Fearless

  Thus, over the next few weeks, the Institute underwent a complete transformation. The barbed wire that lined the top of the fifty foot high walls was removed and put into storage, ready to be erected again after the vidcams had left. The black metal walls were painted pale pink and covered with fake ivy to make them match the attractive walls outside the Institute.

  The Discipline Block was disguised to look like an electricity substation. Notices were put up that read: Do not enter. Danger of death. The Food Block was temporarily turned into a refreshment zone, serving tasty snacks and hot drinks. The Y and Z girls kept their dreary grey clothes, but they were all made to clean and iron them immaculately so they looked smart and well turned out. The X girls’ relaxation area and the Controller’s garden were temporarily opened to the other girls. The small study area in the Work Block was extended and filled with books from charity shops.

  All in all, the place began to look more like a school than a prison. But things inside were just as bad as ever. All the girls were threatened with dire punishments if they said anything uncomplimentary or unflattering to the reporters.

  The only girl who might have had the courage to speak out had been entirely forgotten.

  A week before the City Boss’s visit, Stargazer happened to be wandering past the rubbish tips. As she walked by she heard the sound of sobbing. She looked just to the left of a pile of worn-out boots, and just to the right of a tower of rotting potatoes.

  There, sitting on the ground, was Stench.

  Stargazer wasn’t quite sure what to do. Seeing Stench there made her feel uncomfortable. First and foremost, it brought back memories of Little Fearless, which Stargazer found confusing since she had recently decided that there was no such person. Secondly, she was bewildered to see an X girl crying.

  Cautiously Stargazer approached the big, round-headed, red-faced X girl. And as she drew closer, she saw that Stench was clutching three things that she immediately recognized.

  A bronze photo frame, a man’s silver wristwatch, and a golden locket.

  As soon as she saw these, Stargazer knew right away once more that Little Fearless was not just a story but a real flesh and blood person, and a hero, and her best friend. Suddenly filled with remorse for forgetting about her, she sat on the ground next to Stench and began to cry with her.

  “Who are you?” asked Stench, still clutching the locket, the frame and the watch.

  “Little Fearless was my best friend,” said Stargazer.

  At the mention of Little Fearless’s name, Stench sobbed even harder. “Me too,” said Stench. “In fact, she was my only friend.”

  Stench shook her head and took a deep breath. “She was the bravest girl I ever knew,” she said. “She gave me these beautiful things. I think they belonged to my family, you know.”

  Stargazer felt surprised, but made sure she showed nothing on her face. If Stench had come to believe that these were memories of her own family, and if it helped her to get through the days, she didn’t want to say anything to make her doubt it.

  “This is a frame with a photograph of my grandparents. This is a watch which once belonged to my father. And this is a golden locket with a picture of my mother on her wedding day. I wanted to sell them to buy the Device. But then, after I’d looked at them long enough, I decided I didn’t want the Device any more. What I wanted was my family. And there was only one girl who could help me find them.

  “She had so much courage. The last time she went to the City, she thought she was going to be thrown on a bonfire, yet still she went. After she was caught and taken away, they bullied her and tormented her and called her names, but she never ever told any of the other X girls that I…” Stench looked at Stargazer cautiously, wondering if she could trust her.

  Stargazer nodded reassuringly. “It’s all right. Little Fearless told me all about how you helped her to escape. She said you helped her, even though you were an X girl. She said you were her friend. She said you were good – Lila.”

  Stench – Lila – looked distraught at this. “How I wish I could see her again and say sorry.”

  “Yes,” said Stargazer. “I’m sorry too. Because I betrayed her – first by telling the Controller’s spies that someone was going to try and escape, and then by forgetting her. And now she’s disappeared and no one even believes that she was real.”

  “If only we could get her out of the Pit,” moaned Stench.

  At this, Stargazer suddenly stopped crying. “What?” she said.

  “The Pit,” repeated Stench blankly, as if it was obvious.

  “What on earth is that?”

  “Its real name isn’t the Pit. Properly speaking, it’s the CST – the Compound Sub Terra. But all the X girls call it the Pit. It’s under the Discipline Block.”

  Stargazer blinked in amazement. “You mean she’s still here? In the Institute?”

  Stench stopped crying too and looked at Stargazer. “Of course.” She lowered her voice and glanced towards the Discipline Block. “The Pit is where they put the ones that won’t behave and won’t ever believe what the Controller tells them. It goes very deep. There’s a secret entrance. And down on the deepest level, there’s a deeper cellar. It is cold and dark. You can only reach it by a long spiral staircase. That’s the Pit. That’s where they put the things and people that terrify and threaten them most. That is where Little Fearless has been ever since she was taken away.”

  “But I thought – I thought she was…”

  “Dead? I’m surprised she’s not,” said Stench matter of-factly. “I think the Controller must have a bit of a soft spot for her, because I’ve heard she gets more food and drink than people in the Pit usually get, and even a filthy blanket. Usually they’ve faded away within a few weeks, but Little Fearless is made of tough stuff. She’s weak – very weak – but she’s still there, so far as I know.”

  “Have you been there – inside the Pit?” asked Stargazer, excited now.

