her eyes drifted downward and she found him. Her baby brother sleeping soundly on the floor. His soft features nestled in the fluffy stomach of the family's Bernese mountain dog. They looked so comfortable together that she felt bad for having to disturb them.
"Come on Will. Wake up sleepyhead."
She tickles him under his chin and Will's eyes fluttered open softly.
"How come you're not in your bed?"
Will yawned and replied sleepily. "Tusker's softer."
Paisley laughed. Dylan had tried many times in vain to teach Will that that the name he'd given their family dog was Tuska, as in Tuska the Daemon-Killa, a favorite 40k Orc of his. But Will had the same lisp most five-year-old boys had when their baby teeth began to fall out so try as Dylan might in Will's eyes the family pet's name was Tusker with R.
"I don't even know how he mispronounced it." Dylan had exclaimed several times in exasperation. "Tuska's easier to say!"
Sometimes when she wanted to get under his skin (Which was most of the time) she'd mispronounce Tuska's name as well. Making sure to overstress the incorrect syllable as obnoxiously as possible. That usually got Dylan to throw something at her head.
"Come on Twoflower." She said using her own nickname for the boy and jabbing him playfully in the stomach. "Up and Adam. It's a school day."
"Five more minutes."
"Okay. But Mom made waffles and Korey's gonna eat 'em all if you down get your butt down there quick mister."
"Nooooo!"
Will leapt up and a panic and bolted out to bedroom door. Tuska the Daemon-Killa let out a mighty yawn, stretched and followed Will out of the room, tail wagging.
Paisley shook her head and grabbed the glasses Will had left on his nightstand.
He had already acquired a full plate of food in the short time it took her to shuffle into the cramped kitchen at the end of the hall. Korey sitting next to him, busily eating away.
Paisley slid Will's glasses onto his face then slugged Korey in the arm.
"I hear you're hogging then the food fatso."
"I've got practice tonight." He protested through a mouth stuffed with carbohydrates. He didn't bother rubbing his arm when she had hit him. He probably hadn't even felt it. Her brother's forearms were built solid. They had to be, it paid to be tough like that in football.
On the other side of the table her mother was leaning again the counter by the toaster oven starring at her tablet. Tech like personal tablets and laptops had dwindled in use after the OASIS got big but they were still around. Ultimately there was always going to be a market for people who wanted to be online while keeping at least one foot firmly planted in reality.
She kissed her mother on the check.
"Morning Mom."
"Paisley have you seen this video yet?" Her mother asked gesturing to the tablet. "It's this Scottish astrophysicist giving a lecture-"
"Let me guess? Natalie Campbell?"
"That's it."
Paisley rolled her eyes. Mom was usually a bit behind on trends. More often than not she wouldn't hear about the news fads until they made her way to Snapchat or Tik-Tok or any of those half fossilized old person social sites all the aging Zoomers clung too.
"Mom everyone saw that video a month ago."
"Well I haven't seen it." Her mother protested earnestly. "It's very fascinating."
"It's all bullshit. You know that right?"
"Language Paisley! You're little brothers right behind you."
"He's heard worse from Dylan mom." Korey insisted.
"Dylan says people are motherfuckers a lot." Will said brightly.
His two siblings laughed as their mother sighed wearily.
"What are you doing up anyway? Contest isn't until tonight." Korey asked.
"She promised to walk Will to school." Their mother informed him.
"Why do have go when everyone else is off?" Will protests.
"Sweetie you love school."
"I don't like being left out."
"Don't worry about the contest Will honey your big brothers and sisters aren't going to get in either, and they know it."
"You don't know that Mom." Paisley teased, grabbing an Eggo straight from the toaster and tearing a bite out of it. Her mother turned to her sternly.
"Paisley Parker, there's a hundred billion zillion kids out that signed up for that show I wouldn't get your hopes up."
"Esepcially not with your pick Princess." Korey sneered.
Paisley gave him a vicious glare.
"My pick's better than yours dumbass cu-"
She got a look of her mother's face and stopped short. Mom turned to Korey. "That goes for all of you. I don't expect anyone in this house to be grumpy because they didn't get picked. You should know better than tha-For pete's sake Paisley! That's disgusting!"
Paisley lowered the family's maple syrup bottle from her lips, having just took a long swig from it.
"I'm in a hurry Mom." She said defensively.
She packed the rest of her waffle in her mouth, shoved a second one after in, then shallowed most of them whole.
"Ready Will."
"Uh huh."
…
Will took another fifteen minutes in the bathroom getting ready. While he did she grabbed a few of her things, her backpack and the little Melissa Raccoon keychain that hung of it, her Walkman, her CZ 75B and it's holster, and most importantly, Her portable school issued OASIS console, visor and haptic gloves. She wouldn't be online much tonight, but her secret plans were stashed in their local files and today was a perfect day to get started on them.
Finally Will was good to go and they were out the door and onto the crumbling asphalt of their cul-de-sac.
The Parker household's front lawn was full of trash overfloating from the detached garage. The family pickup was up on cinder blocks in the driveway. That bothered her. She still had faint memories of Sand Lake Wildfire in that had burnt half the town down in 2044, the second time in fifteen years. It had nearly been that long since the family vehicle had moved. Dad of course had his own truck but he was up north at a steel mill in Fort Simpson.
The rest of their cul-de-sac was in similar condition, modest house with trailers or broken cars parked around them. Once long, long before Paisley was born this would have been a place a poverty, now six decades into the 21st century it was comfortably middle class. A vast majority of the human population lived worse than her family did and she had always been thankful for what they had.
Not that it stopped her from dreaming of wealth.
They walked down the street leading to the main road. Will's tiny hand in hers, swing their arms back and forth as he waddled along.
"How come I couldn't sign up for Total Drama?" He asked her.
"Because you'd be gone too long and this whole house would fall apart without our Will." She offered him. The real answer of course was 'You're too young.' But that would have brought tears.
"What about if you go away then?" He implored at her doe eyed. She melted a little inside. If he had a malicious bone in his body, she'd swear he occasionally used that look on her on purpose.
"We'll worry about that quest when we come to it Twoflower."
He forced them to stop short. Will had wrapped his arms around her legs, his little features staring up at her dolefully.
"I like your pick. Even if Korey doesn't."
She beamed down at him, then scooped him up. The boy giggling as she planted a kiss on his forehead.
"Thanks kiddo. That's means the world to me."
"Can we play on Halcydonia tonight?" He asked innocently.
She sighed and put him down. Of course… Not even her baby brother's love came without conditions.
"Can't Will. It's a school night."
"Before dinner then?"
"Sorry buddy. I'm going be out late."
"With what?"
She gave him a playfully exaggerated wink. "Big kid stuff. It's a secret."
"Tell me!"
"When you're older."
"Nooo!"
