The Dystopian Diaries

by K. W. Callahan

  So there I sheltered for hours. I was hot, uncomfortable (I took a pillow to rest on, but it didn’t help as much as I’d hoped), and frightened until it got dark enough to sneak out from my hiding spot. But then I had to be careful not to be detained by the police for being out after curfew. Therefore, as quickly and as quietly as I could, I made my way over to one corner of the hotel.

  There is a steel grated opening in the sidewalk at this location. The opening is there from when the hotel purchased its backup generator. The generator was far too large to be brought into the basement by way of the hotel service elevator; therefore, a hole had to be cut in the sidewalk and the generator lowered through. Rather than completely resealing the sidewalk, the metal grating had been installed atop it for potential future use. The grate has an access hatch set into it that is secured from the inside by a lock. I used some bolt cutters I’d borrowed from the property operations department without their knowledge to cut this lock off from the inside before leaving the hotel. It was precarious work to say the least since the grate is accessed by a steel-rung ladder running from the basement floor up to the ceiling about 25 feet above. It took me almost a minute to get the grate open, me and my bug-out bag (now a “bug-in” bag) through, and the grate closed behind me. I re-secured the grate with a new lock (also borrowed from property operations) just in case anyone had seen me and wanted to follow me inside the hotel.

  Was my plan dangerous? Sure. But it was worth it considering the current state of the world. Why didn’t I tell any of my co-workers about my idea? I was afraid someone would rat me out. You know, loose lips sink ships. Was that a dick move? Maybe. But I kind of figured that everyone else was going to head their own way. I didn’t know that a bunch of cars were going to be vandalized. I didn’t know that Chicago was going to become crazy town. And by the time all that happened, it was a bit late. Plus, who is to say my plan is the right plan? I could be screwing myself by staying downtown. I have no idea. And I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s predicament.

  So now I’m here in the hotel’s basement. This floor is where, besides the massive backup generator, things like the hotel’s boilers, huge sump pit, and property operation tool shop are located all in one massive multi-story room. Down here, in separate areas, are also located the main property operations department offices, a locker room, an electrician’s workshop, and various storage spaces. I’m currently nestled in a gap between the wall and one of the huge boilers (currently quiet since little hot water is being generated for the empty property). I brought my pillow from behind the mattresses with me.

  I’m going to chill here for a while, have a snack from my bug out bag, and take a little nap since my sleep schedule is all out of whack. When I wake up, I’ll head upstairs to take a tour around the hotel to find out what the situation is. I don’t know how many guards the hotel hired from that private security firm or when they’re set to arrive, so I’ll have to watch my step.

  September 8th

  1:13 a.m.

  Jesus, that scared the ever-living crap out of me. The hotel’s backup generator just kicked on. Regular power for the hotel must have gone out. It’s hard to tell much about what’s going on above me when I’m stuck down here in the basement at night. It’s damn dark except for the ambient light that filters through the grate from the street above. They only left a red light bulb over the area’s entry door (a huge hanging slab of steel that slides back and forth on metal rollers) on to light this sprawling space. That means I have to write by flashlight.

  Down here in the bowels of the hotel, with that burning red light and surrounded by equipment and the smell of machine oil, I feel like I’m in a submarine trying to avoid detection by enemy destroyers lurking above.

  The backup generator just went off. Maybe city power came back on. Wonder what’s going on out there in the city wild. If electric services are being interrupted, it can’t be good. Guess it’s time to take a look for myself.

  I’d check my phone, but it seems like my service isn’t working down here. Doesn’t surprise me. I’ve probably got more concrete above me than a bomb shelter.

  2:58 a.m.

  Things were quiet upstairs…at least INSIDE the hotel. Out on the street, I could hear sirens, gunfire, people yelling – pretty much chaos all around.

  I checked out the hotel. It’s a good thing I know this place like I do since I had to conduct most of my investigation in the dark. I didn’t want to use my flashlights in case I ran into the security guards. Only emergency lighting was left on inside the hotel – again, to save on electricity while the place is shuttered. They’ve put plywood in place to protect the hotel’s entry doors which makes it even darker.

  I walked the street level (which is mostly shops), the lobby level one floor above, and the lounge level on the second floor including its kitchens. I saw no signs of security. They may not arrive until sometime later today since management and remaining staff only left yesterday afternoon.

  I took a sweep through several of the kitchen areas. There is still a crap-ton of food here. I loaded up my pack with stuff just in case I get stuck downstairs for a while. I considered looking for an open guest room, but since I’m trespassing now rather than working, I think I’m better off downstairs for the time being. These security guys might not care that I’m a hotel employee, and the last thing I want is to be hauled off to jail for trespassing. They’d probably throw me in a holding cell full of Su flu-carriers and violent looters. No thanks. Plus, I don’t have a guest room master key.

  It’s all right. I’m fine with just hunkering down for a few days and seeing how things shake out before deciding on my next move.

  Uh oh, the generator just went back on, an indication of another city system power outage.

