April 16th, The Day It Happened
1-4PM: I am spending time with the Advance Game Design classmates playing/playtesting games.
4:30-6PM: I have moved to the Speculative Worldbuilding classroom and spend my time working on homework and catching up on conversations over discord.
6-7:55PM: I flow through a mental low energy limbo state of eepiness as my body is used to napping at this time.
8-8:14PM: I stare out the window seeing the red skies as I wait with the other classmates in class as Sam leaves to get a forgotten laptop. I try to message my friends over discord and text my family regarding the happenings.
8:15PM: I take cover under the desks when the building begins to shake.
8:16-20PM: Shortly after the quakes stop, I quickly pack up my belongings and get ready to leave the building, heading to the courtyard/red square, attempting to text my family as I make my way down to the bottom floor–purposely avoiding the elevator.
8:22PM: While waiting in the red square, I notice the other students and faculty across the campus coming out from the buildings as well.
8:30PM: Still no texts as suddenly the forest screeches and roars catching everyone off guard.
8:50PM: I ensure I stay away from the thickening forest as they shift, change, and glow. I realize that my texts are no longer delivering and discord is no longer working.
9PM: I try to find familiar faces of faculty members or fellow classmates as I put in an earbud to put on some music and calm my nerves.
10PM: Still no response from my family, I begin to worry and attempt to call them to no avail. I decide to go and wait by the buses in case they’re still running so I can head home.
11PM: It’s clear no buses are coming and I return to the red square of Evergreen where other individuals are waiting, awaiting instructions on disaster relief or news of a location to hunker down for the night while I wait to hear from any of my family or friends, following some to take shelter in the library out of the night’s cold. I shut off my laptop to conserve its battery and check my service on my phone to no avail. Snacks and small portions of food are distributed to students taking shelter. There’s a sense of camaraderie and comfort in being surrounded by others in similar predicaments, but a growing sense of dread as well.
12AM: I try to fall asleep, people watching and making small conversation to those that seem open or somewhat familiar to myself.
3AM: I finally pass out.
8AM: I wake up to a red sun filtering through the library’s windows, my body hurts from sleeping on the floor, I check my phone and still nothing. I can feel my stomach growling from being still hungry the night before.
8:30AM: I decide to finally step out of the library and outside to check the rest of the campus, maybe find some familiar faces and group up together.
9AM: I stay sticking between the CAB building, the red square, and the library. I find it’s easier and more comforting to be close to people and it’s a rather familiar part of campus to me.
April 17th-23
It’s been one week now. From the sounds of things, some people tried to leave campus to no avail and the number that continue to do so dwindled down. The forest is a nightmare to deal with and the fog is just impassable it seems. I have no idea about the state of my family or any friends outside of here. I have to rely on the connections I’ve made at the school and I’m glad that I’m at least somewhat familiar with some classmates given the few quarters we’ve shared together. I stumbled upon what was originally the Evergreen Tabletop Guild in the library basement. This was apparently where they normally met and would continue to hang out/meet from time to time during this disaster to play Magic and other card/board games to stave away the boredom and keep themselves mentally sane through entertainment and breaks. Eventually they moved out of the library’s basement and spread more into the CAB building as their gatherings began to garner more attention from those looking for a way to keep themselves distracted from the current predicament.
Between these times, I’ve been trying to help out where I can when I have the energy or if I see familiar classmates taking on tasks. Whether that’s moving supplies around, passing out fliers, pinning up information, or passing along messages to different buildings and groups. I know it’s not much, but I know time passes faster. There was definitely a wave of panic that could be felt across campus around the middle point of this week as everyone started to get frantic. About half have calmed down now as a focus on tasks started to come up. I think giving some sort of schedule and focus to those looking for a way to stay busy or distracted has been paramount to keeping all of us stable. But it’s only the first week, I worry that if we don’t continue to properly progress, people will start to unravel again. It’s weird to say but I used to romanticize the idea of these kinds of situations no thanks to all the games I played with these kinds of scenarios. Pondering these scenarios and what I’d do is probably why I’ve managed to stay… calm, for lack of a better word, but in all of these scenarios I never really considered those affected with families in the outside world. I think that the most difficult thing to see physically is how hard everyone is taking it and the worry of their loved ones as it eats away at them. The little moments of socializing with familiar faces go a long way, but the feeling of loneliness continues to grow stronger. Just as long as I stay busy, I think I’ll be able to stay afloat.
I miss listening to my spotify.
