Vitality In A Wasteland

3

Ace arrived by the library and was surprised to see a desk full of manuscripts and Cait sitting, decoding them.

"Good. you're here," Cait said. "Take a seat. Today will be really hard even with both of us."

"What are we doing?" Ace asked pulling a chair.

"Our job entails both of us need to read through old papers. I got a guide of seven different languages we can use. Today we need to go through as many papers as possible. Each is in a different language, and I believe it will help us."

"Help with what?"

Cait sighed then said, "Recoding dumbass. We need to fill the blank spots between each shelf with something. But it must all be transcoded so we can understand it."

"Right," Ace took a piece of brown paper. On it was rows and rows of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ace heard of Egypt before and recognised some symbols but did not understand any of them. The paper was not as ancient as the Egyptians, but I was printed before the fall.

"Where did you find these?" Ace asked.

"The guide had shown me a cabinet full of them. There is enough to keep us busy for a long, long time. Choose one language and we will systematically work from there."

This was the first time Ace seen Cait so organised. During school she always kept her notes messy and unorderly but down here she was completely different. Maybe the air filter is on the frits down here, Ace thought.

"On your tablet is a section called 'basic linguistics and thesaurus', use it for decoding." Said Cait.

The day went by so fast Ace had forgotten he was even meant to be doing working about an hour ago. His eyes were set on Egyptian hieroglyphics all day. He was fascinated by what he was reading. To decode the symbols Ace would search through an archive of videos, books, and dictionaries. He converted the symbols to letters of the English alphabet then went to work getting the words to make sense to even the dumbest person. Most papers talked about what materials were used to build the pyramids how many slaves were traded and even an in depth look at how many poor people starved in Egypt. It was all generalised but still Ace had reading through them like he was addicted.

He did not agree with the system but knew this job might just be perfect. He never did many physical sports besides swimming and liked silence. Cait sat opposite him. She had her ears plugged as she read and sorted documents into a large pile. She ignored anything around her even Ace asking where to find the keys for the shelves so he could lock off for the day. Finally, long after work was supposed to end, Ace stood and called it a day.

He headed for the door, stretching his paining legs and stiff back when Cait said, "So you want to see if the radio is working?"

"Sure," Ace said, "But isn't that frequency only later this evening?"

Cait laughed, "Dumbass, its already eight at night!"

"What?" Ace said surprised.

"Yeah," Cait smiled, "What the hell did you expect? Have you not been checking the time?"

Ace looked at his shoes.

Cait stood up and walked over to a sheet and pulled it away, revealing the radio.

"You know," She said, "I have never seen anyone so focused on work like you. I slipped out at like twelve today and went to get the radio. Did you do not hear me setting it up right next to you?"

Ace didn't answer. He thought Cait was the one too focused on the work, nethermind him drawing the world around him black.

Cait switched on the radio and sat the wrong way round a chair. She waited and waited but nothing came on.