[PROJECT: TEAMWORK] Chapter I: The Eleven on Olive Avenue

The street was dark. There would be no noise save the wind if not for the small group of people on it, and even they were whispering. A decade ago, Olive Avenue had been the place for any decent happenings on a Friday night. Since then the world had moved onto newer and bigger things. By this night the tiny former businesses lining Olive Avenue all carried the same "Closed for Remodeling" signs that had been up for eight months, and the residents had slowly realized the buildings would not actually be remodeled ever, and the signs were simply attempts at death with dignity. It reached the point where no one even bothered to replace the burnt out street lights. It seemed handcrafted for secret meetings.1

The group meeting there tonight was composed of drop outs from one of this planet's more peculiar learning facilities. The Chueviltry Utility for True Learning was created by Nienon Chueviltry, a sociologist who was particularly intrigued with the capabilities of people to learn. Taking up a few acres five or six miles away from White Branch, a town with a rapidly decreasing population, the Utility was home to over 400 "students" who had grown sick of their societies habits of strategically shoving lies into their children's heads, picking and choosing which facts to believe, and burying the truth so deep even the figurative gravedigger forgets what he originally thought was correct. Since most of the "students" came to the Utility after abruptly leaving their former lives, it had gained the nickname of the Runaway Academy.2

To explain a few things, people arrived at the Runaway Academy looking to start learning from the ground up with no assumptions of how things were supposed to work. In theory it would change the discovery process from trying to put together a puzzle with pieces that possibly didn't fit to figuring out how to make smears of paint represent a tree. Of course, it seems to be a common flaw with theory makers that they like to ignore the most obvious variable that could make their system imperfect. In this case, that variable is that people with no assumptions will often take the first explanation they think seems nice.3

To explain a few more things, Nienon Chueviltry was a very evil woman. It is true that she had started her school because she wished for people to gain pure and untainted information, but her desire for this only came from the fact that she essentially hated every person she had ever met. The closest she had come to liking another human was being indifferent.4

With this combination of knowledge, you can now understand that, of the 423 individuals who attended the Runaway Academy in the last year it operated, 398 were confirmed to be dead with another 14 missing before it even officially closed. Also, while the group of the 11 known surviving members who are meeting on Olive Avenue this night do not know how or why she did it, they are all certain beyond definable doubt that Chueviltry is responsible for those deaths.5

They all stood clumped in a sort of partial circle. For some it was their first time seeing each other since the day they had found innumerable flashing lights and learned that nearly 400 people they'd been living with were now dead. For others, it was their first times seeing each other at all in their life.6

Honoratus Aldahl was 22-years-old. Believing his first name was difficult for people to remember, he had often gone by a nickname. He didn't have any specific one he preferred, and the one people popularly used seemed to change monthly. For the past three weeks he had gone by Honoratus or Honor for short. Honor had become close friends with Celso Verne, another student of the same age. While the men only knew each other as acquaintances when the Academy was still running, the two had been living in the same hotel as each for the past three weeks spending most of their time with each other.7

Celso had been known by his friends for being constantly relaxed. He was to take over his father's company when the time came, and had enrolled in the Academy because he wanted to find something new to offer the business world. Despite these economic intentions, Celso never worried about numbers or money. Many labeled Celso as lazy and unmotivated at first glance, though people such as Honor had found Celso was very good at doing the exact thing that needed to be done and never complaining about it.8

To Celso's left stood Uland Blair. Blair was 19-years-old and had arrived at the Academy from England a year ago. Though he mostly kept to himself, he a made a point to not hide his intentions for attending Chueviltry's school. Blair had been studying as a doctor when his mother died of cancer. Convinced a cure for such ailments would only be discovered if one searched outside of the highly regulated and restricted world of modern medicine, Blair left his home soon after the funeral.9

Continuing left around the circle stood Natalie Rice and Francine Rowl next to Uland. The two 17-year-old girls had been friends since grade school. They dropped out of school and ran away from home together when they were 16. Natalie would be turning 18 in a month, while Francine would do the same six months later. If they were still in public school, they would be seniors when the school year started. Neither of them regretted leaving behind their lives, homes, and families.10

Beside the two girls was Edan King. Edan, having been 81-years-old, had been the oldest attendee of the Runaway Academy at its last point of operation. Many people at the Academy had been near his age, though of the eleven on Olive Avenue, the closest anyone got was being 41-years-younger. Though unafraid to answer any question, Edan would never volunteer information about himself and preferred to talk to others about their view on the world. No matter what the subject, Edan was very good at avoiding arguments, and rather simply enjoyed examining the different point of view every person had.11

Spiro Brown was a 37-year-old man who had attended the Academy for four years. Spiro had spent much of his life before that attempting, but failing, to make a career out of his writing as a novelist, journalist, or essayist. He would have probably settled for writing technical manuals for TV sets if he had been given the job. Two years prior, Spiro had begun a friendship with Edan since both shared an interest in differing opinions. Unlike Edan, however, Spiro completely lacked any skill in avoiding arguments.12

Standing slightly far away from Spiro --and everyone else in the group-- was Axel Kota. Axel was 17, just like Natalie and Francine, though he was not friends with these girls. Axel's most noticeable characteristic was that he was a jerk. His reason for attending the Academy was the exact reason Chueviltry created it. They both hated all people they had ever met and wanted an alternative to the world. Axel had never given any information about his previous life, and no one ever asked for it.13