April 24th-May 4th
In an attempt to help do some hunting, I stepped wrongly before I could even properly brave the forest and twisted my ankle and buckled my knee. I decided to stay behind so as to not hold anyone back or drag them down. We aren’t sure what’s in the forest and if they need to make a quick getaway, well. I sure wouldn’t be in any condition to do so. So I’ve been tending to my leg in the meantime while doing some light chore work where I can. I want to do more. But I’m also just so mentally and emotionally exhausted. I feel myself dissociating and losing track of time during this period. I’m hungry like all the time and I can feel that I’ve lost a little bit of weight due to needing to portion out meals and snacks. That and, apparently, we’ve run out of food now in the storage so hunting and foraging is REALLY necessary.
I have heard some rumors that some storage food may have gone ‘missing’ though. I wouldn’t put it past if some people decided to start stealing. It was just a matter of time, maybe I’ll ask around or investigate it once my leg heals up a lil better. It’s much better than it was before, but I can still feel a lil pain from time to time and I don’t want to mess it up again.
Originally, and even prior to this whole debacle, I did enjoy exploring the campus from time to time, especially buildings I was unfamiliar with, just to see if there was anything worth finding, but lately there’s been an increase of weird shit in the forest more often, and people have been going into the fog willingly and not coming back. I’ve overheard some people even saying that they’ve noticed “spirits” where these people vanish to? Uhhh, yeah I’m good thanks. So I’ve been trying to stick to the buildings less on the edge of the campus for the time being, or at least where I know other people generally are.
May 5th-May 15th
Didn’t realize but apparently there were a few different major groups on campus trying to get the general student body, or at least what’s left of us, together to work collaboratively. Some groups focus on specific parts, like I think the group… what was it, Arcades? (strange choice of name if you ask me), was more focused on food. From what I’ve gathered they seem to just be focusing on ensuring our survival in the off chance we don’t actually get rescued. Which, at this point, is completely fair. Another group is focused on specifically housing and getting some of us situated, while the third is worried about our health. I’ve seen some others join the different groups, some who say they never will but then the next day I see them working and traveling with them. I make it sound like these groups are sketchy but it’s more or less just people with specific priorities on what we should do. I think it’s helping to get people focused on what they think they can help with. The farm people helping with the farm, the more first aid knowledge with the health focused crew, etc etc. Not all of us have joined one yet, myself included, but I do occasionally hop between them and check in and ask if they need an extra hand. Sometimes it’s just nice to assist without needing to really claim any kind of “allegiance”. Again, there aren’t any arguments or fights breaking out between any of them, just good collaboration. Which, given the duress and stress, is kind of surprising? Well. ok, maybe there have been a few bumped heads when the ideals have clashed. Like Arcades who wants to be more focused on our longevity here has definitely bumped heads with uhhh RAD? I don’t remember, there was a group that was primarily talking about wanting to return to how things were. I can see both sides of their perspectives. One just wants to ensure our survival while the other wants to get out and see if we can get a return to norm. It’s a tough spot to be in. Pretty sure the third one just wants to focus on what we got going on daily. Which is also really important too.
May 16th-June 1
Well, after putting forth some effort for the communities, CCTV promised me a room once they got access to D Building but that… kind of fell through. Not really even kind of, it just did. First they couldn’t find the keys and then when they did manage to get into the building fog and plants barred the way, ceasing all operations on that front. Sucks but, guess I’m back to just sleeping on the couches in SEM II. I know there’s better options, but idk. It’s cozy here, I can hear when people come in, I got a good window view outside, and it’s near most of the other structures on campus anyhow if I needed to get somewhere safer. Though! I guess it’s kind of a moot point anyway, because it seems like we actually managed to make a connection with Olympia finally! jfc took long enough but I know we’ve been doing what we can. Apparently it’s not doing so hot over there, worse off than how we are here. I haven’t been over there myself yet so I’m not sure just how bad it is exactly, but honestly all I care about is checking on if anyone I know is okay and depending on the actual habitable area of Olympia, I might actually be able to go home. Don’t think we’ve heard a peep from Lacey just yet, but my place is just right on the edge of crossing into Lacey so it may actually be feasible. It’d be nice to find some comfort in my own bed and home. Apparently we have a bus driver that can bring us to Olympia? Feels like forever since I last rode it before all of this went down. Maybe it’ll bring me back to some mental normalcy of the ride, assuming it even goes the same route as it used to. I don’t see why it would though, maybe they’ll just drop us off at the mall or maybe at the transit center. Idk. All I know is that if I can get home, I’ll be able to clear my head a bit better and pick up some much needed supplies like clothes and necessities. After that it’s just a matter of seeing if the roads and paths to places are even moderately traversable. I just hope they’re hanging in there alright. If the situation is absolute shit, then I’ll be coming back for sure. At least here things are going ok now.
