Maybe that's what dragons are for

I don't know if I ever posted about it before, but I recently stumbled over an old half-idea I had after watching the first Hobbit movie.

What if a zombie virus broke out down in the depths of Erebor? There were so many dwarves, and they were all so scattered throughout the mountain that how long would it take before any of them noticed? How far would it spread before they understood? The people of Dale probably wouldn't know until either the survivors managed to escape and warn them, or the dwarves stopped coming entirely and some plucky humans decided to go see what had happened.

Imagine the dark and elaborate halls crawling with zombie dwarves. If they had succumbed with their armor on, how hard would they be to kill?

This brings us to the dragon. Smaug would be a hero if he purged the mountain of the virus, even if that isn't why he came. Maybe the elves were the ones that called him in. Extra betrayal there. But he could flamethrower his way and just torch the halls until all sounds of movement finally stopped.

Anyway, just a thought that led to several more thoughts.