John Austin - So Now You’re a Zombie - A Handbook for the Newly Undead

A less serious but still very effective means of transference is administered through your knifelike fingernails. Any lacerations on a living body caused by scratching will be vulnerable to your infectious blood. Once your victim is infected, z-virus symptoms will increase his or her vulnerability, including numbness around the infected scratch. Of course, too much clawing can lead to potentially fatal blood loss … which is fine if you are hungry.

The third most common means of transference is the infamous psycho blood splatter. This method is less controllable than biting or scratching, but it frequently occurs during altercations with the living. If one of your body parts is crushed or cut by a breather’s attack, infected blood may fly from your body or the attacker’s weapon and land on a human’s skin.

However, because you do not have a functioning circulatory system like a human, your blood will not spray when an artery is cut. It needs to enter an open wound or facial opening through its own momentum.

Projectile Vomiting

Records show that exposure to infected vomit is the forth leading cause of infection. As with blood splatter, the vomit will need to penetrate a wound or facial opening if it is to infect your victim. Depending on what is churning in that stomach of yours, it’s easily possible to produce a half-gallon of heave. With that much spew, you can quickly infect an entire group of last-ditch defenders. Hopefully they are shocked, standing with their mouths open.

It’s amazing how many atypical sources of infections we have observed. They’re rarely the result of zed action, but it’s still good to be aware of the possibilities. Breathers can contract the z-virus by consuming infected food or being bitten by a mosquito that has recently fed on infected blood. Human scientists may inject test subjects with the virus for research purposes. We have even witnessed a newly infected human purposely infecting friends and family for undead companionship.

Of all the bizarre viral vectors, sexual contact is most common. After close encounters with our forces, human survivors tend to feel a heightened need for physical and emotional intimacy. It isn’t uncommon for the opposition to lay down their arms for a bit, and lie down with each other. As mentioned before, early symptoms of the virus are not always visible, with or without clothing.

The z-virus is capable of surviving during an organ transplant. Once the organ is introduced into a new body, the patient can quickly become infected.

The act of transference was child’s play compared to the process of zombification. Every zombie goes through a series of uncomfortable transformations that lead to reanimation. Incubation times vary, but with the most common strain of the z-virus, the process takes about 24 hours. If you are curious about what actually happens during transformation and reanimation, review the seven stages of zombification below.

Isn’t it amazing that this microscopic devil is the foundation of the undead kingdom? With millions of viruses, why is the z-virus the most feared by man? First off, it’s resilient. The armored capsid is capable of fending off 100 percent of antiviral drugs developed by human science. In addition, the z-virus is fast! It does not discriminate based on age, size, race, or method of transference, and will take only seconds to bypass the immune system and begin zed restoration. Once introduced into the bloodstream, the virus dedicates itself to reproduction (yeah, baby!) and quickly begins to self-assemble within host cells.

Within 20 seconds, all of the body’s thousands of miles of veins will flow with infected blood. At this point, the circulatory system is only helping the virus. Unaware of the invasion, it will continue to cycle blood throughout the entire body, roughly three times every minute. This makes amputation of an infected limb almost impossible; a victim would have only seconds to remove the appendage, and that’s a procedure the living prefer not to rush.

As the virus attacks and breaks down healthy blood plasma, the human’s blood begins to coagulate. Eventually the heart will experience complications from the coagulating blood, prompting it to increase the number of beats per minute. This produces the z-virus’s first symptom: high blood pressure. Amazingly, the resulting pressure is forceful enough to squirt blood up to 30 feet, assuming the still-functioning heart is lacerated correctly.

The coagulating blood also causes signs of rigor mortis in the victim’s muscles. Other early signs of infection include skin discoloration, pain, and numbness. The skin will attempt to combat the infection, and will turn a purplish-brown color. The nervous system reacts to the unpleasant sensory overload; twitching and cursing are common.

With the human immune system incapable of stopping the infection, more visible symptoms begin to appear. Although the victim experiences chills, his or her internal body temperature actually elevates, showing signs of a high-grade fever of around 100 to 106° F. The fever will continue to worsen until the paralysis of stage 4 sets in. The chart below should give you an idea of the progression.

Increased heart rate will lead to acute joint pain, and the victim’s body will try to counteract the attack by vomiting. Stomach fluids and undigested food have a high probability of being infectious at this stage, making the victim’s vomit lethal.

The host’s cognitive functions are severely damaged as the virus begins to infest the billions of neurons in the brain. Severe encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) causes confusion and abnormal behavior. Cells that are not mutated are often killed in the process.

Hallucinations and mild dementia are followed by the inability to speak or swallow. The operation of individual neurons is disrupted, impairing muscle coordination and ultimately leading to partial paralysis. The virus also alters the brain’s thalamus, shutting down all pain receptors, and damages the temporal lobe. Once these renovations are complete, the victim will be capable only of basic motor functions and primitive instinctual responses.