An odd request.

There were a lot of people missing from work today. I wonder if they've caught this virus people are talking about. Must be spreading pretty badly; those of us who are here have been asked to report to Pasadena Medical Offices on Lake. Not sure what good I can do there; they'll most likely have me doing intake paperwork for people. I'll probably head over after lunch.

If anyone can read this...

So I didn't go to lunch, and I'm sure as hell not going to the med clinic. From what I can see here, it looks like it's on fire anyway. Most of the people who came into work have fled the building, and the rest are frantically trying to get ahold of loved ones. Shamblers (using sasha_khan's terminology: why, oh why didn't I read my friend's list before I went to work today?) have swarmed the first floor of the building, and are slowly climbing. If anyone can read this, I'm on the third floor of Walnut Center, in the server room. I hope the noise of the machines will mask my own, and the security doors will hold. Thank God for generators; the power should stay on if the grid collapses.

I was talking to mysryael when she suddenly went offline. Sweetie, if you can read this, please check in. I'm worried about you.

Update

Things have started to quiet down around here. I have no access to windows, so I can't assess the situation on the ground, but things might be such inside the building that I can make a break for my truck. The server room is all well and good, but there's nothing in here in the way of supplies, apart from a bag of doritos one of the IT guys must have stashed here.

I'm going to make a break for it. There's a fire extinguisher here, and my helm is about 20 yards down the hall (in the wrong direction, of course) on top of the filing cabinet. I'll stop by the supply closet to grab what I can as far as weaponry is concerned. My plan is to head down the northwest stairwell, which will involve a jaunt down two hallways, but which will place me near the rear exit of the building. From there, I should be able to take cover in the foliage and make my way around to the front, where I'll enter the parking structure and climb the stairs to my truck.

Not sure how I'm going to navigate from there, since Pasadena is an old city with narrow streets and reports have come in that the 210 is closed, but I've got a wi-fi enabled laptop and a stack of batteries I've been charging since I got in here. I'll keep you all posted.

mysryael, I'm coming home.

Update 2: On the road

I stopped by the bathroom while heading out of Walnut Center and grabbed as many ammonia-related products I could find. The building was deserted, as far as I could tell, but I played it safe. Exited out the back door and creeped around the building. There were some shamblers in the street, but they seemed to ignore me. Before leaving the garage, I climbed up to the top to get a better view of the city.

The streets were filled with blood. Buildings were burning, and the sirens which had earlier filled the air had grown silent as the grave (no pun intended). I could hear the moans, though, and another horrible sound (more on that later), so I headed back down to the truck.

I took Walnut/Foothill back to the flat. They seem to congregate in shadier areas (perhaps the heat is a factor?) I rammed through a large crowd of them near the last stop on the Gold Line, and never looked back. Picked up supplies at the flat, strapped on my heavies armor, grabbed my handgun as well as patgund's, wrapped up the bladed weaponry, and threw everything in the truck. Then I remembered the rumor going around that said that salt hurt them, so I went back for the canister of Morton. While I was in the kitchen, the glass to the laundry room door broke through, and one of my neighbors tried to enter. I panicked and threw the canister at her. She was almost immediately engulfed into flames. It was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen. My neighbor continued to shuffle through the door as the walls light up with fire. I ran.

patgund, don't try to go back to the flat. There's no flat to go back to.

On my way down Foothill, I looked to see if John and Bjo were ok. Their car was gone; I can only hope they got away safely.

Has anyone heard from sasha_khan ?

I haven't heard anything from him since he got covered in goo. I'm worried about him. Also anyone who hasn't, please check in.

Safe. For now.

I lost the truck just before San Dimas when I turned off Arrow Highway to avoid a mob of them and ran into an overturned semi. I was able to salvage my greatsword and harness, my longsword, the handguns, some rope from the back of the truck, my emergency rations bag (thank you, corporate-sponsored emergency survival trade show!) and a staff; it was going to be a long walk.

I kept mainly to the rail lines, avoiding abandoned commuter cars (having seen what came out of the Gold line earlier) and walking generally eastward. mysryael's apartment is close to the line, and I knew that if I followed it I would get there.

What I didn't count on was finding a nest of about eight of them. They seemed to have been commuters once; nearly all of them were in business wear. They were amassing a pile of flesh for what I can only assume was later consumption. My aventail made too much noise, and they heard me before I could get out of sight. I was able to kill most of them by shots to the head. Two overtook me, and I was forced to fight in close quarters. Thank god for thick leather arm protection (and thanks vsct_caius for giving me said arm protection) as well as the close-faced helm. Their attacks were mostly swiping and biting. The swiping wasn't that big a deal; it's not like they had razor-sharp talons or anything. They're undead humans, but they're still just humans. Biting, however, was another matter. Though they seemed to be storing food intelligently, they didn't seem to understand that attacking a helmed head wouldn't do any good. I dispatched them both with the longsword.

I arrived at mysryael's apartment about 20 minutes ago. I climbed up the back window with the help of her and her daughters. The area is deserted, even of shamblers. We think most in the area bugged out before the problem got to be too large, and the shamblers made their way to Los Angeles, for a larger supply of food.

Like aliskye I'm going to go radio-silent for a while. I'm relocating with the girls soon. The area's safe for now, but when Los Angeles is clear of the living, the shamblers will head out, eating everything in their wake. Good luck, and may God bless and keep the fortunate who have survived thus far.