The last few hours pass and William end the day with a book that he needs to get to know more about in the upcoming weeks. Called First order of the Dark beings, he puts it back in its place.
William stretches his stiff neck from all this reading and considers that he had enough of today. He spent too much... far too much time today here, but he regrets not a single bit of it.
Of course, apart from the helplessness of Kaufman's experiment, which he still could not understand.
“Time to get some food and sleep. Yea. Right. right.” he decides and takes his bamboo bottle from what is his company for the last few hours.
Although, he reads the books, with not much talk. Anyone who would watch him would get bored with it after half an hour. Kaufman was the same, while bamboo bottles could help no one but help their thirst.
Walking through the same locked door outside, William notices a napping Ellie right in front of him. Resting her back by a side of the railing, while sitting on the floor.
An open book in her hands, she sleeps with not one bit of worry.
“I guess I made her wait for too long. I should apologize.” William steps forward and taps the book with his finger. Careful, so there would never be an occasion where he would fear for his life when waking someone up.
He succeeds, as the reverberation of his taps wakes Ellie up.
“Will... already done?” Ellie mumbles as she lifts her head.
“I thought you would not wait the whole time? Is it not your end of the day already?” William excuses himself.
“What I could have done after seeing you so haggard after the whole thing with sir Kaufman? What in the world was up with that?” Ellie cries out with frustration to the victim. It is not a good idea, but she doesn't know that William knows nothing about it the same way as her.
“I am sorry for wasting your time,” William says, while unsure about the whole deal of Kaufman. It is related to the Emblems, but he found nothing about invisible entities to see, or not anything. Confused, he gave up after looking for clues about Kaufman's problem after a couple tried to find it after he left.
Not like it matters, since the pain is a temporal thing. Kaufman left him on the ground after the whole painful experience. It was a kind of gentle force, but it was too heavy, so it twisted his body where the limbs and bones were painful. It leaves William with a certain impression that one could not guess what sort of abilities Walkers have.
“You are wasting no one's time. I don't care about today, but make sure you are alright. Or... do you want me to accompany you to your home?” Ellie tries her new idea that she realizes sounds very smooth.
William, oblivious as always, could not pick a hint of any manner. Declining as anyone like him would.
“I am fine. Going home is the basic thing in this city, is it not? Not like any Dark being would attack me where I got home at the sight of a starry sky,” is his argument.
It is not the correct way to go about it, considering Ellie's feelings, but she grits her teeth and gives up. Williams' argument could all as well be an excuse because he does not want to bother her with things outside of the Library. He is clueless that she is not implying her working schedule, but her free time to have some time with him.
“Well, what am I going to do now? I guess that is the end for my minor accompaniment for you, Will,” she says in uncertain, yet well-hidden disappointment.
“You said that the 6th floor is the end, so I am very grateful for your help. This broadened my horizons.”
“You bet! But as with everything, I am working here, so you won't be escaping me anytime soon.” Ellie says with a puffed-up chest of importance.
“Right, you are working here, so I guess I will be still seeing you.”
“It is already past my working hours. Why won't I accompany you outside and show you some of the city?” Ellie says in honesty, yet with a subtle, flustered expression. She is not so great at this as well.
“You want? Wait, I remember that promise where you told me about showing me the city!” William recalls a small promise they made and cheers upwards with his arm. Unsure why, but he is unconcerned about the reasons.
“I... I did?” Ellie had already forgotten what she told him on the first day. In the past few days, she talked so much that she hardly feels like not talking after work. Although she is always a chatty person, some things are better left alone.
“If you are fine with it now... I don't know.” William adds while scratching his cheek with his finger. It is a small promise she told him on the first day, so if she doesn't want to do it, he wouldn't force anything.
“I will accompany you, alright?” she slams his shoulder while chuckling. Walking forth, she assumes the leading position of leaving this floor and the library as a whole. The curved stair leads through each floor for hundreds of feet towards the first floor.
William, instead of before, follows her steps, as he also is quite tired. Hunger for the whole day is apparent, after a whole day in this library.
On the first floor, Ellie has to finish some things in the offices, so William waits outside of the library.
The sun had already disappeared beyond the oceanic horizon. It is a sight that is quite mesmerizing, with no white clouds in the sky, that left many stars naked for one to see them. William sees the tips of pink-orange clouds that eat up the remaining shimmers of the sunlight. He leans on the wall, before the entrance to the Library.
Ellie moves out after a few minutes of waiting. Bag around her shoulder, while wearing the same uniform, underneath a long fabric or cotton cardigan. She has no time to change her clothes, but her work attitude is fine in itself. No one would bother her about it. Not even Burton.