June 2nd – June 9th
Good News: I made it home.
Bad News: I forgot the lack of electricity meant there were a handful of things in the fridge that definitely have been going bad for awhile now and needed to be tossed out. It was nasty. I almost just left them in there to not deal with the fridge period. Not like I can use it anyway ugh.
It seems like a few people in our complex area still stayed with their families. But they’re struggling for sure. When I took the garbage out to the dumpster, it was completely overflowing. There was a point in time when I recall getting texts regarding not leaving those things out but… obviously those rules don’t really apply any more. Nobody is doing garbage runs and.
Why am I even talking about this, this has no importance. We practically live in a different world at this point. The Home Depot across the street seems to have had some people set up shop but they won’t let anyone come close unless they were willing to do trade. Good on them to get the jump on that, those kinds of places would’ve been a goldmine for supplies. Our street was already a disaster prior to this whole thing due to the construction, it almost felt like nothing had changed when I came down the street. Just… eerily empty for how busy it is normally.
It was nice to lay in a bed, MY bed, for the first time in forever. I immediately passed out.
I was jolted awake to what I thought was the sound of someone screaming outside. It was already night time and pitch black in my room.
I stumbled through the house along the walls in the pitch darkness til I found a drawer where my mom used to stash batteries and hoped that they would work for the fake candles she used to have laying around. Sure enough it lit up. I took it up to my room so that I could gather up some necessities. I couldn’t stay here forever, even if it was a place of comfort to me. We had snacks and stuff in the pantry still but it wouldn’t last forever. I had two options, either return to Evergreen (assuming I could) as things were more sustainable there. It also wouldn’t be as lonely and I could at least keep myself busy. Or I could try and survive out here on my own, ask neighbors about some information on communities that could give supplies or are handling food. One sounded less daunting than the other, but the trek back was also a difficult journey in of itself. I decided I’d work out the week here and see what I could do, if things would change, and then I’d return to Evergreen. I’d bring some supplies from here if need be. I could make additional trips, maybe in the future with others, idk. I wanted to help. But for now, I just needed to work with what I had on hand here and what was close by.
June 10th – June 13th
Well, I talked with the neighbors. Unfortunately, most of them were untrusting of me, some didn’t even believe that I lived in the unit that I do and that I was squatting. I never really got the chance to get to know them since our complex usually has military families moving in and out relatively often. Every now and then I’ve had exchanges in the past with previous tenants but these ones I’d never gotten the opportunity before. I decided to check out the Home Depot and sure enough they seemed to have put up a barricade and threatened me as I got close. I offered an exchange. They gave me some general tools, batteries, and some water in exchange for some snacks, a couple of board games, and books that I didn’t really play any more. I also asked if I could get something with wheels like a wagon so I could transfer more with me without it being a terrible nightmare to carry everything.
Someone once told me that one thing we underestimate is entertainment in the apocalypse. So things like board games and books are really important to keep ourselves sane and to help us stay distracted from the immediate surrounding danger.
I decided to rest one more night and head out in the morning back to Evergreen early since it was going to be quite the trek. I’m just hoping I’m able to return the same way I came. Otherwise, this is just gonna suck. I was sure to pack my own pillow, blanket, a couple of board and card games, some more clothes, snacks, the batteries, and the tools. Rest of the stuff I have can stay here for now. Even though I like the comfort of my home, I’d rather be where other people are that I’m at least somewhat familiar with.
June 13th – June 20th +3 weeks
Been awhile since I’ve really had an update. The board and card games I brought were a hit, people found some nice relief in the distraction they brought and now we even started having some gamenights. It was enough of a success that I decided to make a couple of other trips when I had the free time to grab some more. I’m gonna live primarily on the campus now, getting back and forth was a bit easier once the buses started properly running okay. Things seem like they’re going to be alright for the most part. I can always go back home whenever I need to, but being here, among others and making new friends. It’s been nice. Despite everything that’s happened, the shift in the world, the panic, I think things will be okay as long as we keep pressing on and keep working together. It’s not the best, but improvements are happening day by day. I don’t think we’re ever going to get back to the type of normalcy we had before, this is the new norm. But we’ll make it.