  Anyway, while I was upstairs, I checked my phone. Service was spotty, but I managed to get some news updates – nothing good. More looting, more car jackings, more violence, more fires burning out of control around the city. Sounds like they’re calling in the National Guard in an attempt to restore order, but who knows how that will work out.

  I filled up my water bottles after I was done with my news update, filled up a trash bag with some canned sodas and more food from one of the kitchen pantries, and retreated back downstairs to my safe zone in the basement. I have to use the stairs since the elevators are turned off. Smart move on Rick’s part. He had the foresight to realize that if looters get into the hotel, not having the elevators in service will make it a lot harder for them to navigate the place, especially when they don’t know the layout.

  God, what am I going to do here for the next however long I’m down here? How long is this flu thing going to continue? Am I going to be trapped here for days…weeks?

  Hopefully the government will get its shit together and figure this thing out. They’d better. If they don’t, looks like the world is going to be pretty much screwed.

  Supposedly, according to the news reports I got on my phone when I was upstairs, the CDC is working in conjunction with other government agencies to try to find a fix for the flu. But with the way things look right now, I’m not holding my breath. This looks like a huge cluster. I’m just glad it hasn’t fallen on my desk to fix.

  For now, it’s time to try to get some sleep.

  7:48 a.m.

  Oh my god, sleeping on a concrete floor sucks BALLS! My back feels like a wood plank. I don’t think I’ve ever been this sore in my life! I don’t know if I can take another night of this. I might have to move upstairs. I’d take sleeping on one of the lounge chairs or even on the folding chair in my secret ventilation hallway hovel over spending another night on this floor. Terrible…just plain terrible. I’d say that the only good thing about being down here is that it’s relatively cool. Other than that, it pretty much blows.

  11:38 a.m.

  You know what makes a really good snack when you’re hungry but trying not to eat too much? Green olives. But only if you eat them right.

 
; How do you eat them right?

  Well, since I have some time on my hands at the moment, let me tell you. First, you pop one – yes just ONE – olive into your mouth. You let it sit there for a few seconds, its salty brine imbuing the saliva in your mouth as it seeps into your taste buds. Then you swallow that savory saltiness. Next, you suck the pimento out of the olive’s center. No, its paltry few calories aren’t filling, but its delectably soft, slightly salty nature satisfies for a second or two. Now it’s time to move on to the next course. But don’t rush things. This is not the end but just the beginning of enjoying this delicious treat.

  Next, you suck the heck out of the remaining olive. Give the little sucker hell! You suck as much saltiness out of the olive meat as you can. Once you’ve done that, you use your tongue and/or teeth to split the olive in two. Then you bite the inner portion with your front teeth several times to soften up the meat, giving you access to a bit more saltiness, and then you give the remnants another good round of sucking. Once all this is done, you can go ahead and chew up the rest of the olive before starting another.

  Done properly, the entire process can last upward of a minute or more depending on how savory and slow you want the process to be. I find that it allows me to snack slowly, which in a situation where you’re not only trying to kill time but conserve food as well, is beneficial in both regards.

  I probably sound crazy giving instructions on how to slowly eat an olive, but what else do I have to do? And it works!

  Okay, I’m going to sneak back upstairs and check things out. I want to try to determine if security has arrived yet. I need to know how wary I need to be of my movements around the hotel. I don’t know how good these guys are going to be or where they’ll be making their rounds. I’m guessing that without elevator access, they’ll keep the majority of their movements limited to the public space areas on the hotels lower floors. At least that’s what I’m hoping. Having dealt with these sorts of “rent-a-cop” services in the past, I know that they’ll likely avoid climbing stairs if at all possible. They’ll probably spend the majority of their time set up in the hotel security offices playing cards or roaming the lobby and street levels. But I need to make sure of that before I become overly complacent and wind up tossed into a police holding cell.

  1:13 p.m.

  Still no sign of the rent-a-cops. I wonder if they couldn’t make it here because of the situation around the city. I’m sure that their company’s services are stretched to the limit. And it’s not like they’re being paid a lot of money for such work. The guards are probably balking at being called in to work in such an environment. They aren’t trained for this sort of situation. Being sent into an apocalyptic sort of scenario to make $10 or $12 an hour isn’t a big motivator.

  The security staffing company is probably still billing the hotel even with nobody here. Why not? Who’s going to find out? But I still have to be careful. The guards might show up yet. I don’t want to set up shop upstairs only to be nailed when I’ve let my guard down.

  I have to say, it’s somewhat surreal being here at the hotel when it’s this quiet. I’m so used to the place bustling with activity that it’s very odd to see it completely deserted. It’s like something out of a horror movie. If I wasn’t so used to being here at night, I might even be a little creeped out.

  4:47 p.m.

  It sucks being down here in the basement all alone in the dark for hours on end. I’m bored. The generator keeps coming on. It’s the only friend I have here. But its companionship comes at a cost. Every time it fires up, I know that the city electric service has gone off again. That’s not a good sign.

  I’m going upstairs again soon. I need to stretch my legs, and this will give me something to do. Killing time down here is next to impossible. I’ve been fiddling with my phone, listening to pre-downloaded songs and stuff, but without good service, it only keeps me busy for so long.

