It was ridiculous how much the desecration of my sanctuary affected me. Especially after knowing I was strong enough to survive an apocalypse and rebuild a life from scratch. It wasn’t like the only life I ever knew was being destroyed and I had to learn the ways of a new world. I’d done that already. These werejust some books on the floor. Why did it feel like such a punch in the gut?
I’d only reshelved a few books when I realized I should probably scan all the books in each section as I shelved them to figure out which ones were missing. Unfortunately, my scanner was hooked up to my laptop, which was currently gone.
Wonderful.
Since I spent much of my days here with access to my laptop, I opted not to have a personal phone. I didn’t need one, not when everyone I cared to talk to lived in the same building. But I did have access to the rental phones. On top of borrowing books and videos, Franklin residents could also borrow equipment.
We had cell phones, tablets, sewing machines, projectors, calculators, and even common tools available to anyone with a library card. Clearly, whoever had ransacked my library hadn’t known about these goodies, because the cupboard was left untouched. All the more reason to believe that the culprits were the newcomers. Had they sent Jason in earlier to scout the place out so they could make a quick grab and dash during the chaos of the fire alarm?
I reached for one of the phones and signed in so I could access the library network and link up the scanner. I couldn’t believe we’d survived on a non-digital system for the first year or two. Now that we’d set the library up digitally, things went so much smoother. And we were able to link up with other libraries and cross-reference with all the settlements around the world. Well, at least the ones that were Xarc’n-friendly, since our system piggybacked off of the Xarc’n network.
The first thing I noticed was the notification from Kitten Kurt flashing on my home screen. Unfortunately, there were nokittens available for at least a few months, and we were already on the wait list.
There was a knocking at the door before it opened, and Janice stuck her head inside.
“I heard what happened. I thought maybe you’d want some help cleaning up. And I brought dinner.” She shoved the door the rest of the way open with her shoulder and walked in carrying a tray of hot food. “I promise not to fuck up your system.”
I trusted her. She’d worked in libraries before. And plus, I really needed a friend right now. My emotions were all over the place.
When the settlement was new, Janice and I were the only “little old ladies” of the group. We weren’t actuallythatold, but after a whole year of trying to survive, we were both looking quite haggard. It was a good thing too, because our leader back then, Richard, had been a corrupt bastard.
It had been the first winter after the big collapse, and we’d survived the crazy summer swarms. The scourge numbers were down so much that we were sure we’d beat the bugs back for good. Richard went on and on about how we had to repopulate and keep our future alive. It was time to rebuild and time to take Earth back. And he convinced us that the best way to do that was with new life.
A few women actually volunteered at first. But soon they put in a system where any fertile woman who didn’t bring back enough during their foraging had to join the New Mothers program. By the time spring rolled around, the once noble idea of creating new hope through new life had disintegrated into something more akin to sex trafficking.
Janice and I had been kept so busy with all the supplies the foragers brought back every day while cooking for a literal small village that we hadn’t realized what was really happening. It still made me physically ill to recall the day I wandered into a part of the building I hadn’t been in for a while, and realized many of the rooms had locks on the outside.
When confronted, Richard had given us two choices: shut up and keep doing our jobs, or leave. At that point, it was abundantly clear that we had not, in fact, beaten the bugs back and that the swarms were going to be even worse that summer. So he basically said, "Deal with it or die." We’d considered poisoning his food, but that wouldn’t solve the problem. It wasn’t just him. It was Mama Sal, and all the abusive assholes who’d known it had been happening all along.
We were just getting a plan together to fuck shit up when Connie, one of our foragers, had run off and gotten herself shacked up with a Xarc’n hunter. Jorg’k’s hunter group lived with some very decent humans. With their help, we were able to dethrone Richard and Mama Sal, free our women, and kick out the assholes.
This shift in power was the reason why New Franklin was officially New New Franklin. Renaming felt right at the time.
That felt like both ancient news and just yesterday now. We’d come so far and had grown so much. More than half of the population here were newcomers who had no idea of our sordid past.
“Give me your hand,” Janice said, and I numbly obeyed. I was confused until she sprayed isopropyl alcohol on it. Of course. She wasn’t going to let me touch my food without cleaning up first. “Eat first. Reshelve later.”
“I’m not sure I can. It’s hard to have an appetite when my library looks like this.”
“How about a drink then?”
She handed me a cup, and I sniffed it warily. It smelled very much like the hooch that had me drunkenly pawing Ror’k after the knitting bee.
“It’s watered down,” she said, catching my hesitation. “A lot. But I thought you might need it after what happened. We’ll make it a girls’ night. It’s been a while since we had an excuse to hang out other than the knitting club, and that’s not the same.”
We got to work, and she was right: it went a lot faster and was a lot more fun with a friend and drinks in hand. I told her about Ror’k, since it was better for her to find out through me than some other way. She’d never forgive me for keeping her in the dark, and trust me when I say that she wasn’t a good person to piss off. Not only did she know where I lived—we were roommates—but she also controlled the food supply.
“So what now? You two going to get together?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I admitted. “I swore off men, remember? It’s all fun and games until it isn’t.”
She looked offended. “I can’t believe you’re comparing a Xarc’n warrior to your asshole ex Martin. They are not the same thing.”
“I know, I know. But I’m still me, and I’m not sure I’m ready.”
“I understand.” Janice was good like that. “But if you regret missing your chance, don’t come crying to me.”
I chuckled. She was good like that too.
