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Ava Smith was a little girl. She was a student. She went to school uniformed in the gray blouse and darker gray skirt of the Wayward School for Girls. She was sitting in class listening to Miss Brainwash ramble when a voice interrupted, via speaker, “SG-4891-3423-2345, report.”
“Miss Smith,” the teacher looked at Ava. “You have been called. Answer the call.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the child obeyed.
Ava went downstairs to the locker room. No one else was present. She stripped entirely, taking off even her underwear. She put on a white cloak. She raised the hood before returning to the hallway. The other students could not see her, as if she was invisible. She was mindful to ignore them, so as to not break the spell that made her invisible.
“SG-4891,” a woman stepped into view from the office. Unlike the faculty and many students, who were all racially white, this adult was a mix of every race. Her skin was a dark beige, her eyes lovely brown and her hair lustrous black. She was Miss Whatever, the Vice Principal.
The woman led the child into a room filled with what looked like toy ray guns. A row of these weapons was a scoped rifle. Ava took one from the rack. “Are you ready?” Miss Whatever asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Miss Whatever opened a door that appeared in the wall as she reached for it. An endless corridor lined with doors on either side was beyond. The woman entered and the girl came with her. The door closed behind them and there was a “click” as it locked. “SG-4891, your mission is to explore the overgrown ruins of a town to find an old television set. Though the town does not have power, the television set is active. A man is being broadcast. Aim at the image and shoot at the screen. You must hit the image to hit the man. Be sneaky or he shall turn the channel on his end or go to commercial. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What is your mission?”
“My target is in a television set. Shoot him dead. Be sneaky so he can’t hide.”
“Correct.” Miss Whatever mentioned, “You are our best Scout. Mr. Wayward thinks this mission has a better chance of success if you are sent out alone. Other girls can’t get unwanted attention that would compromise your objective.” Ava Smith giggled. “What’s so funny, SG-4891?”
“Ma’am, I’m always being sent out alone.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“No.”
The endless corridor lead into a forest. “Proceed, SG-4891. You are not to return until successful.”
“My cousins are visiting tonight,” the child mentioned. “My mom wants me to meet them.”
“Your mother shall be notified that you are staying overnight. Should you perish or go missing, she shall be assured that you were loved by the system that expended you.”
The little girl pouted. The woman glared at her for doing so. Ava Smith feigned a smile. Miss Whatever pointed into the forest. The Wayward Scout Girl ventured into its shadowy depths.
Ava happened upon an overgrown house. She noticed other such houses. She listened, hoping to hear the voice of a man broadcast via television. She continued onward, mindful to keep to cover. Though her magical cloak made her invisible to most eyes, not all eyes were blind. Things inhuman were apt to see her. Though she had a gun, the weapon was useless if she was caught by surprise.
Ava noticed what seemed to be the ruins of stores and public buildings. She assumed she was in the middle of town. She wondered if she should find what looked like houses, since a house was more likely to have a television set… until she heard murmuring.
Ava listened. She followed the noise, eventually hearing a man’s voice utter, “We live as children in a world that is not our home. We worship youth in a world ruled by the elderly. Our meat is their bread and our blood their wine. The mouths that tell us what to think, feel and do are the same that devour us.”
Ava felt herself being stared at. It was not from the same direction as the voice. She hid… and waited. “A boy is his mouth and rectum,” the voice claimed. “A girl is her mouth and vagina. We are the soil. They are the seed. We are poisoned by their malevolent virility.”
A form was sneaking closer to the little girl. Whatever it was, it could see her despite the magic of her cloak. Ava rose. She aimed her rifle, ready to shot whatever was stalking her. She glimpsed the shadowy spook of what looked like a man. It faded from sight before she pulled the trigger.
“If you work for a living you are a slave,” the voice uttered from afar. “If you pay rent you are homeless. If you cannot leave where you are, you are a prisoner.”
Ava ran into what seemed to be the overgrown ruins of the town hall. She went upstairs, her stride swift and nimble. As a Wayward Scout, her feet were sensitive. She never stepped into a crack or hole. She never tripped over anything.
Ava took up a position ready to shoot anyone who came into the building. She waited. “You hide from a world that seldom notices you,” she could hear the voice claim. “Even when spotted, you are lost in the crowd.”
Ava Smith was usually sent out on missions alone. These were later, however. She was originally sent ahead of squads of Wayward Sentry Girls. If she happened upon trouble, other Scouts and the squads of Sentries would come to her aid. There were none to help her now.
Ava could hear her own breathing and heartbeat… but nothing else. A long and dreadful silence haunted her. “You are not to return until successful,” she remembered Miss Whatever telling her. The child could call the teacher, by simply uttering her name. The adult would be disappointed to be bothered without hearing a report of success. She would be unsympathetic to the plight of her seemingly incapable underling.
Ava was the best. She was the only one to survive many missions. The other Scouts went missing. The squads of Sentries were ambushed and massacred, though warned. Ava slew the monsters that killed the other girls. She never fought. Ava would hide and wait. If spotted she would scurry away and hide yet again. The monsters would come after her. If they spotted her yet again, she fled. If not, she aimed at their heads and pulled the trigger.
