One local college student from Egypt has finally been able to contact her family in Cairo, and desperately hopes they remain safe through the country's upheaval.

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Mariam Aziz, a 19-year-old American University student, fears for her family, who remain hunkered down in their apartment amid the growing unrest.

"I'm hearing terror, I'm hearing my mom shaking in terror," Aziz recalled of her phone conversation with her mother.

"Because right now it's not even a country, it's a war zone," she added. "For the past two days I could not believe it, please tell me this is a dream."

The government has interrupted cell service and cut off the internet, making it difficult to keep in touch.

The violence has closed stores and schools, and people aren't getting paid. Aziz talked to her best friend last night.

"When I was on the phone with her I could hear the gunfire," Aziz said. "She was telling me they were running out of food and she wasn't sure what they were going to do at that point."

ABC7's Greta Kreuz spoke with Aziz's father, who said residents have now armed themselves against gangs of looters and thugs.

"Everybody is having something in his hand, some stick, some knives, whatever we have in our house and we are prepared, waiting, if something happens," he said.

But Aziz, who has helped organize protests in the U.S. against President Hosni Mubarak, is hopeful for a peaceful end to what she says is a people's uprising.

"I can only hope for the best because the people of Egypt have suffered for too long," Aziz said.

Aziz says she plans to continue leading protests until Mubarak steps down.