Riots + Panic + ... Evacuation? Quarantine?

They've given up on trying to name it. The media, I mean. It's sure as hell not swine flu or rabies, or some media-invented combination of the two. Whatever it is, it's fast and it's scaring the hell out of anyone who's seen it. Whatever it is, it's not just at the Exempla anymore, and it's not just something as random as increased frequency of street muggings (seriously, 9News?). It's got people in a panic, and every time I hear more news of a small riot I'm wondering if it's really just these people who are "sick" or if it's healthy people scared to death and acting out.

Not that I've seen much of the mini-riots for myself. I was passing by the museum and saw some people fighting out near the big dustpan sculpture on the north side. There were 15, maybe 20 people. I didn't really get a good look at them, though. I just wanted to get back to my apartment, so I just sped up. From what little I saw, though, it seemed like most of the people were... I dunno. Messed up. They looked sick and clumsy, and were ganging up on just a few people. If I had to guess, maybe 2/3 of them were attacking the other 1/3, or else stumbling around looking confused. I think the police had just arrived, too, because I remember seeing what looked like two or three cops running across the the pavement on the opposite side toward the crowd. I didn't see anything in the news about it, but then I stopped watching the news so much when those ditzes on channel 9 started going off about swine flu.

I was hoping to hear from my friend at the Exempla by now. The smoke I mentioned last time was just the beginning of it there. The other week when I saw that, there wasn't much, but it escalated afterward. That building to the east, the one that's connected by the bridge to the western wing? It was burning to a crisp a few days ago. There were fire trucks out there. I'm obviously no firefighter so I don't know what's the right response to a big ass fire... but it seems to me there should have been more than 2 firetrucks. I didn't notice any police cars or ambulances there, but maybe I wasn't looking close enough. I didn't want to get near the place, not after the things I've been hearing about around there. I talked to a woman a couple of days ago who saw it, too, and she said she'd talked to someone who got out of the hospital before the fire got bad. What she recalled from that person made it sound a lot like that weird fight I saw at the museum.

There's been talk of evacuation and quarantine, but no one seems to know anything. If we've got some kind of crazy epidemic, I can't imagine that there would be some sort of government sanctioned exodus out of the city. I don't know how it would even be logistically possible. Quarantine sounds like it's out of the question. How would anyone think they could keep 2.5 million people from leaving the area? If any public figure starts talking about quarantine, you can bet that the interstates and highways will instantly become choked with people trying to evacuate before there's a chance of quarantine. I just don't think either is very likely.

I've got a generator now; power became so spotty for a while that it reminded me of the hurricanes on the coast. I bought some extra gas and tested it out with some power tools and lamps. It's loud and I think my neighbors will get pissed if I try it again, but it worked. Maybe they'll have bigger things to worry about if the shit really hits the fan. Heck, maybe they won't have anyone to complain to by then.