He tugged at her shirt demanding attention. She quietly ignored him and fished around her backpack until she found the headphones to her Walkman. Technically it was a Walkman 2, more a modern Mp3 player built in the shape of an old Walkman. Sony had come out with them to cash in on the 80's nostalgia wave after Halliday's death and they had sold like hotcakes since.
"Tell me!" Will demanded.
"Headphone's are on bud, I can't hear you." She informed him.
She let him pout in silence for a few moments. His soft features tightly bond with dissatisfaction. She probably shouldn't have been teasing him, but he'd forgive her in a few months when he found out what she had been up too.
"Please can we play Mario Kart?" He asked, trying out his other arguing point again and lowering the goal post while he was at it. For a five year old this was called master diplomacy.
"Tomorrow Will. Not tonight."
"Just one cup?"
"No."
"Three races?"
"No Will.
"One race?"
She considered it.
"We'll play twice as long tomorrow. Okay?"
Her baby brother brightened back up. "Alright."
"Good."
And with that she turned up her music, and allowed herself to zone out for a few minutes.
You don't need money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life
That's the power of love
The high pitch shrieking of tire on asphalt drew her back into the moment. A Jeep had just come swerving wildly off the main road and down their side road, barreling towards the both of them. With a heart pulsing surge of adrenaline rushed through her as she swept her brother off his feet and darted into the nearest lawn (Their street, like most streets in town, didn't have sidewalks)
Jeep's brakes screech as its driver pulled it into a 180-degree turn. Trails of black rubber painted a semi circle in the road.
Paisley set Will down and drew her sidearm. She lowered in when the driver opened his door. He was a teenaged boy about her age.
"Will! Ears!" She snapped.
Her brother nodded obediently and pressed his hands over his ears. Paisley stormed over to the driver.
"Mackenzie Greenhill you fucking COCKSUCKER!"
Her friend cackled at her, drumming the dashboard with an open palm.
"God damn Pais! Should have seen the look on your face! You looked about ready to piss yourself."
"You run over my baby brother you'll be pissing through a fucking tube the rest of your life!"
Mackenzie laughed harder.
"Whose Jeep is this anyway?" She demanded still scowling. "Where's your truck?"
Mackenzie's father owned the local auto shop and so Mackenzie was lucky enough to have his own Pick-up. Of course, then again, this was Fairview. Every family owned at least one truck, even if they hadn't used it for thirty years.
"One of my dad's." Mackenzie said causally. "The rare and illustrious 2031 Jeep Wrangler. And you watch what you said about it, I'm only borrowing for your brother."
"You shut your whore mouth around him." Paisley hissed. "You spoil what were doing-"
"Alright, alright." Mackenzie said impatiently. "You gonna keep being a bitch or do you want a ride?"
"She's always a bitch." Piped up a voice from the backseat. A teenaged girl climbed over the upholstery. She was slightly overweight and her hair was buzzed. Zoe Knott, another friend.
Paisley rolled her eyes.
"You guys suck. Have I ever mentioned that?"
"Couple times, yeah." Mackenzie said fluffing the collar of his denim jacket and flashing her a grin. He looked more like her brother than some of her brothers did. His hair a similar shade of reddish blonde as hers was. Though in his case he kept it in an untidy mullet. Mackenzie was always the person she knew that most embraced modern fashion. That is to say, 1980s fashion.
She smiled in spite of herself.
"Zoe push over."
…
With the car, the trip across town to the local elementary school EE Oliver took next to no time. They were going to be back in forth a lot in the car today, something Paisley had been deeply looking forward to. The luxury of a road trip was something she always appreciated, and it made her heart long sorely for the days before she was born. When cars were common, and oil was plentiful.
They dropped Will off and headed south out of town on the Highway 2, flying past a landscape of yellow fields and worn farmhouses, she rolled down her window and felt the wind. The air smelt of the landfill, and of fertilizer but she paid that no mind. Nor did she care that they had the share the road. Highway 2 was as always bustling with trucks, everything from local pick-ups to Long distance haulers and mining vehicles. The tank like and semi-autonomous behemoths were a common sight rolling straight through the heart of Fairview. Not that anyone ever complained. Being on Highway 2, a connector between Interstate 13 to Alaska and Interstate 15 to the Territories had keep Fairview alive when so many other small towns had failed.
Back when Paisley was born and Canada was still an independent country, most of the population lived within a thin strip along the American border. The nation had been larger than China but had had a population smaller than California. Most of its major cities had been strung along a line never more than a couple hours drive from The States. Loathe as they had always been to admit It, The old foreign observations about Canada being largely comprised of untouched wilderness had some truth to it. Go far enough north and the only signs of civilization you'd find were mining towns and indigenous communities.
Mostly…
Her town and the surrounding communities had been exception. At thousand kilometres and a twelve hour drive to the former border Fairview and the rest of the Upper Peace region was some of the most northern commercially viable arable land on the continent, though that was fast changing. The warming climate opening once frozen land to development all the time. It was part of a reason why after Canada's annexation by America (And it was an annexation, only the Americans were naïve enough to be fooled by all the "unification" talk.) The arctic and the subarctic regions had been the only places in the New North American Union subject to internal border changes. Better administration to reflect a changing 21st landscape was the official story in Washington.
Paisley, her town, the surrounding region and everything above the 54th parallel north in Alberta and the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan had been destinated the new State of Athabasca. Further north, the former Northwest Territories had been split in a roughly diagonal line between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. President Watts had named these new territories after the two founders of the OASIS, James Halliday and Ogden Morrow….
…because of course he had.
Dad was up there now. In the Halliday Territory, part of the massive mining operations processing ore before they were shipped down through Fairview all the way to California for another of Watts's ambitious passion projects, The Vonnegut, A half kilometre interstellar sub light Orion-drive sleeper ship currently being assembled in Geostationary Orbit.
Some more cynical minded people, mainly embittered former Canadians and enemies of West often said that all Watts's poetic speeches on unification had always been a ruthless cover to exploit Canada's untapped resources from the start. After all, the Great White North had amble supplies of just about every raw resource the American economy desperately needed now that globalization had broken down. Even beyond that most of the world's largest mining companies had been based in Canada. The nation had been a global resource powerhouse, and it had maintained a higher quality of life than it's southern neighbour. Of course the Americans had seized them the moment they had an ideological excuse to. It was the same logic they had used to invaded Iraq in 2003 or Venezuela in 2037.
For her part Paisley didn't believe any of that. She had read Wade Watts's autobiography in school, Ready Player One. It wasn't exactly high art and was full of embarrassing confessions, the kind a ghost writer would have likely skipped. She had no trouble believing Wade had genuinely believed merging him in his wife's nations was some grand romantic gesture. He was childlike in that way. Ever since he had had the wealth and power to pursue them Watt had dazzled people with one awe-inspiring fantasy after another, The North American Union, The Vonnegut, now Endless.
All the while it was Paisley and the people around her that were forced to live in the real world, and deal with the actual consequences of their young president's whimsies.
