Separate Posts?

I don't know why I'm doing some of this crap in separate posts. I mean, it all already happened. Kat, Bryan's office, the phone lines in De Soto, but... it's just trying to wrap my brain around it, I think. Hell, I don't know why I'm still writing this, except I can go back and reread these and remind myself that this is really happening. At least it's quiet now, in here. Kat's asleep, I think everyone is now. Restroom break and yet another post forthcoming to catch you up to date. Hopefully there is a you. If nothing else, maybe you can read this and if you're part of the military or police or government or something, you can read what's going on here and do something about it. If there's anyone out there left. Or are we nothing more than stray, random Saturday workers trapped in buildings around the world.

Kat.

So I headed down to see Kat. As I was walking, I heard a horrendous squeal of metal and smashing glass. Looking out the window, I could almost make out around the corner and barely visible, what looked like a city bus toppled on its side. Had those people just tipped that over? Jesus, is this like those riots you see on the news? Could this be happening everywhere? Looking at the mass of humanity and listening to the occasional scream or yell and being somewhat afraid to even go downstairs to the lobby with the big glass front doors, much less go outside, is all very surreal. It's impossible to explain, but there's just something in our guts that tells us going out there would be a bad idea right now. Hell, if it is just some strange riot gone out of control, we're smarter to stay indoors. Mob mentality can be a frightening thing.

I've heard some sirens in the distance from time to time, but really very little in our visible spectrum here. Kat was just sitting at her desk starting out the window when I got there.

Before I could say anything, and without turning around (we always could see one another in the glass, though) she says, "I just watched one rip someone's arm off."

"What?!"

"Well, it was a few minutes ago. Maybe a half-hour. Over there," she points to where the doors to the Metropolitan Square building reach the street. "Some people came out from there and as soon as the doors opened, they swarmed on them. There was a lot of yelling and I watched someone's arm get ripped off. I think it was a woman." She was still pointing. "It was lying right there, I swear it was." She turned now and looked at me. "Or am I going crazy? Is that what all this is?"

"I don't think so," I said remembering the guy from Starbucks. "I think I watched them kill someone. It's all such a blur, though."

"I know what you mean. I mean, it's dark now, it's been dark for how long and-- I don't know, it just seems like it just happened, you know. The fog and the explosions. But that was--that was hours ago."

We sat there, in the gloom for awhile, until we heard the sound of glass shattering behind us. We went back to the corner cube I'd holed up in. They'd shattered the display glass at Famous-Barr and were climbing in. "Jesus Christ," I muttered. "What the hell is going on out there." I looked at the heater vents. "And why hasn't it gotten in here yet?"

"Have you heard from Bryan about anything, yet?" I asked her. She hadn't and really we hadn't heard from anyone in awhile. There should be at least six people on the floor right now, besides Tony. Attempts to contact him have gone straight to voicemail, same as me calling Linny and apparently Kat calling her husband, too, from what she says. Besides me, Kat and Bryan, we should have Gregg, Elisabeth and Darek over here somewhere. Maybe they're all in Bryan's office. No, I think Darek is over in MetSquare, I'm pretty sure he went over there to check one of the Exchange Servers before it all went down. I guess, hopefully he's still over there; I don't see how he could've come back. But hell, I haven't heard from anyone in how many hours now? Maybe we're all just in shock.

Kat decides to go with me to Bryan's office. If nothing else, it will get us away from the windows. It's like looking at a car accident out there. You don't want to, but you feel so damned compelled.

Holey Shit!

I'm posting this from my Blackberry. We've closed and locked the doors here on the floor; Bryan had propped one open to let some air circulate since the building doesn't turn on any during the weekend. The last few hours have been all different kinds of fucked up, to say the least. The sun's not quite down yet, and the streets are still filled with people. I'm talking more people than I've ever seen this far back; we're at Olive and Sixth street, six blocks from the arch. For as many people as are right here, it's not nearly as loud and obnoxious as you'd think for Fair St. Louis, and everyone is wandering around like they're in a daze. They're walking right in the middle of the street and don't even get out of the way of any stray cars that might come by, though I haven't seen one of those actually in about an hour. But a few times, and I meant totally at random, they like snap and attack someone. I tell you what, if that green fog is some kind of bioterror, we've decided we're sure as hell not going out there. What with this whatever it is hitting at the height of the Fair and with the 70,000 Adventists in town, who knows how many people are prowling the city, and if they're all prone to attacks like we've seen (Rodney King got off light compared to what these jokers are doing!). I can see several hundred from our building, and we've got a pretty limited view of most of the city. If it's like this down to the riverfront and back to tenth or more, well I don't know what the hell's going on but I'm gonna just sit right here and wait for the cavalry.

Oh shit! Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! I mean my god. Okay, right below this window some dude just walked out of Starbucks, or at least from the general direction of Starbucks (it's on the first floor right below us at Olive and 6th. He got mauled by several of these people and I swear to god they just fucking killed this dude. He's gotta be dead. He's lying there sprawled on the ground and he just looks broken. His legs, arms, neck. Jesus Christ! As soon as he dropped, they wandered off. Oh shit, one of them just stepped on him like he wasn't even there. This was a woman and she stumbled but stayed on her feet and now she's walking across 6th like nothing happened. What is wrong with these people? And where the hell is someone to corral them, surely the police know about this by now?

