Escape from the Village

By Chris Baker

"An eleven-year-old girl and boy live in an isolated village with 258 other citizens. Nobody has a name, and everything is calculated to break their spirits so that they surrender to an existence of gray routine.
"But they have each other. They each have a passion: music and art. And a mysterious force is guiding them and protecting them.
"When the savagery of those in control finally transforms the girl, the boy must help her find herself again. The path is an amazing journey through which they discover the depths of their humanity and a startling method to shake the village at its roots. Perhaps they can shift the world toward happiness.
"Escape from the Village is an homage to true friendship which can sustain the human spirit even against physical and spiritual torture. It is a touching love story like no other."
--Wendy McElroy

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Baker
• Release date: Nov 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310244018

Chris Baker

Professor Chris Baker graduated from his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, before beginning a Research Fellowship there at St Catharine’s College and the Department of Engineering. In the early 1980s he worked in the Aerodynamics Unit of British Rail Research in Derby, before moving to an academic position in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham. He remained there till 1998 where he was a lecturer, reader and professor with research interests in vehicle aerodynamics, wind engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and agricultural aerodynamics. In 1998 he moved to the University of Birmingham as Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics in the School of Civil Engineering. In the early years of the present century he was Director of Teaching in the newly formed School of Engineering and Deputy Head of School. From 2003 to 2008 he was Head of Civil Engineering and in 2008 served for a short time as Acting Head of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. He was the Director of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education 2005-2014. He undertook a 30% secondment to the Transport Systems Catapult Centre in Milton Keynes, as Science Director from 2014 to 2016. He retired at the end of 2017 and took up an Emeritus position.

Book preview

Escape from the Village

Chris Baker

Austin 2222 Press

Austin, Texas, United States of America

Cover Design: Nathan Walke and Victoria Martinez

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012, 2013 Christopher P Baker

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

This novel is a work of fiction. All events, names, places, and characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, actual places, or actual persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the author.

Requests for permission should be directed to:

[e-mail]

Dedicated to Dan Fauci and Van Brooks, the two greatest teachers in my life.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Table of Contents

1 Visual Girl Appears in a Movie

2 Auditory Boy Dislikes the Silence

3 Visual Girl Colors the World

4 Auditory Boy Answers the Questions

5 Visual Girl Measures Triangles

6 Auditory Boy Hears the Numbers

7 Visual Girl Gazes at the Boys

8 Auditory Boy Listens to the Girls

9 Visual Girl Stares at the Red

10 Auditory Boy Writes a Song About Life

11 Visual Girl Draws Knives

12 Auditory Boy’s Stomach Growls

13 Visual Girl Watches a Movie

14 Auditory Boy Yells Louder than Ever

15 Visual Girl Has Lost Her Vision

16 Auditory Boy Speaks Much Faster

17 Visual Girl Views the Void

18 Auditory Boy Sings His Songs Again

19 Visual Girl Sees the Gun and the Tree

20 Auditory Boy Misses the Bird’s Music

21 Visual Girl Makes the Distance Disappear

22 Auditory Boy Gets the Beat of the Music

23 Visual Girl Explores the Control Room

24 Auditory Boy Talks to Himself About Life

25 Visual Girl Notices the Hair and the Clothes

26 Auditory Boy Listens to the History

27 Visual Girl Spies on the Bigger Kids

28 Auditory Boy Senses a Humming Noise

29 Visual Girl Poses in the Mirror

30 Auditory Boy Pronounces a New Word

31 Visual Girl Envisions Tomorrow

32 Auditory Boy Proclaims the Future

Acknowledgements

A Note to Readers

About the Author

1

Visual Girl Appears in a Movie

Let’s go, Auditory Boy, I said to P-71, punching his shoulder lightly.

Okay, Visual Girl, he said, tapping my shoulder.

I had been calling him Auditory Boy for years, and he had been calling me Visual Girl for almost as long. It was because he made music, and I drew pictures.

