Jibrilla looked at the ceiling. Her leg still pained her a bit, but none of her wounds were really serious. And that was a relief, since the level of medical science was a lot lower here than at home. What a place she had come to get stuck in… After a while she had stopped thinking about the crash, about her two colleagues that had died, and about the lost aeroplane. She hadn’t really known the two sisters who had died that well, she had actually only seen them passingly before this spy mission, but it was still a very weird idea that they were dead, and she wasn’t. She had successfully silenced the voice that blamed her for the accident for now, but she knew it could come back at any time. The Sisterhood at home wouldn’t be very happy with the loss of the plane either, but she hoped she wouldn't be blamed for the hydrogen accident. After all, it was through the accident that she had made contact with the local female community, instead of being captured by the man-devils of this dystopian world as she had feared. This so-called Ghost Town seemed to be part of the lost fraction of the Sisterhood that had opted to stay here in The Nation that wasn’t supposed to exist anymore. The sisters here were friendly and organised, even if they were just a fringe minority in a male-dominated world without means of long-distance communication. The situation was much more complicated than anything she had expected. It’s one thing to read and learn about a patriarchal dystopia, it’s a completely other thing to be there, and the things she’d learnt about The Nation itself in the last days had confused her, especially after talking to the Ghost Town Leader Martha herself.

And then there was that Michael-person. Sure, she knew about man-persons, and she had even seen them once or twice in her life, like that famous Afropean scientist that had once visited Hévapolis university, but it was still a very weird idea to talk to one in a female outlaw colony in The Nation. She had known that if she would travel outside of Héva she would very likely meet man-persons from much closer than that internationally known scientist on a stage, but still… In most countries on the planet man-persons and sisters were more or less equals anyway who lived together in equal numbers, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem to talk to one of them. But that was all just theory for her, and as a Hévan sister the idea of men alone made her nervous already, and that wasn’t even taking into account that she was in The Nation now and not in a modern overseas egalitarian country. This was the backwards and isolated sexist mother country that her foremothers had fled from to save their lives, because of the accursed man-devil Manfred who attempted to enslave them all and worse. Man-persons still ruled this place in an absolute way, and abused sisters here mercilessly, that fact had been affirmed by her local sisters here. And still they had accepted this young man-person as a friend, even if most sisters here still spoke of the community as if it was completely closed off to the male Nation. Why? There was something strange about it.

But there was a more important question now: how would she ever get back to Héva? Lady Martha had described the technological level of this place in detail, and it didn’t look good. Everything here was so primitive that even just making contact with Héva seemed to be a problem. They had no cable internet to other countries, or long-distance radio transmitters. No planes or boats either, because Nationer still followed the taboos of the post-depletion times and hadn’t moved on to new less destructive types of engines and energy. With old hydrogen cars, landline phones and maybe local intranet here and there she wouldn’t be able to get back, would she? So it sounded like she was stuck here for now. Or would she get help from home? Would her Hévan sisters send a rescue mission for the lost aeroplane, and if so, would it be able to find her?

She looked outside of the window. There was something relaxing about the whole place here. She watched several Ghost Town sisters doing their daily jobs, while a flock of grey pigeons flew over the green square. It surely was a nice place here for the Ghost Town sisters, but she belonged in Héva, and didn’t feel like living< the rest of her life here. Her thoughts went back to home, where the square was less green, but still filled with pigeons and jackdaws, and the occasional ring-necked parakeet or European starling which she hadn’t seen here yet.

She hadn’t noticed anyone entering her room, but suddenly one of the nurses stood by her bed with a message.

‘Miss Jibrilla, Eliza will be coming to talk about how we can reach your country, and communicate with it.’

She had heard a lot about Eliza, who was apparently a good friend of the Michael-person and of nurse Samantha. From what she’d heard she must be an expert in rare technologies and advanced robotics, and thus possibly her best chance to get out of here. They hadn’t met yet, Eliza seemed to have visited here once when she had been asleep, and like nurse Samantha and the Michael-person she wasn’t an actual resident of this community so she wasn’t around here all the time and she was busy on a mysterious job at the moment.

‘Oh look, here she is already.’

A very young woman came in, wearing some kind of work overall that once had been orange. She had messy brown curls and light green eyes that were beaming enthusiasm, and she even bowed for her.

‘So you’re the ambassador of Héva that needs to get back to her country? I’m honoured to meet you. I’m Eliza.’

She looked at the girl. ‘Eh, ambassador? Who said that? I suppose your country would see me more as a spy. And I’m just the survivor of an aeroplane accident.’

