Weird

I got up so early this morning that it didn't occur to me that there were less people out and about than usual. Walking along Stacy Boulevard I did notice more emergency vehicles than I'm used to seeing - police cars, fire engines, and ambulances - all of them screaming over the Cut Bridge into town.

After taking the photo of the Fishermen's monument I became aware of the fact that the drawbridge had gone up behind me several minutes ago and still hadn't gone back down again despite the fact that I didn't see any boats trying to make the passage from the Annisquam River to Gloucester Harbor and vice versa.

The train station in downtown Gloucester was uncharacteristically vacated as well, with just a few of the souls I normally see every morning waiting for the 7 o'clock train. A cluster of three men were eyeing their surroundings warily and muttering about "some kind of accident" they'd heard mentioned on the news before leaving the house this morning, and of course the trio was already speculating about terrorists and 9/11, as any disaster (be it natural or man-made) these days inevitably leads to.

"Just goes to show you that the War on Terror ain't finished!" the one said.

This caused another to sputter and retort: "You're nuts - if we got attacked again it's all Bush's fault. All those boys are dying over in Iraq when they should have been protecting us here..."

"Hold up, fellas." The third man tried to head off what must have been yet another early-morning political argument between the two of his friends. "We don't know anything yet. Last I heard the Governor had mobilized the National Guard --"

"-- you mean what's left of it!"

"Fine, Bill! He called the Guard in to handle something going on around Worcester. No one is saying what, exactly, but I have a friend who's a pathology out at the med school there and he said it's has to do with the d--"

The rumbling of the approaching train drowned out the rest of their conversation, but as we boarded I tried to sit as closely as possible to the men in hopes of getting some more details. But the trio sat in silence. If I wasn't so bleary from the lack of sleep I'd gotten the night before, I'd say they looked a full shade paler than they had before getting on the train.

Trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I tried to access some of the news sites on my cell phone, but I kept getting time-out errors on all the major news sites. Going through my RSS feeds, however, I noticed this post by my friend Jason F. Clarke, who blogs over at Biggerboat.net:

The TV’s out except for WLVI 56, who are still broadcasting from their news station. I remember back when they used to have the Creature Double Feature in the ’80s. I wish they’d never canceled that…what the hell am I saying? I think I’m in shock.

Anyway, they had some fat bearded guy on, a scientist I guess, who said “every dead body that is not exterminated, becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill!” Thanks for the tip, fatty. Most of us already figured that out.

I guess it started a couple days ago, somewhere in Russia I heard. But it’s spread like wildfire, literally. Kind of funny, coming after that TB scare with that guy who ran off to Europe to get married. You’d think they would have been on high alert or something, or at least had this kind of thing on their minds. I mean, what the hell?!

God, there’s a bunch of them walking up Dighton right now. What I wouldn’t give for one of those assholes who always rips up the street in a pick-up. Mow those things down.

I might post again, if the power’s still on. And if they haven’t…I’m in a basement floor apartment, strong windows, strong doors. I can probably hold out for a while. But DG isn’t here. I want to go find her. I wonder how my family is doing.

WTF! I immediately called Mrs. Exile and told her not to go to work. Now I'm totally freaking out...