City Of Destruction

The Boy With The Library

Cameron woke up with the sun glaring right in her eyes from the window. The room was cold and she could hear one of her roommates snoring in their beds. Cameron got up and quietly made her bed so she wouldn't wake her new friends, she knew she wouldn't have to be in the cafeteria for breakfast until seven so she decided to go explore outside.

Cameron stepped out the door and breathed in the fresh morning air, what a wonderful morning, not a cloud in sight. She started to walk down the crumbling roads observing everything around her. The building next to her housing facility seemed to be some sort of infirmary used for sick kids. Next to the infirmary was a large empty space of land, "what a perfect place for a garden." Thought Cameron

As she kept walking, the streets became harder to get around, ruble from old building demolished by bombs cluttered the ground leaving few flat spaces for Cameron to step on. The buildings that did partially remain looked dangerous to go in but Cameron was particularly drawn to a older building that looked like it once had been a large house with big windows. Cameron noticed a old metal door leading into the building so she went in, inside it was dark and smelled of dust. There were old books scattered on the floor, Cameron picked one up, it had a blue cover that read Alice In Wonderland, she flipped through the pages looking at the strange drawings.

Cameron noticed there were stairs leading to an upper floor, at first she was nervous to go up there because who knows if the floor was stable enough to hold her but she plucked up the courage  and walked right up the stairs to the next level. When she got up there she was surprised at how clean and neat it all was, the ceiling had some holes but otherwise it looked like someone really took care of that place. There was a fireplace that had still hot coals in it, a desk and chair that looked perfect for studying,  and most of all, the shelves and shelves full of books. The books on these shelves were not like the tattered books downstairs with ripped covers and water damaged pages but these books were beautiful. Red ones blue ones, you name the color there was a book with it on its cover.

As Cameron marveled at what she had discovered upstairs she did not notice the boy sitting in the chair by the desk. "And who are you?" Asked the boy, he was wearing dirty jeans an oversized pink t-shirt and had bruises on his face.

"Oh I'm sorry," Cameron replied, "I did not notice you in that chair. What  a wonderful collection on books you have."

"You did not answer my question," said the boy, "who are you?"

"My name is Cameron, and yours?"

"Lewis, I'm from Boston."

"I'm from New York, when did you get to this area from Boston?"

"Boston is where the war all started so I was sent away pretty early, I came here around 9 years ago."

"Man that's a long time." Cameron pointed out, "are all these books yours?"

"Sort of, I collect them you see, I pick out the ones that are less damaged and more usable and put them up here. I also brought in all the furniture too, every time I would go out I would look for things that would work in here, so that' how I found the desk and chair." Answered Lewis.

"Did any if your friends help you in creating this space?" Asked Cameron.

"I don't have many friends..."

"Oh that's alright, I'm new here so I don't have too many friends either."

A bell began to ring in the distance. "What does that mean?" Asked Cameron

"Time to head to the cafeteria for breakfast." Answered Lewis

"Sit with me?"

"Sure."