Book Of Ancestors

Today would have been my grandmother's birthday. It has been a year since she passed away and a year since this journey began. I always remember her on her birthday. I remember how frail she was, and how strongly she loved me. I also remember the stories she used to tell me. Grandma would always start her stories by saying “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper” she claimed these were famous words by a man named T.S Eliot but I never understood how she knew these words. After saying these words she would start to tell me stories of the world being overpopulated, cities booming and packed with life and how slowly and quietly the world lost all of its knowledge. She would talk about buying food in large market buildings. This is how I knew she was getting senile, I had been down to those markets and there was never food there only death waiting in the shadows of those tall buildings. The world she talked about only lived in her imagination or at least I thought so until today.

Just before my grandma passed on her deathbed she gave me her heart shaped locket that she always wore around her neck. She pointed to her bed. I ran to it and I couldn’t find anything. When I turned back to ask what she wanted it was too late and the light from her eyes had faded. The day I always feared came and I was alone in this barren world. First came the feeling of being numb throughout my entire body. I got up and went outside and began to dig. For hours I dug in the hard packed earth and barely noticed the tears flowing down my face as I dug her grave. That night I cried like a lost child but silently into my pillow for fear of attracting the night creatures to me with my wails of anguish. I had never seen the night creatures but I have heard them howl in the night.

The next morning I finally began to feel a different feeling. I felt rage . I felt the anger and injustice. Why was I all alone now? The little cabin was bare but I took my anger out on everything I had. I broke the mirror , I threw the chairs, I smashed everything then collapsed to the floor to cry once more. It was there when I was on the floor that I noticed the loose floorboard under the bed. I lifted it up and found a leather bound book. An old book that I remembered from when I was little and had caught a bad fever. I remember grandma reading that book and using it to make me medicine. After that day I had never seen the book again until now. There was a heart shaped lock on the book and that made me wonder if the heart shaped locket and the book were related. I held the little heart in my hand and kept turning it. It felt cold to the touch and felt fairly heavy for something so small and then I noticed a thin line in the edge of the heart and when pressed it released and opened up. Inside grandma’s heart there was a small key.

This book held words not just from my grandmother but from her mother and so on. It seemed like multiple generations of women left their stories in this book and that is how I learned that my home, the woods I had always known, had a name once. I lived in what was once called the Botanical Garden. Years before when the world was full of life people would come here to enjoy nature. Above that line in the book in bold red was written “there are more people out there”. I knew at that moment that I was going to leave this place, I would find out if the book was true and if there were more people out there still alive, after all I couldn’t be the only person left could I? Plus I couldn’t handle living here any more. Without grandma this place that was once warm and loving now felt cold and lonely. I will follow the notes in this book. I will see what else is out there and maybe by visiting these places I ‘ll feel closer to grandma and maybe learn about who my parents were. If I can learn anything new I ‘ll add my own entry into this book.

Today I went to one of the locations listed in the book. A building called the library. Most of the building looked like it would collapse if I even sneezed too loud but I wanted to experience what my grandma experienced. I arrived by noon and the heat was already disgustingly hot. Between the goggles to prevent sand from falling into my eyes and my tattered poncho to protect against the elements and bug bites It was a pleasure to finally step inside out of the heat of the day. The dark cool library was pocketed by small holes in the roof that allowed light inside making it a little easier to travel. At first I was shocked to see so many books. Just walls lined with books after books. I felt so happy to see so many books and wondered what was in them but as I walked and checked the shelves I saw that almost all of these books were falling apart. Covers and titles were barely visible and many of the pages were faded making them worthless. Only my book held any value here. As I continued searching I did find a map that was covered in some type of plastic and it showed the library and the area surrounding the library that was worth coming here for. Perhaps if I kept looking I could find more maps or find something else of value. As I walked deeper into the library a book fell to the ground. I got low and very quiet. I held my breath waiting to hear another sound. A whole minute passed and nothing happened. Just when I convinced myself that I must have nudged a book in passing and that's why it fell, that is when I heard more books fall and now there were steps. The steps of something on four legs were walking in my direction. I moved as quietly and as quickly as I could but I started to hear more steps coming from multiple directions. I kept backing up then I saw the eyes. Cloudy blue eyes peered from the shadow and then I could hear the growling coming from my right, left and in front of me. The night creatures were here. I thought they only functioned and moved at night but it seemed like they could move just as well in the shadow of the day. The first night creature I saw kept walking towards me and I could see its fangs exposed and its constant drool falling down to the ground. The white fur of this wild dog was charred in different spots and it looked infected. The growling began to get louder and I knew if I ran they would chase me so I just slowly kept walking backwards until my back hit the wall. The growls turned to howls and I closed my eyes. I knew it was over. I was going to die here. I waited to feel the fangs pierce my flesh but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and realized I was standing under a large hole in the roof. The sun was pouring directly on me and none of the night creatures dared to come any closer to the light. The burn marks on the fur must be sensitive to sunlight. I was safe for the moment but a new fear started to rise in my throat when I noticed a cloud moving across the sun. The light started to dim and with every second the night creatures got closer. I wasted no time and started to climb up. The old books fell behind me as I climbed up trying to reach the top of the shelf. I just reached the top when the cloud covered the sun and felt the creatures ram into the book shelf. I lost my balance and started to fall backwards but at the last second I grabbed onto the shelf for dear life. My muscles in my arms were already strained from the fear and the climb. At that moment I wished I had packed lighter, or that I was stronger . One of the beasts jumped up and I felt the fang scrape the bottom of my boots. That was all the motivation I needed to climb as hard as I could but on the second lunge up the beast caught my boot. I felt my heart sink for the second time this day and then with a yelp the weight was gone. The clouds moved and the sun was once again shining full force above me. I heard the night creature bark and yell in pain and retreat once more from the sun. I thanked the gods for this mercy and climbed up and out of the library. I laid on the slanted roof and waited until my heart would calm and slow down. I had finally come face to face with one of the dangers my grandma used to warn me about and had almost met my end.

I waited up on the roof until my heart calmed and I realized that I learned something new. The night creature could operate in the day, and that they tended to stay in the shadows. I would have to be more careful on my journey in this world. The Botanical Garden I lived in and hunted small rabbits in was a small place and this world was much larger than I have ever known. I ‘ll update the section in the book with the new information on night creatures and find my next location. According to the map I found there was a place called the halls of records not too far away. Perhaps there I could find some more maps or information. Somewhere in this world there has to be more humans.