Vaguely poking at an alternate history type project where the USA fractured into multiple warring states in a multisided modern civil war.
Since I can’t help but inject some kind of weird horror elements I added “The Ohio Exclusion Zone”, an area roughly bordering Ohio that has been completely walled off. The wall is patrolled and watched. Whatever is beyond it is so serious that the warring states all agree the wall is off limits of the war.
I don’t know what is beyond it though. My first thought was skinwalkers. Shapeshifting weird spirits seems pretty ominous. Maybe instead f them, just a giant black orb hovering in Ohio and doing, something…
I don’t know. What weird paranormal thing would make the military patrol a border and is such a threat that enemies of that military agree the border is off limits in war.
(Yes I’m asking people to be creative for me…)
Have you ever read Roadside Picnic, the book the STALKER stuff is loosely based on? I highly recommend it and I love that they really have no idea what The Zone is. The best suggestion was from a scientist saying that we were like ants goggling at the trash and crumbs left behind after some beings beyond our ability to comprehend had a roadside picnic during a trip to our planet and left it all behind. We never witnessed the beings themselves, but their refuse is like gold and/or poison to us and we can barely comprehend any of it.
There were many immediate dangers within The Zone, but I like to think the main reason it was closed off was because some anomalies acted contagious to materials, such that metals could contract the effects and spread them to other metals. Imagine that getting out.