…
A little under half an hour and the highway began to curve, winding the jeep down through the cliffs and hills that surrounded the Peace River. The low forests of firs and birches that surrounded the banks were all a parched dry brown. It was to be expected in late august. The region was going through it's thirty-first year in a row of severe drought. Ahead of them, cutting a sharp figure in the shallow canyon was the Dunvegan Bridge, one of the biggest in the State. The nearly hundred-year-old highway suspension bridge was the regions most prominent monument to a time of prosperity long since pasted.
In its shadow lay the Dunvegan Stacks. In those long ago times when people actually traveled for pleasure the banks directly east of the bridge had been a campground. Then, slowly people had begun to stay until an anarchic pile of trash, trailers and poverty had accumulated on the site. Technically it wasn't a true 'stack' as only a few trailers were double or triple deckers. Nothing like the true trailer stacks, The kind that had given rise to their beloved president where you could find dozens of steel towers with trailers stacked, twenty, thirty high. Those were only common in the lower forty-eight. In places where things had really gone bad, like the Deep South, the Great Plains, and the Sunbelt.
They turn off into the gravel road that lead down to the stacks. As it was where every time they visited, scenes of human misery greeted them, a mother bathing her baby in the garbage filled river, young men staggering about with the glassed over look of heavy drug use, the body of an old man slumped against a rusted car, unmoving.
They regarded everything with indifference. It wasn't anything they hadn't seen before.
Mackenzie pulled the car to a stop outside a small trailer surrounded by metal junk art, he leaned back over his seat to Zoey and clicked his tongue, gesturing to the empty seat beside her, where a heavy automatic assault rifle was sitting.
"Zoey guard the car."
"Rodger Rodger."
Mackenzie and Paisley got out and strolled over to the trailer.
"Think he's up?" Paisley asks him.
"Probably high off his ass." Her friend replied. She frowned.
"He better not be. Tweaky bastard knows we have plans."
She picked up a spare rock and hurled it at the fibreglass siding of the home then cupped her hands to her mouth.
"GRANT!"
"Coming!" Cried a muffed voice from the trailer.
A moment later out spilled Grant Adams, beanpole thin, slightly bug eyed with fly away brown hair. His eyes drifted unfocused for a moment before finding them and he broke into a near toothless grin.
"Ah good morrow fair madam and mister, real…real kind of you to stop by. What do I owe the pleasure?" He asked before erupting into a wheezing laugh.
"Tha-that's just a you know a joke. It's a joke. I know why you're here yeah. Good to see you."
"Grant bud I can't help but notice you didn't hear us drive up?" Mackenzie said. "You're normally pretty on that shit. You just wake up or something?"
"Oh no, no I couldn't sleep." Grant professed. His voice a soft lisp. "I've been real excited to show you guys the find."
"You've been hyping this thing up something serious on the OASIS." Paisley said, she raised her eyebrow in mock skepticism. "You better not have been bullshiting."
"Oh you know I'd never bullshit you Paisley." Grant say sincerely. "You said you promised me as much gas station candy as I wanted if I made you happy so I know I... I had to… get a real find."
He spaced out for a moment arm spasming slightly before he came back to them and beamed proudly.
"Got really lucky on this one. Some guys were dumping from Grand Prairie or something all this carnival stuff. Come over and see."
He made a light-footed gallop across his cluttered yard. Grant had all sorts of strange things laying about. It was how he survived. His family was all dead so he bartered here and on the OASIS for cash and goods. Most of it went to his addiction. Like a lot of poorest of the poor Grant was hooked on cheap street drugs, mostly methamphetamine in his case. He was a good guy Grant, they liked him well enough. Good for odd finds and long D&D roleplays on the OASIS, but being friends with him came with accepting the reality that any day he risked overdosing and disappearing from their lives forever, and there wasn't much they could do to change that.
He lead them around back where something was waiting under a trap. Then beamed proudly at them with his rotting teeth and blackened gums.
"Prepare to lose your shit guys. Ta-da!"
He pulled back the tarp... Paisley cursed softly and put her hands to her mouth.
"You like it?" Grant asked hopefully. "Paisley's happy?"
She nodded.
"Paisley's very happy."
…
Soon enough they were back on the road to town, Grant and his haul in tow. Paisley couldn't stop herself from beaming back at it as it rolled along on the little tow trailer than had brought for it.
It was a small metal race car… the kind that might have attached to a carousel at some point. Perfect for child to sit in.
"Will's gonna love this thing guys."
"Don't know where your gonna stick it in yard of yours Pais." Mackenzie commented.
She rolled her eyes. "Right, because yours is any better."
"We're mechanics." Mackenzie insisted. "Our front lawn's supposed to look like shit. Thank you"
"Excuses. Besides not that it matters what our lawn looks like anyway, because it's going in the back."
"Uh, Earth to Paisley. You have a trailer in your backyard remember?"
"No we finally got my mom's mom's trailer towed."
"Wait? By who? My dad?"
"Yes."
"When was this?"
"Like the Monday before last Monday Mackenzie. I already told you all this online."
"Must have forgot." Mackenzie said. "Think I was deep in a fantasy quest line that day. Couldn't focus on anything else."
"Probably because you were getting your avatar's dick sucked by some BDSM slave girl on Gor." Zoey said.
"Actually, I was in the Four Lands."
"So you were getting your dick sucked by Lessa."
"Lessa's a Pern character Zoey. Four Lands is from Shannara."
"Same difference."
That received a chorus of angry rebukes from the other three.
"Horseshit!"
"Dragonriders of Pern and Shannara are nothing alike!"
"That's like saying Ringworld is the same as Discworld!" Paisley retorted.
Zoey scoffed at them.
"You guys are nerds."
The others laughed. Zoey smiled as well. It was intentional hypocrisy on her part. She was as much into sci-fic as they were fantasy. Truth of the matter was everyone was a nerd these days.
You almost had to be to survive.
…
They passed back through town, stopping for a half hour to charge the jeep before following the 2 as it made a sharp turn to the east. Technically the jeep was an old hybrid model (Like most of the trucks in town) but in practice it was fully electric. That wasn't by choice. Fact of the matter was there wasn't any gas as there wasn't any oil to make it. They would known. This had been one of the last places to give it up.
For most of it's history Alberta had been oil country. The whole province had been filthy with it. The energy sector had fueled both the provincial and federal economy no matter how much the bleeding-heart liberals in Ottawa and their environmental policies tried to deny it. The local argument had always been that even if the world was transitioning away from fossil fuels it was still going to be run on them all throughout the transition, and that refusing to invest in the domestic energy sector didn't do anything to decrease demand, it just meant the western world had to get it's desperately needed oil and gas from hostile foreign regimes with hideous human rights records. Like Saudi Arabia, or Russia.
Over and over again Alberta had feuded with the federal government on this…. Until something neither of them were prepare for happened. The oil ran out. Turns out global reserves were far less than what had been projected.