Ending up the group was Valeriana Byars, Floris London, and Jordan Chopin. 40-year-old Valeriana was the mother of 25-year-old Floris. Being that Valeriana was only 15 at the time of her son's birth, he was put up for adoption. Floris was then raised by the loving London family where he had a mother, father, and two younger sisters. Though he had always been teased for his name, Floris insisted on using it because it was all his blood family had left him. On his eighteenth birthday Floris contacted Valeriana, and the two met in person two months later. Floris had never met his biological father.14

Valeriana and Floris attended the Runaway Academy after it was suggested by Jordan, who at the time was dating Floris. Jordan, 23-years-old, was also adopted, but had never met any of her blood relatives. The Chopins were also much less stable than the Londons. She began using drugs as a teenager, but worked hard as an adult to stay clean. Jordan turned to the Academy in hope of finding a way to deal with her pain. Though she broke up with Floris, she remained close friends with him and his mother.15

The eleven people stood in the dark facing each other. Francine was the first to speak. Her whispering voice silently startled everyone else.16

"What are we doing here?"17

"Knitting socks," answered Axel sarcastically. He whispered also, but only to mock her.18

Valeriana turned to Axel. "Would you please not be completely unnecessary?" she asked sternly.19

"Only if you stop being a hag," he responded.20

Jordan grabbed Floris's arm and pulled him back, anticipating him to punch Axel in the face if she did not intervene. "I think, um," she stumbled searching for Francine's name, but decided to continue without it, "this girl has a good point. So we survived the mysterious deaths of most of the people we lived with. What now?"21

"Well, we have to do something," Blair replied. "Someone is responsible for the deaths of 400 people. We have to tell somebody. Alert the newspapers or the police."22

Jordan's eyes narrowed. "The police! What do you think all those flashing lights were? The police know what happened, and they don't really give a shit. When 400 people are living together on the same land in the middle of nowhere and all suddenly die on the same day a cop just has to write down 'cult suicide' and their job is done. It's like giving them a freebie."23

"So you care nothing about those people, you're completely unconcerned about where Chueviltry's gone, and you want us to do nothing? Have you suddenly become Axel?" Blair asked angrily.24

"Let's keep this above the belt now," Honor cut in.25

"Hey--" Axel started but was soon pushed over by Celso who then pretended to be very interested in the conversation as he watched Axel climb to his feet and glare at him.26

"Yes, yes, I agree with that most recent point immensely," he said over-exaggeratedly and unaware if anything new had been said.27

"Yes, well," Spiro stammered, "maybe --if the police aren't going to help at all-- maybe we should take care of Chueviltry ourselves. Wouldn't you agree with me, Edan?"28

Edan looked up. "Only if agreeing with you meant I got a nice ham sandwich and a plane ticket directly to the Caribbean and right out of this conversation."29

"Well, I agree with him," Natalie broke in. She turned to Spiro, "I mean, you're right, aren't you? We have to avenge those people."30

"I--I wouldn't necessarily say avenge them," Spiro said growing more worried as he realized everyone was looking at him now. "We just-- we need to-- Chueviltry is a dangerous person, and we can't let her, you know, be out there to harm more people."31

"I don't want to be a part of this," Francine declared.32

"Come on, Fran," said Natalie trying to sound her most convincing, "We can't just wimp out. We might be the only ones who can protect people from this woman."33

"I think Francine and Edan are being the two most reasonable people here," Floris finally spoke up. "This isn't our conflict to deal with. I guarantee you anyone planning to go up against Chueviltry is not going to come back alive."34

"She's a woman, not an indestructible killing machine!" Natalie fired back, "If we group together, we can find her and stop her. You'd realize that if you weren't idolizing her so much. Those 400 she killed were all dupes to begin with. She probably just told them to kill themselves, and they did."35

"I had a feeling somebody would say that," said Floris calmly, "that's why I printed these. I assumed none of you actually saw the bodies prior to them being loaded into ambulances and driven away."36

He pulled out a small stack of papers and handed them around. The members of the group cringed as they looked at them. On the papers were printed pictures of an auditorium seated with hundreds of dead bodies. The group members recognized many faces as those of people from the Academy.37

"As you will notice," Floris continued, "these people are all in extreme pain and very panicked. They are all very pale, due to a severe lack of blood, yet, I found no wounds on their body."38

Francine drew in a shocked breath. "You searched their bodies."39

"Of course I did," Floris responded. "I came home before all the cops and ambulances arrived. It was quite a shock to say the least. An interesting thing I've noticed. The people toward the back are much more panicked than those in the front rows. I believe these people watched each other die as they were paralyzed in their seats. Now I don't know of anything that will immobilize 398 people, kill them one-by-one, and mysteriously remove the majority of the blood without leaving any cuts, holes, or a drop of it on the surroundings. However, it would seem such a thing exist, and that Nienon Chueviltry is in control of it. I sincerely advise that none of you attempt to play vigilante against this woman."40

No one talked after this. Everyone wanted to ask questions, or tell Floris he was wrong, that he only had a theory, and there could be other ways for this to happen. Everyone wanted to speak, but nobody could. The eleven of them walked away from Olive Avenue and discontinued their contact with those members of the group they did not personally know. Within a year, even those who had been close to each other drifted apart. Separated and confused, unable to determine what they had miraculously escaped, each one of them looked into one large question with many faces. What had their lives had become? Who were they going to be? How were they supposed to deal with their pasts?
41