In the theatre, the Librarian sheds her clothes, walks down towards the flooded stage, and steps into the cold water.
She floats on her back.
On the ceiling, a stain|Maria]] grows bigger everyday. Mould drawing the borders of an imaginary landscape.
She thinks about him. The cartographer.
The water tickles her between the legs.
Suddenly, she hears the beep of her communication|Collapse]] device. The emergency signal.
She pulls herself out of the water and runs back to the top of the stairs.
She grabs the device from her pocket and answers it|666]].Jessica TremblayBeep beep beep.
A red light flashes on her com.
Her first instinct is to bring the device to her ear, but she catches herself in mid-gesture, and lowers her arm to look at the screen.
She presses a button.
An image comes into view.
On a piece of crumbled paper, someone scrawled a number with a Sharpie.
The number is: [[666|Enemy]]In the hallway, she's met by Maria, the cleaning lady, carrying a shotgun.
She grabs the shotgun from [[Maria|Maria]].
They exchance a look. Take a breath.
Then, they both run [[downstairs|Water]]. There are two people living in the library: the Librarian and Maria.
Maria is a cleaning lady who insists on tidying the library, even though nobody is coming anymore.
The library is closed. An island.
Still, Maria cleans, rages a war against mould, and because there is a shortage of cleaning supplies, Maria cleans with water.
Everyday, Maria attempts to erase the damages caused by water, using water.
Everybody needs something to keep them [[busy|busy]].
For the Librarian, it's [[reading|reading]].She stands there, temporarily frozen, looking at the warning message.
666. Enemy approaching.
She snaps out of it. No time for fear.
She sprints into action.
She runs [[out of the room|Shotgun]].Some books float, others sink.
Why don't they teach this, in [[Library school|HeadLibrarian]]? From Level 3, Ana looks down on the flooded mezzanine and sees a boat approaching.
She cocks the gun.
No doubt the intruder heard it. The oars stop moving.
"Password!"
"Water, water everywhere."
The boat comes closer. She makes out the face of a young steampunk with a nose ring. She sighs of relief. The boat docks.
She extends her hand. Jayke gives hers her a shoulder-to-shoulder hug.
"Are you getting your password from Iron Maiden now?"
"It's Coleridge: [[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner|reading]]."After the Big Earthquake, when society collapsed and most people--the ones who could pay their way out-- evacuated, the remaining survivors turned to what they knew best.
The Librarian headed to the library.
She found the place flooded up to the second floor. Books floating everywhere.
Food wrappers. Makeshift latrines. People had taken refuge here, but they were long gone.
She found her own little corner on the fifth floor.
Her head on a stack of poetry books by Baudelaire, she fell asleep.
The next day, she met the [[Tinkerer|Tinker]]. In the Maker's Space, she finds a man working on old digital cameras.
"We need communication. These old cameras are wireless, their batteries rechargeable."
"The towers are down. No power, no signal."
"Yeah, for cell phones. I created a private network. Fifteen towers, solar powered, spread across the city. They talk to each other. Spread the information to everybody on the Network."
"You can talk to people?"
"No. Not talk. Send [[pictures|click]]."Sitting on the floor of the library, she rips a page from a book.
Rrrrrrrip.
She grabs another book from the pile: Encyclopaedia of Art History.
She jumps to the Japanese woodblock section and searches for a particular artwork.
When she finds it, she tears the page off.
Rrrrrrrip.
A stack of paper her feet.
Every pages feature the same image.
A print by Hokusai: [[The Great Wave|later]].It's amazing how many books talk about water.
Now, whenever she opens a book, certain words jump out of the page:
rain
river
puddles
drops
She circles them. Using a marker, she blacks out some words, leaves some, creates a new poem.
She takes photo and shares the poem with the Network.
Most of her [[messages|Communicate]] are erasure poetry.- How do you decide?
- What?
- Who gets a com.
- When you find the right person you just know.
- How?
- It just feels right.
- Did you ever meet him?
- Who?
- The cartographer.
- [[No|Collapse]]. On Level 4, the library is a mess.
Books cover the floor.
One safety cable snapped and a stack is leaning, threatening to trigger a domino effect.
The Librarian slips into the [[art|Searching]] section.On the Network, people have different ways to communicate.
The Cartographer sends photos of his handrawn maps showing flooded areas of the city.
