The story continues…
Day 47: She was though the barrier.
She was through the barrier. Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Not dead,’ she thought. ‘That has to be a good sign.’
Anna looked around. The street she was on was a wide boulevard, the main entranceway into the city. There were buildings lining the street. They were shuttered and locked. Anna assumed that whoever worked or lived in those buildings left with the evacuation or died. Anything in the shops would more than likely have been taken by someone. She had no desire to rummage through the empty buildings. She knew the archives had been left intact and that was where she needed to go.
Finding it was surprisingly easy. The road ran straight and then she needed to turn left following another wide boulevard up the hill to the archives. Anna feared collapsed buildings blocking her way but if there was collapse then it was the roof collapse and it fell in and not out into the street. She thought it might be worse in the smaller, narrower side streets but with the wide thoroughfare she had easy access.
As Anna walked she inhaled and found the air smelled strange. She realized it was the lack of anything living. There was no pollen in the air, no scent of growth or cooking. There was nothing living in the city but her. The spell cleansing the city went down to the microscopic level, stripping out everything.
‘Just as eerie as the plains though,’ she decided. Because of the silencing spell on her, Anna made no sound as she passed and cast no shadow. ‘I wonder if this is what ghosts feel like.’
Anna had never believed in ghosts and decided now was probably a bad time to start. Given the strait roads and easy directions, Anna soon found herself in the archives. The building was carved out of the mountain itself. The front was fitted into the rock with the front windows providing light into the central arrival area. The rest of the archives was sealed off from the world. The main door was off its hinges and Anna worried if the archives were plundered before the city was evacuated.
She slipped inside and found that nothing appeared to be missing. The atrium was bathed in light from the many sealed skylight piercing the dome of what started out as a large cavern. While Anna knew that she could create light if she needed, she was just as happy to have it naturally. She knew that she could shield so that no one would see it, even if the town was full instead of empty, but was just as pleased that she didn’t need to.
Deciding to figure out where things stood before the light faded, Anna wandered through the archives, looking for signs. Here, locked away the signs were less faded. She soon discovered that this archives was set up exactly as all of the other archives. It was a relief as she would easily be able to find what she wanted.
Ten til Midnight 