Burg: Day 7

"What, you get paid to fight?" Xandria teased. "And I thought you weren't a military man."

Then she grew serious, almost sad.

"There will be a lot of changes...you're right. We don't have a normal we can go back to any more."

Burg - Day 7

"You can say that again." Said Jason, his tone grim. But then soon switching back his typical cheery attitude, "and no, I don't get paid to fight. It's a bit more complicated than that."

Burg: Day 7

"So you do, but you don't," Xandria said, looking at him funnily. She shrugged. "here, hold these."

Before he could say anything, she dropped her latest purchases in his arms and headed over to a stall where she could see a lot of baskets hanging. She spent a few minutes haggling over the price (no, she did not care that it was handmade in Aphrique by indigenous women), then returned.

"Thank you," she said brightly, sliding her granola bars out of his arm and dropping them in her bag, then following with the fruits on top. "Can you believe that man's still trying to make people believe that part of his profits for the baskets go to feed children in third world nations? There's no possible way that will happen again any time soon, not with the mess we're in now."

Day 7
Burg

About an hour and a half later, Irene was standing outside the Burg Public Library. Well, it looked abandoned; that eliminated the possibility of a librarian seeing her and recognizing her. That would've made life a bit easier, except for having to explain why she didn't share those memories. Irene shrugged it off and walked up to the front door. She grabbed the handle, opened the door--wait, the door wasn't moving. She groaned and rolled her eyes. Someone had actually thought to lock up before abandoning the library, terrific.

'Well, maybe they didn't get all of the doors.' Irene noted. 'After all, if it was after the Supernova, that wouldn't exactly be the first thing on my mind.' Kind of a slim chance, but she was going to take it; she didn't walk halfway across this city for nothing. Irene started walking around for other doors; a library this size, there had to be more. Well, sure enough; along the side of the building, she could see a door, and alongside it, there was a set of stairs leading down. Irene tried the main level door first; it was still locked. So, Irene walked down the steps, grabbed the handle of the basement door, and... success!

Irene stepped in, and was immediately met with the sight of... shelves and shelves of books. What a huge surprise. Unfortunately, the sight reminded her of something she'd conveniently forgotten on the way her--what, exactly, was she planning to do here? It's not like the library would have extensive information about its patrons here, beyond what books they checked out. Some part of her had hoped that somehow, just standing in a place she knew was familiar... maybe it would've jogged some memories. It didn't look like that was going to work.

"Well, I'm in the basement, after all." Irene noted. "I probably didn't spend a lot of time here. I should probably make my way to the front entrance, and see if I can't piece some things together." Well, it was the only plan she had.... Irene found a set of stairs going up, and before long, she found herself back at the front lobby. There were chairs and tables set up near the entrance; Irene found the closest one and sat down. On the one hand, nothing really popped out at her; she was still as clueless as ever. At the same time, though... the place was familiar, if only vaguely. This was more than just a library; she knew it, not just what it was. Now, more than ever, she was sure she'd been here, sometime before the Supernova.

"It worked once. Let's see if it'll work again."

Burg - Day 7

"Who knows? I mean, the whole darn world is a third world country now. He could be telling the truth." Xandria wasn't the only one who could pull the playful tease card around these parts.

"People lie, it's all part of the program."

Burg: Day 7

"If you don't lie, you can risk getting killed," Xandria said fiercely, hunting around for canned goods. She stopped, then turned back toward Jason, biting her lip. "But then if everyone lies, how can you grow to trust anyone?"

Burg - Day 7

"You don't. I learned that a long time ago."

Jason picked up a can of goods and waved it at her, "this what you are looking for?"

Burg: Day 7

Xandria wandered back over and took it from him, inspecting it, then flipping it over to read the ingredients.

"It'll do," she said, pasting on a quick smile and looking up at him. "Thank you."

Burg - Day 7

"No problem, you know if this keeps on, canned food is going to become a hot commodity. The first person to knock over the city food bank is going to become stinking rich."

He was only half joking.

Burg: Day 7

That's actually not a bad--oh no you don't either. Xandria shook her head.

"What are you, the king of crime lord ideas?" she asked curiously.

Burg - Day Seven

"Just trying to stay alive. But honestly, you'd need at least a five man team. At this point, the bank is probably guarded by at least full squad of soldiers. If I had to call it, I'd say two surveillance men, one of them a sniper, one man to drive the truck and one to engage at close range. You'd have to steal a truck though, that might be the hardest part."

Now he was seriously mulling it over in his head, he'd have to bring that up with the boss.

Burg: Day 7

Xandria stared at him for a moment, then gave a little surprised laugh.

"I'll trust your judgment on that, then," she said, picking up a few more cans and placing them before the seller. "How much for these?"

She finished paying and turned back to Jason, who was still lost in thought. She gave a little sigh, then smiled again.

"I guess I had better go," she said. "If I do too much more shopping, I'll be liable to break my arm getting it all home."

Burg - Day 7

"I'd offer to help, but something tells me that you'd say no."

Burg: Day 7

"You're right," Xandria tittered. "I think I can make it back home on my own. Thanks for hanging out with me, though. It was fun."

Day 7
Burg

Unfortunately, the feeling of familiarity didn't really grow stronger. Irene walked around for a few hours, first going wherever her instincts took her, then trying to map it out in a "logical" way. But that didn't work; the Young Adult section felt no more familiar than Nonfiction, and she didn't want to have to guess what kinds of books she liked. Eventually, she resorted to pulling random books of the shelves, anything that seemed remotely familiar. Some of them, she was pretty sure she'd read them at some point in her life--not a huge surprise when the book she was looking at was Hamlet--but beyond that, she had nothing. It would've been really nice if these books still had sign-out cards, so she could look for her name, but apparently, they'd upgraded beyond that.

Finally, Irene found herself in the middle of the first floor, where there were a few rows of computers. Irene pulled out one of the chairs and slumped in it. Couldn't she have found her driver's license or something, instead of a library card? Or at least something that lead her to her house? She should've known better than to hope it would be that easy, but... seriously, what was she supposed to find?

Irene groaned and shoved the keyboard out of her way, trying to make room so she could bury her head in her arms on the table. However, when she did that, she must've bumped the mouse, because all of the sudden, the screen lit up. Irene almost jumped and fell out of the chair. She blinked a couple of times, as if that would make the scene any less confusing. How was that possible? 'Maybe the library has a backup generator?' Irene wondered. Well, it had to be something like that, since the computer was working. It was opened to the library's main page.

"Perfect!" Irene pulled out the library card again, and looked under the bar code, and sure enough, there was a number listed. She found a link that said "My account", clicked on it, and entered the numbers. It took her to a list of books, with a series of due dates; they had to be books she'd checked out. It was so perfect that Irene decided to stop wondering how it was even possible.

"Understanding Schizophrenia", "Exploring Psychology", "The Basics of Psychiatry"... Irene shook her head. 'I must be a psychology student,' She decided, 'though these don't really seem like high-level books. Maybe I'm taking a psychology class this semester or something.' But still, if that was true, then that pretty strongly hinted that she was, indeed, in college. Surely there had to be a university around here; she could try to find out more there. That is... if there was anything left of the place.