I decided to slip that bedtime book into my backpack, for a rainy day, and take another look around the shelves just in case there's anything good.

It's nice actually to get to browse a little. I missed books. More than I realized.

Dale kept a few books in the RV. They weren't very good, but it was better than nothing. I think it'd be a good idea to carry that on.

Books might just provide the world-escape stress relieving a few of us desperately need.

A smile pulled at the corners of my lips. Carl looked so...engaged earlier when I was reading. Even when I looked at him, it was like he wasn't there, but in the world of the other story.

Daryl was quiet as always, but I've known him long enough now to know that he doesn't usually listen that intently.

I sighed contently for the first time it what feels like forever; glancing around the room at all of my group. My group.

A gentle, fond smile pulled up my lips while I wandered. It's weird how safe I feel here.

Surrounded by our sleepy little pack and buried deep in the rows of books.

I imagine this is how Daryl feels in the woods. Surrounded by the green and brown of the forest, the smell of ionized rain (hands down one of my favorite smells), the birds and little noises bringing a sense of peace.

That makes me really wanna read a fantasy book. With any luck, I'll be able to find something like The Wheel of Time, or Lord of the Rings, The Candy Shop War, Harry Potter, comic books — Ooooo it'd be awesome if I could find some Marvel comics.

I think Glenn & Carl might enjoy those too. 'Oh that is so happening, now.' I nodded to myself.

I turned back to the shelves, just barely noticing that I'd been looking out the window at the grey sky lining just above the trees. There'll probably be a storm soon.

I can already smell it, even indoors. The sound of trees rustling in the wind drifting through the thin glass panes of the dirty windows.

I haven't heard any thunder yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened any minute now.

It's hard to read some of these titles in the dark, but thankfully most books in this age have shimmery lettering. A play to catch people's attention to the title but it makes reading them now much easier.

'What the...' I pulled a book off the shelf, a pirate ship on the front, the shimmery gold title 'Pirate insults' gleaming like the gold of the treasure chest in the bottom corner.

I caught a brief glimpse of the Cheshire cat smile that took over my whole face, in the lettering.

20 minutes later and I made two piles. One stack is fairly small and those are the books that will be coming with me — I'm gonna need to search for a bigger backpack soon; something durable with lots of space but not too thick would be nice, like a military or swiss army, or travel pack — and the second stack of garbage we can burn. Like gossip rags, how to cross stitch, and the worst books of all time; of which shall not be named but I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who can think of a few.

We've already got a box of the useful books somewhere in all these supplies, but I picked up one or two informational books just cause I like them. One of them on Marine animals, and the other a human physiology textbook.

What? The human body fascinates me, 's painful legitimately painful trying to choose. We don't have a lot of room for stuff like this.

Haaaaa, if I had my own vehicle I'd take more.

I wandered downstairs again to search the bottom floor shelves, and I officially love this store.

I hit the jackpot in the back corner and found 5 Spider-man comics and 4 X-Men (I absolutely did not do a small (wild) happy dance or jump like a an excited teenager and knock a few things off a shelf). I found all 4 of the books I wanted. Plus two others.

Granted Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are popular, but I didn't think The Wheel of Time would be in a little shop like this. I only found the 4th book but that's better than nothing. And the 2nd candy shop war — I didn't even know there was a second one but it gives me something to look forward to.

That's a feeling I didn't realize how much I needed.

I missed getting excited about the future.

I plopped down by the window again, using my goggles to read. I don't wanna risk a candle or flashlight this close to the window in this darkness.

I pulled my legs up and by some magic, squeezed myself against the window frame so I don't fall and flipped open the thick book in my hands, my knees barely giving enough room for my goggles so I can actually read the book.

I'm not gonna say that it's easy to read like this, but you work with what you got.

My legs went to sleep several times and I repositioned myself a lot, at one point I sat on the table a few few feet from the window so I could still see out of it when I glanced up every few minutes to check outside.

As the hours (I'm assuming) passed, I glanced up every now and then to check around. I moved around a bit, almost always ending up back in the windowsill.

A walker shambled past once or twice but didn't so much as glance this way.

About 2 quiet hours passed before my head shot up. I pushed my goggles up and blinked, letting my eyes adjust to the dim light. It's lighter than before even with cloud cover.

That's gotta mean the sun's coming up or will be soon.

A few steady breaths later, specks started to hit the glass and within a few seconds, it was being pelted with rain.

A second rumble echoed across the sky as I watched the drops slid down the pane.

This could be a problem.

I thought about snow and cold. I didn't think about rain.

The cars, buildings, and supply boxes should be ok — all but the cardboard ones. But rain will make it hard to stay quiet, and staying dry is more concerning.

We don't have umbrellas or waterproof jackets or anything. Hell we don't have anything even close to a tarp.

Rain is good for water collection, but we don't have anything to collect it either.

Buckets or jugs would do the trick, but we'd need something to act as a rain catcher.

I got up and pulled out my notebooks again and started scribbling down ideas, sketching out a few rough designs. I'm not the greatest artist but I do pretty well with shapes and getting ideas across. I had art class in high school so, I remember the basics.

I'm a little rusty but I feel like an inventor. That character in movies who's like the planner, or scientist. With all their ideas and engineering, who's out of their mind but make life a little easier.

I have so many ideas now, I don't know how many of them are gonna work. Or if we'll even be able to try them now that we don't have a safe base camp.

I'm gonna try the ones that I can for now, but others… I might just have to let pass because they won't be possible drifting like this.

That's irritating.

But I wanna make life as safe and as easy for us as possible. I don't want all of us to constantly be worried about how to survive. I want Carl and Randall and Lori and the baby to feel safe. I want don't want to be constantly afraid.

I leaned my forehead against my knee, staring down the darkness of my leg as the wind splattered rain against the window.

I don't want to live in constant fear. Not certain whether or not we'll all have a tomorrow.

I know a certain future isn't possible — never was. But at the very least, I'd like to be able to sleep at night with some certainty that I'll wake up in the morning and not have a mountain of things to worry about.

I don't want the others to live that way either.

And you know what they say. If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy person, they'll find a better way.

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