The Test

Avery was getting used to this, or as used to something as one could get. Deep down though, he hated it. He was not used to, even after all this time, the “talk”.

The house was well-kept, maybe too perfect. The lawn was perfectly manicured, a green version of a 1960s crew cut. The house look like it came straight out of Home and Gardens magazine. In fact the only thing different to Avery was the spotlight in the lawn aimed right into the window. The windows though didn't look quite right. Like dead, hollow eyes peering out of an otherwise perfect face. Windows without curtains look devoid of life he thought…

This was the one thing that ran through his mind over and over. No one that he saw had any expression on their faces. Not quite zombie like he thought but still as if they were dead. They certainly didn't move like it though. The people in the neighborhood went about their daily activities, but it was like being at a dance with no music playing. Still though the people still danced away. You could see the activity though it was silent. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, no children laughing. It all seemed so surreal. He walked up to the front of the house and took a deep breath. No need to pinch himself, he could see it and feel it.

The man in the front yard was mowing his lawn with a reel mower when Avery walked up. Several more people in the neighborhood were as well. Not a single power mower was heard. The man walked up to Avery slowly, cautiously, but deliberately. Avery was the first speak. It's that time Mr. Willard. Please go gather your family and have them come out. Mr. Willard nodded and went into the house. As he waited Avery put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the heart-shaped locket that had been in there for as long as he could remember. He looked at it and had a moment of feeling good. He couldn't put his finger on why but it had been a long time since he had smiled or even felt like a whole person. He looked at the locket. It was definitely an antique he thought. It had some weight to it and a light patina. The delicate filigree in the silver gave it an air of sophistication that seemed very out of place here. He wanted to open it. He wanted to see his girlfriend Sara, but it got him every time that he opened it. There was no picture of Sara, just a folded up piece of paper. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen her or felt her warm hand grasp his and squeeze it tight. That was the last memory he had of Sara. She had grasped his hand and placed the locket firmly in his hand. You'll need this she told him, and whatever you do, don't get caught with it. That will be a disaster and will likely be “the end of the road”. She then reached up and gave him a warm kiss on his cheek and disappeared. Try as he might though Avery could only manage a fleeting memory of this and it left as quickly as it came. Did it even really happen at all? It must have as the locket in his hand was certainly real, but the locket was the only thing that did seem real.

The closing of the front door snapped Avery out of his daydream and he slipped the locket back into his pocket. Here they are Mr. Willard said; my wife Joan, my son William, and my daughter Tina. I assume the reason that you're here is that it's time for William and Tina to go. Yes it is Avery said. They are now of age and it’s time for them to come with me. Joan Willard was stoic, Mr. Willard did his best to remain without emotion but beneath the unflinching, austere face, there was moistness in his eyes. Avery gave Willard a steely glare that spoke of zero tolerance for displays of emotion. The only way for this society to function was silent acceptance and obedience. With that Avery turned and left With William and Tina.

It was like waking up from a coma. You have no recollection for the moment of where you are or how you got there, you’re just there. Avery found himself inside of a cavernous building. He was struck by the enormity. It looked like a church, with giant vaulted ceilings, spire like penetrations reaching through the ceiling. Large clerestory windows letting in beams of sunlight that seemed like rays from heaven itself. It bathed the room with light as the sun passed by at just the right angle. There were large pictures on the wall of men, mostly older, but he could not make out their faces. Obelisks and monuments of wood and gold were in cases against the wall. From somewhere Avery could hear a rhythmic beat; but could not quite pinpoint where it emanated from. This place was familiar to Avery, at the same time it was completely alien. At one end of the giant room he could make out figures moving around, their shapeless forms belying their sex or even humanity. The building, for all the light in it, was cold, sterile and foreboding.

