Depthless: Under The Library

Chapter Two// Stella

Stella's POV//

I soon learned that libraries are built to impress on the outside. The interior? Infinitely impressive.

"Is that... that, a real book?" My eyes wander over to a leather-bound, thick rectangular object on a nearby table.

Alex barely glances that way. I stray over and held it up. I caress the leather cover, marvelling over its smoothness.

"How old is this one?" I wonder, while gingerly turning the pages. Surprisingly, they are well preserved. They aren't moth-eaten, crumbling, or spotty... just the faintest yellow. A sign of ageing.

"That was from back in the nineteenth century." Alex carelessly replies. "Hand it to me, please." He holds out his hand.

Reluctantly, I passed the book over to him. I watch while he checks something on the book, then follow him as he strides over to a shelf.

"Never leave a book on the table after reading." He slides the book in the open gap, which is just perfect fitting.

"Got it." I muttered.

"I'll have someone show you how to shelf books later. Now follow me."

Had I given up my excitement filled life just to end up in a library... dusting shelves and stacking books?

As if sensing my thoughts, Alex softens. "There is more to being a Librarian than you think."

"Like...?" I question.

He doesn't reply. I give up trying to make small talk. From the first glance, I could tell Alex is mysteriously quiet, but, he is not someone to mess with. 'President' suits him nicely. He is tall and regal, quiet-eyed and soft spoken. There is probably an underlying genius inside him.

Instead, I turn my attention to my surroundings.

From the very first step into the library, I am amazed at the vastness of the space. As far as I can see, there are at least five floors. Wooden panelled walls stretched all around the sides. Towering bookshelves lined the walls, from top to bottom. I can see actual staircases and landings built about every ten shelf spaces. Across the landing, there are bridges joining the reading spaces to the bookshelves, and the bridges criss-cross high over the ground floor, therefore, from level one to five, the reading spaces are roped off into a centre ring. To get to the bookshelves, one must cross the bridges.

I could see tons of hard work for the librarians. Spring cleaning at the library mustn't be very enjoyable. As we walked, I had hundreds of questions. In the end, I ended up speaking to Alex sooner than I had wanted.

"Where did you collect all of this?" I gaze in wonder at the leather-bound books, the coloured paperbacks, basically all of the books no one in the outside world will read. Not if they could just simply press a few buttons and download the story into their pocket gadgets.

Alex turned to face me. His grey eyes shone with pride as he notices me admiring the books. "Over the years, librarians had travelled far over the world to salvage every last book we could lay hands on. Some wealthy people donated some of their unwanted books, others we managed to save in auctions. We went through great pains to retrieve the last few before the Great Burning."

I raise my eyebrows. "You've done a wonderful job! There must be millions... billions? Of books here! How do you keep track of them all?"

"We apply a simple Dewey system, an international system applied by many libraries before they shut down. We organize our books by category, an by author. Don't worry--- there are groups of librarians assigned to a portion of the racks. They each take in turn to organize their part of the shelves."