I flew to Atlanta last week, job related, only tangentially related to this post. I haven’t been offered the job and don’t expect to be. Could I do it? Sure, probably extremely well, but when there are a million candidates, there is always someone better. I didn’t embarrass myself, so I count it as a win overall. Back to the airport…

Taking the main tunnels underground I just thought of how excellent a space this would be for zombies. I’ve seen (and greatly love) “The Train to Busan”, this brought back memories of the movie. Like I’m in the little pseudo train car thing on an automated run and the apocalypse happens. Pretty much kiss my ass goodbye, but as a living human we want to believe we would somehow be the hero of the story, not “zombie number 7,388,221 – man in a blue Carhartt flannel missing his left eye and ear.” When riding I could imagine the roar from the approaching platform: people screaming and trying to get on, with zeds attacking them from behind. Then the doors not closing, due to the press of bodies and everyone just being converted to the religion of brain eater. Overhead the sternly worded automated voice would persist in telling everyone to clear the door ways…until the power went out.

Even if you got out of the train, where the hell would you go? The tracks? Sprinting back whichever direction you came from trying to get away with hoards following behind you. Would you drop your luggage? Hell no! I might need it! Don’t get me wrong, airports have plenty of places to hide, plenty of locking doors, security positions, back rooms, luggage tunnels, vehicles, like mini cities all by themselves. There would be options. I suppose if you WORKED there you might have a chance, you’d have the codes to get into places, maybe you would be a hero, save that woman with the baby by pushing a wheel chair rider in the way of the fast zombies. Hero and villain. Or get onto one of the planes, get that door shut and wait things out. What a friggin’ mess, eh? Loads of stories could be written in airports, hell there might even be a helicopter to take you to the nearest mall or island. I should reactivate the ‘Billions’ series and churn out a few ‘Airport Apocalypse’ stories. Maybe…

I’ve also thought about the wars, where better to have the undead appear? On the Ukrainian battle line with Russia, in Israel in the ruins of Gaza (or Lebanon or Iran, given what is going on IRL now) Along the DMZ on the Korean peninsula, add a few undead eating everyone and you’ve got a different take on things. Imagine trying to convince the viewers at home that the dead are a ‘third side’ in the conflict with any degree of success. I think ‘The Great War’ would be the perfect backdrop for the dead to come back, not just zombies, but ghouls, the true scavengers of the dead, would make good reading. The rudimentary communications, the trenches, artillery, gas warfare, machine guns. My oh my, the mind runs rampant! See? I am underachieving and need to get my fingers flying and churning out more stories!