Tony never called us back, either. And he hasn't shown up. With the dwindling light and the damned fog, it's hard to make out what's going on down there, but I'll tell you what: I'm glad our building is card key accessible only and the doors on our floor are coded and locked. Until whatever the hell this is passes and these people start acting normal again, I don't want them coming up here. God, there's so many of them. The twilight is filled with the sounds of them walking around up here. And they're eerily silent (no one is talking to anyone down there, and no one is walking with anyone else either). Only occasionally will you hear a scream or shout in the distance... or not too distant. Mr. Starbucks screamed like a banshee when they attacked him just now. Damn, still lying there. I can't believe I witnessed a murder. I'd call 911, but we've already tried that and all we get is a fast busy, and now our phone lines are down. Cells are still working, but I keep getting voicemail no matter who I call, so I don't even know if the calls are routing all the way to the phones. No one has called me that I know and no new voicemails, but maybe they're trying and can't get through either?

Jesus Christ, have this been going on like this the whole time, these people killing other people at random? How could I have missed that? I'm crouched right now in Virginia's cubicle, in the Starbucks corner of our floor, and I'm the only one here. Bryan killed the lights a couple hours ago when they first arrived. He could tell this wasn't right and they weren't acting normally. With the lights on up here and the odd fog dimming the sunlight, we figured they could look right up and see us. At least this way, it wouldn't be so easy for them to tellthat we're up here.

I think I'm gonna head down to Kat's cube and see what she knows. Good lord, I've been crouched here watching for thirty minutes, only I hadn't really been seeing anything, just in a daze I think. Server process is done, so I guess we can go home now. HA. Our work here is done, but I don't think anyone's left. It's quiet up here, though. Maybe they all left me here and they're down there hanging out with the goon squad, drugged up by whatever's in that fog... if that's what's going on. Shit. I want to power on a PC and see if I can pull up the news. When Bryan killed the lights, he advised us to kill our PC's, but said he'd monitor the situation from his office. Bryan's office isn't against a window, so with his door closed, there'd be no light to penetrate the rest of the floor. Maybe I ought to find him and see what he's learned. Are the police/military/anyone on their way to contain this strange riot? Why hasn't Bryan told us anything. I'm gonna ask Kat if she's heard anything and then head to Bryan's office.

Linny.

I completely forgot to call and check on Linny and Alex. So I called a minute ago and went straight to her voicemail. Dammit, Linny, how many times have I told you to charge your cell phone. Especially if you're leaving the house! I hope whatever the hell is going on here won't affect her there. Hell, it shouldn't, she's like more than 50 miles from here.

And since I sent you the link to this blog, hopefully you can get online and look at it somewhere. If so, call me and let me know you're alright! There's some people starting to show up on the streets here, and they look like they're in a daze. Maybe there's LSD in the fog. Still no word from Tony; you'd think he'd have called by now. Heh, maybe he forgot his cell phone here. One more check on the RAID process and I should be done over here. Then maybe I can go and get high with everyone else.

Got quiet, though. All that screaming and yelling from the riverfront after the explosions has dropped to an almost eery silence. Sure, the occasional yell, but this is a strange crowd. Hell, Tony's probably as fucked up as the rest of them (heehee)!

That Wasn't Fireworks.

Okay, I don't know what the hell that was but it wasn't fireworks. There was a series of explosions just now. Reminds me of the PraxAir explosions a couple weeks ago, but again down by the riverfront. I swear an airplane blew up during the airshow, or they collided and all did. Shit, nothing on the news sites, though. Rocked this building, though. Thank god the power didn't flicker, the server's in the middle of a process I do not want to start over. Hang on, Bryan's shouting.

Heh, I just told a blog to hang on. Like I'm IMing someone. Ha-ha lol roflmao brb fu. Still no word on the explosions but man. Bryan found a crack in the window in Sharon's office. Sharon has the corner office closest to the Arch/Riverfront. It's a pretty substantial glass. I don't know if our glass is bulletproof (this is a pretty old building), but I'd never seen any cracks in the windows before. Oh, and that damned fog hasn't lifted. The boys across the street said it's a real low fog, too. Did I mention that the firm I work for has office space in the building next door. Yeah, it's a Class A building (which means really nice) and we've got floors 30-38 over there. And over here we just have the second floor. So I guess the fog, which looks not too thick because you can see still pretty far in it, it's more like a haze, is only a thin layer. At least it's not 30 stories high. I wonder what it looks like from up there. Probably a lot like when you're flying over clouds in an airplane.

There's all of a sudden a lot of noise and commotion, like Mardi Gras gone out of control outside. We can hear all the shouting out the windows. Still nothing on the news about the explosions, but I'm curious as hell as to what is going on down there. Tony just said he's gonna head out there and see what the deal is. Probably get stopped by police, like what happened when the cornices of this building started coming down, but he said he'd call back with the scoop. I'd love to go, but I have to stay with this process. If it hiccups, I need to be ready.

God, if it's as hot out there as it has been, and with that fog it's gonna be like a freaking sauna. Maybe I'd rather be in here anyway. God, I hope we can finish up on time and go home, though. Linny's gonna be leaving here any minute now to go pick up Boka.

In case you were wondering, the surgery went well and she's fine. Oh shit, beeping on the server. Gotta go see what's up. If it's hung up again, I swear to god I'm gonna fucking scream. "I'm coming, dammit!"

Crazy Weather.

Man, St. Louis is known for some pretty fucked up weather, but this takes the cake. I've read about pea soup fog but never thought I'd live to see it. It like just swept up from the riverfront I guess. Yes, the same riverfront all those damned fairgoers are at. Like I said, there's supposed to be a million of them there or something right now. That and the 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists. Anyway, it snuck up on us real quick. Katrina said something and when I looked up, there was this green haze out the windows. And it's everywhere now. It's like dusk but it's only four o'clock.