P-71 and I had been going to the house at the west end of the village for as long as we could remember—at least seven years. When we started going there, we were about a meter tall and about sixteen kilograms. The doorknobs were at the level of our eyes, and we could just reach the light switches. We had just learned to read and found a lot of fun books there.

P-71 had straight brown hair and big gray eyes. His face was square, and his eyebrows were bushy and ran together. His lips were small and light.

I had brown hair and brown eyes. My hair came down to the middle of my back, although I could have had it cut if I’d wanted. My face was more narrow than P-71’s, and my chin was more prominent.

There were 260 citizens in the village, and we all wore the same clothing. It was a beige uniform, consisting of a long-sleeve pullover shirt with long pants. The shoes and socks were gray. The number was on the back and on the right side of the front—it was blue in both places. Immediately people could tell he was P-71 and I was C-36.

We were now about a meter and a half tall and about thirty-five kilograms. We could reach the light switches easily. The doorknobs were at the level of our elbows.

We had just eaten lunch from 12:00 to 13:00. We had our usual two free hours. The time was officially set aside for us to do schoolwork, but we had already finished ours.

Our walk to the house took five minutes. It was four hundred meters, the same length as the oval track where we sometimes ran. We walked out of the dining room and out onto an asphalt path. The path was wide enough that we could stand side-by-side. It was well maintained with cut green grass on each side.

The sun was shining brightly, and we saw several beautiful birds. Sometimes, P-71 would sing or whistle with them; and they seemed to be listening to him. He often claimed he sang their songs, and they sang his.

I preferred drawing the birds. I wondered if the birds could have recognized the pictures I had drawn.

After a quarter of the way into our walk, the path was not maintained. It was cracking and falling apart and not much different from dirt. Half of the walk was on this part of the path.

C, guess what happened while I was eating, P-71 said, smiling emphatically.

What? I asked.

My last little tooth came out. He stuck his finger in his mouth. All my primary teeth are gone.

Are you sure about that, P? Did you tell a monitor?

I showed it to the monitor. She said it was my last one. They also said I had two left at my last checkup, and this is the second one I’ve lost since then.

They said I had three left at my last checkup. I’ve lost two teeth since then, so I still have one left.

Yes, that leaves one.

They say we will get four more molars in the back of our mouths next year, I said. And we’ll get four more in about five or six years. Those ones will be the last ones.

And we’ll end up with thirty-two teeth.

Well, P, you’ve lost all your primary teeth. You win, I said, patting his back. Maybe I will draw a picture of teeth today.

Whatever you draw, it will be wondrous, Visual Girl. Looking at what you do is a joy.

Listening to your music is a joy, Auditory Boy. I enjoy listening to you play music on the piano and on the computer.

For the final quarter of our walk, the path was well-maintained asphalt again. It was five times wider than before. The grass was well kept. The house was now a hundred meters away.

The house was huge, as big as any building in the village and definitely bigger than the basketball court. There were four floors, and it was white on all sides. We could only see two sides of the house, and there were sixteen windows on those two sides.

It may have had other doors, but there was only one door that we could enter. The other sides of the house were enclosed by a fence.

There were two other buildings in the area. We couldn’t get into either of them. One was a concrete-block building and looked like some type of storage unit. The other was a smaller house about half the size of the other one.

We walked up five steps to the porch on the front of the house. When we got to the door, we noticed T-97 holding a camera with his right hand. He was focused on us and must have been recording us the whole time. We were standing by the door, while T-97 was six meters away on the asphalt.

T-97 was a boy with blond hair, blue eyes, and a round face. His four front teeth also appeared to be too large for his mouth. He was a little taller than we were. He wore the same beige uniform, except it said T-97 in blue on the front right side and the back side.

You are not supposed to go in there! shouted T-97, pointing at us with his free hand. It’s not safe for any citizen to go in there. It’s dangerous.

What’s it to you? I asked, punching the air. How’s this any of your business, T-97?

I just told you, C-36, T-97 said. He stood still and held the camera at his side. It’s not safe for you to go in there. It’s against the law.

Why do you care, T-97? asked P-71, taking two steps toward him. What does it matter to you?