Now the world was post-oil. It was post a lot of things actually, post-prosperity, post-growth, post-democratic, post-hope. You get the picture. Post-oil was the most apparent in Paisley's world. Once it became clear how desperate the situation was and other sites began drying up there had been a great effort to squeeze every last drop of black gold out of Alberta. The farms around Fairview were still littered with abandoned oil pumps, striped of any valuable metals and rusting in the fields. But the most concentrated efforts were even further north around Fort McMurray and the Athabasca Oil Sands. There, oil and bitumen were mixed right into the soft clays of the land. The extraction process looked more like mining than drilling. Vast expanses of northern forest had been cleared to access the silt beneath them. The federal government evidentially kicked all the foreign energy companies out and bought the private domestic ones like Enbridge and Suncor, merging them into their own federal owned shell company, Petro-Canada. At peak the tar sands pumped out 10 million barrels a day but by 2050 all commercially viable sites had gone dry.
Her dad had originally been an oil worker. Most working men in Fairview had been back then. He and most of the amble bodied men left Fort McMurray when the oil dried up and followed the jobs up to the Vonnegut mining projects further north. Those that were too broken in body or too poor to follow them stayed behind in the abandoned refineries, where they now lived some deprived near post apocalyptic existence. Real Mad-Max stuff. At least from what she'd been told. Paisley hadn't of course been there herself. According to the rumours it wasn't exactly the kind of place for a teenage girl.
The collapse of the oil industry had shaken Albertan and Athabascan society but it had happened late enough that they had been spared the worse of the energy crisis most of the continent had endured. After decades of built-up fusion power had finally begun to be commercially viable sometime in the last ten years, which was helping things considerably. They had a plethora of mad genius level scientists and savants to thank for that. Including that woman who's video her mother was so late too, Natalie Campbell.
With her trademark blindness and think Glaswegian accent She was something of a celebrity scientist, A former child prodigy that these days focused mainly on her field of theoretically physics and its implications in multiverse theory. Oh how people loved multiverse theory, it was huge these days. People had a huge desire to prove it. Campbell had feed into their hopes considerably in 2044 when she had supposedly discovered evidence in her lab's simulations of the big bang that some considerable distance beyond the edge of the observable universe matter dissipated entirely into a void of energy. Potentially proving that the universe was finite. Now she made all these videos on the OASIS fueling peoples desires for the ramifications of that. Though even then she her star was starting to wain. There were reports of another child prodigy in Korea these days that was capturing media attention.
Multiverse was all of course, total bullshit. People only believed in the multiverse for the same reasons they believed in aliens, or ghosts, or god. It was all an escapism. A survival instinct. Desperate coping measures of people living on a broken and dying planet that there had to be something, anything out there more than this. But it was all wishful thinking.
In Paisley's opinion at least.
Eastbound on the 2, their precious cargo behind them like an obedient hound. They passed Bluesky and Whitelaw, two tiny hamlets of a couple hundred people, both reliant on Fairview for all everything not found in their homes. In town the local's called them 'Blueshit' and 'Whiteshit' respectively. That about summed up everyone's feelings on them. Still. In a way they were remarkable if only for still existing.
Once they had cleared the picturesque community of Whiteshit Mackenzie served hard on the wheel and they veered onto an old farm road. They always knew which one to take. The one near the giant electrotonic billboard, just pass the plot of land still heavily forested.
"As always, nice to see this place is still here." He said pulling their car up to a forlorn looking farmstead. Someone had burned the farmhouse down years ago but the sheds and the barn were still in good shape. They was even a row of conifers to keep it hidden from the highway.
It may not have been much, but to Paisley and her friends this was one of the greatest places outside the OASIS. They're very own genuine eighties movie style secret hideout.
"I think we're late." Grant observed before wheezing at his own wit.
They was in fact already another truck on the lot. Not that they were concerned. They'd recognize it anywhere, even if they didn't they would have recognized it's owner leaning against it, cigarette in mouth. He threw away the bud and beamed at them as they rolled in. He was a boy their age, full faced and stocky with dark eyes and bristle length dark hair somewhere beneath his ballcap. Paisley got out and they fell into an embraced.
"Tim!"
"How they hell you been?" Tim Testawich asked them.
"Same as I've been all week." Mackenzie said as Tim pulled away from Paisley and the two boys hugged in that slightly cautious heteronormativity affirming way most men did. "Anticipation's got me near ready to put a bullet between the eyes."
Tim chuckled coyly.
"Does it? Wouldn't know the feeling."
"You're a fucking idiot for not signing up Tim." Zoey told him, not for the first time. Tim merely smiled patiently.
"I couldn't be away from gramps that long. How many time's I got to tell you that?"
"How's your family?" Paisley asked.
"Gramps and Irvin are fine. Nothing new to report. Unlike you guys." Tim said dismissively, eyeing the little metal car. "Would you look at what you four drug up? Spiffy ride. That a Grant find?"
"Yes siree Bob." Grant said proudly.
Tim whistled appreciatively and circled the little car inspecting it. Zoey however was still frowning.
"You could have used the money to help your family." She insisted.
"None of you are getting picked."
"We have a chance don't we? Except you don't because you didn't even bother to enter. Ow!"
She recoiled. Paisley had just slugged her on the arm.
"Now who's being a bitch?"
"Pais it's a billion-fucking dollar contest."
"And Tim's a billion-fucking dollar shithead for missing out on it. Whatever. Less competition for the rest of us."
"God damn right." Mackenzie said. He turned to Tim and then gestured the car. "How's about mister billion fucking dollar shithead help me get this in the barn?"
"God when you put it so nicely..."
The two men hosted up the hulk of metal and began waddling ahead. The girls walking ahead of them, weapons drawn just in case. (Grant much as they like him they didn't trust with a rifle)
"That game was founded on your land Tim." Zoey said definitively. "A Cree deserves to win."
Tim smiled. He his family and the rest of the Duncan's 151A reserve were part of one the largest group of First Nations in the what used to be Canada, both in size and population. The Cree.
They weren't of course some monocultural blob, the way all white people assumed other races were. Rather the Cree were a vast collection of different tribes and dialects that shared a common language family. (Tim's family specifically was Woodland Cree.) Cree people were found across a long band in the subarctic spanning nearly all of the ten former Canadian provinces. From British Colombia in the west to the Labrador in the east. Traces of their habitation could still be found in place names across the continent. Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Athabasca, Wawanakwa.
The First Nations were some of the only non-white people around this far-north, far-rural part of the world. They along side the Metis (half native, half whites) and the Inuit (A people group in the high artic that had migrated to the Americas from Siberia within the past couple thousand years) were considered the three principal indigenous people groups of former Canada, and in this post-prosperity world, they were thriving.
Or perhaps that wasn't the best term. Endearing was a better term. Unliked the relatively sheltered white population of North America, the native peoples had handled the collapse of the wealthy globalized economy quite smoothly. They had survived the residential schools, and the decades of trauma that had followed. Since then things were more equal between the white settlers and the natives. It wasn't so much that the indigenous people had gotten richer than it was the whites had sunk down to their levels of poverty, which helped them understand each other better. Indigenous peoples were some of the fastest growing minorities in former Canada. They on average had more children than the white families and so slowly but surely you were seeing more and more mixed-race kids around like Zoey.