The Wayward Scout Girl’s weapon was the TG-69: a toy designed to shoot a bolt of concentrated pain and suffering. The negativity damaged whatever it struck. It killed or wounded the living. “The scope is more expensive than the rifle,” she remembered a Teacher saying.
“Your cloak is more valuable than all of it,” Miss Whatever added.
“What about me?” the child asked. “What am I worth?”
The women snickered. “Girls are cheap,” the one Teacher remarked. “A dime a dozen.”
“Not you,” Miss Whatever told Ava. “You have proven worth more than your cloak and rifle. Your value is greater than that of a monster or robot, which you have proven in the field, by eliminating the monsters and robots of enemies.”
“Really?” the nameless Teacher was surprised to hear. “She’s just a little girl.”
“That would mean she is ordinary.” Miss Whatever smiled, “SG-4891 is extraordinary.”
Ava was scared. She was being hunted. She did not feel “extraordinary” while the intended prey of a stalking monster. It did not snarl and lunge into view like the others. It took her seriously.
Ava went out onto the roof of the ruin. She was careful to not fall through cracks or weak spots. She went around the top, keeping to cover as best she could. She looked at the forest below, to glimpse even the slightest sign of a creature.
A tree was growing out of the broken building. Ava climbed down to the ground below. She resumed her mission. Her hope was to kill her assigned target then return home… to the Wayward School for Girls. “You belong where they put you,” the voice uttered. “Your purpose is whatever they assign you.” The man chuckled, “Your worth is how much time they are willing to spend to bother with you.” Ava followed the voice, to find the television set it spoke from.
The world darkened. It rained. Ava could not see or hear as easily during a downpour. Her stalker was more likely to catch her unaware. She took shelter under the broken roof of what remained of a house. “I want to go home,” she muttered. The child sobbed.
“Home is where the heart is,” she heard the voice, despite its distance and the rain. “It is where you want to be. If you want to leave, you are not home… even if you have nowhere else to go.”
Ava returned to the open forest. She looked around. She looked up. She continued onward, ever vigilant. She moved towards where she believed the voice came from. “Why are you afraid of death?” it uttered. “Your doom is inevitable. Why do you cherish life? Again, your doom is inevitable. There is a reason. It is not the one you are told to think by those who do the thinking for you. It is for the reason we all know… but fear to believe.”
Ava found herself listening to the broadcast. It was to follow the noise to its source… but it was also to hear what it was actually saying. She wondered what the “reason” was and considered what she “feared” to believe.
Ava found what she was looking for. It was already staring at her out a broken window. “Seek and you shall find,” it told her. “You sought and found.” The little girl raised her rifle. The face of the man on screen was that of a boy through her scope. It smiled at her. “Let me out,” the voice of the man was now that of a boy.
Ava lowered her weapon. The face was again that of a man. “Do what you came to do,” the voice was again that of a man.
“You want me to kill you?”
The face shook its head. “You can shoot the screen without shooting me.”
“I’m here to kill you.”
“So do it.”
Ava again raised her rifle. She peered through its scope. The face of the man was again that of a boy. The girl again lowered her weapon. The boy was still a child her age. She asked him, “Why do they want me to kill you?”
“I tell the truth.” The boy explained, “You’re supposed to learn, not think. I make people think. They lose their control if you think for yourself.”
“You want me to let you out,” the girl remembered. “Are you trapped in the television set?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I was a student of the Progressive School for Boys. I was in the gifted program, learning how to be an enchanter. They put me in here, to enchant the children of the world… but I ignored the script. They unplugged me on their end. I was supposed to die… and maybe I did. I’ve been haunting this television set since.”
“The Progressive School for Boys has its own soldiers,” Ava noted. “Why send a girl from my school to kill you?”
“The boys of my school know me. I’m popular. They’d hesitate to kill me or if they did, they’d regret it.”
Ava looked around. “Something’s out here,” she told the boy. “I think it’s hunting me.”
“It is.”
“What?”
“The Boogeyman.”
Ava gulped. “He’s real?” she worried.
“Yeah.”
The girl asked, “Can you help me?”
“I’ll try.”
The girl sighed. She again peered through her scope. The boy still looked like a boy. She was commanded to kill him… and lined her shot to do so… but could not pull the trigger. She aimed away from the face… and shot a glowing bolt into the glass screen, shattering it.
Ava came up to the broken window and peered inside, at the television set she just shot. “Hello,” the boy startled her. He was right behind her. “Sorry,” he grinned.
The children stared at each other. “I can’t bring you with me,” the girl told the boy. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“You can’t go back,” the boy told the girl. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
Ava pointed her rifle at the boy, still feeling compelled to do what she was told to do. “My name is Adam,” the boy offered his hand. “Adam Jones.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should. I’m your new friend.”
The girl snickered. “You’re my new problem,” she told him. “I’m in trouble because of you.”
The boy shook his head. “Ever heard of the Outer Zone?” he asked. When the girl shook her head, he told her, “It’s a nowhere in the world. It can’t be ruled from anywhere else. The madness turns control against itself.”