If you go in there, you’re breaking the law, T-97 repeated. We can’t have citizens breaking the law whenever they please. We all know you two go in the house all the time. Yet you never get in trouble for it.

Don’t admit anything to him, whispered P-71, holding his hand to my ear. Lie if you have to.

It’s not nice to whisper, T-97 said, keeping his eyes on us. I’ve already recorded you two walking here. If you go in, I’ll record that as well. I’ll tell the monitors you come here and show them this video. They’ll have to believe me.

He has a point, P-71 whispered. Lots of citizens have followed us. Nobody has recorded us.

It had been about two years since anyone had followed us to the house. T-97 had also gotten in trouble for following us about five years ago. He stopped speaking to us at the time and now only spoke to us when he had to.

Where did you get the camera? asked P-71, pointing at it.

Not important, T-97 said. Why do you two think you don’t have to follow the rules that everyone else follows?

You’re going to have to get back there before we do, I said, punching the air again. What happens if you don’t get back there first?

I already have a head start on you, T-97 said, turning his body toward the village. And you know I can run faster than either of you.

He’s right about that, I said, looking toward the house. Let’s go in, and do what we planned to do.

But we should still try, P-71 said.

He started running down the steps. I followed. T-97 took off running east, back into the center of the village. We ran for about a minute before we gave up. We slowly walked back to the house.

I think we’re in trouble, he said with a worried look, holding his hands to his chest. Now they’ll know we come here.

If it’s going to be our last time, then let’s have fun, I said, smiling. Let’s go inside. And don’t act guilty. We aren’t doing anything wrong.

We went inside the house. P-71 stayed on the main floor in the room with the piano and computer. I went upstairs and worked on some of my art. We had seen this kind of trouble before. Still, it was different this time. T-97 would have proof we had been to the house.

We didn’t hurt anybody by going to the house. What was it to them if we did? They just didn’t like that we were doing they couldn’t do.

In the house, there was artwork all over the walls. I had created a lot of it. We didn’t know who had created the rest of it. It was people, animals, buildings, mountains, and other things.

Before we went back to the village, we compared our creations in the music room. I had drawn a picture of a couple of birds with oversized teeth. One was red, and the other was blue. P-71 played a tune on the piano for me. He also recorded all his music on the computer. I kept many drawings on the walls of the art room.

At 14:55, P-71 and I walked back to the center of the village. We arrived at our classroom, and Monitor 28184 came to see us. T-97 was with him. They approached us before we entered the room.

The monitors had the job of watching and teaching all the citizens. They had five-digit numbers on their uniforms, so there could have been 100,000 of them. They were boys and girls, just like the citizens of the village.

The monitors wore gray uniforms with short-sleeve shirts. There was one red star on the left side of the chest. On the right side was the monitor’s number, also red. The number was also on the back. We simply addressed them as monitor. With the exception of different clothing, the monitors looked like all the other citizens in the village.

Citizen C-36 and Citizen P-71, I must speak to you, Monitor 28184 said. Citizen T-97 claims you were at the forbidden house. Come with us to the meeting room.

We walked into a meeting room and sat down at a gray round table that had six chairs. The monitor hooked up the camera to a projector. The wall was white, and the floor was gray carpet. The monitor pushed a button that made the screen come down.

Citizen T-97, the monitor said, with his arms folded on his chest, you saw Citizen C-36 and Citizen P-71 at the house. You followed them and recorded them. Is that correct?

Yes, Monitor, they were there, T-97 said, smiling. It’s all on the camera.

I have hooked everything up, Citizen T-97, he ordered. Play the video.

The monitor stood by the door with a blank look on his face and his arms still folded.

T-97 pressed a button on the camera, and the video started. We saw our backs on the screen. The blue numbers on the backs of our beige uniforms were easy to read. The two citizens were definitely P-71 and I. It had no sound and showed us walking for about five seconds in the direction of the house. Yes, T-97 had caught us on video.

