The Last Library

Sophia

Portland awoke to a dim light. He was lying on a soft bed, with heavy blankets over him – and he was warm, though he wasn't sure he trusted that sensation any more.

Next to the bed, there was a table, and on the table was a lamp. Strangely, it was glowing at a low level, a little brighter than a candle. He sat up to look at it and peered over the shade. There was a glass bulb in there, like the ones in the Geek's tent. But he'd never seen them light up before. He reached his hand toward it, and felt warmth exuding from the sphere. Excited by heat, he reached even further.

"Ow!" He jerked back.

"Hello," said a voice. "You're awake. Finally."

The voice didn't sound unfriendly, but Portland's eyes still had the image of the bulb burned into them. He squinted around the dark room. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here." A woman stood up from the floor. The first thing he noticed about her was her long hair, shining bright red in the lamplight. The second thing he noticed was that she was very beautiful. Everything after that, including her odd blue clothing, was more or less irrelevant.

"Am I dead?" asked Portland.

"No." she smiled a little bit. "You're not dead. We found you on our doorstep. Well, on top of our door, I should say. It's astonishing that you managed to find our door to collapse on."

"Where am I?"

"Don't worry. You're safe. My name is Sophia. You've come to the Last Library." Portland heard the first two things she said, but the third was just noise to him.

"Sophia," he said, and the questions poured out at once. "Where is your tribe? Where did you get clothes like that? How can you live here? How did I not know about you? Are we in a cave?"

"We're not in a cave," said Sophia, "But we are underground. There is no tribe. My father and I are the only ones here. You don't know about us because we don't go aboveground at all during the winter. There would be no reason. We live off our stockpile."

"What about this?" Portland pointed to the lamp. "How is it... doing that?"

"I know," said Sophia. "It's surprising to see anymore, isn't it? We're siphoning natural gas off of the Alaska pipeline. That's how all of this is possible, really. But it's too early for that explanation. There are more important things to show you."

But Portland didn't really care about seeing other things. "I have to find my mother," he said. He steeled himself and started to get up. "She's out there in the cold." Even as he said this, he knew it was probably too late.

"Wait," said Sophia. She smiled, mildly amused. "Before you take off, I think you should follow me."

Portland rose and followed her through a door into the next room. This one was more brightly-lit, with white walls. It was sparsely furnished, but there were a few chairs, and in the corner sat two people. One was an old man. The other was his mother.

He ran to her. She was wrapped in a blanket. Her hair was thin and uncombed, but she had washed and looked well. "Mom!" She stood from her chair to embrace him. There were, for a few minutes, tears and other exclamations. Now it was not just his body that had come in from the cold; it was his heart too, and for the first time he felt truly warm. "I thought you were dead," said Portland.

"No, thank God," said his mother. "I could have been if these good people hadn't found me. The Geek forced me to leave the camp."

Portland's heart dropped in temperature very quickly. "He did what?"