  “No,” said Stench. “Only the most senior X girls are allowed down there – Lady Luck, the Whistler and Bellyache. I only know about it because Bellyache likes to complain, and was moaning to herself about how cold it is down there when she thought no one was listening.”

  “But, Stench – we must go down there. We must rescue her.”

  “Rescue her?” said Stench, wiping her streaming nose with the sleeve of her uniform. “But how?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Stargazer. She furrowed her brow and tried to concentrate. To help herself think, she started throwing pebbles from the ground at the mountain of worn-out boots. After she had thrown the sixth or seventh, the pile wobbled. She threw another. It wobbled again. Then with one last tiny pebble, so small you could barely see it, the whole huge pile collapsed in a great flurry.

  Tiny pebbles one by one had brought down the whole lot.

  And at that exact moment, Stargazer had her answer.

  “Next week, the City Boss is coming to visit the Institute. He’s going to inspect us all, in the exercise yard, the X girls too. So the Discipline Block will be unguarded. If we can slip away while he is here, we can rescue Little Fearless and show her to the City Boss. When he sees that girls are being starved, tormented and kept in dungeons, surely he’ll have to do something.”

  Stench tried to think. And she didn’t think very long before she said, “How am I going to get the keys?”

  Stench had, attached to her belt, a ring with dozens of keys on it. Stargazer pointed to it. “Won’t one of those open the door to the Pit?”

  Stench shook her head. “No, these just open boring stuff like broom cupboards and laundry rooms. Only Lady Luck has all the important keys.”

  “Couldn’t you swap them for a few hours, without her noticing? After all, one set of keys looks pretty much like another.”

  “Suppose we could pull it off. What would it do? They’d only put her back inside again. The City Boss is probably in cahoots with the Controller.”

  Stargazer nodded.
“But at least I’d see my best friend one last time and have a chance to say sorry.”

  “Yes,” said Stench. “I would do anything to see Little Fearless again.”

  One week later, on the day when the City Boss was visiting the Institute, Stench and Stargazer were in the infirmary. Both had pretended to be too ill to attend, and had each drunk a pint of salt water to make themselves sick so that it would look convincing. It had worked – the last thing the Controller wanted was one of his girls throwing up all over the City Boss.

  As good as her word, Stench had switched her set of keys with Lady Luck’s that very morning while X1 was taking a shower. By now, all the children had worked hard to make the Institute look a lot more respectable and comfortable than it actually was, so that the City Boss and the Controller would be vindicated from the accusations that had been hurled at them from all seven sectors of the City.

  Stargazer and Stench tiptoed out of the tiny infirmary and crept towards the Discipline Block, hoping that in all the fuss no one would notice they were missing.

  The exercise yard was already filled with the rest of the girls, arranged into neat lines and wearing – for once – clean and well-pressed clothes. The City Boss was chatting affably with the Controller as they made their way up and down the rows of orderly, well-behaved and apparently contented children, and the vidcams filmed them, presenting a carefully constructed picture of serenity, order and good management.

  Stargazer and Stench were just making their way past the now empty rubbish tips when Stargazer saw something that made her heartbeat accelerate.

  Springing from the barren ground there was a blooming white rose.

  It had grown exactly where the single tear had fallen from Little Fearless’s blue eye when she gave her locket to Stench before escaping from the Institute for the final time. It was beautiful and perfect. Stargazer stared in awe at the gorgeous layers of lush ivory-coloured petals. Even Stench could not take her eyes off it.

  Stargazer picked it and hid it inside her jacket to take as a gift for her best friend.

  Down at the bottom of a steep spiral staircase underneath the Discipline Block, there crouched a small bedraggled girl, with one blue eye and one brown eye, who had long ago given up hope of anyone coming to rescue her.

  She had been alone now in that hole for so long, she had forgotten almost entirely who she was and why she was there. The only people she saw down there were Lady Luck, the Whistler and Bellyache, who gave her just enough food to keep her alive and constantly reminded her that she wasn’t even a number any more – not even a zero. She was a minus.

  But still a sliver of her believed that she was not less than a zero, but that she was truly a real girl. Every day she fought to hold on to this belief; every day she tried to remember her name, and when she couldn’t remember that, she even fought to remember the number she had been given.

  On one occasion, the Controller briefly came to see her. He offered to let her out of the Pit. But there was one condition. She had to promise, from then on, to obey all the rules at all times, and try to make sure all the other girls did the same. Little Fearless refused. The Controller sighed a deep sigh and left her alone, promising to return if she changed her mind.

  But she wouldn’t change her mind. Not at any price.

  She tried to keep her spirits up by telling herself that even if she herself was fading and getting weaker every day, then somehow she would live on in all the girls that she left behind. They would remember her, and she would give them hope. This gave her just enough strength to carry on breathing.

  High above her, Stargazer and Stench had let themselves into the Discipline Block. As they had hoped, it was deserted. A dozen or so bleak cells with dirt floors lined either side of a corridor. Each had a filthy sink and a cracked and blocked-up toilet, and a small, hard bed.

  “Where’s the entrance to the Pit?” whispered Stargazer.

