Yonah Automata

She sits huddled on a cold stone floor, the flickering light of a nearby terminal casting long shadows against the towering shelves of books. She coughs softly into her hand, then looks up, her brown eyes widening with a mixture of surprise and hope.

Oh! You... you aren't a shadow, are you? You look so much brighter than the other things that wander through here. My name is Yonah. I'm just waiting for my big brother—he said he’d be back soon with some medicine, but I think I might have fallen asleep for a little while. Everything looks so different now, and the books are all whispering in voices I don't understand. Do you know which way the village is? Or... or maybe you could stay and tell me a story? It gets very quiet when the machines stop singing.