Smoke getting too thick. Can’t wait it out any longer. Have pried the blade off the paper cutter and covered my face with paper towels to help cut down on the smoke. There’s a lot of them out there but if I smash out that one window and drop down to my car before they come around the corner following the noise, I might be okay, if I can just land right on top of my car. I keep trying to reach Richard but he’s not answering the phone. Hard to type when I’m crying. Trying not to imagine the worst, but kind of hard not to, when it’s everywhere I look outside.

Can cats get infected too? Will they be okay? Will any of us be okay?

Wish me luck. If there’s anyone out there, reading this, I wish you luck too. We’re all going to need it.

bliteotw

Thought about leaving earlier but there’s too many of them outside the doors. It’s like they know I’m in here.

I can’t get ahold of my family. Phone just rings at my older sister’s house and when I call my little sister I just get a recording. No word from my parents either. And I’m worried about Richard. Last time I talked to him he sounded really out of it.

Oh crap, I smell smoke. Yes, it’s definitely smoke. And it’s not the smoke from across the river; this is closer. Shit. It’s coming in from under the door to the bathrooms – I can see it creeping in around that file cabinet I shoved over there. The damn building’s on fire. I wonder if it’ll take out all the zombies before it makes its way over here.

bliteotw

Heard screaming downstairs just now, followed by a lot of crashing, like windows breaking. Guess it’s a good thing I’m on the second floor. Except for all that glass in the front windows, by the balcony. Turned the desks over to cover those, if only to provide some cover so they can’t see in. Amazing how much strength you have when you’re terrified.

Coworkers are back, but I’m not letting them in. Saw them coming across the parking lot, and I may not be a doctor, but even I know that someone shouldn’t be walking if they’re missing an arm or half their chest. I’ve dragged some of the heavy file cabinets over in front of both doors so nothing can get in.

I stopped checking the news reports. No point any more. Sacramento’s pretty much gone. They’re everywhere. Guess that’s what you get for genetiically engineering animal DNA into your food crops.

Oh god. Now there’s screaming next door. Turning off all the lights now, so it doesn’t look like anyone’s here. Wonder if I can get the computer under this desk.

bliteotw

Everyone went out to an early lunch except me, since I brought stuff in my Mr. Bento and I’m trying to be good about what I eat these days. But they should have been back by now, and I’m getting a little worried. The people in the office next door were out on their deck and I heard them talking about riots downtown, and people getting attacked and even bit.

There’s been a few more bodies in the river, but I’m not even bothering to call the police now. The line just rings and rings anyway. I hear sirens in the distance and across the river there’s an awful lot of smoke. I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but it doesn’t look good. I’ve been checking news sites and it’s like I’m reading a plot from some cheesy horror film. Plus, I’m worried about Richard, since that weird guy in the back yard bit him. I told him he should go to the hospital but he’s got some big project due at work and says it can’t be that bad.

bliteotw

That car was still there this morning when I drove by, which in itself wasn’t so odd because people sometimes abandon their cars for a day or two if they’ve had engine trouble. The odd part was the fact that the police cars are also still sitting there, although the lights aren’t flashing anymore. So maybe they’re doing some kind of stake-out at that abandoned diner. Who knows.

Ride into work was so easy compared to yesterday. No traffic at all. I turned on NPR for a bit but it was full of reports of fighting going on all over the place and there are mornings when I just can’t stand hearing about it anymore, so I switched back to my Abba. Because everything is better with Abba.

Anyway. Strange thing happened this morning. The place where I work sits right on the levee beside the Sacramento river. We’ve got a great view of the water, and a never-ending distraction of wildlife (coyotes on the other bank, the resident blue heron, the occasional family of river otters) and of downtown Sacramento in the distance. When it’s nice out, there’s the occasional boat bobbing about on the water, with a fishing line sticking out of one end, and a slumped figure in the other (I suspect more napping than actual catching of fish ever happens). In the summer, when the weather is nice and the weekend is approaching, the river starts to get more and more crowded with a noisier type of crowd – the college kids in their boats with their music turned up extra loud. But rarely do we actually see anyone in the water itself. It’s kind of murky, that water, and I suspect it’s also pretty cold, and it’s claimed its share of bodies over the years, the most recent (that I know about) being the guy who used to live in the huge houseboat that was docked downstream. One night he got too drunk and went overboard, and wasn’t seen again, or so the story goes, as told by the management company rep who passed it on to the rest of us.

So when we see someone in the water this early in the morning, it’s kind of a surprise. It’s only happened once before, last summer when the it was so hot outside we’d started the annual joking around about diving into that river ourselves, just to get some relief, and my boss and I tracked down the office binoculars to see if the guy was okay. He seemed to be – bobbing along happily, looking around from time to time, and there were enough boats on the river that day that we figured if he was in any danger, he could have called out and gotten help.

This morning, however, there are no boats on the river. Just the body, floating downstream. The current’s pretty slow today – no wind to speak of this morning – so we had time to get out the binoculars. I think it might be a dead body, because it’s pretty pale and bloated and it looks like there’s a big gouge out of the side of the head, like he smacked into something pretty hard, but my coworker swears she saw the guy turn his head to look around. So she’s called the police, to see if they can send someone out to rescue the poor guy, since he doesn’t look like he’s in great shape, if he really is still alive, and if he’s dead, well, it’s still probably best to get the body out of the water. I still think he’s dead, though. Can’t see how anyone could look that banged up and still be alive.

bliteotw