CH 15: Library and Visitor (2)
Day 14. 6:42 A.M.
Jordan woke up to the sound of cereal being eaten too loudly and a cat scratching poetry into the walls.
He blinked blearily, pulled his hoodie over his face, and tried to pretend he was anywhere but a post-apocalyptic bookstore with sentient beanbags and weaponized literature.
"You want oatmeal or experimental trail mix?" Nana asked from the front counter.
"Do I have to choose?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll take regret."
---
Breakfast was shared quietly. Carl sat across the room, spooning canned peaches into Ellie's bowl like it was just another Tuesday. Ellie giggled every time the peach slipped off the spoon and flopped into the bowl with a splash.
They were both smiling.
Slightly.
Just a little.
Always.
Jordan had noticed it the night before. Carl smiled when the lights flickered. Ellie smiled when a book screamed open by itself.
Nana made a joke about haunted romance novels, and they'd both just... smiled. Not wide. Not creepy. Just constant.
Like they were already in on something.
Something big.
Something he wasn't.
---
He didn't say anything.
Didn't ask.
He'd met enough people since the fall who talked too much and lived too little. So he chose silence. And cereal.
"You heading out today?" Carl asked, offering a final peach slice.
Jordan nodded. "I've got a location. Sort of."
He unfolded the old, laminated map he'd found wedged in a mailbox three towns back. The one that pointed toward a red-circled area in bold marker:
NODE POINT?
Beneath it:
"Burned but breathing. Don't knock."
"You're sure about this place?" Nana asked, sipping her coffee.
"No," Jordan admitted. "But I've followed weirder leads for less reason."
"Fair," she said, tossing a peanut to Boba the Cat, who caught it mid-air without blinking.
---
Jim offered him a replacement spoon, a headlamp, and a book titled "If You're Still Reading This, You're Not Dead Yet: A Survival Guide".
"Thanks," Jordan said. "This place is… a lot. But comforting."
"That's the goal," Jim replied. "Weird, but warm."
He slung his backpack over his shoulder.
The hallway creaked.
Carl helped Ellie zip her hoodie. She looked at Jordan with her tiara slightly askew and waved with her spoon.
Still smiling.
Just slightly.
"Good luck," she said softly.
Carl nodded. "Stay safe out there."
Jordan hesitated. Just a beat.
"You two," he said, forcing a smile of his own. "Try not to break the universe."
They chuckled.
They didn't stop smiling.
---
He turned and walked to the door. The moo-bell gave one final, glorious "MOOOOOOO."
The sunlight hit his eyes like a bad decision.
As the door closed behind him, he muttered:
"If they're hiding something, I really don't want to know what."
He checked the map.
Took a breath.
Then headed off toward the spot labeled NODE POINT, still half-convinced it was either a sanctuary or a very enthusiastic trap.
He never looked back.
---
Day 14. Late Morning. Chapters & Choppers.
The apocalypse wasn't on fire this morning. That was, honestly, a good start.
Carl woke up in a sleeping bag that smelled like vanilla and regret. He stretched, yawned, and blinked at the fake fireplace made of string lights and battery-powered tea candles.
Nana was already awake, sitting cross-legged on an ottoman and sharpening a butter knife like it owed her money.
Toby was curled up in a beanbag labeled "CHAOS SEAT," wearing Jim's backup bunny hoodie. He was muttering about memes in his sleep. Occasionally, he giggled.
Ellie sat crisscrossed at the table, face buried in a book titled "5-Minute Apocalypse Snacks." She looked deeply offended.
"This book says to put raisins in everything."
"That's illegal," Carl replied without looking.
"They called it 'texture contrast.' I call it war."
---
Carl stood and stretched, rolling his shoulders with a satisfying crack. "Alright. Morning inventory. Who's emotionally stable?"
Nana raised a brow.
Toby flopped over and groaned.
Ellie said, "I had a dream where a dog told me secrets and then dissolved into mist. So... maybe?"
"Good enough," Carl said. "Pack it in, folks."
---
They didn't leave right away. Leaving a place like Chapters & Choppers was like leaving a childhood sleepover, but with slightly more automatic crossbows and a slightly less forgiving cat.
Jim had set up pancakes.
Sort of.
They were made from expired instant mix and something he called "cat-safe flour." The texture was… brave. The taste was "aggressively chewy." Nana used one to test her knife's edge.
"Still works," she said, sawing it cleanly in half.
Ellie tried to stack three and pour syrup on them. The syrup slid off and fled the scene.
Toby tried to eat one and gave up halfway through, dramatically declaring:
"I am become wheat death."
Jim simply nodded like this was normal.
---
Before they left, they all made one last round of the bookstore.
Toby wandered the meme section again. He found a copy of "404 Jokes Not Found: Internet Humor from the Before Times."
He held it to his chest like a sacred relic.
"This book has a Doge joke written in Comic Sans," he whispered. "I am healed."
---
Ellie went back to the horror section and left sticky notes inside every vampire novel she could find. Most of them read things like:
"This guy's toxic. Dump him."
"Red flag alert, but literally."
"Team Garlic 4 Life."
---
Carl found himself lingering near the self-help section.
He stared at one particular title: "Rebuild Yourself: Finding Peace in Chaos."
He didn't pick it up.
But he read the back cover.
Twice.
Then walked away quietly.
---
When the sun was high enough to bake the sidewalk, they finally packed up.
Jim handed Nana a final gift — a small firework labeled "RUN FAST, OLD LADY."
"You're legally required to tell me if this explodes twice," Nana said.
"It might," Jim replied.
Boba the Cat watched from atop the bookshelf throne like a tiny monarch. Ellie gave her a respectful bow. The cat blinked, then turned away like a tsundere anime character.
"She liked me," Ellie said confidently.
"She clawed your arm," Carl said.
"Affectionately."
---
They loaded up the red wagon: a half-empty water jug, seven new books, one haunted plush raccoon (Toby swears it winked), two cans of peaches, and exactly zero expectations.
Toby stuck one last sticky note on the front door before they left:
"We came. We read. We did not pay late fees."
Jim waved them off with his spatula raised.
The cowbell mooed as the door closed behind them.
---
Outside, it was warm. Breezy. The city felt less like an apocalypse and more like a weird vacation — if that vacation included undead raccoons, radio static, and people in lemon robes doing yoga in the distance.
Carl looked at the map in his pocket. No destination circled. No Node Point.
"Where to now?" Toby asked.
Carl shrugged. "East-ish."
"That's not a direction."
"Sure it is. It's east... adjacent."
"I like it," Ellie said. "Feels loose. Improvisational. Like jazz."
---
They walked on.
Down the empty street with overgrown vines climbing old mailboxes.
Past a chalk message that read:
"Reality is broken. Be back in 5."
And under a streetlight with a paper sign taped to it:
"Please don't wake the pigeons. They remember the war."
Carl didn't even ask anymore.
He just smiled.
So did Ellie.
Just slightly.
---
End of Chapter 16 – Library and Visitor (2)
> The world had ended, sure — but you wouldn't know it from the way they walked. The sun was warm, the wagon still rolled, and if you didn't look too closely, everything felt just fine.
---