Of course, in spite of everything there were also still grumpy old white folk that held firm to their prejudices… like Paisley's grandmother.
"A Cree's already won." Tim said. "That Sky woman in Pahkitew."
"That season was fake." Grant said.
Tim merely rolled his eyes. "And this one won't be?"
"Listen…" Zoey said measuredly. "President Parzifuck can run his mouth about his 'memory suppressing, full immersion algorithms' all he wants. I know when I get in it may look like Mara Jade's competing. But she'll have my brain."
"God I hope not." Paisley remarked. "Moment I get in that pod I want to forget the real world ever existed."
Grant and Zoey began sniggering. She shot them a look.
"What?"
"You really want to believe you're your pick Paisley?" Zoey asked.
"Yes. That's part of why I picked her dumbass."
"Never took you as a damsel type Pais." Mackenzie chuckled.
"Mackenzie shut your mouth."
Grant wheezed with laughter. "No…No she's got a great strategy actually she's gonna win because you see… when everyone get-reaches the final boss… she'll already be in his tower wanting for them."
The others cackled mercilessly. Paisley stuck a hand behind her to show her supposed friends her favorite finger.
They had reached the barn which was nice because it gave her a chance to vent. Anytime they entered they did so as loudly and brazenly as possible. Guns and rifles by there side. The barn was their lair but they didn't own it, and it occasionally there had been other squatters that had wandered through. That was the reason no of them ever came here alone.
Today it seemed everything was as they had left it. Tools were still stashed in their hiding places, no unexplainable piles of garbage. They were good.
Paisley smiled to herself. Her friends may have been assholes, but otherwise today had been going perfectly.
Tim and Mackenzie set the little car down on the concrete ground, a plume of dust sprang up from it. The barn smelt as it always did, of rust and wood and oil. It was a comforting smell.
"Right, what's the plan for this hunk of junk?" Tim asked.
"Just a sec." Paisley said.
She plugged in her OASIS console into a wall socket and gave it a moment to boot up. That was one of the reasons they really liked the barn. Soon after they had found it The boys had all put their heads together one weekend and managed to steal electricity from the massive billboard on the highway.
"So, in case anyone besides Mackenzie missed the memo we finally towed the old hag's trailer off our lot. Meaning we can use the backyard for the first time in I think… seven years? Ten? Something way too long like that."
She had her goggles on translucent display, as always did when she need a foot in the system and a foot out. Her personal files were messier than her room and it took a moment to shift through then and find what she was looking for, then activate the plugin she wanted. She set the visor down on an old desk and stood back.
"It's my kid brother Will's birthday in December. I figure you know… before we start filling it with more junk I could try and put the space to good use. Build him something special."
A projection of the blueprints she had downloaded appeared in mid air several metres before her. It was a yellow go-kart with a purple W emblem in the front.
Tim laughed good naturedly.
"A Mario kart?"
"Wario kart." Paisley corrected. "He's his favorite, He likes that his little logo is a W like Will. We play Mario Kart a lot. It's our thing. He always plays Wario. I always play..." She gave her friends a look. "The damsel type."
"So you're gonna make him a little junky car, so on his birthday he can go out and in minus 40 weather and freeze his little ass off pretending to play a video game he could play in his warm bed?" Zoey asked with a smirk.
"It's more a spring after his birthday thing." Paisley admitted. "Or the fall before, whenever we get it done, doesn't matter. The kart's just the first part. Next spring, I want start building him a full treehouse."
"You serious?" Grant asks.
"Very." She said. "How cool would it be if he had his own treehouse? He loves the one he has on Halcydonia. I had one when I was four before the fire. He'd be able to hang out in there, bring friends over from school."
Tim whistled. "Never got did that when I was a kid."
"Exactly!" Paisley cried. "He'd be able to play outside in safety like… like… fuck I don't know. Like he was a kid in the old days or something. Back when people didn't have to worry about shit."
"You been watching Family Ties again Pais?" Tim asked.
Paisley cleared her throat in way that sounded suspiciously like "Full House".
Mackenzie stepped forward to inspect the plan, then cast his glance back at the little race car.
"Shouldn't be too hard. Little bit of welding and we take off the spoiler, maybe cut down the front so it looks like a go-kart. Add some wheels even. It's not gonna look perfect though."
"Doesn't have to be." Paisley insisted. Mackenzie chuckled.
"You say that now but I've seen how you get around that kid."
"What would kind of… I mean what I'm thinking guys is it really needs a paint job." Grant added. "Really you know… needs that colour scheme yeah?"
"I'm not paying to paint this thing." Mackenzie said bluntly.
"I'll pay for it." Paisley said. Mackenzie gave her a look.
"It'll be pricy."
"It's fine I got paid for another commission recently."
Zoey scoffed. "What show did they have you working on now."
"Some old cartoon called 'Being Ian.'" Paisley said. "Helped design the house and the neighbour. It's set in like suburban Vancouver or something. Turns out the place always looked like shit. Even in 2005."
"What do you expect? It's British Colombia." Mackenzie said rolling his eyes. "Worst place in the world after America…" He thought for a moment. "…and Quebec."
"And yet people want a version of it in the OASIS." Paisley shrugged. "They paid well and besides…" She tosses her ponytail haughtily. "I don't need to worry about money, I'm about to be a billionaire.
"Only if you steal my prise money." He quipped shoving her from behind.
Zoey groaned. "Shut the fuck up about Endless! We're doing this as an excuse to stop thinking about it."
"Help me get this started then." Mackenzie said, jerking his head back to the car. He turned to Tim. "As for you sir, I bequeath to you the command of Princess Pain in the Ass. Go drive get her her paint."
Tim looked at him skeptically.
"No chance in hell we'll be getting this ready for painting tonight."
"We'll get a primer on it at least." Mackenzie said dismissive. "Me and Zo will have this thing made faster than Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelley can make a woman."
Tim laughs. Paisley groaned. "Get better taste."
"Get us snacks too." Her friend commanded, his back already turned.
She rolled her eyes and followed Tim back outside to his car. Grant trailing behind them like a puppy. His already wide eyes had bulged at the sound of snacks.
She hoped in shotgun. Tim was still chuckling to himself as the fumbled the keys.
"God damn Greenhill and his Weird Science."
"He only likes that movie because he lost his virginity to it." She snarked. Tim smirked at her.
"Better than losing your virginity to Love Shack."
Paisley went slightly pink. She didn't need to ask how he knew that.
"Bullshit. The B-52s are a great band. I don't understand how you don't realize that."
She coughed.
"How is your brother these days anyway?"
"Irvin? Oh he's fine I guess. Busy worrying about gramps. Busy worrying about the damn contest like the rest of you."