A dark figure walked up, or maybe even floated up to Avery, he was never quite sure. It was the same figure it seemed that had come and taken Tina and William just a few moments before. He tried but could not make out a face. There was a face on the figure to be sure, but to Avery it was shapeless and it kept shifting. For a fleeting moment he thought he could almost make out a face but then it returned to being unrecognizable. The figure put a strong hand on Avery’s shoulder and led him towards a darker hallway. They walked past countless rooms. In every room Avery saw the same figures as the one that had their hand on his shoulder. Shapeless, soulless, were they even people he wondered? It was impossible to tell. One thing was certain; they ruled the society with an iron fist. Dissension was not tolerated, only blind obedience was accepted. The consequences of acting out was not fully understood by the people. All they knew was that disobedience was met with one of the unknown figures leading the offender to a location on the other side of the building. Exactly what happened there was known only to the people with the shifting faces and the "offenders".

Avery was led into a room. Its walls bare except for a large picture of a man, who again, had a face he could not make out. The room was cold and the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights made him even more uncomfortable than he already was. He sat at the table waiting. He slipped his hand into his pocket and again felt the cool comfort of the metal from the locket. He could still feel her warm hand in his and her kiss on his cheek.

Avery could not remember anything before this period of time. It was as if time itself had just begun. But everything was in its place. Everything worked as it should and nothing seemed out of the ordinary except the people and the lack of noise. There was however nothing ordinary about this place. The rules were the rules and Avery was there to abide them as far as he knew.

The power that kept everyone and everything in place was at once ephemeral and foreboding. The unwritten rule was obedience at all costs. The punishment for disobedience was unknown, other than people came and people went. The odd thing that Avery noticed was when they were taken away they just vanished; there was no longer any trace of them. It was as if they never actually existed. But Mr. Willard was real; they spoke. William and Tina were real, he knew they were. So why did everything else feel so unreal?

The test was about to begin. There was a person at the front of the room, the proctor, Avery assumed. But still he could not focus on a face, this person too, just was. The test, he knew was important. It would be his ticket to getting out. What that meant he couldn't be sure, but he was sure it meant that he and Sara would be together, and this made him want all the more to be done with it.

He stared at the paper in front of him. There had to have been at least 30 questions on the paper he thought. He looked down, and then he looked away. He could not make any sense of the words and sentences in front of him. He panicked and turned to the next page and it was the same thing. The writing was clear enough, # 10 Arial font. He could recognize that at least, but none of the words were in a logical sequence. He couldn’t understand any of them. He could read all of the letters, yet the words made no sense. His heart fluttered; somehow he knew or sensed this was “the end of the road” for him. Again he thought of the heart-shaped locket in his pocket. Slowly he took it out, being extra careful not to let it be seen.

“The end of the road” turned out to be exactly how Avery expected it to look, bleak and grey. He found himself wandering a gravel road, slowly wending his way through hills of rocks and dirt. The skies were grey and cloudy; there was not a blade of grass or anything else of color to be seen. He could not figure out what he was doing there or how he even got there. Instinctively though he knew this was “the end of the road” Sara had impressed on him. The wind picked up, biting at his face with tiny pebbles of gravel and sand. Avery pressed on. He didn't know where he was going, but kept walking down the grey gravel road to nowhere.

What happened to this place he wondered? His last memory was verdant lawns and blue skies. The air there in the other place was unusual in that there was no scent of grass or flowers, there was nothing. This place though popped up out of nowhere it seemed to him. This place had a howling, cold, biting wind that seemed to threaten around every bend to pick him up and blow him into the oblivion. The faces he had seen were expressionless and dull; he could not make them out, and now as he breathed the air, the smell of putrefaction filled his senses as did the smell of fear and the odor of the unknown. A thousand scents were hitting his nostrils and he felt as if he could finally start to sense and understand everything. It was becoming clear to him or so he thought that he may in fact be the last one out the door. What exactly had happened he had no idea, but something deep inside told him that there was nothing left. He put his hands into his pockets to warm them and he felt the heart-shaped locket that Sara had given him. He took it out and opened it.

He held the note carefully, making sure the wind didn’t blow it away. He unfolded the paper and wiped the dirt from his eyes and read it to himself: “Checked by number 17”... He closed his eyes.

It was at that moment that a blinding light filled his eyelids and an incessant buzz filled his ears. He reached over and shut off the alarm. I really need to get new window curtains he thought to himself. He rolled over and said “I just had the oddest dream”! His wife Lisa replied, tell me later you have to hurry; and don't be late again for your civil service exam. The Test!