The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

1.2. The Note (Imorah)

**See the media above for a detailed map of The Shelter.**

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1.2. The Note

When Imorah pushed open one of the few hermetically sealed doors in the entire underground shelter, she knew she'd come to the right place. The clues to this mysterious note just had to be here, where her Grandmother had spent most of her life before she'd disappeared.

But maybe she hadn't killed herself like everyone thought? Maybe she's still alive? Imorah gulped. The note had destroyed her understanding of her own history, and put all her beliefs into question.

Imorah shook her head. Stop it! she reprimanded herself, trying to push away the disturbing thoughts. You have a job to do and not much time to do it. If there was any chance her grandmother was still alive then she had to do whatever she could to find her.

She breathed deeply as she entered and the smell of the library instantly calmed her.

Due to high-powered dehumidifiers and a constant ambient seventeen-degree temperature, the library was the only place that escaped the smell of musty sweating rocks and the human odours of life underground. Here it smelled more like Imorah imagined 'buildings' must have smelt like above, before The Great Descent sixty-four years ago

The library was split into two sections — the public-facing portion that held around thirty thousand books, and the vast, seventeen story deep archive that held over seven million books. This was the largest collection of the remaining books on the planet. The protection of these remnants of humanity's culture and civilisation was the primary function of the shelter, and the people who lived here, a group called The Family, were dedicated to that cause.

Imorah headed straight for the archives. She passed through the public library — rows upon rows of popular literature and nonfiction — and the librarian's desk that was dark and empty, and entered the archives hallway at the very back.

The hallway was dark, but Imorah knew her way around. She'd grown up in this place and spent most of her life here, buried in books. The world of books was a world she understood.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and entered the first archival room determined to find the book her note had come from. She was certain the note held a hidden clue, and the person who wrote it meant her to find it. The words at the end "You know where it is" could only mean the Library. That was the only thing Imorah knew. Her grandmother had been the head librarian here and Imorah had worked as assistant librarian since her grandmother's disappearance.

She set the bag on the table and commanded, "Lights, please, level four." The lights came on.

Computer," she asked, "please display the library books retrieved from the archive in the last 10 rotations."

The computer answered, "There were 3037 books retrieved since A01.1. How would you like them displayed?"

3037 books in ten rotations... Imorah bit her lip. She hadn't expected there to be so many people reading paper books from the archive. It was a long shot that she would find the book this way, but she had to try.

Imorah took out the note from her breast pocket, and lay it out flat on the table in front of her. The paper had been ripped from a book — must have been, because The Family didn't use real wood fibre paper for communication. It was an archaic method, and extremely inefficient. Plus, three corners of the page were smooth and cut, while the fourth was ragged.

She burned with a desire to know who had written the note. Did she have a friend she wasn't even aware of? Someone who cared... were there others like her, who didn't belong?