Her friend sighed pointedly and looked off for a moment before saying.
"God I hope none of you get in."
She looked at him like he had said something indecipherable.
"Why?"
"We got a good thing here as it. Some local gets in Watts and god damn just about everyone we'll be looking our way. Don't like that idea. The President bugs us enough as is with that spaceship of his."
"Still, people like to dream Tim."
Grant finished tying his dust sneakers and hoped in the back seat behind them. Tim turned the key and the truck started up with the sound of an engine sputtering to life. A fake sound the thing played through the stereo speakers. Electric cars were quiet but people had grown accustom to the purr a gas engine made.
"People have caused a lot of bad shit in this world chasing dreams Pais."
…
They looped back to Fairview to pick up primer and a few other things at the hardware store. She had heard from friends on the OASIS that in most of the few brick and mortal stores left you had to stand outside and tap what you wanted on a screen, then wait while the staff went and got it. That people would trust you to still let you into their stores uninvited was another reason her town was an oddity in this day and age.
After that they hit up one of the local convenience stores, a favorite spot of hers. That one was a bit more high security. It took a retinal scan to be let through the bullet proof door, with the cashier behind a second pane. Once inside the sensory overload of aisles upon aisles of chemically scented sugar loaded junk wrapped in their technicolour packaging gave her a rush of serotonin. She wasn't Grant. She didn't drink, she didn't smoke meth or crack or do fentanyl or any of that stuff. But did ever love her sugar. Even if it never loved her back. The horrifying mass of cystic acne spread across her right check was proof enough.
They load up. She grabs a slurpee, biggest cup they have, and filled with all thirty flavours lining the wall. Then a couple bags of chips, couple chocolate bars, couple bags of candy. Then as promised she buys just as much junk for Grant, then some more for the others.
Today was going to be pricy no doubt. She had informal job codding fan content for niche communities, in the OASIS. Mainly melancholic and nostalgic fellow former Canadians building worlds based off of old local cartoons in an attempt to regain some of the sovereign they lost in the real world. They paid half decently but she always had a problem spending money as fast as she earnt it. Most of it going right here, wasted away on candy. It was a bad habit but being here brought her comfort, even if six years after annexation she was still getting used to how bare North American packaging felt. Back in Canada all product labels had to adhere to the Official Language Act (La Loi sur les langues officielles) Meaning everything had to be written in both English and French, even though French was only really spoken regularly in Quebec.
Losing their special language statis was a major factor why the Front de libération du Québec had reformed. Most of the rural parts of Quebec were under their control, fighting a mass-scale uprising against Washington. It was the largest insurgency in the young nation, dwarfing both the battle against the cartels in the Southwest and the Far-right militias in the Deep South.
"Pais look." Grant urged her.
She wandered over to the corner of store, where her friend was sipping ideally at his Slurpee and staring at a row of kiosks and vending machines. Paisley inspected the one he was parked in front of. It was an old wi-fi enabled photo printer.
"Cute." She said.
"It's a dinosaur." Grant insisted. "Why would anyone want this? They should take it out back and scrap it for parts."
"I think it's cool. It's like vintage or something."
Grant wheezed.
"People only care about vintage when it's seventies or eighties stuff."
"I've had a lot of clients that say otherwise." She informed him smugly.
She started pressing buttons on the display. Grant's eyes bulged in disbelief.
"You're actually using it!?"
"Fuck it. Why not? I can put a photo in Will's kart."
It took a minute to figure out the controls but she eventually managed to print out two tiny copies of a photo of the family standing in front of the house taken about a year ago. She liked that one because her Mom's mom Daenerys wasn't in it. It had been one they had took for her dad right after the visit where he had finally chased that wretched old woman off their property by the point of the family's M4 Carbine. Everyone in her still alive in her family she cared about was in it except for her Dad. The twins Korey and Kerry standing next to each other, shoulder to shoulder. Dylan was outside his room and attempting to smile, Mom looked happy, and Paisley herself stood in the centre, Will in her arms.
She was suddenly aware of Grant, silently looking over her shoulder at the photo.
"You're lucky to have them." He muttered quietly.
She sighed and threw a shoulder over him. He winced slightly, they normally kept Grant at arms length, he didn't bathe often.
"I'm lucky to have a lot of people Grant."
He beamed at her.
"Can I grab some more chocolate?"
Paisley sighed, and folded the photos into her breast pocket. Where she'd forget about them for a long time.
…
The billboard came screaming to life once again, just like it had been on the hour, every hour, since they found their hideout. Unsurprisingly the same ad that had been playing for weeks now came roaring over the Peace Valley.
Parzival's Invitation began the same way it's direct predecessor Anorak's Invitation had with the triumphant blaring of trumpets. However instead of opening Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo these trumpets proudly heralded the opening bars of Hail to the Chief, before the fanfare was interrupted by the screech of an electric guitar rift, and the track switched to Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.
The screen soared down and around The President's famed OASIS avatar Parzival, rested on a throne draped in American and Canadian insignias above a heavenly expanse of clouds. His avatar wearing Anorak's black wizarding cloak over his suit, a symbol of his victory in the Halliday Hunt and his resulting superuser statis.
Lounging on the roof of their secret hideout with their snacks Paisley and her friends jeered at the sight of him. Truth be told even if the Wade Watts was about to make one of them a billionaire, he had still stripped them of both their Canadian, and more importantly, their Albertan identities. It was a show of face to cus the guy out a little at every mention of him.
"The greatest of two nations!" Parzival boomed in a god like voice. "…. The greatest of two minds, now open an infinite sea of possibly!"
"GO BACK TO OKLAHOMA SHITHEAD!" Zoey screamed.
"Go beyond borders, beyond life! Beyond reality!"
"Beyond flexing, beyond ego…" Paisley said doing a poor impression of the President.
"I, President Wade Owen Wades proudly present the greatest contest in the Multiverse! Total Drama Endless!"Parzival boomed. "And I invite you to be among first to truly escape reality."
"Big promise Prez, let's see if you keep 'em." Mackenzie snarked.
"Time's fast running out, sign up today! Twenty-Seven lucky winners receive their golden tickets August 30th 8pm sharp, OASIS Standard Time."
And with that the auditory part of the ad ended.
"In hindsight coming here to not think about the challenge was kind of fucking stupid." Zoey said.
"Relax will you? It's harder to hear it inside the barn." Mackenzie said. "I mean sort of."
"He'd never get away with running ads that loud if he wasn't President." Tim said with a shake of the head.
"What time is it now?"
"1pm. OASIS standard is Eastern so it'll be 6 for us."
Zoey sighed.
"Why'd that fucker have to make it 8?" She asked irritably
Mackenzie looked alarmed. "Zoey No-"
"Because of course Eight is a number of some considerable occult significance on the disc and must never, ever, be spoken by a wizard." Paisley quoted in what was (as always) in her mind a flawless British accent.
Zoey groaned in deep displeasure, as the others laughed.