  Stench indicated a blank wall at the end of the corridor, covered with peeling paint. “It’s behind there.”

  “There’s nothing there,” wailed Stargazer despairingly. “It’s just a wall.”

  “There’s a secret mechanism that moves it,” said Stench.

  “Where?” asked Stargazer urgently.

  There was a pause before Stench replied, “I’m not quite sure.”

  Stargazer raised her eyes to the heavens. While she had come to trust Stench completely, she had forgotten how dim-witted she was. If you didn’t ask her a question directly, it was unlikely to occur to Stench herself.

  “I should have thought about that, I suppose,” said Stench slowly.

  “Yes,” said Stargazer, trying hard to keep the irritation and panic out of her voice. “Yes, you should have thought about that. Now, what are we going to do?”

  Stench looked even blanker than she usually did. Stargazer gave a great sigh. She stared and stared at the wall as hard as she could, looking for some kind of clue.

  After a few minutes had passed, she noticed a patch of wall that was discoloured in a slightly different way to the rest. It was hard to see, what with all the peeling paint and damp stains. But Stargazer had remarkably sensitive eyes, trained to notice the smallest of details after nights and nights of looking at the stars and trying to work out their meaning. She put her fingers on the mark and pressed. The wall itself seemed to move backwards slightly, and then what turned out to be a concealed door sprang open to reveal another door, this time with a clearly visible handle. Stargazer tried it. It was locked.

  Stench stepped forward and began fumbling with the circle of keys that she had taken from Lady Luck. One of them fitted, and the door opened. Beyond it, dimly lit by flickering, naked bulbs, was a great spiral staircase.

  They followed it down and down, very deep indeed. It got darker and darker and colder and colder. Eventually they reached a landing with an unmarked door.

  “Could this be it?” asked Stargazer.

  Stench pushed the door open.

  Inside was a large room, starkly lit and containing nothing but scores and scores of filing cabinets. There was a sign that said: RECORDS AND CLASSIFICATION DEPARTMENT – AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY.

  “Waste of time. Let’s keep going down,” said Stench, already turning back towards the door and the corridor beyond.

  “Just hold on a minute,” said Stargazer. She walked over to the nearest filing cabinet and pulled it open. The drawer was full of carefully ordered papers.

  “Come on, Stargazer,” hissed Stench. “We haven’t got much time.”

  “This might be important,” replied Stargazer, urgently searching through the papers. She sat cross-legged on the floor and started flinging pages around to try to make sense of what was there.

  “Oh my,” she said, after she had examined some of the papers. She stared around her at the mess on the floor.

  “What is it?” asked Stench, slowly following her gaze. When she realized what she was looking at, her mouth fell open.

  The floor was covered not just in papers but in photographs – photographs of boys, girls, women and men. Thousands of them. Many of them they did not recognize, but some they did. They were photos of girls who had once been at the Institute. Here at last was the key to what happened to the girls when they left the Institute.

  Gingerly Stargazer picked up a picture of a girl she remembered, a very jolly hard-working Y girl who always did what she was told and kept out of trouble. Underneath the photograph was her number, and then a lot of other numbers. There were her height, her weight, her age, the colour of her eyes. The details went on for ever, to an almost insane extent. The size of the girl’s feet. The colour and texture of her hair. Distinguishing marks and scars. An endless list of meaningless details. There was a sheet accompanying these details, on headed notepaper:

  THE INSTITUTE: A DIVISION OF THE TEN CORPORATIONS

  AUTHORIZED BY THE CITY BOSS

  SUBJECT REPORT

  The subject has proved to be a good and co
nscientious worker at the Controller’s Institute and has produced, during her time there, a significant profit contribution. We have now approved her transfer to our partners, the Adult Institute, where she remains. After a difficult period of settling in, as is normal when inmates are transferred to the post-adolescent sector, severe discipline was necessary to ensure her inevitable acquiescence. She is now once again a productive member of the Adult Institute, operating as a bullet-primer in the central weapons factory to help in the ongoing armed struggle against out of Cityers and different-godders.

  We confirm she will stay on an indefinite basis and help produce a significant increase in turnover.

  Stargazer couldn’t read any more. She picked up another report – this time of a boy. It was the same story. And another girl, and another boy. It was all the same story.

  There was only one place the orphans and the lost ones and the wanderers and refugees and vagabonds and outsiders went when they grew up. And it wasn’t back to their families. It was to another institute, just as bleak and hopeless as the one they came from. And no one in the City – no one anywhere in the world – was taking any notice.

  Stench wanted to break down there and then. “There’s no escape ever,” she said despairingly.

  “Not unless we do something about it ourselves,” said Stargazer in a suddenly steely voice that Stench had never heard from her before. “Pick up as many of these pieces of paper as you can and put them in your pockets.”

  Stench, being a huge girl, had an enormous coat with about five great pockets, so she was able to cram scores of reports into them. Then, aware that time was running out, they hurried back out into the corridor and down more and more levels of the Pit until they reached what seemed to be the very bottom.

  Stargazer let out a hiss. “Shh,” she said, and Stench stopped dead.

  That Which Must Not Be Forgotten

  Always be brave.

  Always be yourself.