  6:17 p.m.

  When I was upstairs, I tried calling Manny to see how he was doing, but I didn’t get an answer. I hope he’s okay. Even though he’s my boss, we have a pretty good friendship. He’s one of the few people who I’ve told about my true background in hotel management.

  I feel kind of bad now. Maybe I should have let Manny in on my plan to hide out here. But he has a wife and kids at home, so I doubt he would have stayed even if I had told him. If anything, he probably would have wanted to bring them here, and with two kids in tow, I have a feeling there’s no way we’d be able to keep our presence a secret.

  When I was upstairs, I saw no sign of the security that’s supposed to be holding down the fort. Just as well for me…I think. I don’t know. Maybe with the way things are going outside the hotel, having my own personal security force would be good. If things stay like they are tomorrow, I might try moving somewhere upstairs. It’s got to be better than hiding out down here in the hotel’s dungeon.

  I found a deck of playing cards at the front desk. At least I have something to keep me occupied and help burn some time until tomorrow.

  10:32 p.m.

  Just trying to fall back asleep. I had to relocate. I couldn’t handle the noise of the generator. It about gave me a heart attack each time it kicked on. Even with most of the power in the hotel off, there’s still a need for electricity to keep things like emergency lighting, air conditioning, and refrigerators running, and I guess the city power grid just isn’t cutting it.

  I moved into the engineering locker room for the time being. It’s much quieter here. I also took a bunch of towels from one of the housekeeping closets (its door lock is broken so I didn’t need a key). I’m using them to sleep on. I’d take a rollaway bed, but without the elevators, I have no way to get it from where it’s located in housekeeping on the 18th floor all the way down here other than the stairs, and that could be quite a task.

  The towels will have to work as my bedding for now.

  September 9th

  7:39 a.m.

  I feel so in the dark, literally AND figuratively. While the lights down here still work, I’m hesitant to use them just in case security arrives and somehow stumbles their way to the basement.

  I can hear the generator running intermittently next door. At least here in the locker room, its sound is more of a gentle, almost soothing purr rather than a deafening roar.

  After a breakfast of a few granola bars, I’m going to head upstairs and see what’s up. I need to find out what the hell is going on – whether they’re getting a handle on the situation outside or what. I hate all this not knowing. I don’t want to be missing incoming text updates or emails about re-opening the hotel. That’d be just great – I’m sleeping down here or eating breakfast in my underwear and the property operations guys roll in for their shift. I don’t think that would look too good.

  9:19 a.m.

  I’m writing from inside Manny’s office on the 18th floor. I’m getting absolutely no cell service. This really sucks! I want to know what’s going on! I suppose that if things were getting better, I’d be getting something on my phone.

  I think I should come up here later tonight. I want to see if there are other sections of downtown that have power. Once it gets dark, I should have a good view from the hotel rooftop.

  So by now, you might be wondering how a lowly floor technician such as me gets into these more “limited-access” portions of the hotel with no one around. I’m lucky in the fact that I have a master key for all of the metal door locks inside the hotel. The fact that I have this key has been a closely guarded secret of mine for years, but considering I’m bored out of my mind, I’ll fill you in.

  It was about eight years ago I guess when I came up with my little plan. You see, as a floor tech, I’m often sent to various parts of the hotel that would otherwise be off limits to hotel employees at night when these areas are not being utilized. Cleaning and maintaining the carpets or tiled floors found in the sales and marketing department, the finance department, the fitness center, the front desk offices, employe
e locker rooms, and even our general manager’s office have all been on my assignment sheet at various points throughout my career. The doors to most of these spaces are still opened by metal keys, not the magnetic keycards you’d swipe to enter a guest room. So to access these areas to clean, I’d have to check out a master key from the security department.

  Well, one night while I was working, it hit me just how many places such a master key accesses. And with plenty of time on my hands at night to roam the property unhindered, I eventually realized that about 95 percent of the metal key locks in the hotel are opened with the same single master key. Therefore, the next morning at the end of my shift, I conveniently “forgot” to turn this master key back in to security.

  This was of course a problem. Hotel security doesn’t like misplaced keys or keys taken off property. However, this sort of key doesn’t hold quite the same level of concern as say taking a guest-room master key off property since it doesn’t directly endanger guest safety or privacy. And I figured that with it being shift change, it might take the security department a little time to realize the key was missing.

  I was surprised however that it didn’t take them as long as I thought. But I was ready for this eventuality. When I got back to my apartment, there was a message on my phone from the security supervisor telling me that I needed to call him as soon as possible. But I didn’t. Instead, I went to a local hardware store and had a copy of the key made. Then I called the hotel, acting clueless as to why the security supervisor needed to speak to me. I played the role of foolish employee, telling him that I couldn’t believe I’d made such a silly error and that I’d return the key to the hotel as soon as I hung up with him. He seemed placated by my acting job and said that if I got it back to him in the next hour, he wouldn’t push for disciplinary action.