Our crew survived the night. I don't think any of us slept - not with the screaming and other horrible sounds coming from outside - but at least we made it.

On inspection this morning, it appears that the horde turned on itself in the night. I guess with no other food supply, they resorted to cannibalism. The view is...well...nauseating would be an understatement. However, it does appear the danger has passed.

Jeebachu seems happy this morning. I think that might have something to do with joining the group of people who wandered up to the third floor last night. I heard some screaming from up there too, but it didn't seem like such a bad kind of screaming...

We're working to remove the make-shift explosives from the Priuses and to establish whether we can transport everyone to another location if need be. I haven't seen any sign of whether there's official agencies working to clean up the aftermath and assist the survivors, but I'm not going to assume anything.

Jeebus and I are anxious to get to Fremont and see the rest of the family. We'll swing through Livermore first and see if we can find Shar, then head down. It looks like Snoopy didn't make it, and I think Poe's going to need some support. It's got to be horrible to have to put down a friend, even if it is a mercy as well as self-defense. And I didn't see anything from Killian after he indicated he was coming home, but his mental state seemed to be deteriorating, so I'm worried - and I'm hoping they have news from Stride. Hopefully we can stop off and pick up some extra food for the boys as well. What a way to reach your first birthday...

But I need to get back to the clean-up effort. Just wanted everyone to know we're still here.

Got connection long enough to get out an update. We're still at the mall and seem to be doing ok. We've managed to cordon off the lower level of the parking garage with barbed wire and a barricade of cars...it's working so far and gives some protection for the one exit I was most worried about.

If you're trying to get here, head for the lower levels. We have a guard posted to let folks in and we've sectioned off the appliance delivery bay to conduct searches.

We are searching EVERYONE who gets here. No exceptions. If you'd rather risk the zombies than be strip searched, so be it. We're already in cliche movie hell, and we are NOT taking chances on anything else going wrong. If you're determined to have been bitten, you can get out or we'll give you mercy, but that's your choices.

And if anyone's heard from Shar, could you send him my way? I haven't been able to get through. I don't know if he's sleeping through this (sometimes I think he COULD sleep through the apocalypse) or if something's happened. He was talking to the Blonde when I left for the office this morning, so hopefully they woke Romeo, grabbed the guns and got the hell out. But I miss him and I'm worried...

Oh...and if you can grab your Wii or PS2 I'd be grateful. We have a handful of kids and they're getting bored.

The mall is frighteningly empty for the beginning of summer. There should be teenagers with cell phones and people trying to escape the heat, but instead there's a few shoppers and most of the stores are closed. There's signs on a few about too many employees calling in sick today.

More fires were visible all across the valley as I was leaving the office and it didn't take much to convince mall security that we need to get everyone organized and settled in for a long haul. A few people decided to take their chances, but I don't hold out much hope for them. We could see a crowd shambling across the parking lot as the last of them headed for their cars, and the mob reached the building just as we finished locking down all the entrances. I really am starting to feel like this has to be a bad dream - too many parallels to movies for me to really believe what I'm seeing - but we're doing our best regardless.

As planned, we've set up the Sears as our base of operations. Jeebus has proven to be remarkably effective at organizing teams to bring in necessary materials. We have 3 scout groups collecting food, water, alcohol and other materials from the stores and restaurants, and one group has already returned with Super Soakers from the toy store. They're hard at work filling them with a mix of lighter fluid and motor oil from the hardware section. They've got a couple teenagers at work creating water balloons full of perfume from another store. It stinks to high heaven, but they should be flammable.

I'm handling communications. Text messages and emails have gone out to everyone I know to let them know where we are and encourage them to get here if they can. I don't know if any of the messages will get through, but I still have internet, so I'm hopeful.

We've also set up a back-up plan. I had a bag of lawn fertilizer in the back of the car, and there's more in the yard section here, so we've combined that with some other materials and wired it to the batteries in our cars. We both had near a full tank of gas, and with those giant batteries and the additional combustibles, we're looking at a last resort set up. If things go to hell and we have no conceivable hope of escape otherwise, we'll blow the cars. We're hoping to find the fallout shelter entrance before then, so that we can use that as a blast protection, but if it comes down to it, we'd rather go out knowing we took a bunch of those putrescent bastards with us.

My internet signal is getting questionable...this may be the last thing you hear from us for a while.

Again...if you're reading this and can get to us, we're stocked for the long-haul and welcome survivors. Bring weapons if you have them. That's one thing we're low on aside from our improvised fuel bombs and a possible homemade tazer one of the others is working on.

If you see an explosion, it may be too late.

Things are deteriorating rapidly here. There's a mob forming around the ClubSport and I can see at least three car accidents on the freeway. jeebachu just IM'd me about a mob near his building - he thinks it might have originated at the Courthouse. We've decided that it's time to enact some precautionary actions.

Fortunately, he didn't unpack his car after faire this past weekend, so he has some weaponry and a case of mead. I'm moving a couple 5 gallon jugs from the office kitchen to my car in a few minutes and he's going to load up and meet me here. I know it's cliche, but we're going to see if we can't lock down the mall. It really does have some advantages for a long-term disaster scenario, and there's rumors of a fallout shelter under the complex.

