Z District: Part II

Just because Anne, Viola, and Auntie Em’s librarian skills seemed to tame, or dare she think, transform the monsters, she was not stupid. She exercised an abundance of caution before going into the stacks to pull the holds. She strapped on a fanny pack that held a few knives and a pistol, and tucked a big knife into the loop she sewed onto the fanny pack. She swept her grey-white hair back up into a ponytail, fixing the messy splay she suffered each morning from riding a motorcycle. Grabbing the holds list and the now empty cart, along with her journal and two pens (you never knew when you’d lose one), she went into the stacks.

Anne decided, that if she were to truly prove her theory about the monsters changing, she needed to be diligent with keeping meticulous records of their interactions with them, as well as all changes they observed. She recorded any physical, mental, or emotional changes she noticed in the monsters who stayed at, or visited the library. And yes, there were monsters, or rather changed ones, who now frequented the library daily, weekly, or monthly, easily being recognized by the facial recognition software.

She used to label them as “the monster with the blue button up shirt,” or “the monster in the sunflower maxi dress,” but recently, she decided to give them names. While she didn’t know what their names were when they were alive (if she couldn’t snag an ID from their pockets), she made up a name for them. She found that this has been producing interesting results.

“Hi, Bob,” she said casually to the changed one in the Hawaiian shirt in the sci-fi section.

“Errrr-uuuuu,” he started.

As she passed by him, she heard him finish his rumble with a “iiii.”

“What are you reading today, Bob?” she asked. “If you haven’t picked one out yet, I would go with the classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I thick you’ll really relate to the protagonist, Arthur. It’s set in space with Arthur’s friend rescuing him before the bureaucratic aliens, the Vogons, destroy the Earth. It’s quite funny, and eventually, in a follow-up book, Arthur teaches another humanoid population on another planet how to make a sandwich.”

“Errrr-uuuuu-oooo,” Bob said staring intensely at the book in Anne’s hand.

She patiently held the book gently until Bob grabbed it, rather aggressively actually, and with a gentle hand, guided Bob to one of the chairs near the wall.

“Sit, Bob,” she said. When he looked at her expressionless, she once again said, “Sit, Bob,” pointing to the chair near them.

By now Bob, along with the other changed ones understood that sitting was typically associated with reading, though she’s not sure how much Bob will read rather than stare at the cover or pages in the book.

Heading back into the stacks, she organized her pages until they were perfectly lined up, and set to work pulling the books off the shelf. It usually took her about an hour or two to pull all the books and media off the shelf before heading back to the circulation desk. She has never gotten over the wonder of being in the stacks. Books lined up neatly on shelves from ankle to above her head, surrounding her on both sides like a big literary hug. She loved the smell of books, the way the pages felt when you turned them, and running a finger over the spine of old books. While all the books in the library were covered with a plastic film for longevity, at home she still had her pre-monster days collection of antiquarian books. Stored in a thick glass case, they survived, along with her cat, Dexter the Prince of Darkness, or Dexie, as she called him. Dexie now lives in the library, one of the, or maybe the only, safe place in the walled off city.

Three years ago, the monster appeared. No one really knows why they appeared, though there were conspiracy theories that China started it, that a person manufactured it at home, that scientists went too far with new vaccines, and Anne’s favourite- there is no plague, the government is hiding something in the city.

No matter what really happened, Anne knew a few things. One, that when the government first found out, they immediately barricaded the city, setting up a perimeter along the barricades, shooting anyone that attempted to escape (for fear of infecting the rest of the population). Two, that no one was coming to help them. They were isolated save some air drops of food, water, and first aid kits sent in. Three, that the infection and the cure were all contained within her city.

Anne recalled a K-drama she watched once where a village was walled off due to a small pox outbreak during the Joseon Dynasty. The doctor in the village who was developing a vaccine was locked in with them since small pox was extremely contagious.

Now living in an internet-free world, very little information was available about what was happening within and outside of the city, save the library (one of the few spaces that still had Wi-Fi due to a brilliant, and now deceased young tech guru). The meager Wi-Fi Anne did have was enough to limp by with emails to and from librarians outside of the walled city (as no other city libraries “survived” the monster plague), and to order library books on Amazon.

While there was no one left to fundraise from (as they had either died or were just in survival mode), and with no federal or local funding for their library, librarians from around the country pooled their personal money and occasionally crowd-funding for Anne, so she could continue to do the work of a librarian. It gave Anne a sense of purpose, a regular routine in this crazy world she was now condemned to live in. She still ordered newly released popular books by in-demand authors like Margaret Atwood, Suzanne Collins, and Diana Gabaldon. She herself couldn’t wait for Gabaldon’s final book in the Outlander series (if she survived).

Before the days of the monsters, Anne, who was never an anxious person, would however, stress out about staying alive long enough watch the next seasons of Wednesday, or Silo, or even the next Avatar films. Will Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij ever be able to finish the OA? She couldn’t wait until authors Tracy Wolff, Jenna Levine, and Erin Sterling published the next book in their respective vampire and witch Romantasy series. She wondered if there was life after death, and if so, could she read or watch them from there? These were the things that kept her up at night.