As disaster unfolded, we bore witness and we wrote. These are our stories.
April 16th
Before the Collapse
1PM: Students are lounging in the sun after class
2PM: (Email alert) Increased oxygenation is detected on campus
3PM: A lot of the commuter campus heads home
4PM: Admin offices close, admin heads home
5PM: Einstein closes, Greenery opens for dinner, clouds begin to roll in
6PM: Night classes start, fog rolls in and cell service gets really spotty
7PM: There appears to be a storm coming up on the horizon, giving the effect of when the sun is setting–almost like the sky is on fire.
7:55PM: Sam goes to COM building
At the Moment of Disaster
8PM: The bowels of heaven fissured upon the masses, striking them all with peril and awe
8:15PM: Cracks erupt across the world splitting the very foundation of pathways; the structural integrity of buildings are shaken to their core but stand strong after some windows are shattered, debris and dust settling upon the ground.
8:30pm: A loud, otherworldly roar emanates from the forest, audible to everyone on campus.
8:40: Last spotting of Sam
8:50: The forest seemed to shift through the naked eye and glows an eerie green for a split second, before settling and seeming thicker and more eerie than before.
Panic and Aftermath
9PM: Those who know first aid tried their best to calm their nerves and help those in need. They look for med kits, try to get people to safer places, and try their best to fix any injuries.
10PM: What staff is on campus try to organize the students they can find.
11PM: The CAB doors are now open through nefarious means.
2AM: Large groups of people try to leave campus. They are unsuccessful, return safe but confused.
Regrouping
6AM: As dawn broke, the red sun cast a dismal glow over the scene, allowing for a moment of peace amidst the previous night’s chaos.
12PM: Many students are clustering in the HCC as a primary gathering place.
April 17th
- Wellness center moves to Einstein’s
- Find injured and move them to gym as temporary location
- RAs try to do headcounts by building
- Attempt to work on the radio
- Students and faculty attempt to fill leadership roles
April 18th
- First contact with Olympia through radio (Black lake fire station–hearing garbled but incoherent messages?)
- Inventory of food at bookstore (it has been pillaged)
April 19th
- Small groups attempt to brute force the mist with no success
- People start asking volunteer drives for supplies, if people have leftovers
- Trying to establish collective food resources
- (food is moved from POD to Greenery)
April 20th
- RAs open up the store cache for food supplies
- Radio is still coming through so garbled, it’s impossible to tell anything. It’s determined that a full reset of the radio is needed, and an inspection on damage to the hardware from the earthquake.
April 21
- The first time people start reporting strange animals in the mist (injuries? Mental confusion or turmoil due to extended time in the mist?)
- Olympia starts to run out of medical supplies + is subject to flooding (early stages)
April 22
- Smaller organized groups start trying to go through the forest and subsequently discover the horrors of the forest.
April 23
- Making a road map for how to get through the mist/forest (or planning to do so)
- Students mostly started moving to upper campus because of overgrowth
- Collective meeting in Evans hall to decide next steps
April 24-May 4
- It’s been 2 weeks since the last update. Food has officially run out of storage which means we now need to look at other options
- Small groups of students have decided to band together in an attempt to brave the forest and hunt for food, but with the collective lack of experience + the mysteries of the forest, most groups turn up empty-handed or with scraps
- Another small group is figuring out the best method to get to the farm. There’s two paths, one significantly more overgrown than the other, but they need to put their heads together with the people cataloguing the forest to determine a safe route
- As it currently stands, vehicles do not work on these paths. There seems to be a mix of overgrown plants and fog on these paths, leading to further confusion, brain fog, and inability to get through
- The fog/forest covers the way to the beach. There’s still some mystery surrounding the fog as people have gone missing in it and strange fog spirits have begun to appear in their stead (The Mist People) more research needs to be done before this is accessible
- That leaves foraging as the most viable option, while other groups start to consider a way to go over the forest instead of through
- In these two weeks, creature sightings in the forest have started to occur more frequently, further inspiring adventurers to explore and document
- More people have gotten lost in the fog. Which begs the question if we should start going in and trying to save them? Or are they too far gone that all we will recover is a body?
- Individuals here and there have stolen food. People are getting desperate and panicking. We need to figure out who is responsible and find a happy medium.
May 5-May 15
- Missing posters of Sam start cropping up with warped pictures.
- Radio waves from working on fixing the radio have drawn electromagnetic crabs onto the shoreline and have begun to siphon electricity quicker
- Basic weapons made out of sticks have been forged – metalworking is being worked on to improve on the weapons
- Investigators have broken through (with the organizational help of the governance team) on what is causing the fog, leading to more questions but a good lead on how to investigate the other areas
- A performer has discovered the necessity of connecting and respecting nature.