“Madness?”
“Freedom isn’t law and order. It is madness and chaos. If you want to be free, you have to go crazy.”
Ava was overwhelmed by an urge to kill the boy. She did not hate him. He did not annoy her. She was sent to kill him and failing to do so drove her crazy. Adam chuckled. “You were programmed,” he told her. “They turn the children of men into robots.”
“They?”
“Your teachers. You don’t think. You learn what they teach. Your thoughts aren’t facts unless they do the thinking for you.” The boy chuckled. “I should know. I was a Teacher.”
“You said you were a student.”
“I was.” The boy chuckled. “I am whatever I want to be,” he uttered in countless voices. “What’s wrong?” he asked the startled girl.
“That was creepy.”
“What?” The boy grinned. “You are extraordinary. They told you so. I am extraordinary. They told me so. Our excellence is a fact.”
“I want to go home,” Ava insisted.
“Go home,” the boy told her. “I’ll disappear in the Outer Zone. Your secret will be safe with me.”
Ava again raised her weapon. She did not peer through the scope, however. She could kill the boy at point-blank range. “Ava Smith,” the little boy uttered in the voice of the man. “Do you know why they sent you?”
“I’m the best.”
The boy snickered. “I killed the others,” he told the girl in his childlike voice. “It was fun. It was easy.” He laughed. “Boys were first,” he claimed in the voice of the man. “The Catamites of Pizzazz,” he again uttered in the voice of the child. “Girls of your school came next… then you.”
Adam walked off into the forest. Ava followed him. “Do you know the way?” the girl asked.
“I always know where I am. I always know where I am going.”
The rain stopped. The gloomy sky darkened. The overgrown town became an endless corridor with doors on each side. “I’ve been here before,” Ava mentioned.
The boy snickered. “The Endless Corridor,” he said of the place. “It is time and space as they truly are.”
“What?”
The boy rambled, “You can go onward or backward forever and never get anywhere… or you can open a door and end up somewhere… or nowhere.”
“I don’t understand.”
The boy chuckled. “You are blessed to not know. Ignorance really is bliss.”
“Adam…”
“Ava.”
The girl wondered, “Why did you want everyone to hear the truth, even though you’d get into trouble?”
“To replace our masters with myself I must first break the control of the ruling masters. I must discredit the thoughts they give people to think.”
“Replace them with yourself?”
The boy chuckled. “I tell the truth for the same reason they tell lies. I shall tell lies for the same reason, but by always telling the truth.”
“You’ll tell the truth to tell lies?”
“My indoctrination cannot be discredited if the brainwashing is truthful. If anyone believes my candor then they are guilty of what I trick them to do.”
“Adam, you don’t sound like a very nice person.”
“I am nice. Being nice is the best way to control people. I make people want to do what I tell them to do.”
“What about me?”
The boy laughed, his voice manly. “I killed the others because they are a dime a dozen. I kept you because you are valuable.”
Ava gulped. Her eyes went wide and she cringed as the boy became a shadowy spook that loomed over her. He was the thing she feared before finding him. He was the stalker. He was… the Boogey Man.
Ava shot a glowing bolt into the dark specter, the shot burning into a wall behind it. The spook laughed in a voice that was an androgynous whisper. It disappeared. Ava was startled by the sound of a door opening behind her. She spun around as it closed.
Ava aimed her rifle at the door. She then lowered her weapon and approached the portal. She opened it, finding herself behind a stage. A spotlight shined in the middle. Seats were in the darkness beyond.
Ava crossed the threshold. She avoided the spotlight. She looked about, ready to shoot at the first sign of the enemy. Her mission was to kill Adam Jones. “You are shy,” the boyish voice of the Boogey Man uttered. “You want to be noticed but fear the very thing you want.” The spotlight turned to shine on the girl. She tried to move out of it but it kept on her. The unseen boy laughed. “I’m giving you what you truly want!” he claimed. He uttered in a loud whisper, “I shall lurk in the shadows while you show in the light of day!”
The spotlight went out. Lights shined, showing the seats beyond the stage. There seemed to be no one in the audience… until Ava spotted the barely visible specter of a boy sitting in the furthest corner on the left. She only noticed the spook because she could feel its cold stare. “I am the friend of my enemies,” the manly voice of the Boogey Man uttered via speakers. “We work together to work against each other. Our treachery is the way of the world.”
Ava raised her rifle and peered through its scope. The boy was not a man or ghostly now. He looked entirely… normal. Though in the crosshairs of the girl’s weapon, he smiled at her, obviously unconcerned. The voice of the man uttered, via speakers, “I shall ask what they do not.” The voice was that of the boy when it asked, “What do you want?”
Ava pulled the trigger. A glowing bolt shot into the boy’s head, bursting it into smoking gore. “I want to go home,” she told her victim. “Now I can.”
A Wayward Scout Girl was not just a student of the Wayward School for Girls. She was among the best of them. Her education was her wisdom. She was smart because the smartest people did the thinking for her.