 Finding himself totally alone in a shattered world with food to last him a lifetime but no one to share it with , Bemis succumbs to despair . As he prepares to commit suicide using a revolver he has found , Bemis sees the ruins of the public library in the distance . Investigating , he finds that the books are still intact and readable ; all the books he could ever hope for are his for the reading , and ( as he gazes upon a huge fallen face of a clock ) learns that he has all the time in the world to read them without interruption . 
