Chapter 90

“See that door handle? Put your pass to it, and it will open up. Probably. Yours is old, but... not that old, I think.” Ellie pointed to a sturdy-looking handle that was flat and wide. William no longer questioned her and followed her every order since he saw Luke unlocking a door yesterday.

Those were some special locks. Not like Outside had needs for them. A simple gun or a knife was an excellent lock-picking tool or a defensive means.

William understood the importance of locks as much as the need for weaponry or fighting. He could be flexible and get used to having a proper key.

Placing the card on the handle opened the door with a simple click, revealing a long and wide hallway. There was yet another door further in, followed by others at the sides. Walls with doors to seminar rooms were kind of bare, but they were accessible at the beginning due to time constrain.

“Seminars, room for guests, teachings, or discussions are there,” Ellie said as she walked in. “They are usually held under strict schedule and multiple times a day. See? There are none this early, but in an hour or two, this waiting room will get busy. These events are scheduled on the common walls, or the ground floor. You can look for them thanks to advertisements or word of mouth. There are even seminars related to Walkers, although they aren't common. Most seminars won't concern you unless you want to be serious about learning some specific lessons, or hear some lessons yourself.”

“What are they about? Usually.”

“Depends on the lecturer. One who is in charge can make various adjustments and topics vary a lot due to those asking questions. Botany, economics, technology, whatever else. Low, medium, or advanced levels of wisdom are all here. The lecturer is usually very good at whatever the seminar is about. Are you following so far? I feel like a teacher. Is it bad? Terrible?! Is my hair still on my head? Am I speaking too much?!” Slowly, Ellie was panicking and checked her head. Her blond hair wasn't missing. It was still there, similar to her moving mouth.

William wished to agree with some of her questions. She was speaking nonstop, yet without any fatigue, stuttering, or other problems. William had a strong first impression of her, which changed into honest awe. Ellie felt similar. She could tell that William was listening to her, unlike at the beginning, which she took as a good thing.

William took her words for what they should be. If he was interested, he asked about something. If he wasn't, he nodded, listened, or changed the subject.

This slightly surprised Ellie, since the people from the camps or far away in the many dead zones were very different from the people of the Federation. She was a native of this place and was used to a different class of people. Since she focused on academics since she was young, her mind and focus moved along with that.

There were a lot of individuals coming here every month through some transaction, quotas, workforce, or deals between the Federation and other places. They followed certain rules, which Ellie knew herself. Usually, a lot of workers weren't people to befriend since they focused on what mattered and they knew what to look for in order to maintain their lives.

Workers like Ellie were here to provide some base and direction to some of them, but they were in no way teachers. Some were close to that under the right conditions because every one of them was familiar with this library.

It was setting a precedent of different environments where one grew up. Studies showed how a good foundation, let alone childhood, affected education. A place like this library had seen it first-hand in multiple generations.

This dystopian sort of work gave rise to another kind of deterrence, cultures, or feudal ways. William wasn't sure what to call it, but he didn't find it worse than Outside. People advanced into structural organizations to meet their end needs, and doing so in a way that ensured their power or stability always helped. That went on for thousands of years already, which was a fact that he learned and saw.

Through connections with the Federations, Roshwell camp, and Miss Anderson's orphanage had some references to teach children. There were ideas about identity, ideology, humanism, and power! It was necessary propaganda. Then, it all went to shit with the Dawn and Darks, but humans had to keep going.

William liked to get lost in the past. It felt comforting that there could be something else than this apocalypse. Yet it was also inevitable to go back into reality since the destruction of the population let more resilient ones grow and rise, and there was no escaping it. Realization and getting back from the ground was part of human history. Set-backs gave some opportunity, development, and change.

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Darks disagreed and their massacres did end up restricting everything or almost ceasing the words or history altogether. More than a century passed and where was humanity heading? Technology was getting back on track, people were striving in many ways or places, and even if it was happening on rare limiting factors, it didn't mean it couldn't happen again, or at a larger scale.

