Chapter 3: Who Says Libraries are Boring

"I can't believe we survived that last combat" Millie said excitedly.

Ethan thought for a second before responding. "I'm pretty surprised too. I can fix that though. Rocks fall, you die." He then picked up her character sheet, crumbled it up and bounced the ball of paper off of Millie's head. "Head shot!"

Millie frowned. "Really? Is my character dead?"

Ethan laughed. "No but your character sheet got crumbled up, your character walks with a limp now. Oh and copy your information to a clean sheet by next week."

Nikki picked up the crumbled character sheet and handed it to Millie. "That's what you get for being a kiss-up to the DM. Run along now!"

After packing up all their materials, Nikki and Ethan carried everything to the car. After securing things back in the trunk and repositioning the body back there, they turned to face a group of approaching people. Squinting, Ethan said "I can't make out who they are, better prepare for the worst. Do you have my back?"

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I do. Me and you through thick and thin right?" Ethan pulled out his number 2 pencil, freshly sharpened. Nikki asked "Do you really think that's going to help defend you?"

Ethan responded "I hope so, since number 3 pencils are against the law, I'll have to settle for the lesser pencil. Pencils don't kill people, the lead kills people."

"Actually... pencil's don't have lead in them anymore" Nikki retorted.

Ethan looked down at his sharpened writing instrument frowning. All sad and dejected he tossed the pencil aside. "What's the world coming to? No lead in pencils? I guess I'll just use this" he said as Ethan pulled out his handgun.

After the group passed the two of them without incident, Ethan and Nikki made their way back inside to finish one more thing. Upon re-entering the building, Ethan walked into the open elevator. He pressed all the buttons at once and dived out as the doors closed, landing at the feet of a tall man with a bushy beard. Ethan looked up. "Hey Bernard, how you doing?"

Before he could answer, there was a loud grinding noise as the elevator attempted to visit every floor similtaneously. A whiff of smoke shot out the crack in the elevator doors. Bernard helped Ethan to his feet. "We just got that fixed Ethan."

Nikki cut in. "We were going to solve the age old question of whether the lights in the elevator go off when the doors close if no one is inside. I think Ethan decided to improvise a little in our experiment."

Ethan said "Sorry, my bad. Oh Bernard, I was meaning to ask, what's with the giant hole in the ceiling over there?"

Bernard chuckled. "Well apparently a piece of the Russian space station came crashing down through the roof of the library into Jill's office. You'd figure the Russians would keep better track of their stuff."

Ethan sifted through the wreckage and debris before saying "Oh a red stapler!" as he picked it up and put it in his pocket.

Nikki asked "Was Jill in her office at the time?"

Bernard shrugged. "It's funny, no one's asked that yet until now. Lets go ask her if she's ok." Bernard climbed into the wreckage until he found Jill. "Jill, you alright."

Nikki frowned. "I'm not thinking she's doing so well, that's a support beam through her head."

Bernard whispered. "Shh, you're not supposed to address her disability unless she brings it up first."

Nikki moved closer. "She's obviously dead."

Bernard took a closer look himself. "Are you sure? We don't want to get hit with a lawsuit for discrimination against people with support beams through their heads. It's a surprisingly frequent condition in some places."

Nikki nodded. "Yeah I'm sure she's just dead."

Bernard pulled an envelope off the desk. "I guess we won't need to be paying her anymore. I'll just take this check back, for safe keeping."

Ethan said "Alright lets get going Nikki, we need to stop over at Amber's on the way home. I have something to give her. See you later Bernard. Thanks for the stapler." Ethan and Nikki made their way back to the car and got in.