The zombie infestation seems to grow
every day. We look outside and the collection of these things staggering about…
I scarcely know where to begin. But we are trying to put things together. It is
just very difficult with such limited information. I don’t really want to talk
about Zero Hour yet. At least, that is what we are calling it. I also don’t
want to comment on how we went from 23 survivors on Day 1 to 22 survivors on
Day 3. But what I want to type today are my accounts of the events leading up
to Zero Hour.
So the morning of Day 1, something had
gone screwy. I just didn’t realize it at the time. I always wake up and turn on
my local news to get the weather and the top stories. However, on that day, the
four networks that run live broadcasts in the morning just had their station
logos up. The channels that were just showing old reruns or syndicated
programming were still up and running but there was no live news. NFL Network
was running a recap of the draft. I guess in retrospect I should have flipped
it over to FOX News or CNN but I didn’t think anything about it at the time. I
mean it was strange but I didn’t really have time to think about it because I
had to get to work. I certainly didn’t think it was a sign of the apocalypse.
I normally listen to The
Big Mad Morning Show
on 97.5 KMOD and I was getting a lot of static on my radio, like multiple
stations were overlapping a single signal. So it was a lot of squelching and
static. A week before, I had installed a new stereo in my car that had a flash
drive hub to play my MP3 files on. So rather than listen to a distorted signal,
I just listened to my MP3s instead of my radio during my 22-minute commute to
work.
When I got to work a little before
7:00 a.m., some of my fellow opening employees were complaining about their
phones running slow. I still use an old school Xenon cellular telephone. It is
not an iPhone or a Droid – one of those phones you can surf the web with. But
some “techies” at the store live and breathe by their smart phones. All these
phone geeks were complaining that they couldn’t log on to all their social
networking sites. (Yes, we are not supposed to carry personal cell phones with
us but everyone does. They just keep them on vibrate. You would be amazed at
how many tweets and FB status updates are done while someone is pooping.)
No one could log into Facebook. Some
of the guys were complaining about not being able to access their Twitter
accounts. Now, I use Facebook but I don’t use Twitter because I am not
important enough for anyone to follow so I cannot speak to that. But people
didn’t know if the sites had been hacked or crashed or if it was a local thing.
And if you tried to do searches on Google, it would either just spin endlessly
or pull up that 404 error. (Don’t ask me what that even means.)
News organizations off the air,
Twitter crashing, unable to see status changes on Facebook? I didn’t realize it
at the time but, looking back on it now, I realize how much trouble we were in.
As for right now, thankfully, I am
lucky enough to have my son with me and he brought my laptop computer and my
portable air card which has allowed me to connect to the Internet. While Google
is highly limited in their searches right now, I ran several blogs in the past
– just personal sites so my family could see what I was up to, post movie
reviews, talk about books or comics I was reading, or just philosophical
thoughts in general. When I found that www.blogger.com was still active, I thought to create
this blog that you are reading now in hope of contacting the outside world.
Earlier this year, it seemed like
social networking was the best way to get the “on the ground” perspective of
things like the Boston Marathon Bombing or the capturing of those suspects. Everyone
is talking about how social networking has changed the world and here it has
collapsed. Is it because everyone is tweeting about zombies and the massive
influx of tweets crashed the servers? When Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast
back in Halloween last year and when the election was being held, everyone was
sending in pics and tweeting and there wasn’t any sort of crash. They did the
same thing when that bomber was found hiding out in that boat. So is this some
nationwide thing (or even worldwide thing)? Or did the government go in and
seize control to keep all the information from getting out? I am not some right
wing conspiracy nut-bar but it stands to reason that if a massive viral
outbreak occurred, the government would do everything possible to keep it
covered up to avoid mass hysteria. We may never know if that is what has
happened. But if it is so widespread that Twitter and Facebook is crashing, it
must mean that this could be a worldwide epidemic.
Nevertheless, this is why I am here. I
am trying to contact the outside world. The cell network won’t connect and when
you pick up a landline phone, I would say three times out of four you get this
busy signal like the network is down. And if we are lucky enough to call out,
no one answers the phone numbers that we dial. There is a semi-truck parked in
our dock but no one really wants to go outside to try the CB radio. (Kids, ask
your parents what a CB radio is.)
We are still here. And while I hope
that there is someone out there that can get us help or get us to a permanent
safe zone. With more and more time beginning to pass, people are starting to
think about their family members but there is so little we can do for their
safety.
More soon…
