K. T. Swartz by Zombie Bowl

Author:Zombie Bowl
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-07-19T13:51:51+00:00

The Library:

She stood outside the Public Library on West Broadway and considered the broken pane of glass in the door. The shards were long gone, giving her no hint of whether something smashed its way into the library or out of the library. Nothing moved inside – at least, not in the few minutes she’d been standing there watching the front entrance. The building, by all appearances, was empty, forgotten. But they all looked that way. As she stood there, watching the darkness, nostalgia wiggled its way up from the depths of her mind.

She’d spent so many years as a kid in the library. Her arms full of books, she’d wobble up the steps from the children’s section and carefully slide them across the counter, where one of the librarians – Ms. Mallory – would scan each book’s barcode and restack them for her. Her mom had constantly enrolled her and her brother in the library’s summer reading programs, and the room these events took place in had a two-way mirror; she remembered putting her face up the glass and looking inside the room. Sometimes people were behind it, but most times not. If she really thought hard, she could remember the library before its second renovation. Its third incarnation stood before her now. She’d outlived the building, and that was an uncomfortable thought.

There were no more people left to pull books from the shelves, no more people to absorb the overwhelming amount of knowledge – a timeline of humanity’s growth and creativity – captured on paper. And this was only what could be referenced. What about what existed within each person’s mind? How much was lost of this world and how much would never be recovered? The thought made her stomach roll. Earth would never be the same. It couldn’t, because there weren’t enough people to support the knowledge it once had. No library should be empty, left to rot were no one could appreciate its wealth.

She glanced up and down the street. Further up, a solitary zombie loitered by a tree near a two-story brick house converted into a small-town lawyer’s office. The sign out front still hung from the lamppost: Crawford & Crawford. Brothers. They used to go to her church years ago, when she lived here, but that was well over ten years ago. Were the Crawford brothers among the other dead wandering Danville’s streets? Had she already killed them? How many other people had she killed that she knew?

She shook her head. What a dangerous train of thought that was: empathy for the dead. Foolishness like that would get her killed. She pulled out a baseball bat she’d found at the B&B and walked inside the library. Clicked on her flashlight. Movement behind the counter had her light swinging toward it. A shifting shadow. Clear eyes dilated with the bright light. The zombie didn’t flinch; instead moaned. The librarian was still in uniform, with her nametag displayed on her lapel: Angela. Angela had long blond hair that hung halfway down her back.

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