"You set her up that time Zo." Tim chuckled.
Zoey gave him and a dark look and climbed back through the window that led off the roof and back into the barn, grumbling about getting better friends. Grant and Tim followed soon after, leaving just Paisley and Mackenzie.
Her friend slugged her on the shoulder.
"Ow."
"You make fun of me for liking Weird Science but you got some real shit tastes you know that Parker?"
She smirked at him. "The first two Discworld books aren't nearly as bad as people say."
"They're trash." Mackenzie insists. "Even Pratchett said so."
"Look Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, they're not Soul Music or Hogfather alright?" She consented. "But their better than people give them credit for. At worst they're bad by Terry Pratchett novel standards That's like saying Porco Rosso is a shit movie because it's not as good as Princess Mononoke."
She sipped her drink. It was disgustingly sweet, just as she liked it.
"You want to talk real shit books read the Divergent Trilogy."
Mackenzie's brow furrowed.
"Never heard of it."
"I read my mom's old copy of it." She elaborated. "It's that book series that started that big trend of all those terrible YA dystopias back in the 2010s. You've heard of it right?"
Indeed he had, dawning revelation was spreading across his face.
"God Pais, why you reading that crap?"
"Wanted to see how bad they were." She grinned guilty. "Turns out not great."
"No shit."
"…and Divergent supposed to be some of the better ones."
Mackenzie sighed impatiently. "Why would anyone waste their time with those when could read 1984 or play Fallout, or experience any other of the marvellous dystopian literature were currently living out."
"Heard him before." Was all she had for that biting social commentary. America consolidated most of the west into a single power block and their main enemy was China. Comparisons to the old Orwell novel or the Bethesda games were a time a dozen."
"Fine. It's played out." Mackenzie admittedly. He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Actually with the President running the contest now, you know what things are like?"
"Death Race 2000?"
"The Running Man."
The mental image of Arnold Schwarzenegger in a yellow nylon onesie entered her mind as the sip of crystallized soda Paisley had just drank erupted violently out her nose. She doubled over half writhing in disoriented laughter. Mackenzie grinning down at her, doubtlessly proud of the reaction.
"I can see that yeah…" She said faintly, trying to piece herself back together.
"I read Color of Magic to Will and he really liked it. I still call him Twoflower sometimes."
"Your brother's five Pais."
"So?"
He gave her a knowing look, eyebrows dancing playfully.
"You want to know what I think?"
"Not really."
"I think you just like anything you do with your brother…"
Paisley rolled her eyes. "Brilliant observation there Holmes." She said reusing the accent.
"…even if it means throwing away your chance at the contest." Mackenzie continued. She laughed slightly more coolly.
"I'm not, throwing away my chance."
Mackenzie seemed to measure her response, then shrugged and stole one of her potato chips.
"Didn't exactly pick a winner Pais."
"I have my reasons."
"I know." She sighed impatiently once more, this time it seemed sincere. "You'd have so much potential in this game but of all the characters you could have chose to enter under you chose-"
"Princess Peach." Paisley finished for him resolutely. The causal sarcasm that permeated most interactions she had with Mackenzie seemed to had failed for once. "Yeah, I chose her. I don't what you guys think about it, I stand by that."
Mackenzie waved a hand. "I'm not trying to push your buttons for once." He said proceeding with caution, seemingly aware he had struck at something raw. "I know no one we know's getting in anyway but…Just… got to acknowledge here. We're talking about a once in a lifetime thing here, and you could have gone with someone stronger."
"Peach is strong." She asserted. He raised his eyebrows at her again. The expression had lost it's humorous effect.
"Is she?"
"I'm not just trying to make my kid brother happy, I put thought into this Mackenzie." She meant it to. "Yeah the she's nothing but a McGuffin in the main series, look at the spinoffs thought. Mario Party, Kart, Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros, Death Battle."
"Death Battle isn't canon."
"Point stands. Look at what she's got in those games, endurance, strength, agility, fighting abilities. That's all worth a lot in Total Drama, especially one with god knows who and what your up against."
"There'll be a million people that picked her. If. If they pick her your basically gonna have to win a second lottery to be the Peach vote they actually go with."
"Yeah so what? You think you're the only person that picked Ferris Bueller as their avatar? You think Grants the only kid on the planet that wrote down Duke Nukem?"
Her friend shrugged.
"Peach is brainless. Pais"
Paisley's nostrils flared exasperatedly, she had already heard all these arguments from her older brothers, quite a lot actually.
"That doesn't matter. Owen Fendley won the first Total Drama ever and he's dumb as a bag of rocks."
"That's not what I meant" Mackenzie said. He looked at her honestly.
"Look if Watt's is telling the truth. You're going be trapped in Peach's head for a couple months. You're really telling me you want that?"
"Yeah." She said plainly. "I want that actually."
"What do see in her?" Mackenzie asked, seemingly legitimately curious.
"I mean… I don't know Mac. I see someone who never wants for money, Someone who's always smiling, who lives the platonic ideal of Ignorance is Bliss, and yeah. Call me simple or stupid or whatever for wanting that, but if I'm going inside somebody's head for long time… I… I don't know… be nice I guess to forget about all this for a while. Forget myself I guess I'm saying."
"We got it pretty good here you know Pais." Mackenzie said reflectively.
She knew that. She knew there were far worst lives she could have been born into on this Earth.
She could have been from China, once there at the dawn of the millennium people had tasted economic prosperity, but they had never shaken their authoritarian government and it had closed back up on them, slowly leeching their freedoms away again. When they finally revolted it had been too little too late and they had been crushed. Now girls like her were forced into government run birthing camps to produce little boys that would one day grow up to fight for the party. The Communist Government's woes having shifted in the past century from runaway overpopulation to catastrophic demographic collapse.
She could be Congolese. Where they had never been free once in history. Rule had past from merciless kings to colonial governors to foreign back dictators to anarchic warlords. Never had they known anything but suffering. Those that tried to escape to Europe could find themselves facing a thousand hideous deaths along the way. Being abandoned in Sahara by human smugglers, arrested by the European back Arab dictators that spanned the Magreb, or being caught by coast guard in the Mediterranean. Both Spain and Italy had reverted to far-right quasi-fascist governments. Their default response to migrants was to open fire.
She could live in a town much like Fairview, but in Alabama instead of Athabasca. The rural parts of Great Plains and the Deep South were home to vicious bandits and Neo-Nazi militiamen. The remains of the sickness that had done in the old American Republican Party. Several decades Blue-collar workers had been fed conspiracies and disinformation until they no longer accepted anything to be true but their own worldview. After their party had been cracked down on by the military in 2026 the most radicalized had they had taken up arms against the government. Soon enough these roving bands of so-called patriots show their true colours. They now went from town to town slaughtering the kind of people they were supposedly fighting for. Paisley hadn't believed in a loving God since she was five but the things those men did in one's name made the bile in her gut writhe.