Ghostbikegirl does composite images. The top part shows a flooded place, the second features the front wheel of her bicycle to show how deep the water is.
Jayke takes pictures of people he ferries from one flooded place to the next. When he distributes new batteries, once a month, he takes pics of [[Receivers|Receivers]], holding the device up, smiling.Ana tapes a poster of The Great Wave on a shelving.
She counts twenty steps and tapes a black and white reproduction on the fire extinguisher.
When she's done, there are seven posters of Hokusai dispersed on the floor.
She grabs the camera that hangs around her neck.
Focuses on the man in the [[yellow boat|Floating]].One hour, the first reply came in. A picture of a young boy with piercing, leather jacket, trimmed haircut. A steampunk.
"That's Jayke, on Main street. It's working. Now I have to take care of the batteries."
Afterwards, she thinks a lot about the picture he took. About what it meant. It was a way to introduce her to the others, to let them know she's at the library. Later, when they start receiving erasure poems, they'll know it's her.
A [[picture|Battery]] worth a thousand words.
Genius.He points a camera at her, moves sideways to include the Library sign in the background, and motions her to hold the book up.
He takes a picture. Clicks Send.
They look at the hour glass image on screen.
"It takes a while to send, so make sure the message is significiant, that the picture is worth a thousand words. Here. Hang on to this. Wait for the reply."
"The [[reply|reply]]?"Maria had been working as maid onboard a Carnival Cruise line for eight years when a big Earthquake hit the west coast, followed by a tsunami.
The Cruise line was mandated by the government to rescue survivors.
The operation went on for months. Hundreds of boats ferrying people back and forth between Vancouver and Seattle.
As government help winded down, Cruise lines continued its operation, asking big money from [[survivors|out]] who wanted out of the city.
Maria watched as the ship got smaller and smaller.
She turned towards the city and started to walk.
She walked until a pool of water prevented her from going any further.
She put her bag down.
Heard the sound of an engine puttering.
A small yellow boat was coming towards her, navigating in the street.
On board, a punk with spiked hair.
He motioned her to come onbord.
She climbed in.
The man, Jayke, took her to the [[library|Water]]."The [[Earthquake|yellow]] last night..."
She nods. "This could be it".
"The signal?"
She points to the poster taped on the wall.
"Great choice."
She watches Jayke packs batteries. The following Monday, she returned to work at the Hastings branch sporting an eyebrow piercing and a tattoo. She got lots of compliments.
Her boss was overjoyed that his favorite employee had gotten a piercing that would pretty much eliminate all chances she had of moving to another branch.
She was turning into the Goth Librarian she has always wanted to [[be|666]].She escorts Jake to Level 3 where his boat awaits.
He extends his hand and she grabs it, but when she comes for their usual shoulder bump, he hugs her instead.
He climbs in the boat, prepares to go when--
"Wait!"
Maria comes running with her bag.
She faces the librarian.
"The earthquake..."
The Librarian nods.
She watches the boat dissolves in the [[darkness|cartographer 2]].A rumble.
Like a train passing through the library.
The floor shakes.
Books fall.
The Librarian runs to seismograph.
The needle stabilizes.
The [[shaking|wave]] stops.When survivors left the city, the punks stayed behind.
They took refuge downtown, in the empty million dollar condos.
They lived together in Penthouse suites where they ate on the floor, slept in Jacuzzi bathtubs, and lit barbecues in living rooms.
Replacing their skateboards with canoes and rowboats, they roamed the city.
They delivered food, supplies, and help ferry [[people|goodbye]] across flooded areas. After the wave hits, the cartographer did not follow his wife to Seattle.
He stayed in Vancouver, and started creating maps of the flooded city.
The [[maps|west]] were just for him, really, and people he encountered.
Survivors who were trying to reach other places.
"Everything is flooded between Science World and Yaletown. You have to take the skytrain."
"The skytrain?"
"Walk on the platforms. That will get you there."It's the end of the road.
On her bicycle, Ghostbikegirl examines the watery gap between her and Granville island.
A yellow boat pops out from the next street.
"You need to go [[across|across]]?"The white bicycle takes up all the room in the boat.
It creates a distance between her and the man who paddles.
When she came onboard, she noticed the notebook in his pocket, filled with drawings of the city.
"You're the cartographer."