The eyes of Eliza lit up even more. ‘A spy? I love espionage. So you’re spying on our mad country for the women-only country of Héva? Seen anything worthy of reporting to your Sisterhood here yet?’

Jibrilla sighed. ‘Me and my now-dead sisters were just doing a trial flight with the new stealth aeroplane when it crashed. It wasn’t really much more than that, we just had to try it out, and find out more about The Nation too. And it didn’t end well.’

Eliza nodded. ‘I just had a look at what remains of your little UFO that they brought into the workshop. It must have had a very advanced Hydrogen-motor, but it seems something went wrong with the battery?’

Jibrilla nodded. ‘We suddenly had empty accu, while we were above the city here. It was an experimental one. The pilot wanted to reach the fields to land but we didn’t even get there and then the hydrogen motor caught on fire. I had enough reflexes to use the ejection seat, but it seems my sisters were too late. I don’t know what happened then, I only remember waking up here in your little hospital. They told me I was the only survivor and that they had found me up in a tree.’

Eliza nodded. Everyone knew what an exploding hydrogen motor meant.

‘You were lucky that the followers of the Central Computer don’t bother much with actually defending our country against outsiders, after more than a century of isolation they’ve become quite lax. Otherwise they might have shot you straight out of the sky. But now they just play silly military games to occupy themselves, without ever looking out for outsiders.’

‘Are they really so aggressive then?’

Eliza shrugged. ‘Shoot first, ask questions later. Don’t think too much. A Real Man doesn’t ask questions, he just obeys commands I guess, no matter how stupid or destructive they are. That gets drilled into them every school day. Be a Man!’ She did the gesture of the pledge before the flag, but Jibrilla didn’t get the reference.

‘But you’re not a full time member of this Ghost community they said. You live in The Male Nation. How do you tolerate living among man-persons? The info-vids tell us every time again how horrible they were, and how happy we are to not have them anymore in our country. And you just shrug their destructive violence away as children’s games.’

Eliza shrugged ‘They are mostly just brainwashed, just like we girls are in Wife School. And I don’t doubt your info-vids are just another version of that. But the worst of the brainwashers in Wife School was a woman, Miss Hunter of the please-your-husband classes. Most of the men I’ve met were just clueless, and some were quite nice actually. Old Greystone was more robot in a way than an actual robot even. But if you train them up properly they can be decent human beings, like our little Loverboy. He might be a bit depressed, but he’s good company, don’t you think?’

Now Jibrilla was completely confused.

‘What Loverboy? The Michael-person? He’s your life-sharer? Is he the man who chose you in the Wife School like an item from a catalogue? I heard about those barbaric customs.’

Eliza nodded no. ‘Ah, eh, no. Not mine, and there’s no life-sharing like that going on I’m afraid. He’s just a friendship-sharer, and a good one at that too. He chose my best friend when we were still in school, and he’s not really anyone’s lover anymore now, since she got kicked out of Wife School with me. It’s just a nickname we use to tease him.’

‘Ah’ An awkward silence fell. Jibrilla wasn’t really accustomed to the idea of playful banter between the sexes, and Eliza was focused on something else anyway.

‘But I wasn’t here to talk about men, was I? I’m not an expert in them at all either I’m afraid, just a friend of all good people regardless of sex and eh, nationality or something like that. And they asked me to help you find a way to contact your homeland and get you back to Héva.’

‘How would that be possible, you don’t have radio phonewaves in this country.’

‘With some imagination everything is possible, Sister Jibrilla. We may not use them right now, but they certainly were used in the past. The remains of the Hévan transmitter from your aeroplane have been found. It’s blown out of the cockpit by the explosion and damaged, but we might be able to repair it, even though we’ll probably need to find a new power source for it, but I have carte blanche from the Ghost Town leadership to try anything, and even ask assistance of the other Ghost Towns when need. They have a collection of old radios in Third City that I’ve always been wanting to check out. Plus some instructions from you would be more helpful I think, you’re the outsider from a technically more advanced place anyway. But if we can repair it, it should help us, not? Doesn’t it have an automatical connection to your home base?’

Jibrilla nodded ‘It does, but the reception here was quite bad, even though it still worked. And without the accu it won’t do anything at all.’

‘We’ll have one made if that’s the only problem. I suppose the specifications cannot be so hard to find.’

‘You really want to do that?’

‘Lady Martha has asked me so, and it’s a fun project, so why not? I like a challenge like that, you’ll only have to wait a few days I’m afraid. We first need a perfect Shirley before Thursday for the escape, but after that I’ll focus on this project. It’s a busy time for an unemployed poor non-Wife like me I’m afraid…’ She winked.

