We all knew it would happen one day. Humanity, for all the brilliant scientists and enlightened philosophers it produced over the centuries, could not alter or avoid its most basic impulses. And so it destroyed itself. In the years afterward, the few remaining brilliant scientists studied The Rot, as it was called - the virus which had infected the world's population in just a few short weeks. They don't have the whole story and maybe they never will, as The Rot continues to pick off The Clean (as they are called) - even brilliant scientists - one by one, day by day. The only silver lining, if you can call it that, is the occasional father, or daughter, or co-worker who succumbed provided the scientists with an up-close-and-personal test case to poke and prod and, eventually, dissect.
To the best of our understanding, The Rot has the following characteristics:
- It is spread through all bodily fluids, including sweat
- The first 8-12 hours of infection are essentially flu-like, but with remarkably consistent reports of pain behind the right ear
- Within 24 hours the victim will experience a fever in excess of 110F, which ought to be immediately fatal if not for other emerging symptoms:
The parts of the brain responsible for instinctual behaviors - hunger, flight/fight, procreation - appear to go into overdrive
- Other parts of the brain nearly completely shut down
- The immune and hemostatic responses "go crazy" (actual words of the scientists), resulting in, bizarrely, total immunity to normal diseases and poisons along with remarkable resistance to injury
In one case, a Clean man was attacked by his neighbor who had been infected 19 hours prior. During the fight the man severed the neighbor's arm with a chainsaw, after which the neighbor broke the man's neck and consumed his face and entrails. The amputated arm was discovered later with all severed blood vessels neatly closed off by hemostatic response, and the neighbor was found wandering the local town four days later.
(The Rot spread so quickly during the summer that numerous mass-casualty events occurred in cities and towns across the country. The infected attacked everything including other infected, resulting in gruesome - and otherwise fatal - injury to an estimated 65% of the population.)
- After 72-96 hours The Rot "burns itself out", is how they put it, though not entirely - the virus remains in the host and still highly contagious, but the physiological changes are subdued
The infected's immune system remains highly resistant to diseases and poison (besides The Rot of course)
- The hemostatic response returns to normal, resulting in at least some chance for a Clean to survive an encounter with an infected
- Brain function is nearly completely suppressed with the exception basic motor skills, basic perception, and a seeker/hunter behavior driven by hunger for flesh of The Clean
- This hunger is as-yet unexplained as the metabolism of an infected "makes no f***ing sense" according to the scientists
[*]Beyond 96 hours an infected appears to be permanently stable in his/her new state - long-term studies are ongoing, but so far no infected has ever perished while under study even for months at a time without "food"
Everybody asks: is there a cure for The Rot? The scientists will say things like, "we haven't found a cure yet" or "our study of The Rot has produced promising results" blah blah blah. Well I've got the real answer for you: no, there is no f***ing cure for The Rot. You get it, you're dead or as good as. If you feel a bit hot one evening, body aches, and man does your right ear hurt? Put a .44 into that right ear, man, because you don't want what's coming next...