As River began to ponder over her mysterious identity the others continued their investigations. Just then, the computer screen started to flicker and turn snowy.
"What's going on?" Proper Dave questioned looking over Other Dave's shoulder.
"I... don't know, it just started to turn snowy." He took his fingers away from the keyboard and watched the screen. He tapped the top of the monitor with his hand gently. As the screen began to clear up, a little brunette haired girl wearing purple appeared on the screen.
"Hello there." Other Dave said.
"Hello?" the girl was confused. "What are you doing on my T.V?" she inched closer to the screen out of curiosity.
Other Dave looked at the other archaeologists. River stepped forwards as she was technically in charge. "Um... we don't know... This signal must have intercepted with your television satellite..." River said.
"You're in the Library?" the girl said as her eyes scanned the surroundings of the people on her T.V screen. "How did you get into my Library, it's never been on T.V before?"
The monitor started to go snowy again and the girl began to fade away. The screen started to return to the Library database. In the top left corner of the screen were the letters 'CAL.'
"CAL? What is CAL?" Other Dave questioned himself. His face was screwed up in thought as he pondered in his mind.
"Who was that?" Anita asked.
"This is just really weird..." Proper Dave sighed. "People popping up from out of nowhere... after thousands have gone missing."
After a moment of silence, a book flew off one of the shelves and across the hallway, followed by another and another. The archaeologists craned their necks towards the thud that the books made.
"What the bloody Hell is going on here?" River questioned. Her head turning in all directions so she could avoid all of the projectile books flying across the room.
Proper Dave sighed. "This better not be a practical joke!"
"I don't really fancy hearing the punch-line!" River mocked.
"...Duck!" Mr Lux yelled as he knelt down to protect himself.
"Well, this sure isn't funny!" Anita snapped back at Proper Dave's outburst as she dodged a book that had been hurled across the room.
In all of the hassle, Miss Evangelista had wondered to the side of the room to shield herself when a door slowly opened. She jumped out of shock and turned on her feet. "Guys!" she called out over the thudding books and all of the screaming and shouting. "...Guys! This could be important!" she called out again, no one had heard her. She sighed and walked over to the door and stepped through.
The room that she was standing in was a smaller, darker room with many tables and chairs; it was almost completely dark apart from a few small windows that let in minimal light. She looked around the empty room and as she stepped in further her footsteps echoed around the hall. As she turned around, her eyes wondered to the floor and she noticed something that didn't quite make sense, and then...
A loud, high-pitched scream rampaged through the corridors of the eerie Library. The books had stopped flying around the hall which the other archaeologists were in.
"That was a scream." Proper Dave stated. "... Miss Evangelista!" he gasped as his eyes scanned the room to see who was missing. He rose to his feet, his eyes still scanning for Miss Evangelista just in case he had missed her the first time he looked.
"There! That passageway wasn't there before, I'm sure of it." Mr Lux pointed to the door on the other side of the hall as he emerged from under one of the wooden tables in the centre of the room.
River grabbed a flashlight and ran towards the door; the others followed her lead.
As River entered the hidden room, she froze for a second for the others to catch up. Her gaze was fixated on the item in the middle of the room- a skeleton. She held her breath for a moment; this was not what she was expecting to see.
"But, this is where the scream came from, Miss Evangelista's scream." Proper Dave sighed.
"...So, where is she?" Anita asked.
River raised her hand and pressed the button on the intercom on her suit. "Miss Evangelista, please state your current..." she paused. Her voice was echoing, more so than that of just being in an empty room. River glanced at the others, her green eyes showed concern and worry, she assumed the worst but she needed to clarify her assumptions. "... Miss Evangelista, please state your current..." River noticed something on the skeleton; she leaned over the skeleton and retrieved the object. "...position..." she finished as her voice echoed from her object in her hand. She opened her closed hand and it was an intercom, like the ones the others had on their suits.
Proper Dave stepped closer to the skeleton and the others inched in closer behind him. Anita leaned over River's shoulder and looked at the object in River's hand. "...It's her..." River whispered with a heavy sigh of shock.
