In Media Res: A Day in the Life

Again, it's been a long time since I did one of these.

Fact is, I owe Luke a section for the multi-author Story-crossing (which everyone should check-- it's amazing how all the contributors have managed to keep focused to the writing style and prose at hand). However, at the moment I still don't have the idea clear enough to write about.

I suppose my back brain-- the place where I do my writing-- is resting after last month's couple (or three) of submissions. Unfortunately, though the body is weak, the spirit is a badass mofo and apparently, one of my ideas has elbowed and kicked itself to the forefront of my brain.

So: this idea sprang out out from my fears of zombies. (Yep, Luke, I definitely know what you mean!) Unfortunately, having a writer's imagination means that it sometimes goes into overdrive. And even just going down to the basement parking can become quite a hair-raising trip for me.

Still, some safety-valve must have tripped in my brain when I remembered horror writer John Shirley's book Demons this morning out of the blue. Thinking about it, I wondered: what would it mean to live in a world where monsters are normal? How would the tedium of the working day run against having to battle zombies during the rush hour? You know, questions like that.

After all, if life can go on after natural disasters, why not unnatural ones?

(P.S. Shirley has the excellent SF writer Norman Spinrad guest-blogging. Go check him out.)

Every morning, Alvin Doral would wake up, have his cup of morning coffee and bowl of oatmeal, shower, dress up, and then go to the office.

Alvin was a single 36-year old accountant at the local auditing office. He worked from 9-to-5 and even a little past overtime due to a heavy workload. He sometimes excused this, thinking that at least he didn't have to brave the evening rush-hour traffic. It wasn't much of a life.

However, that day, Alvin noticed two things when he exited from his apartment: the zombie banging its head against the plastic frond tree beside the elevator, and the woman living three doors down from him leaving for work.

The zombie didn't bother him; it was normal for two or three zombies to slip past the work crews that gathered them in and around the city for burning. But concerning his female neighbor-- Alvin stumbled getting back into his apartment and almost slammed the door in closing.

He covered his eyes with one hand; he was sure the woman had seen him rush back inside like an idiot. Damn it, he thought.

After a while, Alvin shrugged and tried to make the best of it. He went to the apartment intercom phone and punched in a number that connected him to the front desk.

"Good morning, Cityland front desk," a cheerful voice said.

"Hi, this is apartment 316," Alvin said, "I'd just like to report a zombie near our elevators today."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I'll have the maintenace people look into it right away."

"Okay, thanks," he replied and hung up.

Alvin fidgeted for a while beside the intercom before he figured his neighbor had already left. Peeking outside, he saw that the woman had gone but the zombie was still there. In fact, it was lurching quite slowly in his direction.

He exited and locked the door behind him. As the zombie moved closer, Alvin fumbled at the taser Shockmeister 3000 from his pocket and zapped the zombie as it reached out for him. The electrical shock immediately paralzyed the muscles of the zombie and dropped it in its tracks.

Satisfied that it was out of commission, Alvin ignored the zombie's erratic jerkings and waited for the elevator to pick him up.

He felt it was going to be one of those days again.

That's it for the moment. But funny enough, the story's still running in my head: Alvin going down the elevator, Alvin encountering more zombies in the basement parking, Alvin rescuing his female neighbor, etc. (And don't get me started with the fire axe in the emergency box now a requirement everywhere.) It's all quite weird.

Now am off for the weekend.