“What do you want to see?” she asks William as she appears, mumbling through the sandwich in her mouth
“I would eat something first... I had nothing all day.”
“Yea? I know a few places, not so far away. From this place, there is a Central district, while each corner has corresponding shops as well. There are districts of North, east, west, and south. Each special or similar to each other.”
“Are there any differences between them?” William asks while Ellie leads him toward unknown destinations.
“A little. The central region is the biggest isle in the archipelago, with a single city in this place. Residential buildings are pretty much everywhere. The companies and factories are only in the East District since there is a fjord there. South is the military operations of the Federation. West and North are like the Central district, with ample shops and workshops that people can make on their own.”
“Are they regulated? I would imagine this place must have some orders since it is no order-less Camp.” William guesses.
“You are half correct. There are some fees that every citizen must pay, but Assembly Island regulates everything a few miles from the archipelago. Economics is quite difficult to explain, so I won't go into the details. Let's go get some food instead. This toast is not enough for me.” Ellie grabs William's reluctant hand. Leading hip up towards the shops in the following streets.
The order of the city is easy to follow, so William has no problems with remembering her following lectures. People usually build camps in a similar way, but not so much from his memory. Camp is built for two sectors, which follow the order of importance. Residential and working section. Residential is self-explanatory while working sections of the camp are everything one would need to survive. Making clothes, food, farm, taking care of animals, or small factories for anything a person would need.
It was never so bad since the Camp is usually an accomplishment of tens of thousands of people. At least the Roshwell camp is from William's memory. The one he was in before Roshwell was much smaller. It did not survive the horde of Dark beings.
The bigger the camp, the better the protection and means of survivability. There are skilled people behind each camp, with information, connections, as well as technical information to provide the best method to survive Outside.
For example, Enginist and Machinists are one of the most important professions for the development of the Camp. Taking care of or maintaining any kind of machine through the works of electronics is hard. The components ported from the Federation, or self-made by skilled craftsmen, are the general way they operate.
William knows it, since the Camp where he lived for the past 2 years, had many workshops that generated bikes, motorcycles, and occasional rides that could resemble the car. As for the fuel, those machine needs. The fuel is provided by the directors of the Camps, who would never disclose the generating of the gasoline needed to power those machines.
One way or another, people in the camp do not care about the wider connections with the Federation, which is interconnected with almost all surviving settlements on the American continents. It is one of the redundant orders of the Federation. In fact, they are also getting something in return. They use the camps as a form of surveillance post, so the Outside would monitor the tides of the Dark beings.
The Federation is not even self-sufficient, so getting any new people is always a tough choice. It is a topic of economics, power, and most of all, resources to make humanity not suffer.
Although, there is a military department of Walkers stationed in the camps. They are there to provide protection and care against the threat of the Dark beings. The public does not know about them, even though they always act in the interest of the Camps.
The Federation or the other Walker forces are the ones responsible for the Camp's survival. Liking it or not, they put Rank 4 or above Walkers in every camp, while some are even more protected than others. As meaningful as it is, The Federating is protecting the remaining mankind, by the orders of the Assembly. An injunction of the highest-ranking members of the living Walkers.
Their words are the rules, while the Assembly is a bunch of old and powerful Walkers. They are making decisions for the hundreds of thousands of people in the camps, even though the Outside will never know about it.
To their absolute unawareness, the amount of care the Federation keeps giving Outside is enough to shock anyone who would know about it. It is still the decision of the Assembly, where no lower members underneath Rank 6 could voice their opinions. No, they would not dare to.
As everyone has their orders, people in the lower societies are most often than not clueless about the underlying causes and problems that are faced by the powerful. It used to be like that in the 21st or 20th century, and it keeps going in the Apocalypse, even now.
Ellie is the same. A girl who grew up in the Federation, because her father is in the military department, and her mother is a teacher. She doesn't want to think of the consequences of the suffering that is left out on the Outside, while the Federation could help, but chose not to.
While smarter than others because of her hard work and education, Ellie got to know quite a bit about the world. That includes the society of the Walkers, but not as deep as she would hate it. She is not even one, to begin with, but that doesn't stop her from doing what she wants.
William could admire her hard work. He had seen so many people like her. Though, unlike her, they live in quite different conditions, with not always a good end.
He could only hope that the future would be generous for them, as his own.
As his, is a world of a Walker. Unlikely a hero, yet a potential Walker that could shake the political, or situation of the Dark age of the apocalypse.