Jibrilla didn’t know how to answer, but it seemed that no answer was expected, because Eliza looked at her watch and said ‘oops, time to get going, Michael was going to come look at the progress with the robot. I’ll see you later, Jibrilla!’ and she was gone as suddenly as she had arrived.

*

‘Hello, young man Michael.’ Lady Martha said when she saw Michael strolling towards the queue for the sales of vegetables from the Ghost Town farm almost two hours later.

‘Hello, Lady Martha,’ he said and bowed.

‘You seem to have adapted to being here in no time. Did you come to our community today just for vegetables? Is the food in Seventh City so bad?’

‘Ah, no, Lady Martha. I was here to look at the make-over Eliza has given my robot for the escape mission, and I’ve visited Sam and the Hévan visitor in the hospital. Eliza is going to build a radio to reach them when the robot project is finished.’

‘Ah, yes, the Wife School escape. I’ve seen many Wife School escapes in my life and I must say this is a rather unique one, and she didn’t even get out yet. I think it will be a story that will be told over and over in our Ghost Towns for years.’

Michael nodded. He hadn’t realised that there must have been a lot of escapes from Wife Schools already, and that a lot of the female outlaws must have had such a story themselves.

‘So usually they just run away?’

‘If they can. Not all girls have a network of friends like Eliza, so they’re happy to just get to here unseen. But with Eliza’s plan they can buy her some time, and for once the predator will be punished, thanks to your robot. That usually doesn’t happen either.’

‘It’s all coincidence, really. I never asked for that creepy thing anyway. And without Eliza no-one would even know of the pre-Nation programs.’

‘Yes, everything around her is unusual. You’ve surely picked out a special friend in that Wife School ceremony I must say.’

‘I didn’t even pick her. I knew her already from a forbidden one-day friendship when we were five, but at that day she just looked so angry at anything male that I chose Megan next to her. Her eyes said “help me!”. I can’t blame either of them, that whole ceremony thing is really horrible.’

Lady Martha smiled. ‘I’d never think I’d ever hear that confirmed from the male side.’

‘Just imagine you’re a Gamma boy, a shy and awkward boy who never could live up to the ‘Be a Man!’ thing. You’ve never even talked to a girl in your whole life, and then you are forced to pick a Wife from a line of bikini-clad girls, as if that is any indication of anything. And all you know is that you will get a Wife, and she will make you happy, at least that’s what they’ve told you. It’s all a bunch of rotten lies, really.’

‘And now you have a friend to help with the escape? A male one I mean? Eliza asked for a permit for another boy?’

‘She wanted a fake fiancée. I hope poor Robert isn’t going to regret it.’

‘If you vouch for him, we’ll let him in. He just needs a Free Person badge and we’ll ask him to say the pledge. I suppose he knows the consequences for breaking the vow.’

‘I think he’s afraid of more than that. You know how afraid boys are of Ghost Town magic and being fed to the panthers and stuff like that.’

‘Oh dear… There’s no panthers in this area, maybe a pack of dogyotes but they’re usually shy. The male side has weird fantasies.’

‘Don’t tell me that you don’t use those to keep your communities safe.’

‘You’re not wrong. It’s a good defence when people are afraid of you for mysterious reasons. But you know that in truth we will always use as little violence as needed, even for self-defence. Sure, every woman here gets a lot of lessons in self defence. We need it, and even in Wife School they usually give it to the girls that want it, but our teachers are a lot better. Our techniques are always aimed at using the attacks of the opponent against them, and in being unexpected.’

Michael nodded. ‘And then we have our mysterious magic indeed, but I think Samantha has already shown you how it works.’ He nodded again, more nervous now.

‘Don’t be afraid. We can’t keep those things secret to you forever, you know… And to be honest, I personally would trust you more with our secrets than Samantha.’

She took her weapon out of her pocket.

‘He looked at the tiny green gun-like weapon that looked like a toy. ‘These stunners are loaded with anaesthetic needles and they can take a person out for ten to fifteen hours. Time enough to take away all their weapons and relocate them to a faraway location where they can wake up in peace and quietness.’

‘That sounds like you actually regularly use them like that?’ ‘Not so often. But sometimes men attack our members when outside, or come too close to our members. Little groups of low-rated drunks try to enter the main entrance sometimes, and once we had a whole clan of feral men here. Usually we just leave them all alone in the wilderness, without any weapons, dressed in a green gown, that’s a bit of a Ghost Town tradition.’

He looked at the little weapon in his hand and listened, because this was the part that he had never heard confirmed before, and that had led to a lot of weird myths in the male society.

‘And then?’

‘Well, they just wake up and have to find their way back through nature, and they will have learnt their lesson. Plus it creates myths and keeps people away. Most low-ranked men and ferals are mortally afraid of Ghost Towns, in a superstitious way. As if we’re all witches with dark powers. We rarely have to do it.’

