One of those days
Figures. Spend all day alone in a windowless server room swearing at Microsoft updates, and miss the end of the world.
Nobody knows I'm here, and the building seems quiet... it'd normally be nearly vacant except for a couple of grad students and me anyway. Lights now off, under desk with flat panel at minimum... office used to be a server room, so it's got a nearly separate air supply, cooler than most rooms. Dunno if they can sense heat or smell the living, but better safe than sorry. Contamination... how is this spreading? Coffee filters plus rubber bands equal face mask; safety goggles from wall-drilling kit, double latex gloves (glad I stashed some after the poster printer leaked magenta everywhere two weeks ago) under the linesman's gloves I keep in my bookbag.
I've got food for like a week if you add up all the snacks and shelf-storable lunches I keep here, and what with being a bit overweight already means that's the least of my problems. Field-expedient toilet in trash cans doable, I think there's enough bags I can keep the smell down. Water's the problem... I've got probably 2 days worth bottled if I sit, less if I'm exercising in the heat. Fountains just down the hall, but don't know if it's safe to go there or I trust them... what if it's waterborne?
Defense is the kicker... too much glass! Stupid modern design. Steel bookcases and filing cabinets would allow me to mostly barricade the door, but there's no way to really reinforce it. Weapons... 3' length of steel threaded rod is a good start, have two, foam & tape handles take just a moment. Wire & tape boxcutter to business end of one, but not too optimistic about how useful that'll be. If this is going to burn out soon, hunkering down may work; if it's going to be longer, I'm going to need to make a break for it. Biology would seem to indicate this can't last (where is the energy coming from? eating the living only works for a short while, really), but what if it's something beyond that?
Drillfield web-cam looks pretty vacant; and fortunately I can see the lot with my car from the conference room down the sub-hall... looks like maybe two dozen cars scattered about a mostly-vacant lot. Only one sign of movement, way on the far side. Distraction would be good... chuck a couple of handfuls of blank CDs off the far side of the building in the rays of the setting sun, hope that draws attention away? My endurance isn't what it used to be, but I can still sprint OK; I think my odds of getting to my van are good. There's food in the van, and some more water, but since that's the limiter carry just the water from here for speed, and maybe some batteries.
Where to drive *to*, though? My apartment has too much glass to be really defensible, and too many people near it to really even risk a trip back for supplies, although it's tempting... water and katanas are in easy reach. nius & rainbowsaber's place might work if I can get to it, he's got good odds of listening in on a radio, and the well might be important. Glad I got my GMRS back from the students after they were experimenting with it. Have to pass through some possibly bad areas, though. Maybe better to head up 460, there's plenty of ways I can get to it from here, several of which aren't obvious or normally legal. Hope to find a small mountain gas station I can restock at, then maybe Caldwell Field, or push on to the Mountain Lake area?
Nobody knows I'm here, and the building seems quiet... it'd normally be nearly vacant except for a couple of grad students and me anyway. Lights now off, under desk with flat panel at minimum... office used to be a server room, so it's got a nearly separate air supply, cooler than most rooms. Dunno if they can sense heat or smell the living, but better safe than sorry. Contamination... how is this spreading? Coffee filters plus rubber bands equal face mask; safety goggles from wall-drilling kit, double latex gloves (glad I stashed some after the poster printer leaked magenta everywhere two weeks ago) under the linesman's gloves I keep in my bookbag.
I've got food for like a week if you add up all the snacks and shelf-storable lunches I keep here, and what with being a bit overweight already means that's the least of my problems. Field-expedient toilet in trash cans doable, I think there's enough bags I can keep the smell down. Water's the problem... I've got probably 2 days worth bottled if I sit, less if I'm exercising in the heat. Fountains just down the hall, but don't know if it's safe to go there or I trust them... what if it's waterborne?
Defense is the kicker... too much glass! Stupid modern design. Steel bookcases and filing cabinets would allow me to mostly barricade the door, but there's no way to really reinforce it. Weapons... 3' length of steel threaded rod is a good start, have two, foam & tape handles take just a moment. Wire & tape boxcutter to business end of one, but not too optimistic about how useful that'll be. If this is going to burn out soon, hunkering down may work; if it's going to be longer, I'm going to need to make a break for it. Biology would seem to indicate this can't last (where is the energy coming from? eating the living only works for a short while, really), but what if it's something beyond that?
Drillfield web-cam looks pretty vacant; and fortunately I can see the lot with my car from the conference room down the sub-hall... looks like maybe two dozen cars scattered about a mostly-vacant lot. Only one sign of movement, way on the far side. Distraction would be good... chuck a couple of handfuls of blank CDs off the far side of the building in the rays of the setting sun, hope that draws attention away? My endurance isn't what it used to be, but I can still sprint OK; I think my odds of getting to my van are good. There's food in the van, and some more water, but since that's the limiter carry just the water from here for speed, and maybe some batteries.
Where to drive *to*, though? My apartment has too much glass to be really defensible, and too many people near it to really even risk a trip back for supplies, although it's tempting... water and katanas are in easy reach. nius & rainbowsaber's place might work if I can get to it, he's got good odds of listening in on a radio, and the well might be important. Glad I got my GMRS back from the students after they were experimenting with it. Have to pass through some possibly bad areas, though. Maybe better to head up 460, there's plenty of ways I can get to it from here, several of which aren't obvious or normally legal. Hope to find a small mountain gas station I can restock at, then maybe Caldwell Field, or push on to the Mountain Lake area?