Then perhaps there were those with the worst fate if such a thing were possible. The many hundreds of millions that had lived along the Ganges and the Indus rivers in South Asia. Once among most populous places on Earth. Then in the 2030s India and Pakistan had fought a war over Kashmir, a former Himalayan princedom they both laid claim to. Pakistan had escalated with a nuke so India had whipped them off the map and in retaliation China, a Pakistani allied reduced the Northern Indian Plains to a nuclear wasteland. That wasn't the worst of it. It turned out nuclear bombs didn't exterminate people instantly like they did post-apocalyptic movies. That only happened to those lucky enough to take a direct hit. The rest died slowly. Of fire, of starvation, of radiation, of untreated illness because the hospitals were gone. Hundreds of millions of people displaced still roamed the poisoned countryside on their death marches. Nearly twenty years after that last bomb had fallen people still died everyday in ways to painful to consider. Yet more causalities of a war so hideous the United Nations had been dissolved in disgrace for falling to prevent it.
Yes. She was very, very lucky to live in Fairview… but only by comparison. There was still so much hardship in Athabasca.
"It'd be nice to pretend we had a better for a while." She said.
Mackenzie helped himself to another of her chips without responding. She knew he agreed all the same. He must have in some way if he had entered the contest, and as Ferris Bueller no less.
He nudged her on the shoulder again, a fair bit more gently than he normally did.
"Guess we all kind of have a couple shit tastes." He said finally.
She considered it.
"Nah, you're pretty cool Mackenzie." She relented. "…Even if you like Weird Science… and… Revenge of the Nerds… and Michael Bay… "
"Anything else?" He asked. Suddenly Mackenzie's quickly ascended eyebrows were funny again.
"That one book you recommended me from like that early OASIS junkie."
"Armada?"
"Yeah! That one's trash Mackenzie. You can't talk shit about Colour of Magic if you like that one."
"Anything else your highness?" Mackenzie prompted again. She smiled. He must have actually pretty bad if he was letting get this many free hits in. Something she wasn't about to let go to waste.
"All those rap songs you and Tim have been playing lately are hot garbage."
That finnaly raised a defensive reaction.
"Jaxson King? What? Pais he's a visionary."
"I don't like him." She said plainly.
"Come on. He's great. Lot of Marked Improvement influenced."
"Never liked him either."
"That's just blasphemy." Mackenzie said scandalized. "We're talking Markus Obasi here! The Markus Obasi! He's a martyr to the cause."
"I don't care if he died tragically young. That's like a dime a dozen thing among rappers."
Mackenzie shook his head shamefully.
"You're cold."
"No I have different taste in music than you boys. There's a difference."
He slugged here again, hard. It seemed her free hits had dried up.
"Let's get back to that kart before I change my mind about helping you."
"Let's do it."
They collected their things and returned to their friends. They had been caught up daydreaming but it was time to focus on the real world. If Paisley was being honest with herself she knew fully there was a very, very good chance no one she knew was going to enter that contest, let alone win the thing.
Or so she thought.
…
Data flowed across the fibre optic wires, pouring like streams through town after town from Columbus until it reached Vancouver. It was processed then bounced to Edmonton where it was processed again. Part of it branched off to the tiny Athabascan capital of High Prairie, it matched it's data the those in the State archives, matched the address, the name, the girl. The data returned to Edmonton obediently and alerted the staff in a federally owned warehouse. They murmured as their machines hummed to live, printing off their priceless treasure.
From that warehouse came the drone, sturdy and long range, buzzing dutifully into the sky with it's precious cargo.
…
The friends worked through the afternoon. Blaring their music to drown out the hourly announcements of the billboard. Paisley's choice of course, no rap.
Slowly but surely the kart came together. The arc welder they had stashed proofed it's worth. Metal was cut, grafted and removed from the little vehicle.
All the while high above the drone made its journey, passing over landscapes of dry trees and rusted jack pumps.
…
By five they had done all they could for the day.
Mackenzie's predictions had fallen just short. The race car wasn't quite ready to be primed but it was close, and it even without paint its shape was recognisably that of a Mario kart. The sight of it made her so elated all but forget the contestant.
The drone drew ever closer to Fairview.
…
With much gratitude Paisley said goodbye to Tim as she and the other four piled back into the jeep. Korey had taken Will out for pizza before his game. Her friends dropped her off at the shop around quarter to six and they parted ways.
"Thanks for today guys."
"You owe us." Zoey assured her.
"I know." She said. "I'm gonna pay you guys back big for this."
Zoey nodded. "You damn well better."
Paisley ignored her and she Mackenzie shook hands forcefully.
"Listen. After I get back from Dunvegan I'll be online tonight, in case you feel like bemoaning our terrible luck together. Assuming nothing crazy happens at six." He said with a wink.
"I'll considered it." She said only half paying attention.
Mackenzie nod and drove off.
"Good luck Pais."
"Thanks!"
Her baby brother sighed dejectedly.
"How was pizza?" She asked him.
"..Okay.." He moped. He wasn't getting moody about the contestant again. She didn't care though. She knew in a few months he was going to be very, very happy with here.
They started off back home. While they were on the road the clocks struck six. The drone buzzed over them, beating them to the house. Mrs Parker was cleaning dishes by the kitchen window. She watched perplexed as it landed it came to a halt over her yard. A small package addressed to her daughter attached to its chassis.
…
"Did you have a nice day at school?" She asked Will and they walked back up their street.
"I guess…" He sighed.
"What'd you do?"
"Boring stuff." He mumbled.
"That's nice."
He looked up at her, frowning.
"How come you're smiling like that."
"Who me?" She asked.
"Yeah why?"
"You Will."
The baby brother looked taken aback. "How come?"
She tussled his hair.
"Because… we're playing Mario Kart tonight remember?"
The boys eyes lit up.
"Really?"
"Of course. Who's your favorite sister?"
Will giggled and she hosted him on to her back, then turned her Walkman back on.
It don't take money and it don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel
You won't feel nothin' 'til you feel
You feel the power
Just feel the power of love
That's the power
That's the power of love
"Paisley!"
She looked up to see their mother standing on the front step, she seemed strangely shaken.
"You have a letter." She said in a faltering voice.
Paisley frowned. The dots were spread so distantly in here mind they actually didn't connect until she set Will down look and picked up the envelop. She noticed Dylan and Kerry were standing behind their mother. Both staring at her.
The impossible occurred to her.
"…When did this get here?" She asked slowly.
"Just now." Her mother told her.
She couldn't dare to believe it.
"Like around six?"
"Like exactly six." Kerry told her.
She starred down a the envelop and slowly pulled some thing it.
A golden foil ticket emerged from the paper. On it was written a very, simple, note.
"I'll see you in Wonderland your majesty. Good luck."
Parzival.
Paisley Elizabeth Parker looked from the golden ticket and looked at the her family gathered around here. Within a week she'd be on charter jet out of Athabasca…And the rest as they say… is history.