This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Tacska on 2024-10-27 12:34:41+00:00.
I mean, the title is rather self-explanatory. I'm at Vienna International Airport, and everything is frozen in time. All the morning passengers are here, all of them unmoving like fleshy, warm statues. Looking outside through the window, I see a flight departing, suspended in the air. Next to me, a woman is dropping her handbag, and all the contents are frozen in the air, unaffected by gravity's pull.
Suppose I can elaborate a bit, as, at the moment, it appears that I have… all the time in the world.
I was on a business trip in Vienna, and I had to travel back to Paris CDG Airport with an early morning flight. On the way towards the terminal, staring out of the cab, I saw the airport lights in the dim, cloudy dawn sky. Some of the departing planes were awfully slow - almost like they were not moving at all. I was thinking of pointing this out to the cabbie, but I chalked it up to tiredness. See, after-conference "networking cocktails" and 6am flights are not a great combination, so I was far from being in a chatty mood. Either way, the guy dropped me off, and I decided to have a quick ciggie before checking in.
While smoking, I wondered about airports - how fascinating they are. A while ago, during my university years, I had a part time bartender job at one, and I always found them eerie. They were "liminal spaces": areas of the inbetween, people just heading there to pass through it - sort of a border world. Of course, seeing airports like that could've been Stockholm syndrome caused by this student job as well - after all, I needed some sense of wonder to tolerate five am shifts. And now, many years later, here I am, at five am again, but this time, as one of the travellers, a wandering soul lost in the liminal landscape... I let out a brief laugh - the hangover left me way too philosophical. Yet, the eerie feeling I had turned out to be more of a premonition, rather than a hungover inner monologue-ramble.
Things took a sharp turn for the weird at security. While there were quite a few people, many gates were open, so the crowd moved fast. I got directed towards a freshly opened security station. It was surrounded by tired looking officers. One instructing me to put my laptops, and fluid containers on separate trays, the other two standing behind the metal detector gate, waving me through... and a third one - slightly peculiar. He was sitting behind the monitor of the x-ray machine you put your bags through, wearing huge aviators, basically covering half his face. Ah well, I figured you gotta make a fashion statement somehow, even if you're obligated to wear a uniform.
Anyways, I was about to walk through the gate - the metal detector, the symbolic border between the mundane and the liminal. But the very moment I stepped through it, complete silence engulfed everything. I reflectively touched my ear, thinking my earbuds somehow turned on noise cancelling, when I realised that they were in the tray - which slowly rolled down on the pickup area.
And that was the only thing moving. Everything else stopped - like someone hitting a pause button. Odd, I figured. I slowly walked back through the gate, but nothing changed. Everything around me stood still. The security guy's hand frozen in a bored wave, a man putting his belt back on unmoving next to me, a family in the other queue, stuck in mid-argument, their small kid, her face trapped in a mid-crying expression, but no sound leaving her mouth... wish I could do this to kids once the plane took off. Nevertheless, temporal anomalies be damned, I did not want to miss my plane, so I grabbed my stuff from the tray. Yet, as I was putting my laptop back into my bag, I saw one thing - or, well, the absence of it. The security guy with the sunglasses was nowhere to be found. This whole thing did not look like something that respects airport security standards.
Walking towards my gate, d24, in the dead silence was certainly an experience. I moved through crowds in suspended animation (or I sure as hell I hope it was that - it would be rather awkward to be at an airport full of dead people). Still, it had a certain beauty. Upon arriving to d24, an unusual sight welcomed me. The monitors showed that boarding was open - and indeed, the doors were ajar - but the flight destination, instead of “Paris CDG” just looked like a jumbled mess of characters. Now, while my app said that this was the correct gate, I did not want to end up at the wrong location, so I decided on not boarding for now, waiting it out instead, hoping that a staff member or an announcement will clear up the confusion soon. I was a bit hungry, and the nearby bar seemed, albeit overpriced, but fairly attractive. I walked over, crisscrossing the statue-like crowds. I grabbed a sandwich, and - as the staff was unavailable on account of being frozen in time - I decided to walk behind the till to the coffee machine, and help myself to some drinks. For a moment I entertained the thought of making myself a nice flat white, but I figured that if time restarts and I am standing in a restricted area steaming milk, I may get some angry looks, so I opted for an espresso instead. The tiny cup was halfway through when I heard something familiar: the breaking news announcement of Euronews on a nearby TV screen.
