It was starting to get colder as the days passed and the sun was setting before one had the time to appreciate it. Frost started to form on the Windows of the cat-tank, creating complex patterns of ice crystals in different shapes and sizes. Reynir spent most of his time staring at them and attempting to count each individual crystal, often getting lost at 437 for some odd reason before attempting to complete the impossible task once more.
It was late in the morning and Emil was standing outside freezing, only moving once in a while to make sure that his toes hasn't frozen solid.
They had found a small bookstore called "Fredriks bokhandel" which a part of a spartanens building, it seemed promising enough, not being completely ruined which seemed to satisfy Sigrun's strict requirements for a raidable building.
"Stand outside and wait while I get the gear ready", that was twenty minutes ago and still no sight of her or anyone else for that matter. He hasn't seen Lalli since breakfast.
Did he forget that they should raid the bookstore and went back to sleep? Was this all a trick to get Emil locked out of the tank because they don't like having him around?
Or was it because...
Emil drew a deep breath. His warm breath instantly turned into a frozen mist as he let out a deep sigh. He looked around to get his mind on something else and saw a shallow ice puddle a few metres to his left near an old sign which had a text on languages he could not understand. "Its strictly prohibited to be parked for more than 2h". He headed towards the puddle and proceeded to take a heavy step in order to hear the satisfying crack of the ice breaking below his feet.
He was about to take a second step before hearing a snivelling sound behind him. Emil slowly turned his head to see a pair of ice blue eyes staring at him from a uncomfortably short distance. Emil let out a high pitched scream taking a quick step backwards, almost slipping on the icy patch behind him.
-Helvete Lalli! Ever heard of personal space before?
Lalli only blinked in return, a clear sign that he did not understand a word Emil said.
He started to look at the shattered puddle that Emil was busy demolishing and promptly decided to step on the remaining pieces.
-HEY that's my puddle!
They spent a few minutes competing about who could destroy the last bits of ice until Sigrun abruptly kicked the tank door open with an exited smile on her face.
-ALRIGHT KIDS! We got a building to raid.
-where have you been?! Emil shouted.
-Sorry, took a quick nap, had to restore my batteries.
-.....
They went across the street where the bookstore was located with Sigrun in the lead, Lalli behind her and Emil in the far back with a bitter expression on his face. Saying that he was annoyed was an understatement.
The bookstore was cold and silent, perfect according to Sigrun. They split up and looked around as there was only one big room filled with bookshelves and endless amounts of books with different amounts of content all rendered unreadable after almost a generation of neglect. They did however find a few books that were in one piece thanks to the fact that they being wrapped in a plastic filter. One was not sure about the content of the books due to the common language barrier that they all shared when it came to Danish text.
One book had a cover depicting a grey picture of a balding man wearing round spectacles while looking at your face with a satisfied grin. The text said "Steve Jobs" whoever that was, but since it contained a surplus amount of pages it went into the rucksack with the others.
After a few minutes of looking around Sigrun ordered everyone to join her. She stood in front of a stair case with a small plastic gate in front that said "Kun for personale!".
-I think it's our lucky day. Sigrun said before ripping of the little gate as if it a small annoyance.
The room upstairs was a lot bigger than they expected and to their great surprise, there where books inside windowed shelves, all wrapped in plastic at that!
Emil went ahead and tried to open up the container. Locked. Either that or it had gotten rusty over the years.
-Sigrun, it's locked.
-Really Emil?
-What?
Sigrun proceeded to to lift her hand, turned it to a fist and with a swift movement, smashed the glass in, making the books ready for the taking.
-see? Simple.
-but what if I cut myself?
-Stop being such a baby and get the books.
With a sour face, Emil proceeded to carefully take out the books to avoid cutting himself on the tiny pieces of glass.
This time, the covers where a lot easier to read but no one still knew what they were collecting. Shakespeare, H.C Andersen, "Hjalmar Söderbergs historietter", all were writers he never heard of, except from the last one as it gave him memories of long hours in class analysing books which only resulted in sleeping during the lessons.
When he was done Emil looked to his right and saw a corridor where Lalli was standing, staring on the door a few meters in front of him.
Emil went over and tapped him on the shoulder. Lalli turned around and Emil gestured to the door.
-Have you looked what's inside?
Lalli responded by giving a worried expression which Emil didn't really pick up on.
Emil headed towards the door, the wooden floor loudly creaking below each step he took. He put his hand on the handle and pulled it down. The room was pitch black and dead silent. He took a quick look back and saw Lalli slowly shaking his head with panic in his eyes.
*kreeak*
Emil threw himself around and turned his flashlight on, scanning the room. He noticed that the air in the room felt a lot warmer than the rest of the building, it was still cold but something was definitely off. The room was filled with old furniture and a large hole that was leading to another room of the building and that's were he saw it and it saw him with it's rotting faces who all let out an ear shattering scream.