- Taking care of plants is unlocking the magic
- Black bears are venturing onto campus. They seem docile, just looking for food and safety. One sighting reports seeing one being chased out of the forest by a deer
- Foraging, gathering grubs, and hunting invasive squirrels has provided a temporary food source
- Objects have begun appearing in the forest, that when interacted with creates a similar brain fog akin to venturing into the fog
- People are attempting to leave a trail behind them on their journey to the farm to not get lost
- With the help of the governance team, community morale boosters are helping the injured and foggy get their wits back
- Naturally formed groups between upper campus and lower campus
- The grass is tall. Soccer goal tall
- Brain fog is connected to memory loss that is restored when you leave the fog (unless overexposed)
- Slowly discovering methods of effective communication and positive consequences to being respectful towards nature
May 16th – June 1
- A collection of journals written by Sam and locked in a safe has been recovered from the forest by [redacted]. These pages tell a tale of someone getting lost and documenting their findings shortly after the event, that devolves into the horrors we’ve seen thus far.
- Sam’s notes indicate there is something larger to solve, and her notes perhaps give us a clue as to how to solve it when the time comes
- After an extended period of time trying to decipher the notes, [redacted] snatched them up and ran away with them. Locate them?
- The survival and defense team began a workshop for the larger population and has developed better tools and survival guides. Scrounging and foraging is becoming easier
- The radio tower made contact with Black Lake Fire Department after extensive trial and error, which means at the very least communication is possible. Calibration was successful, meaning radio communication is easier
- A small team dedicated to figuring out safe passage through the fog. People got through… but at a cost. The fog now encroaches even closer onto Evergreen campus and is still dangerous to traverse. The group that went through made it but were left confused and some permanently lost.
- The fog ebbs and flows similar to the tides of the ocean. Sometimes it encroaches further into campus in various areas, seemingly at random, while other times it appears to nearly evaporate, revealing new flora, fauna, and turning up a few lost souls.
- No current determination on when or how the fog determines where it will… insert itself further or tear itself away.
- With more access to the fog, it is more prevalent that people are experiencing fog sickness… and are staring at the sky for extended periods of time, out of intense curiosity. More research is being dedicated to how this works and how the fog directly causes it.
- Three splinter groups have formed on campus in the forms of RAD, CCTV, and Arcades. These are all tailored to helping with medicine, housing, and food to students on campus.
- CCTV could not find the keys to the D building. When they did open the door, they were overwhelmed with fog rolling out of the building AND an overabundance of plants, temporarily shutting down progress there.
- Medicine has been synthesized with new plants to cure new ailments, including but not limited to deer bites. Governance and farm people have also worked together to find a successful path to the farm.
- Working together has paid massive dividends with the expansion of the farm (we have access!!!)
- Butch the farm cat has learned how to speak
- People hunting crabs has not only provided a nice source of protein, but has also led to less overwhelming droves of them entering campus and less power being siphoned (we have less of a time crunch on power storage once again)
- [redacted] has been experimenting with new recipes and making edible foods out of new discovered plants. (More food sources!!)
- A chronicle of monsters has been documented.
- With the success of making it to Olympia, the issue of missing people has become an incredibly dire situation. A search and rescue team has formed to venture back into the fog and forest to try and retrieve them. In the meantime vigils are continuing to be held at the longhouse for their losses.
- Pigeons are returning as a domesticated species, and with the new developments of the fog, that means carrier pigeons are back in fashion as a method of communication.
- Bus situation – yes, and bus driver
- Olympia sucks a lot right now; government and police are nonexistent, various governmental groups are trying to take power and failing, resources are running low, but there are the machines to accomplish more medicinal remedies.
- Fire department has a small community formed, but they are running low on resources and people are growing restless.
June 2nd – June 9th
- Ongoing discussions on how to handle Olympia have been at a standstill. Some think we need to keep our resources and some people believe we need to share and this is causing little progress to actually be made.
- Olympia is worse off than the Evergreen students had expected and it means they may need more help than even we do which could mean having to offer more of our resources and potentially, again this is causing the standstill.
- More people are looking at the sun. The sun has begun to look less circular, beginning to very slowly look more oblong (oval-shaped). Some people have even been heard talking about the sky and rambling about it, even catching a few words like “look behind” …. “behind the sky”.
- The fog is still shifting, some people connecting that it is like tides in how it comes in and goes out but efforts are being made to understand it better but for now they only know that much.
- There have been rumors of a structure, looking like a bunker, being spotted in the fog from a few students, nothing more is known about it right now.
- Morning announcements have begun formally, it gives a general recap to the students to help pass around information on a wide scale. This is helping to have everybody on the same page and some people who were reported missing and who didn’t realize are able to pass that information along. All in all this is the best information relay that the students have now.