Well, something - apart from me - was unaffected by this time-fuckery, so I quickly grabbed my coffee and my sandwich. The total was 12.30€, so I put a tenner on the counter and figured they can keep the change. Indeed, at the back of the bar, there was a tv, broadcasting the morning news, oblivious to the frozen world around it.
"...chief investigator of the crash of AirFrance flight***** (I have hidden the flight ID, just in case) at Vienna Schwechat Intl. Airport this morning states that at this time, the exact cause of the accident cannot be determined. While the number of confirmed casualties just passed 80, the search for survivors continues. According to witness testimonies, the aircraft overran the runway during takeoff, and crashed into the industrial area of Schwadorf, a settlement near the airport. Authorities have asked the public to forward any information, including recordings of the events to the authorities..."
Rather macabre, watching these news at an airport, I was thinking, when it hit me like a freight train (or like a crashing plane) - the flight they were talking about was the one I was supposed to board.
Now, while I was trying to cut down on my smoking, this news warranted another cigarette. The airport has a nice smoking area, looking at the runway, where a flight was taking off - except it wasn't, as it was just floating silently , in a surreal manner. Some sight for a smoke. Yet, as I was clicking my lighter, I noticed something weird. Well - something that should've not been weird, but in this specific scenario, it was rather unusual: a few airport technician looking guys, in high visibility vests, cargo pants - and despite the cloudy early morning, dark aviator sunglasses - were walking around. Y'know, actually walking - while the world around them was dead still.
I'm back now at the restaurant, typing this down on my laptop. Now, I know that my demeanour may feel like I'm not taking the situation seriously enough, but trust me, this is my defense mechanism when I am positively shitting myself - which is pretty much the case now. I mean I'm not stupid. I saw the news of my crashed plane, and I can connect the dots. I'm wondering if this is limbo, death or some otherworldly shit… But the call of nature is disrupting my spiral into anxiety. After the coffee and the ciggie, I’m not only about to shit myself figuratively, but also literally, so I will try to hunt down a bathroom in this hellscape of an airport. I'll check back in a bit to see if anyone's around, and update y’all. Cheerio.
Update 1
So I went to answer the call of nature. Luckily one out of the four stalls was open at least. I was also not jealous of the poor bastards whom eternity found in the middle of dropping a log. So, I was doing my business when I noticed... feet. First I could see shadows under the stall door, through the gap, then two pairs of work shoes - two people, walking around in the bathroom. Now, I was about to call out, but something held me back - on top of how awkward it is to have a mid-shit conversation. Soon I realised what set my alarms off. I saw the feet - but I did not hear them. They were walking in complete silence - until they started talking. I mean I reckon they were talking, but I couldn't understand shit. Saying their words were garbled is an understatement. It sounded like a recording of an already foreign language being played backwards, while distorted via a radio. So - I clenched my buttocks and remained silent, until they left. I was not against the idea of trying to communicate with.... whatever these lads were, but the situation was not exactly ideal, so I decided to delay.
Instead of immediately heading back towards the bar near my gate where I’ve left my luggage and my laptop, I wandered around a little bit, as my plane was not about to leave. Upon inspecting the motionless terminal, I found some of the guys I've seen earlier on the runway, and in the toilet. Contrasting how everything was halted around them, they stood out being busybodies, but they were always behind locked doors, on different floors, or otherwise inaccessible territories. In parts ...
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1gd9y9j/time_has_stopped_at_vienna_international_airport/