Fester
Patient Zero
It spread faster than anyone could have imagined, taking down entire cities. Only a month had passed before most of the population was infected.
The government had only meant it as a bioweapon. A possible solution to the rising threats from China planning an attack. It was only supposed to be used in an emergency situation. No one could have foreseen the virus spread in our own country, taking down so many and leaving destruction in it's path.
Always so much destruction.
The U.S. had employed the help of a renowned scientist, Dr. Harry Leider, in hopes that his claims of a super virus would be the solution they were looking for. Harry had promised a strain of virus that could wipe out entire populations in a matter of days. He proposed a virus that would be able to re-wire itself in the presence of anything trying to harm it, like a possible cure, changing to become stronger. Once infected that was it. All hope was gone. You had hours, maybe days, before symptoms began and killed you.
It was made to target the body in the same ways as the rabies virus, tracking down nerve cells and nestling in the brain. It was intended to kill quickly, eating away at brain tissue.
Thats where the similarities ended...
Dr. Leider had intended for them to also die like those who have rabies do, but when the first few people were infected, the first few "cures" came right along. It warped the virus, making it stronger like Leider had intended, but it caused the brain to do a sort of re-boot like a computer once the infected died... coming back to life.
It burned it's way through the body hitting the frontal lobe first, taking away our reasoning... what makes us human. It stripped us down into a primal state, giving it's hosts a constant animalistic rage. People infected acted like rabid dogs, biting and scratching with a constant cannibalistic hunger to spread the virus.
This virus strain was perfectly engineered for spreading through populations like wildfire. Something changed in the brain once a person was infected, rewiring itself, giving the ability to smell uninfected blood. It seemed like once someone had the virus they honed in and targeted the healthy nearby, always wanting to infect. But they could still only smell so far. Once out of range of another healthy human being they would lay down wherever they were and take on the fatigue like symptoms of rabies... almost sleeping. laying dormant. It wasn't until someone new and uninfected walked by that they woke up, driven by their constant hunger that would never be satisfied.
The world has crude sense of humor. The virus was in its final stages of testing. It was promising. The animal trials had proved to be something of a miracle, giving Leider promise. But the trials still weren't perfect. Some of the rats infected turned on themselves and ate their own limbs, not stopping until their mouth could no longer reach to bite themselves, never giving up their attempt though. it wasn't until Dr. Leider decapitated them, severing their brain from their spinal cord, that they finally laid silent... dead.
In an ironic turn of events its first victim would be its own creator. Dr. Harry Leider, patient zero. He had received a bite from an infected rat when closing the animal cages one night. Leider had false hope though. He made sure that he strictly engineered the virus in its test trials to not be infectious limiting the possibility of early spreading to humans... but the virus had matured on its own. He went home with the assumption that there was no way he had received an infection from the rat, covering it with a band aid and returning to his home.
The virus ate through the country. Coast to coast. Nobody saw it coming, living their lives day to day completely unaware of the fire that was already spreading.
We had no chance for survival.
The government had only meant it as a bioweapon. A possible solution to the rising threats from China planning an attack. It was only supposed to be used in an emergency situation. No one could have foreseen the virus spread in our own country, taking down so many and leaving destruction in it's path.
Always so much destruction.
The U.S. had employed the help of a renowned scientist, Dr. Harry Leider, in hopes that his claims of a super virus would be the solution they were looking for. Harry had promised a strain of virus that could wipe out entire populations in a matter of days. He proposed a virus that would be able to re-wire itself in the presence of anything trying to harm it, like a possible cure, changing to become stronger. Once infected that was it. All hope was gone. You had hours, maybe days, before symptoms began and killed you.
It was made to target the body in the same ways as the rabies virus, tracking down nerve cells and nestling in the brain. It was intended to kill quickly, eating away at brain tissue.
Thats where the similarities ended...
Dr. Leider had intended for them to also die like those who have rabies do, but when the first few people were infected, the first few "cures" came right along. It warped the virus, making it stronger like Leider had intended, but it caused the brain to do a sort of re-boot like a computer once the infected died... coming back to life.
It burned it's way through the body hitting the frontal lobe first, taking away our reasoning... what makes us human. It stripped us down into a primal state, giving it's hosts a constant animalistic rage. People infected acted like rabid dogs, biting and scratching with a constant cannibalistic hunger to spread the virus.
This virus strain was perfectly engineered for spreading through populations like wildfire. Something changed in the brain once a person was infected, rewiring itself, giving the ability to smell uninfected blood. It seemed like once someone had the virus they honed in and targeted the healthy nearby, always wanting to infect. But they could still only smell so far. Once out of range of another healthy human being they would lay down wherever they were and take on the fatigue like symptoms of rabies... almost sleeping. laying dormant. It wasn't until someone new and uninfected walked by that they woke up, driven by their constant hunger that would never be satisfied.
The world has crude sense of humor. The virus was in its final stages of testing. It was promising. The animal trials had proved to be something of a miracle, giving Leider promise. But the trials still weren't perfect. Some of the rats infected turned on themselves and ate their own limbs, not stopping until their mouth could no longer reach to bite themselves, never giving up their attempt though. it wasn't until Dr. Leider decapitated them, severing their brain from their spinal cord, that they finally laid silent... dead.
In an ironic turn of events its first victim would be its own creator. Dr. Harry Leider, patient zero. He had received a bite from an infected rat when closing the animal cages one night. Leider had false hope though. He made sure that he strictly engineered the virus in its test trials to not be infectious limiting the possibility of early spreading to humans... but the virus had matured on its own. He went home with the assumption that there was no way he had received an infection from the rat, covering it with a band aid and returning to his home.
The virus ate through the country. Coast to coast. Nobody saw it coming, living their lives day to day completely unaware of the fire that was already spreading.
We had no chance for survival.