"And you're [[GhostBikeGirl|ghostbike]]."
"Is that what they call me?"
"That's what I call you."The bike was covered in white paint and surrounded by flowers.
A ghostbike.
Michelle stood in front of the memorial.
A person lost her life here, on this bike.
The bike was painted white and left there as a memorial.
She grabbed the [[bicycle|stuck]]. She likes taking photos of the city and unusual objects floating in the street, in front of buildings.
She liked to explore the city.
The cartographer's maps were useful. They told her which area to avoid. Which area were now safe.
She liked to help whenever she could.
When she noticed a new flooded area, she took a photo.
The reply would come: an updated map of the area, sent by the [[cartographer|cartographer3]].Today, he is going to check on the West end to see if there's any improvement.
After the powerful aftershocks last night, he feels better in the open water, away from buildings.
It's early morning. The water is still high.
He jots a note down, ready to go back.
He notices a flash of [[white|People]] on the shore.The bike was partially stuck on the tree because of the paint.
She doubted the bike would still work, but she gave it a try.
The pedal was stuck. She pushed harder. Then, the paint cracked and the chain was free.
It was hard to pedal, but it was better than going on [[foot|photo]].The boat vibrates.
Water sloshes on the side of the canoe.
"What's going on?"
Debris crash in the city behind them.
"Earthquake!"
The boat is now shaking violently.
She cowers in the bottom of the boat.
He remains calm, grabbing the paddle, his [[knuckles|shaking]] white.She tries to get up, but looses her balance and plops back on the seat.
What is he doing?
She tries to climb on top of the bike, but the boat is moving too fast and it's too unstable.
Where is he taking me?
She removes her shoes, prepares to dive in the water, when her camera beeps.
She looks at the [[screen|screen]].The image fills the screen:
The Great Wave.
[["Oh my god!"|wave2]]She grabs the side of the boats.
"Faster! Faster!"
The cartographer hears the beep of his com.
He doesn't have to look.
He knows what's coming: [[The Great Wave|Biwani]].She had so many questions for him.
What was his name? Where did he live?
Why did he chose to stay?
But she doesn't say anything.
There will be time for questions later.
She faces the [[wind|Tsunami]] and smiles.The shaking stops.
There's a cloud of dust enveloping the city, on both sides.
From where they left, from where they were going.
The canoe floats in between.
She feels nauseous.
But it's not from the shock.
The boat is moving again.
"The [[water...|water]]"The water is quickly receding.
It pulls them away from the shore, away from the city.
Pulls them towards the Georgia straight.
"What's happening? Why is the water draining away?"
The cartographer's face turns white.
Then, he starts to paddle fast.
"You're going in the wrong direction. We have to go back to shore!"
The cartographer [[paddles|paddles]] towards the open water as fast as he can.When he got the boat from Biwani, the old man who lived through the Big earthquake told him:
"When the water recedes, you need to go"
The old man pointed to the tip of Point Grey.
"If you reach the safe spot, there's a chance you might be able to jump the wave. Otherwise, the [[tsunami|tsunami]] will take you back to the city and crush you against the building."She takes a deep breath.
Clouds of smoke rises from both side of the shores.
There's no turning around.
The Great Wave is coming.
She takes one last picture:
Her bike in the canoe, the cartographer paddling, the city in ruin in the background.
She grabs the second oar and start paddling towards the wall of [[water|credits]].Wave
writen by Jessica Tremblay
for the 48 hour hypertext challenge
August 2019
based on The Last Cartographer
a digital fiction project
created by Kyle Carpenter, Ali Caufin, Jodie Childers, Jennifer Dellner, Bob Fletcher, Rochelle Gold, Nicola Harwood, Inba Kehoe, Shazia Ramji, Kaitlyn Till, and Jessica Tremblay Ana thinks how funny it is, that she's now considered Head Librarian of the very Library where she was denied a position ten years ago.
At the end of the interview at the Central branch, the director made it clear that he would never hired a goth librarian to work in the children's section of the library.
Goth Librarian? I'll show you [[Goth Librarian|piercing]].On the last voyage, employees were sneaking in additional passengers, in exchance for exorbitant amounts of money. Maria was asked to pay up or she'd be left behind.
As Maria left her room, a man with a suitcase walked in.
Maria was escorted to [[shore|shore]].