“Man, what happened to this place?” I pick up a rock near one of the several fallen down houses on the block. “I don’t know what you were expecting, Alexia. The last 4 town we were at looked exactly the same” Helen said from behind me. “I know, but it still surprises me every time I see it” I say back. “I’m just curious as unto why that big building is still standing” Doug says, standing beside Helen. “Maybe it’s just really well built” I say back to the two of them sarcastically. It possible that it was really well built, most old buildings are. But if that were the case, then we didn’t we ever see any other buildings left standing. We came into town just after noon scavenging for food, that’s when we saw the first standing building we’ve seen in quite sometime. “Well, I guess the only thing left to do is head over there and check it out to see what it offers” Doug suggests.

It takes us a few hours to get to the base of the steps to the old building. Climbing over the rubble and staying away from what could be a closed dark area, can’t take any chances with the creatures running loose everywhere. We ascend the steps to the glass double-doors, though there isn’t any glass in the frames or on the ground. Something shiny catches my eye behind one of the pillars, I pick it up. It’s a digital watch, but nothing shows on it due to the emp that knock out all electronics. The cover glass on the watch is chipped and the back is blackened. I put it back down since there’s no use for it anymore. “Be careful when going in, we don’t know what awaits us in there” Doug explains. We slid through the openings of the doors, no need to make any unnecessary noise. The first thing we see is a desk with several books on top of it. “Uh, It’s a Library” I say while scanning the hundreds of books on their assigned shelves. I go ahead of them and start searching the shelves (It’s been so long since I’ve seen this many books) “Be careful” Doug says towards me. “I know” I shu him away. I look at each one of the book like they were treasure, I’m not a book worm but seeing so many books in one place kind of gives it a feel of civilization. I notice comfy looking chairs in a open corner of the library, so I go to check it out. I’ll actually get to sit down on a cushioned place for once, I go to one of the chairs. I’m about to sit down when out of the corner of my eye I see a hand move. I immediately take out the pistol tucked in the back of my pants and aim it at the ground. I walk of to the couch with a body on top, is it dead? Even worse, is it one of the creatures? The hand moves again, I raise the gun up at the body, very shakily. I have to calm down, I take a deep breathe. It only served to make the shaking worse. I hear a moan from under the book on the body’s face. The hands reach up and pull the book off of their face revealing a handsome face.He has on a grey plain long-sleeved shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, and blue jeans. The man swings his feet off the couch and squints at me, “Am I dead?” he asks out of the blue.

“Human?” he asks another question, (What? What’s that suppose to mean?). He jumps up from the couch looking excited “You are human!”, (Yeah, what else am I suppose to be?).

I raise my gun up higher as he tries to get closer to me. Not going to happen, I’ve done that one too many time before. He finally senses the situation and quickly raises his hands up in surrender, “Please don’t shoot” he grins like as idiot. I’m shaking so much, I hate these situations. “Hi, could you point that somewhere else. I don’t want to get shot today” he points at the pistol. That’s when I hear Helen coming from behind the bookshelf, “Alexia… Where did you go?” she asks as see is nearing the end of the shelf. I hear her pull her own gun out. The man shrivels back “I mean you no harm” he said weakly, “I found him sleeping on the couch” I say as calmly as possible. I hear Doug coming up next, “Where did you two go” he turns the corner too “oh”. The man gives another stupid look and shrugs. Doug takes a minute to analyze the scene, “ladies you can put down your guns” “But we don’t know him” Helen says back at Doug. “Trust me, he won’t try and hurt us. He’s not the type to do that” Doug replies. (Are you sure about that?) Helen lowers her gun, (uh, fine) I lower my pistol. Doug steps forward and introduces himself, “my name is Doug” “No worries, Nick is the name” the man says shaking Doug’s hand. “This is Alexia” Doug points at me “and my wife, Helen” , (You don’t have to do that, we hardly know him). “Greeting, well as you can tell, I’m the only one here, except for you now”. They start chatting like it’s nothing, though he doesn’t extrude any ill intent towards us. “So where’s your safe room?” Doug asks, Nick gives a skeptical look (I can’t blame you. A stranger suddenly asking that) “this whole building is safe” Nick says. “Sure, but seriously, where’s you safe room?” “Seriously, this whole building is safe. But if you still don’t want that, I have a basement that we can stay in. Follow me.” Nick walks to a door on the side of the library. (Now that I actually look at him, he doesn’t seem to back. But I don’t know yet) We walk through several other doors. “All of this is part of the library?” I ask curiously. Nick snorts “I guess you came through the same door I came through when I first got here. It’s actually the other way around, this building is a college and that library is connected to it for students and the public. At least it use to be a college… as I said, no one’s been around for a month.” He takes us to a series of staircases headed down. We stop at the bottom of the steps to a heavy steel looking door. Nick taps on the wall by the door and a square lights up, he quickly touches the wall several times. A sound comes from inside the wall, Nick grabs the door and heaves it open. “Go down the stairs and stop at the next door, I’ll meet you there” he says to us. We go down the steps, I look back at him, he closes the door and touches the wall again. (Some type of locking mechanism, I wonder what that’s about. Though this is the only standing building, so I’d imagine several people trying to break in) we stop at the door like he instructed. “Do you really thing we can trust him?” I ask, “Call it a woman’s intuition or whatever, but I think we’ll be fine. I don’t sense anything bad from him.” Helen states, “And call it a man’s thing, but I know we can trust him. The only bad thing I sense from him is…” “What?” I ask quickly, “being a nerd” Doug snickers. Helen hits him “don’t scare her like that” “there’s no harm in a little joke” He says back.