Then, the video cut to something else. It was just a shot of citizens playing on the athletic field. T-97’s jaw dropped. P-71 and I just looked at each other, not knowing what to think. Three minutes later, the video was just blank.

We sat quietly. It was as if we were waiting for someone else to break the silence. We all had something to say, but nobody wanted to go first.

What is the meaning of this, Citizen T-97? asked the monitor, with the same facial expression and arms still folded.

I... I don’t know, Monitor, T-97 said. I... I know I recorded them. I played the video back several times on the camera.

You went to the house, Citizen T-97, the monitor said. You are not supposed to go there. You went there before and were told not to go there.

Monitor, I know I’m not supposed to go there, T-97 said with a frustrated look. I didn’t go in the house. I just followed them and recorded them. I wanted to prove they go there, Monitor.

Who gave you permission to use the camera, Citizen T-97?

Nobody did, Monitor, T-97 said, looking down. I just took it from the cabinet. I didn’t think anyone would miss it.

You are not supposed to use the equipment without supervision. Did you try to get permission before you just took it, Citizen T-97?

I did not, Monitor.

You used the equipment without permission, Citizen T-97. You went to the house. You have wasted my time with these false accusations. What do you have to say for yourself?

They were there, Monitor, T-97 said, looking up.

Nothing indicates they were there, Citizen T-97. We know when citizens of the village go there. You went there.

I know I was there, Monitor, said T-97, raising his arm and pointing toward us. I wanted to prove they were there.

Calm down, Citizen T-97, said the monitor, still showing no expression or gestures. We know you were there. We know when citizens go there.

They were there, Monitor. They go there every day.

Citizen C-36 and Citizen P-71, you are excused from this meeting, Monitor 28184 said. Return to your class.

The monitor finally unfolded his arms and opened the door for us. We walked out.

Thank you, Monitor, we both said.

2

Auditory Boy Dislikes the Silence

C-36 and I walked out of the room stunned. It was the closest call we’d ever had. Nobody had tried something like this before.

Let’s get to class and talk about this later, I said after the monitor closed the door behind us.

We went to our science class. We learned about bees and how they made honey. Science class often had us studying insects. I wished we could have learned more about birds.

All citizens in the village had the same daily schedule. We got up at 7:00 or earlier and had breakfast until 8:30. We went to class until 12:00. We were in the dining room from 12:00 to 13:00. We went back to class from 15:00 to 18:30. We were in the dining room again for the evening until 19:30. After that, we had supervised activities until 21:00.

We also went to the house when we were supposed to be in the dormitory. That was between 21:00 and 7:00. We often did it before bedtime. Of course, between 23:00 and 5:00, the outdoor lights in the village were all off. We didn’t walk to or from the house in the dark.

At 21:00, I walked over to C-36 and gave her our secret handshake. I let go of her hand. She grabbed my hand and gave me the handshake. That meant we were going there.

I didn’t remember a walk to the house being this quiet. It was dark, so the birds weren’t singing as they do during the day. Other citizens and monitors were in the dormitory, so we didn’t hear them either. And there were no other animals in the village.

Citizens told many stories about the house. I didn’t know if they were made up or true. They said someone lived in the house. They said people have disappeared in the house. They said it was dangerous to go into the house.

Other citizens in the village once had the same curiosity. They would go to the house. For some reason, they would get in trouble with the monitors and never go back. Somehow, the monitors didn’t know C-36 and I went to the house. They thought we were at the swimming pool, at the athletic field, in the science lab, in the game room, or somewhere else. We were both determined to solve this mystery.

We didn’t say a word to each other until we got to the house. We walked into the house and closed the door behind us. A beautiful piano composition was playing on the speakers.

What happened today, P? C-36 asked in a puzzled voice.

Good question, C, I said calmly. He definitely followed us and recorded us. I was wondering about whether we should come back this soon. What happened to his video?

No idea, she sighed.

Something or someone’s protecting us. It’s as if they want us to come here and don’t want anyone else to.

"Somebody’s definitely here. We’ve never seen or heard anyone. We know things change. The place is always cleaned up. Books are moved.