‘Ah, but my brother once told me about a Ghost Town that was taken over by feral men.’

‘Yes, such a thing happened once, near Tenth City. The women could escape, but they couldn’t stop them from taking over temporarily because they didn’t have enough stunners at that time. The ferals were a mad and violent lot. But usually our communities are able to ward off such attacks. And Tenth City Ghost Town was reconquered easily with more stunners and help from other Ghost Towns. They had to do a lot of repair work though. And now we are armed by default, just in case.’

‘So everyone here wears a little stun gun like that?’

‘Basically, yes, especially if we have to go outside, but you won’t notice if you don’t know it. And we count on outsiders not knowing. It keeps us safer, and it helps them create weird stories about our power… So we count on you…’

‘I won’t say anything.’ He said.

‘By the way, since you’ve met our latest guest too. What did you as a man think of her?’

‘Jibrilla the Hévan? I visited her earlier today. She did her best to not be too appalled by me as a man in the beginning, but when we started talking she lost her fear for a man I think. I had never heard of Héva, or those other countries that she mentions. Like the Afropean Union I mean.’

‘Oh, we know that they exist, in theory, but there hasn’t been any communication in a long time. Not even with Héva, they are our sisters as they would say, but the Ghost Town movement went another way when they left The Nation for Santa Muerta Island to start their own nation. We had some, eh, philosophical differences.’

‘I’ve noticed such things.’

‘Did the boy want to buy vegetables? I’m closing my shop for today!’ a woman suddenly yelled.

‘Oh, I almost forgot.’ He said.

‘I won’t keep you occupied any longer, Mr. Michaels,’ she said, ‘and success with the escape mission later this week.’ He nodded and hasted himself to the vegetables.

*

Jenny, the assistant of Lady Martha, walked into the Ghost Town bar later in the afternoon, looking for one of the younger members of the community, which she found at the counter. Tracy did many little jobs, usually in the farm or in the bar, but today was her day off and she was a customer herself, talking to her colleague in an almost empty bar while the radio was playing 20th century music.

‘Hi Jenny,’ she said when she saw the second most important woman of the Ghost Town walk up to her.

‘Hi Tracy, I need to speak to you. I have news for you. The next Wife School escape is tomorrow, and that means that you’ll get a roommate. She’s named Shirley!’

‘Another girl! Yay! But if you know beforehand, is it a planned escape then? How is that even possible?’

‘Yes, it’s a rather complicated operation involving a robot lookalike, and a fake fiancé boy if I understood the story well. It’s an Eliza plot.’

‘Oh. I heard a lot about her. She’s been making the printer and stuff like that. And, oh, she has a boy friend who has been deleted that has been here they say. Is she bringing him too?’

‘He was here earlier today. I don’t know if he himself is coming, but he’s involved, and another boy too.’

‘Now that’s a story that I want to hear more about. When is she coming?’

‘Tomorrow evening. It’s just been confirmed. She leaves after the last Wife School class.’

‘Ah. Right from class, and with a fake fiancé boy? Using a man to escape another man? Is that wise? Aren’t men dangerous?’

‘Most are, but not all of them. Michael is a good person, and he’s on our side. The poor boy is a victim of the male world as much as we are. I don’t know about the other boy involved, but there’s a permit for a second male person to enter our community if he wears the Free Person badge and affirms the pledge. Mildred isn’t happy about that.’

‘When is that old witches’ hat ever happy about anything? She even was against our 20st century music nights because some of the songs had male singers. She’s silly and old fashioned.’

Jenny smiled. ‘Shht. Don’t say that out loud please. But I have to go on with my tour now. Could you maybe make the second bedroom ready for a roommate and clean things up a bit? I’ll let you know when we have more details.’

When Jenny had finished her drink she went home to her two-bedroom apartment. She picked up an old radio device and skipped on an ancient LCD screen to find the ancient music she was looking for, and put it on very loud before she started removing her own stuff from the second bedroom, and cleaning it up. She was excited for her new roommate, and the idea of meeting a boy helping her with the Wife School escape gave her a weird feeling that she didn’t recognise.

A man that had probably been dead for more than 600 years now was singing a song about love while playing some kind of primitive guitar instrument. She’d always been confused about how men were so evil today, and yet might not have been evil in other times. The idea of Lady Martha approving friendship with a boy completely confused her. She’d never be as wild as that Eliza girl, and she’d always thought until a few days ago that she’d have to live in a female-only world for all of her life. But if there were safe boys who could be friends in The Nation, she wanted to meet one.