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(The only things I can sense from him is an over abundance of a caring nature, plus lots of joy and a little bit of sadness. Though looking at the world, sadness isn’t exactly surprising) Nick opens the door that looks like it belongs on a submarine, we walk into a pitch black hallway as he closes the door behind him. “Lights… On” he speaks out loud (who is he talking to?), a second later white lights begin to flicker on down the hallway. “What… How?” “I’ll explain when we get into the real place” he continues down the hallway. We follow him to a normal white door, “There’ll be a green light indicating it’s safe. It was the only thing I couldn’t get turned off.” We look at him puzzled. He opens the door and we step through, he closes it and the room seemed to suction itself in. Then sure enough, a green light covered the tiny room we were in.

Nick briefly explained what this place was, though something was strange when he mentioned the scientist. And there was power, actual power running everything. (Wait, does this mean… ) “Can we have hot showers?” I ask. “Yes, yes you can. But try to make it fast” he gave another one of those idiot looking grins. He went into another room and emerge with several towels, “If you would follow me, ma belle” he said with a nice looking smile. (What did he say, sounded like a different language. Anyways, he’s being so nice and caring. If we’re going to have any of this work out for us, I need to get on good terms with him.) We walk into a short hallway into a medium sized room. He should me how everything worked and gave me shampoo. (Man, I haven’t used the type of shampoo in 4 months) He put the rest of the things on the bar and started out of the room. “Um… I’m sorry for pointing the gun at you earlier” I say, trying to speak up. “It’s okay, I would’ve probably done the same things. If we’re on good terms, then it doesn’t really matter anymore” he says, and at that he walks out. (Guess I didn’t get to him very well this time, I’ll have to try again later) I turn on the water.

I turn off the water and wrap a the towel around my body (oh no, I didn’t think about a change of clothes. I’ll have to get Helen to bring me some), I walk towards the hallway. There’s a white cloth on the ground, I pick it up and unfold it, some undergarments fall out. (It’s a dress. It looks so pretty too.) I quickly put it on. “Are you decent?” I hear Helen outside, “Yes” I say. Helen and Doug walk in, Helen puts on a big smile. “I knew that was the right choice” she said, “Why something this nice” I ask. “One, because we may not get this chance again. And two, kind of celebration in the bad times. I’m sure Nick will instantly fall for you when he sees you” she winks at me, I feel heat rise in my cheeks. “And yet I get hit for those types of comments” Doug mutters under his breathe, Helen ignores him.

I walk out to find Nick cutting up some veggies, he looks up. He whistles, “Oh my. you are… beyond words, ma belle” he lowers his head shaking it. I feel the heat on my cheeks again (There’s those words again.) “Could you put these on the table over there?” he hands me the bowl and points at the big table in the middle of the room. Little bit later he puts a platter filled with slices of pizza on the table and a pitcher of water. We eat in peace.

The lights start to dim, and Nick calls it a night. He also makes a joke at Helen and Doug. I have to sleep out here with him, at least it’ll be across the room. Nick cleans up the table and begins to wash the dishes, I try to help be he shue me away to sleep. “Good Night, and sweet dreams. You’ll be safe here for now.” Is the last thing I hear that night from him. (I really do hope so).