Chapter one
Elara walked slowly through the dusty library, trailing her fingers along the spines of books as she went. The sunlight streaming through the cracked windows illuminated particles of dust floating through the air. She paused to peer at the titles on the shelves, though she couldn’t recall the last time she’d read an actual book. Most of the books here were useless for survival—old novels, textbooks, encyclopedias—but Elara was drawn to them nonetheless. Books were a glimpse into the past, before the world had fallen into ruin.
She made her way to the back corner of the library, which had become her favorite spot. A small table stood there, with two chairs on either side. On the table was a stack of blank papers and some pens and pencils she’d scavenged from around the library. She’d been coming here everyday for the past couple of months, after discovering the library on one of her long, lonesome walks through the nearby ghost town. She would sit here and write letters to no one, just to pass the time and keep herself from going insane with loneliness.
Elara sat down and twirled a pencil in her fingers, thinking about what to write today. Her mind drifted back to her childhood—she’d grown up in this very town, before everything fell apart. She didn’t like revisiting those memories, of home and family and better days. The memories cut too deep, opening old wounds that never properly healed.
Sighing softly, Elara began writing on a blank page. She started with the date—October 29th, 2023—out of habit, even though dates were meaningless now. No one was keeping track of calendars in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Elara’s concept of time was limited to sunrise and sunset, the moon waxing and waning.
She wrote:
Dear friend,
It was twenty years ago today that it all ended. Or maybe it was nineteen. I’ve lost count of the years since civilization collapsed. But every time October 29th comes around, I think back to that day, the day everything we knew disappeared in a flash of light...
