This story can be read in two ways:
First – you start from the first chapter and read to the last.
Second – you start from the last chapter and read to the first.

Duel

From my diary Day 17.

This might be my last entry. I am writing this in short pauses while hiding from four green glowing flying spheres. I had incredible luck that I immediately understood the mortal danger, as I would certainly die in contact with them. Hiding under the table on the left side. I noticed that while floating around they did not touch any surfaces, only occasionally colliding with each other from time to time.

When they collided, they produced a horrifying hissing sound, at the same time releasing a physical cloud of energy which I undoubtedly knew would kill me.

The flight patterns were predictable but changed after every collision between them, so I had to learn each next once again, as it would appear. I moved from the left table to the right one whenever they came dangerously close to me. The good thing is that they had no eyes or ability to see me. I was not sure about hearing and did not want to risk it. I was as quiet as I could be.

I had to endure the entire Reset. Avoiding the glowing spheres was not a big problem. What was, however, was the fatigue, which slowly defeated the initial adrenaline. Dizziness was no less significant an obstacle.

I do not know how much time has passed. This is the fourteenth movement pattern I have noticed.

I will not surrender. They will not defeat me. Those spheres were sent by the Anomaly, I am sure. This was our duel. A fight chest to chest. But that coward sent four of its fighters against me. Four against me alone. Pathetic.

Barely… Ha...

I am slee…

IS

No one noticed that I left the Library and went back to the dormitory. I returned because of the diary. There were still many empty pages left in it. It will serve me later. I also found the other thing I was looking for: A map of the complex. This might have been stupid and with little chance of success, but the plan was the following:

I will return to the original corridor where three doors stood: Was, Is and Will be. I will enter Is (I absolutely have no idea whether that will be possible, or the plan will fail before the attempt). I will try to find out what is happening with the papers there. If there are plenty of them, I will take as many as possible and deliver them to Will be. Why will I not call the others to join me? Then we could deliver far more paper. A very simple rule – only one person can pass through some of those three doors in the time between two Resets. I would not know that if I had not spent an entire day carefully studying the walls of the dormitory. And I would forget all of it if I had not written things in my diary.

It is good that no one noticed my separation. They would probably try to dissuade me from the idea, out of fear or some other stupid reason.

Entering the room that precedes the corridor with the doors I saw that the vault slowly began taking on a yellowish-red shade, announcing the end of the day and the beginning of the Reset. I quickened my pace determined not to let it disrupt my plan. I exited Will be. In the corridor an icy cold. Teeth chattering. Absolutely not wanting to prolong the inevitability of the next steps I pulled the handle on the door of Is. Locked. I pulled again. The same.

I was convinced that I had to pass through Is. I did not dare to try with Was. That might disrupt some order of things here.

The cold, now seriously undermining my convictions, creeping into my bones, forced me to stop worrying about consequences.

Pulling the handle of Was I experienced the same failure. But I heard a click. A click that was not accidental. Some mechanism started.
Now already with trembling hands, angry because of the stupid situation I found myself in, I leaned with my full weight on the handle of Is. The door opened, revealing that same room with the large open vault. With the difference that the vault was dark, covered with countless stars, which however beautiful they were did not promise anything good.

And as if on command a strong, sharp sound marked the beginning of the Reset.

PAPERS

Ten days have passed.
The wall of the dormitory filled a little more with glued notes. H and K were still sleeping. I put the reminder paper aside from next to the bed while still lying down. My vision blurred slightly. Dizziness. Discomfort. I closed my eyes and the comfort returned. I opened my eyes and the dizziness and discomfort appeared again. I woke up earlier than usual, something here must not allow early waking.

I tried to remember anything beyond what was written. Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my name? Nothing. Emptiness. Sad, surrendering to the void I drifted into sleep again.

“Hey, B! B, wake up!”

A woman, with a visibly shaken face stood above me, her look filled with inescapable horror, hair disheveled, eyes tearful.

“What is happening, why are you shouting?” – I asked.

“The papers are gone!”

“How gone?”

“It’s not there anymore; it does not come out anymore. How is that possible?”

I sat up in bed, having no idea who that was or what she was talking about.
She handed me the reminder paper. Reading it, I realized that it was K.
The disappearance of papers will represent a big problem. Without that tool we are left only with what has already been written.

We searched the dormitory. Right next to the dormitory door there was a small opening through which the supply of new, blank sheets of papers was delivered. A red button above the opening is pressed and within a few moments, a new bundle of papers is delivered. Today that was not the case. Desperate, we decided to go to the Library and see if we would have more success there.

