post_apocalypse_story/06 Library At Night.md

If you are here just for reading, skip past the outline.

*Outline:*

* *Annie and Isabelle go to library* 
  * *enter the place, find computer*
  * *turn it on (following rough instructions and figuring it out)*
  * *figures out how to CLI (using instructions)*
  * *copy the file to a floppy disk*
* *One of them trips some sort of alarm before leaving? Idk.. Something has to happen tho.*
* *Annie drops the floppy and a note with Jack’s number off at Karl’s place*
* *Annie goes home and falls asleep*

11:30 PM - Isabelle and Annie find themselves at the side entrance to the library. They try a couple keys before finding the right one. The door swings open with a quiet squeaking noise. The air inside is warm and dry. The door closes and latches behind them. They turn on their flashlights.

Following the description Lucas had given, they find their way into a small room in the basement. They close the door behind themselves and look around. To the left is a desk with a terminal and a bunch of small devices that are connected together using many cables. The wall in front of them is lined with racks that are almost as tall as the room itself and filled with computer equipment. To the right is a shelf with boxes.

"I guess this is it. Let’s take a look at the instructions Karl gave you." Isabelle says in a hushed voice.  
Annie pulls the note out of her bag.  
"First step is turning on the terminal... Hey, Lucas said something about using a new floppy disk, can you search for that?"  
Annie walks over to the terminal; Isabelle looks at the boxes on the shelf.  
Annie inspects it for a power switch.  
"There’s a box with cookies back here."  
She pulls it out from behind the terminal. They giggle.  
"I want one." says Isabelle.  
Both end up taking a cookie before stashing the box behind the terminal again.

Annie flips the power switch. The terminal makes a bonk sound and a crackling noise. She feels the hairs on her hand stand up as she inadvertently moves it in front of the screen.  
"Whoa..."  
The screen begins to light up.  
"I guess this is supposed to happen."  
Annie looks at the note again.  
"‘Turn on main power switch on computer’...", she mumbles to herself.  
She looks at the racks. They are mostly filled with what looks like large drawers with buttons on them. The one in the center is different. It has a bunch of empty panels, some panels with buttons and lights on them, and some other devices.

"I found you a new floppy disk." Isabelle interrupts her.  
She pulls a large, square, floppy thing in a paper sleeve out of one of the boxes. She pulls it out of the paper sleeve. Turns out, it’s another sleeve made out of thin plastic with some openings and a black, glossy circle inside.  
"Lucas said to put it in the computer and push a lever down."
They look back and forth between it and the computer for a moment until Isabelle says: "This could fit in here."  
She walks up to the center rack and inserts it into one of the devices that have a large, flat slot and a mechanism in the center. She pushes on the mechanism and it latches.  
"What’s next?"  
"The note says to turn on the 'main power switch'", Annie repeats while inspecting one of the panels with buttons.  
"Maybe this one?" Isabelle points to a key switch.  
"Let’s try." Annie grabs the keys. One of them fits and turns.

Fans come on; they hear the loud noise of air rushing through the computer. Some of the lights and buttons light up. Annie looks at the note again:  
"‘Spin up boot hard drive’... Lucas has also written here: 'Drive number 2'"  
The two look back at the racks.  
"These drawer thingies here have numbers on them, maybe that’s what they mean?"  
Isabelle walks up to number two and presses the power button. It starts blinking. The device makes a loud clicking noise followed by a motor accelerating inside. More clicking and mechanical noises. The power switch lights up.

"The last step on the note is to press ‘reset’ and ‘load’ and to enter something into the terminal. They also wrote down a list of commands that might help us to find and copy the manual, and ‘Good luck!’..."  
Isabelle pushes the buttons and they walk over to the terminal.

*Note: I originally planned to have a section about figuring out the terminal here, assuming I could make it somehow interesting. That said, at this point I’m not sure of the benefit to the story.  
I tried to do an experiment to see how people who aren’t familiar with the CLI would go about it, but I don’t have any results. I’ll decide if I still want to include something like that when I actually have results.*

After a lot of typing into the terminal and figuring things out the hard way - and maybe a couple more cookies disappearing - they find the manual on one of the hard drives and manage to get it onto the floppy disk. They follow the instructions to turn the computer off and Annie puts the floppy disk into her bag.

"Shhh." Isabelle gestures for Annie to be quiet. She whispers: "Do you hear that?"  
Footsteps. Annie nods. Someone is in the building with them. Opening and closing the door as quietly as possible, they sneak out of the room and back towards the stairs. The footsteps are coming closer.  
"Shit", Isabelle whispers.  
They turn around and sneak to the other end of the hallway. It opens up into a room filled with crates that has small windows near the ceiling. The footsteps are starting to make their way down the stairs. Annie reaches for one of the windows and opens it as quietly as possible while Isabelle moves one of the crates under it - not quite as quietly. The person on the stairs starts running. Isabelle jumps onto the crate and quickly climbs through the wondow. Annie, trying to follow her example, struggles to get onto the crate. Isabelle helps her out of the window - not a moment too soon.  
"Hey, stop!", the man yells at them from inside, "Stay where you are!"  
They start running.  
"I’m gonna catch you."

Isabelle runs ahead, leading Annie into a dark alley. There, she climbs onto a ledge on the side of a building, pulling Annie up after herself. They continue running on the ledge until reaching a wall at the end of the alley. Isabelle jumps, grabs hold of the railing at the top, pulls herself up, and climbs over it.
"Wait here."  
She disappears.  
*missing: Annie thoughts*  
A moment later, she returns holding a ladder. Annie climbs up and pulls the ladder up after her. Isabelle takes it and stashes it on the other side of the embankment. Annie finds herself between the tracks of the metro. The Central Square station is close by, they run towards it along the tracks. The rails start ringing just as they make their way onto the platform.  
Isabelle says with a smirk on her face: "I don’t think he expects us to have a yellow and red getaway vehicle waiting..."