Operator (A Hat Films Fanfic)

- Five -

"Do you think they would even have a survival section?" America asked, her arms loaded with horticultural and agricultural books. I followed behind her through the dusty smelling isles, glancing around for any type of shelf titles. We were circling the nonfiction section, but we had to slow down to look at individual book titles to get any indication of what books we were looking at. There had been quite a bit of vandalism in the past few days, but right now it was pretty deserted. There was a bored looking security guard at the front desk who originally wouldn't let us inside, but once we explained we were here to check out books he fell back down into his chair and told us to take whatever we could find intact. 

For some reason people went here for destruction when they realized the world was ending. Shelves were tipped over and books and pages have been flung everywhere. There's even a few piles of shelves in the front of the building that have scorch marks and a few soggy books still in tact from where someone had started a fire and then had it put out. My faith in my fellow citizens diminished when I saw the destruction, and I wondered for a long time what had stopped my friends and I from panicking and going mad when the power shut off. 

"Sorry Mer, this is England. Our libraries don't consist of 'off the grid' guides and conspiracy theory books," I shrugged, sounding more serious than I intended to. She turned around to glare at me, but then she cracked a grin and I knew she took it as a joke.

America and I had started the day hopeful. We set out early this morning for the library, walking part of the way with Mark and Hannah, the training nurse, before splitting off at the university so they could check the library in there. We even held hands as we walked, which was strange because of all the broken windows and burned out buildings all around us. 

But I could feel America's hope deflating the more we looked around the library. We had found two books on keeping your own gardens and one about the history of farming, but I knew she was expecting there to be a "How to lead people during an EMP" book that gave all the answers. 

"We have to stop being so choosy," America said suddenly, stepping over to a chair and setting down her books, "Take anything that might even be remotely helpful. Camping guides, anything on flowers or gardening, books about tools or something about making tools, just... we need to get going. Even if they prove to be worthless, we can use the pages for firestarters." America stepped up to the closest shelf and put her foot on the middle plank, hoisting herself up so she could grab a stack of untouched books on the top shelf and jump down again. I wanted to ask her why the sudden rush and to clarify the direction, but she was already in work mode, like when she was searching frequencies on her radios, and would probably just brush me off with vague comments.

I walked to another section and was easily able to react the top shelve to pull down a stack of books to start sifting through. Most of the top and bottom shelves were untouched, so I grabbed as much as I could and stacked them in a pile to sort through them. They were mostly DIY craft books, but that told me I was in the right section and I started to find more labor intensive project books. Not having the time to really go through them, I took them all and moved on to a separate section across the library. There were a bunch of thick dictionaries and atlases, so I was hoping to find some big medical books that might come in handy once winter came. None of us would be getting flu shots this year.

I jumped when the security guard tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey mate, you and your girlfriend have got to get out of here. I have to go home to my family," he said, trying to sound passive but coming off impatient. 

America wouldn't like that. We've barely made it through four or five sections of the building, and with all the books displaced, we would need even more time than if they were still neat and organized. We also lived on the other side of town and Mer wouldn't want to waste another day traveling all the way here, and who knows what this place will look like once this guy realized what was really going on.