We did not have success in the Library either. H rummaged through the shelves hoping to find some papers but with every new attempt I increasingly had the feeling that we were searching in the wrong place. That we were acting wrong. I sat on a chair holding my head with both hands, leaning on the table.

There must be a reason for this. Although I did not know why we were in Temnem at all, the memory of that had long evaporated, I knew that we were here for a reason. Was the Anomaly playing with us. Showing its presence, deciding to make things maximally difficult for us. We were aware of it, of course, but considering that our life here was reduced to routine, breaking that routine represented a serious problem. In no book, note, was it written that something like this had happened, nor that such a possibility existed.

I completely disconnected from the outside world. Virteleonians passed by me, shouting while searching for a solution. Feeling peace after a few moments of inability to neutralize distractions, I surrendered to thoughts. Whatever they were.

LIBRARY

I curiously watched H while she explained to me how the Library works. I wrote on paper that she has red hair. But not today, this was not red. Or maybe it was. I shook my head to drive away the doubts and thanked her for handing me the book titled:
Is the Anomaly a living thing? Practical advice on how to recognize it.
The book had 1551 pages. Quite a lot of illustrations, the font slightly larger than usual. I will manage to read it today.

K took to studying the book which described attempts by scientists to explain what will happen when the Anomaly is eliminated.

We had a habit that when we returned to the dormitories, we would along the way recount to each other what we read that day. Since memory lasted until the Reset, it was not a problem for us to support the story with an extensive number of details and to have a good philosophical conversation. It is a pity that the next day only what was written on paper would remain.
I asked her if there was a device that records voice. She said she was sure there was but that it was somewhere in the Was rooms. And we still did not have access there. According to her story, the reason is that the seven who reside there have advanced in discovering the Anomaly but still without concrete results. Which told me that we who are in Will be must make some progress in order to move into Is, and then finally into Was.

The Library in Will be was a huge room, by far the largest in this part of the complex. I would dare say that the number of books exceeded the number of one million. Countless shelves, stacked with books, marked with numbers. The numbers essentially represented how many books had been read so far, how many had been transferred into notes. So that future readers would not waste time reading again what someone had already analyzed.

In the middle of the room there was a table placed exactly long enough to seat one hundred people at the same time. It seems that there was some sacredness in that number. I did not like at all that I was the hundredth member. The pressure and tension because of that, unpleasant and ever-present, reduced my concentration.

But 1551 pages had to be read today. I do not want to waste time.

DIARY

From my diary – Day 6.

Now, after five shifts of day and night spent here, five Resets, I can describe our daily routine to you. I wrote everything down, do not worry. If I had not, probably no one would ever read what is happening to us here. An interesting observation: No one writes a diary except me. They think it is a waste of time.

Waking up is a shot into the void. No one remembers anything upon waking. But everywhere there are various notes, papers, glued onto the walls of the dormitory. The only thing that is not forgotten is reading and normal functioning. By that I mean that we know how to move, speak and all those probably normal and necessary things.

Now I no longer remember how I came here. I only know why. But about that a bit later. Too much information, I will forget something…

In the dormitory there are a total of three beds. There are some rooms that are divided so that they are only female or male. I shared a room with H and K. I am very glad because of that. Two very kind and nice girls.

K – my mentor who made my beginning here immeasurably easier. I am not saying that others, if they had been assigned to it, would not have done the same. But still, the gratitude goes to her because she offered to be my guide here.

H – wonderful and always ready to hand me the book I need. She is in charge of the Library. And since that is the most important place here, that makes H perhaps the most important person among us. Because speed is of great importance. There is a lot of material and as much as possible must be achieved with the limitations we have. Plus, there is the Reset. When the warning rings everyone must return to the dormitories.

Now, to explain a little about writing and papers.
As soon as we wake up, we have the opportunity to see a pile of papers glued onto the walls of the dormitory. Out of four walls, two walls and approximately half of the third are covered from top to bottom. But that is not the first thing that comes to our mind. Because we wake up totally disoriented, knowing nothing, just pure forgetting.

Someone smart thought of proposing that before we fall asleep, we place a paper next to our head on which the most necessary information that a groggy person must know immediately is written. Where we are, where the information is located, what everyone’s name is – by that it refers to the letters glued onto our robes. Also, a mini sketch of the corridor, which helps us find the way to the Library and back.

And for the end of this initial entry, one interesting piece of information. There are three variations of the complex. Was, Is and Will be. Three Libraries. Everything that I have written so far applies to Will be. Here there are exactly seventy-three of us. The remaining twenty-seven are distributed in Is (twenty of them) and Was (seven of them). This is not one hundred percent verified information, do not hold me to my word.

Until the next entry…

-End of Part 3-