Walkers might be the new rulers, but they were still humans, while absolute predators were still around, lurking from the shadows or darkness. A new kind of life began to form on the planet Earth, while people were looking the same, albeit changed like rats thriving to keep their lives in rubbish.

Ellie learned a lot more about history than William ever did. It was her expertise, or so she pridefully claimed whenever she had a chance. Her studies in this library pointed to history, so William always perked up when she mentioned some story, fact, or interesting allegations, or comments.

Then, Ellie was glad to see some changes in William, who might be a brief meeting to her. He grew up in different places and under different circumstances, yet he was unlike she assumed. Perhaps she could learn something from him. Outside wasn't all lost and turned into a wasteland of survivors and death. There was still some humanity left out there.

Or was it wrong to assume it because of his Walker status?

She learned about Outside as if it was history, though it was pretty much real. From the destruction of the USA, and the struggles of some camps, to the Great Fury Wars, she was aware of them like a scholar. Europe, Asia, and other places were different and distant, followed by the whole Blank Century, greater wars, and plenty of formidable legends.

Anticipation and a little apprehension about William were yet to come out of her mouth. Ellie wanted to continue with William's tour since this job was important to her. But if it would clash with her curiosity and importance, wasn't it an excellent way to grow and look at a young Walker whose history or circumstances were rare for her to see?

In her mind, she hadn't been this happy in a long time. After all her talking, she couldn't ignore the core difference any longer. There was an Emblem hidden under his sleeve. Perhaps if it was wide open, this whole situation would be much more awkward for her than anything else.

Ellie didn't forget about it and she repeated in her mind how it could wait and wait, arguing in her head about a hundredth time. It wasn't something easy to overlook or conceal in her mind. She was reaching her limits. Could she keep it like this all day? How many floors were ahead until she would burst apart?

Seeing the closed doors and no people, William had no interest in seminars. They were for experienced people if what Ellie suggested was correct. Depending on the advanced topic, he might get lost in the discussion more than in the previous floors.

Thus, he decided to reach the opposing door. The same source of amazement from the previous floors stood right in front of him. Although smaller in scale and sparsely spaced, rows of shelves with many books were everywhere.

Unlike with technology, each row was wider, and each bookshelf had many notes depicting sections of specific books and topics. Ellie did not need to say how or why they were like this. She looked at William, who already figured it out. If the lower floors were technical, these books focused on guiding foundations and a more comprehensive variety of fields.

William looked at thousands of tones of quite detailed research materials. Wasn't such a wide choice too awful? How could one choose?! He started to panic when Ellie patted his shoulder and saw through his silent panic.

“Take a breath,” she said to him, breathing the air just to prove a point. It didn't work so she smacked his back. “Jeez, take that one for me and look around first. The first note to perk your eyes is one you will glance at. Just don't linger too long, ok? Now, go. Shoo.”

She almost kicked him to get over his panic. William was shocked at her like at himself. He couldn't even speak when he began to move and look at those notes. The place wasn't overly huge. There were less than a hundred bookshelves because a lot of space wasn't for books but space for teaching or learning. Some books looked short and evaluated as one-of-a-kind materials.

He glanced at them and figured he might look at something specific. It wouldn't hurt him.

“Oh, botany? Let's look at this one,” William pointed to a distant bookshelf. Ellie followed, nodding at her clever idea of not kicking him around. There were some people further in, so kicking or shouting wasn't all that good. She was an employee here, so she had to follow the example.

Most people in here were around William’s age or lower. It was hard to tell if someone was a Walker or not, but he saw some military youths wearing some uniforms sitting around some tables and reading some books.

There was less complexity around, and most children weren't ready for the topics down below. However, a lot of books could prepare them for the future. Usually, it was either their families or the military who paid for this education, or this library in some unique programs paid them attention.

Thus, the expectations set on some of the youths were enormous, and the worth of this floor was massive due to the nature of education and academics, followed by payments.

William was glad he had no worries about it. He had no set of expectations, rules of money to follow thanks to his pass, or family to chain him. He was free and willing to make his own decisions. Like always. Perhaps it might not hurt to change it or see it as a bad thing.