Prospective: Martha
The light is receding, giving way to the darkness like a peaceful age coming to an end. No color filled the sky, none ever did and soon the scavengers will come out of their holes, caves, and over dark places. They will loot unlocked homes, unguarded supplies, and steal what they can that is not protected. Sometimes even people go missing. Beyond the glass of the building I saw a woman walking toward the entrance, it looks like she is on a mission.
Why is she coming here? Henry doesn’t have any appointments today, in fact we never accept guest at this hour. I rushed over to the door and locked it, the woman is now 5 feet away from the door, she must of ran when I went to lock the door.
The woman took a quick look of what lies beyond the entrance. The doorway to the left that leads to where Henry is now. She looked at my desk with the stacks of paper, decorations and miscellaneous supplies. Finally, to the right she saw the AID and the Identifier. She looked at me once she was done scanning the room with her eyes.
“Why are you here” I said to her.
“I need to speak to Henry, Adam sent me”
“What is your name?” I said
“I’m Samantha, what’s your name?” She said after a few seconds.
“My name is Martha, I’m Henrys assistant.”
I watched her during the conversation, up close she looks cleaner than any scavenger would, but she is wearing all black.
“I’m going to ask Henry for what he thinks should be done. Just wait here for a bit.”
I turn around and lightly jog to Henry’s office all the while calling for him. He did not answer like he normally does so I slowly open his door to find no one inside the room. I scan the room for any sign of a struggle but found none. She reentered the hallway and looked around. Nothing was different except for the metal door that was open. Of course, he’s in The Library, he always goes there for difficult cases.
He left the door open for once, he must have been in a hurry this time. He believes that I don’t know of the library, but he just scatters his papers all over his office. When I go to organize them, I notice the books that shouldn’t be here, or notes labeled ‘books to return’. I conclude that a library exists underground, it’s the only logical explanation.
I turn away from the door, remembering the woman waiting outside and I’m not going to walk all the way downstairs. I can’t even see an end to it or any light coming back up. I walk back to the entrance and the woman is standing a few paces from where she was before. She is rocking back and forth a little while looking at her feet. She looks up from her feet and notices me walking towards her. The sky behind her is dark now, the scavengers will be here soon.
“Are you going to let me in now?” Said the woman with an annoyed look.
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Prospective: Sam
Martha had straight amber hair reaching down to the center of her chest, her eyes were bronze and large, her nose was small, and her face was round. She wore a blue shirt that looked like it was tight, and her pants were blue and tight like the shirt.
She unlooked one of the doors and let me inside. When I entered the lobby like area I looked to the left and saw a hallway that has three doors, two of which are made of wood and the other was open at the time. She resealed the door and metal shutters covered the glass.
Stolen story; please report.
“Why did you do that?” I said as I spun to face her.
“It’s almost dark, the scavengers are going to be out, why are you acting so surprised.” Her left brow raised in question.
“I got here very recently, I don’t know about any scavengers.” I said as she walked to her desk and reaching to something underneath it.
“Oh, so you’re from the suburbs then, I heard that they are having a religious conflict. Is that why you left?” She grabbed a baton walked over to me and gave it to me. She then walked over to the entrance of the hallway and stopped.
“Why did you give me this?” I said while I inspected the baton, it looked like it was in good condition and felt brand new.
“Come with me we need to enter the Library and the baton is in case the scavengers break through. They have been more ruthless in recent nights.” Martha said as I put the baton in my right jacket pocket and approach her.
Martha turns to the hallway and calmly walks into the threshold of the open doorway, I followed a few steps behind. “So… the ‘Scavengers’ I assume scavenge the buildings and such.”
Martha gave a light chuckle as she grabbed a flashlight from a row of them. “The Scavengers do more than collecting trinkets, they will also kill in order the harvest parts of your body and no one knows want they do with the parts. The aftermath is always… messy.”
All I gave in response was a disturbed oh as we descended a stony staircase that plunged into the darkness, the flashlight hardly made a dent.
After walking for a few minutes, I heard the distant groan of metal and a clank of gears coming from behind me, ahead I could make out a platform signifying the end of the stairs. We stood in the dark hallway with an old broken door in front of us. Martha walked up to the old broken door and knocked on it.
The door swung open, blinding us with a sudden light. After a few seconds my vision adjusted to the light and I saw that the hallway was made of stone brick that only looked a few days old and that the stairway was replaced with a wall. The door in front of me was made of industrial steel.
Inside the doorway was a library filled to its maximum capacity and robotic arms zipped around on tracks build between shelves. Martha gasped in awe next to me and looked around the room in amazement. She stopped when she saw a man sitting at a rectangular table for four people at the left of the room, she than walked over to him and grabbed his attention. I proceeded to investigate a protruding device near me.
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Prospective: Henry
I’m a damn fool, in my haste to solve this mystery I left the security door open without setting a timer. Without a timer the door automatically closes after 30 minutes, too much time in my opinion. In that time Martha and a girl named Sam entered the Library. This is the worst possible situation and I need to get them out of here as soon as possible.
“Do you know if any Scavengers have entered the building?” I ask Martha as she sits across from me.
“I do not but I can confirm that the steel door is closed.” She says while tilting her head to look at the stack of books on the table.
“That’s good, I just need to retrieve a few more books then we can return to the office.” I close the book in front of me and place it on the stack.
“The Theoretical Properties of the Zelphorite Crystal by Abigail Farr.” Martha looks at me with confusion written on her face.
“I’ve never heard of this book before, what exactly is this place?” They can’t know the truth of this place.
“The book didn’t have many prints and was heavily disowned by other old world scientists.”
Martha looks skeptical and before she spoke Sam slammed 13 books on the table and took the empty set next to Martha. Surprised by the noise, Martha yelped and jumped about a foot. “Sam, you scared me. Why do you have so many books?”
“This place is new to me and I want to learn what I can from this library.”
She glances at me and Martha then asks, “ do you have any personal experience that could help me in the place?”
I get out of my chair and grab my stack of books, “I got some advice for you. First, don’t trust the merchants and second, don’t go out at night no matter what region you are in.”
Sam’s left eye brow raised. “Why shouldn’t I be out at night in these regions.”
Martha spoke up this time while she took some of the books from my stack. “In the country region the scavengers come out at night and loot barns, crops, and houses. In the suburban region are Big Mama’s ‘children’ who take people and cook them. Lastly, the most dangerous region is the city, about half of the people who live there come out at night and most of them kill for fun.” She did air quotes when she said Children and shuddered when talking about the city, as did I.
I start walking to the door that leads to the stairs when Sam calls out. “Are we going back upstairs?”
I stop and turn to face her. “Yes, I believe no Scavengers will be meeting us tonight also me and Martha need sleep.” I turned back to the door and exited to the stairs, not looking if they fallow as exhaustion crept up my body.
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