Yesterday started off as any other Monday morning, I had an early morning shift at work so was up at 5:30am getting ready for the day. I left my aparment around 7am to catch the train which is about 5 blocks away. About, one block or so away from the EL Stop there is a security guard yelling that if you are taking the train you must head to the Western Stop which is another 3 blocks south. They are currently doing construction along the tracks everywhere in the city and occasionally there is interrupted service all over. I really didn't think much of it, found it odd but nothing more.
As I am approaching the Western EL Stop there are hundreds and I do mean hundreds of people standing around. It's a large stop and if people are being diverted I guessed again this wasn't unusual. Until I noticed everyone was on their Cell phones. You always see people of phones but not like this. Everyone was on their cell phone with a panic look on their face. I continue into the terminal and hear another CTA worker yelling something about a shuttle bus. I ignore, and try to head to the turnstyle, ahead of me was another woman on a mission, and they stop her and say there is NO Service at all on the Brownline. Living in The Paranoid State that America has become all sorts of scenarios are running through my head at this point as to what could have happened and was starting to worry a bit. I called Paul to wake him up and let him know I was either going to walk to work or find a bus, and told him what was going on for when he left for work. Really I know he would panic if there was something on the news and didn't hear from me. Last week there was a train de-railment on the Greenline which is an elevated track, meaning its up on a platform above the street. We rarely take the greenline , but when you hear de-railment on an elevated track you think the worst. Most of the brownline we take is an elevated track, so I thought maybe there was another de-railment on our line.
I hop on the bus, which was jammed packed, and the man behind me was on his cell phone, and mentions to me that at the stop two stops north of our original stop they found a body, great. I really can't complain about being late for work then can I? Never dull...never..