"But, it can't be. We heard her scream just a few seconds before we came in here. What could've done that in a few seconds?" Anita was baffled.
"Something I don't want to meet in a dark alley- that's for sure!" Other Dave sarcastically replied.
"We have a dead woman here; please... show a little respect." River said in a quiet yet slightly agitated voice. She turned her head to Other Dave and raised her eyebrows at him. He responded by moving his hands in line with his head in a 'surrender' manner and he stood quietly when River turned her head back to the skeleton.
"Whatever that thing was that killed Miss Evangelista could be the killer of the other 4,022 people... and it's still here, but where?" Mr Lux thought.
"But, it said that they were 'saved'..." Other Dave pointed out.
"And it also said 'no survivors.'" Mr Lux argued.
"But, where are the bodies... I mean if it did kill the other people?" Proper Dave got involved.
"Yeah, they can't have all deteriorated completely in one hundred years..." Anita added.
Other Dave looked over to River who stood frozen still with the intercom in her hand. "...Any thoughts, Professor Song?" he asked.
River's eyes wondered to the floor. She noticed a shadow that was being cast by... nothing and then she realised what it was...
"I... I think I know what killed Miss Evangelista. I've only read about it in books, but it seems to apply here... Well, I looked into something awhile ago I found out about 'The Hungry Shadows', 'The Deadly Darkness' or whatever other nicknames it had. But, it's commonly known as 'The Vashta Nerada.'... Millions, or in this possible case billions of tiny spores that devour the flesh of its victim in mere seconds..." River explained. "Look there, at that shadow." River shone her flashlight on the mysterious shadow. "It's being cast by nothing, that's because it isn't a shadow... it's the Vashta Nerada."
"What do we do about it?" Anita asked. She was scared. "It could come and kill all of us at any moment if we don't do something."
"Avoid shadows, stay in the light!" River ordered, her tone was serious and forceful. "...In the mean time, everyone go back into the other hall, carefully... We still need to figure this mystery out of the missing people..."
The other archaeologists obeyed River's orders and returned to the other room. River was the last to leave, her flashlight gliding over the hallway, she was keeping an eye out to make sure she didn't step into any shadows.
"Hey, do you think that little girl was one of the 4,022 that disappeared?" Proper Dave broke the silence.
"How'd you figure that one out?" Anita quizzed his theory.
"...I don't know, it's just a thought." He shrugged his shoulders.
"It really does make you think... how precious life is, huh?" Other Dave chuckled as he tried to change the subject.
"Can you please be a little more serious?" River called out from the hidden hallway. She heard the conversation echoing through the wooden halls.
Other Dave mouthed the word 'sorry' in a moody child-like manner.
"But this still doesn't make sense: '4,022 saved. No survivors.' How can the girl be one of the missing?" Mr Lux queried.
River entered the room with the others in. She stood in the doorway for a moment acknowledging Mr Lux's statement. "That's it!" she cried as she stepped further into the room.
"When someone is rescued, you don't say they're saved. You say they're safe unless you literally mean they're saved." She grinned.
"Saved... where?" Other Dave responded. He vaguely knew what River was implying.
River's eye glanced to the Library computer. "...The Library data core."
"That's brilliant, Professor Song!" Other Dave smiled as he shot up and started to search the data on the computer again. Anita followed him; she too was enlightened by this possible theory. But, there was a downfall...
"But, can we get those people out?" she wondered.
All of the smiling, hopeful faces fell to serious and mournful frowns. Mr Lux sighed and he turned to River, she seemed to have all of the answers.
"I don't know, Anita. But, we'll figure something out." River remained hopeful as always. She placed a comforting hand on Anita and Other Dave's shoulders. Her warm and welcoming smile could light up the whole Library.
Just then, her smile turned... her eyes wondered to the floor and she stared in shock at the sight out of the corner of her eye. She turned her neck to make sure it wasn't a trick of the light and she backed away from the pair at the monitor. "Oh god... I'm so, so sorry..." she whispered under her breath as she noticed two shadows coming from the same pair of feet...