I'll get as many people organized as I can, but if they won't come, I'm not waiting. We'll update as we can...

If you're reading this, and you're in danger or need somewhere to bunker down, we're looking at taking over the Sears. It should be defensible, has bathrooms, sleeping space and entertainment options, and there's power tools. With a little luck, we'll be ok until this blows over.

I knew it was too quiet.

Just looked out the window and I see smoke on a nearby hill, and I can hear sirens coming down the freeway. *checks out window*

There's three fire trucks and an ambulance at Club Sport, just across 680 from my office, and there's a whole caravan of vehicles coming down the freeway headed south. They have lights on and sirens blaring, and ... wow, I think that was a CDC Hazmat transport. *blink*

And the news says there's more trouble in the East Bay - domestic disturbances, rabid animals...

I hope this doesn't mean there's going to be issues getting to the Friday gathering tonight. We're supposed to be celebrating the boys' first birthdays and I have dresses for Poeso to try for Gaskells tomorrow...

*frets*

Friday is usually a pretty quiet day around here, and since the AC in the building went out yesterday afternoon, I'm guessing a lot of folks chose to work from home just in case it wasn't fixed yet. But god, it seems too quiet.

I'm seeing reports of disease outbreaks in other parts of the world, and a lot of folks seem to be having trouble with police sirens and noisy neighbors, but out here in suburbia it's still business as usual as far as I can see. Maybe a few less cars on the road, but it's summer and people are probably out of town.

I just can't shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen though...

The landlord finally called back last night - "got your letter...sorry I didn't get back to you... out of town...wife's birthday...blah blah blah". He hasn't talked to the current pool service yet about cost to clean the pool, but was going to call the pool guy when he got off the phone with me. I should hear from him later this morning.

Of course the pool itself, which had been improving, has bloomed in the heat and is now back to green and murky. So murky in fact that I almost didn't see the squirrel. I guess it fell in there sometime yesterday afternoon. It was floating about halfway from the bottom in the deep end, and almost looked like it was twitching. So I did what anyone with half a brain would do - I grabbed a rake from the tool shed, then netted the darned thing and pulled it out. As soon as I could confirm that it was actually twitching and trying to escape the net, I smashed it's skull.

I buried the remains as deeply as I could under the rose bush out front. Wouldn't want the neighborhood cats, rats, possums, etc. getting infected. And I need to check the news...I suspect this is a sign of something far far worse.

To everyone who was caught up in the zombie attack yesterday, I just wanted to say thank you for that lovely day of shared insanity. Granted, I lost a day's productivity at work, but it was worth it.

For those of you who didn't get into the game, I know you think we're all crazy, but you'll get over it and come to realize that you're right. =)

Now back to the real world...

Managed to get to my car, but just barely. My roving eye nearly killed me - that good looking guy on the third floor got in the elevator with me and I think I was eyeing him with the wrong hungry look, because he noticed and not in a positive way. I've been hiding in my trunk while they circled the car, but they seem to have been distracted by something. I've managed to get away for now, but don't know how far I'll get.

I tried to reach lairian but from the incoherent groaning on the phone, I think they got him. If they've spread that far through Livermore, I'm sure Shar's in poor condition too. God I hope that headache last night wasn't a warning sign. I'll feel awful if I could have saved him.

There's enough gas in the car for another 200 miles of driving. I think I'll see if I can rescue anyone else and then take the back roads out of the area and try to get to I-5. Maybe SLO is still safe and leiland can house us for a while.

bettybaker, are you still holding up? I'll try to get you and antoniotyler if I can and maybe connect with keshian. He seems to have a good set of weaponry!

Keep your eyes over here for other news!

There are these weird news reports all over my f-list, the most reliable of which seems to be over here.

At first I thought it was a joke. Something silly to while away the time on LJ over morning cups of coffee or just to make me wonder. I figured something like that was just too absurd to actually be happening.

And besides, I'd see them coming wouldn't I? There's traffic flowing along outside my office window and everything seems so normal down there.

But let me tell you, my office is horrifying at this moment. I'm wondering if there will be a chance to escape into one with a lock on the door and try to arm myself, but I'm not holding out much hope.

So far I don't think they've noticed me.

Corporate drones don't look much different from zombies, so as long as I keep typing, I think I'll be ok. They wander past my office every once in a while, pursuing some unknown errand to the copy room in an eerie parody of normal routine, and so far, even with an open door, they don't seem to have noticed that I'm not one of them yet. The continuation of routine is almost more horrifying than the reports I'm seeing from other areas.

Fortunately, it's close to the appropriate time to leave for lunch. Maybe if I keep my Blackberry in front of me and look glazed while I walk the halls I'll be able to get into the elevator and escape to my car. I think I can maintain a semblance of zombie behavior for that long.

I'm not sure where to run too though. bettybaker seems to be trapped in her home in Livermore and they appear to have overrun the entire South Bay. Maybe I can get to poeso's place and the dog can defend us.

I don't know what's causing this, but I always did maintain those florescent lights in office buildings are bad for the soul!