One of Those Ideas

So one of those ideas struck me while writing yesterday. You know the kind of idea that gives you chills at the base of your skull. The kind that feels like it is going to crack your cranium in order to be freed, much like the birth of Athena. Well, this was one of those ideas. It completely sidetracked my writing and comes so easily I can't even come close to getting back to what I was working on now. Every time I try to put the virtual pen to paper (which is typing these days) it is what springs forth and not my original idea for NaNoWriMo. So now I am abandoning attempts at the original idea am going to run with this one since it won't leave me be.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not leaving the other, but for this time I will let it go the way of the world turtle and when it draws me back I'll continue. Until then, though, I am running with . . .

Zombie High

Here follows the idea as it hit me while I had my phone out trying to write the previous novel.

High school in Jarvis was anything but normal. They actually let humans attend. It was one of the few schools experimenting with integration. Most of the students had never been allowed near humans before. They were kept apart for their own protection. They were cattle. Most believed them to be cattle, nothing more than food for their ancestors. Something lower on the food chain. The prejudice was unbelievable. When his parents found out humans were going to allowed to attend school with them they nearly pulled Clancy out to send him to a private school or maybe even home school him. It was unheard of to allow the servants and cattle to be learned. There were those who rebelled against the system and treated their humans almost as equals. It was ridiculous. Mankind had its chance. It was replaced by something better, something stronger, something more prepared and capable of dealing with the new aggressive world.

Zombies now ruled the world.

In the late 21st century humankind fell into sickness, a global pandemic. People died by the millions. The world population was nearly 13 billion by this time and overpopulation was no longer a concern, it was a reality. The virus was, for lack of a better term, perfect. At first it seemed like a super-strain of the dead flu mutations of the 2010s, but the mortality rate was staggeringly high; nearly 100% for the 1st 8 months. Nothing in science or modern medicine could be done.

Then anomalies began to appear. People who seemed to be altogether immune or who had miraculously recovered. But they were changed. Some displayed characteristics of horror movie zombies. They were extremely aggressive and more times than seemed to favor the flesh of those who were uninfected. There was widespread panic and violence. Riots, vandalism, theft, murder, the world was turned on its head. All the depravities of human nature ran rampant. Governments were overthrown and in many cases completely lost control. War lords and police states became the norm. Eventually the zombies gained control. It was slow. The powers that became more sympathetic and it finally became evident that those who were in control were infected or had the foresight to realize these were not the mindless, shambling creatures from horror tales of the past.