April 16th, The Day It Happened
1 PM: I was at the trade blanket, worried about the storm seen on my weather app’s
radar.
2 PM: I went up to student activities for the Chibi Chibi Con meeting. We discussed
how the weather would effect tomorrow’s drive up to Seattle for Sakura con.
3 PM: I went back to my dorm for class supplies.
4 PM: I chatted with [redacted] and [redacted] until they had to leave for their work
meeting. I then helped set up for Gaming Guild when they got back.
5 PM: I went down to the greenery and ate above-average food with Jordan.
6 PM: I left the greenery for class. When we were about to start class, Sam left
because she forgot her laptop in the COM building. A fog rolls in and my cell
service cuts.
7 PM: We waited for sam to return and made smalltalk.
**8 PM:** The heavens open up, red tendrils snake across the sky like veins, the
world shook, and I dove under the table. I tried to call my mother about it, but I
can’t get a cell signal. I message my brother on Signal, and he responds that he’s
feeling it as well, but everyone is alright; they’ve pulled over on the side of the
road on the outskirts of Olympia. Wifi cuts out.
8:15: Windows shatter and the quakes stop. I stand up and look around, forgetting
about aftershocks, and look out at the destruction. Most of Sem II and the rest of
the buildings are still standing.
8:30: I go with [redacted] back to the dorms to rescue Taro the cat. We
spot Sam briefly behind the comms building but she’s got the next second.
9 PM: We spend a while finding Taro, and we leave as soon as we rescue him and
deliver him to [redacted]. I break off to head to my dorm and get my supplies.
10 PM: I hang with friends for the night because safety in numbers.
8 AM: I wake up early because of the other people, and start to regroup with
others.
9 AM: I meet up with friends and scrounge for food.
April 17th-23
I figured I should write down an account of what’s going on. Write what life is like in this World Event™. Back during covid, people kept telling me “Oh Colin, you should write a journal!” “Colin, people in the future will want to know what life was like during the pandemic!” and I never did that, so I guess this is also kindof making up for that.
So it’s been a week. One of the weeks of all time, actually. I spent most of it trying to organize people, and just generally help out where I can. On the first day, I went around with a few other students, trying to locate everyone on campus. I mainly just tried to keep busy and helpful. It makes it easier to keep the worries down. The second day was more of the same, keeping busy. I walked around with a few of my friends, making note of what stuff around campus could be useful.
Wednesday was more interesting. We did a thorough search for all the food on campus, and all the stuff that had been looted from the pod and the bookstore (I’m not capitalizing pod, fuck you aramark. I hope that whatever the hell happened here completely wiped out your headquarters and killed John Zillmer.) After moving all the food we could find into the greenery, I sat down for a minute and broke down. I think I cried for maybe half an hour straight. I can only hope my family is still alive and in Olympia.
Thursday, I think, is when some of the people that went into the mist came back. They’re… not in a good state. I talked to one of them on Friday, he said they saw something out there, something unnatural. He wouldn’t say more. I wonder if he _couldn’t_ say more. Apparently also something came through on the radio, but nobody could understand what it was. I don’t want to talk about Saturday.
On Sunday, we got, well, not everyone, but a lot of people, together in the Library Building to discuss what to do next. We’re gonna move people out of the lower campus and into the main campus; the forest seems to be encroaching on the dorms. There was a discussion about getting to the farm, but there’s no way in hell I’m stepping into the woods. I’m much happier doing whatever I can to help out here. Also, I’m gonna write it here because I’m not gonna say it out loud, but some people have the dumbest ideas known to man. There’s this guy who came to the meeting, I’m not gonna name names, but he had such a massive ego and hero complex, and every single one of his ideas was dogshit. Like so unbelievably bad. Getting that off my chest felt good. I think I’m gonna get some sleep, it’s like one in the morning and I haven’t had a shower yet.