Authors: Nick Mariano
The carnage continued throughout Asia and parts of Europe, with isolated cases still popping up around the Washington, D.C. and Wilmington, NC, areas. Reports continued to come into the CDC and Army Medical Command about hordes of undead still roaming through the streets of many of the major cities of the world. South America was also seeing a slight increase in infectee cases since the virus made its way there.
One particularly bad incident took place at the Navy Ship Yard just outside the U.S. capital. A number of infectees eluded the authorities and somehow managed to find some old drainage tunnels that led into the shipyard, thus avoiding the perimeter fencing and security. When they again came above ground they were right in the middle of the facility and went on a wild rampage, killing over fifty people and injuring over a hundred before military sentries arrived and put a stop to their attacks.
In another interesting incident, a small horde found an entrance into one of the old catacombs that ran under the streets of Rome, Italy. When they exited the tunnel system they were right in the middle of the American Embassy compound. The compound, which is protected by a high metal fence and armed guards at the perimeter, had a lesser amount of security once inside. They lied in wait until some unsuspecting employees came around the corner after enjoying their morning cappuccino at the snack bar on the compound. The horde immediately encircled the unsuspecting Italians, and when they were finished, over ten employees were dead before Marine Security Guards responded after watching the incident on their CCTV monitors. In another Rome incident, a horde used the tunnel system under the city to make their way to the Via Veneto part of town where all the exclusive restaurants and coffee bars are located. Somehow they figured out that if they wore coats and hats over their deforming bodies they could evade detection by passersby until they reached their destination. They strolled casually down the avenue before stopping and springing on some coffee drinkers at a sidewalk cafe. Fortunately some alert Carabinieri were nearby and responded quickly with guns blazing. Only three bystanders were killed in this incident although police, and later CDC teams, were amazed that the horde had resorted to a sort of disguise to carry out their attack.
A number of reported incidents from around the world started to reveal that the infectees were using a certain degree of brainpower; at least what was left of the brain after the virus infected it. More and more incidents began to spring up where infectees used attack routes that illustrated some degree of reasoning. In the recent Rome attack, they had resorted to a kind of disguise to avoid detection. In an incident in South America, some infectees on an ocean vessel had used a small dingy to reach shore before authorities noticed them and eliminated the threat. In an incident at a military base in Europe, an infectee, a former pilot, hid on an outgoing transport plane and once the plane was airborne, attacked and killed the crew of the plane before taking over the controls of the aircraft. He was able to fly the plane a fairly long distance before authorities became suspicious when they couldn’t reach the flight crew on the radio and began to think the worst had happened. A fighter group was scrambled and after it was visually confirmed that it was an infectee at the controls and not the original pilot, the plane was shot down using two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. In another incident at a popular beach in South America, infectees covered themselves with robes before they made their approach on some unsuspecting sunbathers. When they finally dropped their robes the sunbathers were shocked to see what was underneath. Fortunately one bather had his 9mm pistol with him and he took out the threat before they could attack.
Scientists were starting to worry that the virus had mutated ever more as the number of incidents continued to grow where infectees were actually reasoning more and more. Some of the bodies of the killed were taken back to labs where scientists and doctors examined their brains to see what was causing this phenomenon. Some of the forensic pathology findings were startling. It appeared that some infectees were experiencing a process called Autophagy. Autophagy is a normal physiological process that deals with the destruction of cells in the body. It involves the body turning over destroyed cell organelles using existing proteins and forming new cell formations. The brains of some of the examined infectees revealed that their brains had actually rejuvenated and that some of the frontal lobe areas, which should have been completely destroyed by the super virus, had now recycled and were actively working to some degree. Enough of the brain was destroyed so the infectee would never be able to return to his normal self, however, enough of the brain experienced Autophagy to enable the infectee to reason again. Scientists estimated that some affected infectees were now processing information at about the same level as a third or fourth grader but this allowed them to make decisions that the normal infectee could not. They also theorized that only about thirty per cent of the infected had or would undergo this transformation. When the world leaders were informed of this discovery they grew even more concerned that the fight against the virus would take longer than they hoped.
The doctors at Fort Detrick had managed to capture two specimens displaying the Autophagy syndrome, as they were now calling it. They decided they would perform a number of simple mental agility tests to see how much reasoning an infectee actually possessed.
The first test was the Knox Cubes, a nonverbal intelligence test, which used a pegboard with different shaped holes and colored pegs to see if the person could reason where to place the correct peg. One infectee was able to correctly place almost 75% of pegs before he flew off on a rage and threw the board against the wall. The second test was the Proteus Maze, which measures the psychological planning capacity of a person. The two infectees were placed in a specially constructed room with a basic maze. Many of the maze runs led to dead ends and then one had to retrace his steps back in the maze in order to advance to the end. One infectee acted as the leader while the other appeared to follow him. At one point when the lead infectee began to make a wrong turn, which would have led to a dead end. The second infectee nudged him and motioned to an alternate route. After twenty minutes the two infectees had navigated the maze and stood outside of it. The last test, Picture Concepts, involved showing the infectees a line of five pictures, one of which was different from the other four. Both infectees managed to cross out the incorrect picture on 30% of the picture gallery.
After the tests were concluded the doctors and scientists met with General Sutherland and talked about how amazing the brain rejuvenation was, given the fact that most or all of the brain is initially killed after the virus first invades the body. They said this changed how they would go about finding a cure and also how infectees had to be eliminated to make sure they were actually killed. The General inquired about what progress they were making for finding a counter virus for the super virus. The doctors advised that they had narrowed their choose of counter viruses down to two, the Zoster virus and the Tetanus virus. They were also exploring using the polio virus after doctors had seen how effective it had been against certain cancer cells. The doctors said they had finished their preliminary testing on lab animals and that the results were promising, however, human experimentation was now necessary to verify their findings. The authorities were trying to locate people who had just been exposed to the virus, mostly from a bite from an infectee, and get them to Fort Detrick as quickly as possible so that the vaccine could be administered before they became totally infected. They hoped to get the tests started as soon as next week and then it would just be a matter of time before they knew if they were on the right track.
General Sutherland paid an unexpected visit to the Army Medical Command at Fort Detrick one sunny afternoon in August to see the Director. The last of the Nazi super virus that was recovered from the U-532 was at the facility and the General was curious about how it had weathered over fifty years in the sea. The Director said that the outer stainless steel container fared well and that there were no signs the box had been breached by seawater. The General instructed the Director to proceed with extracting what they believed to be 3-4 canisters that should be inside the box. The General said that he also needed to know the condition of the canisters and if they were still functional. The Director inquired why this course of action was necessary and reminded the General about how lethal the contents were. The General responded by merely saying this order had come from someone much higher than his pay grade and that the Director should precede post haste with this request. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for September.
As part of the world moved into the Fall and Winter the doctors and scientists began to worry that the spread of the virus could begin to accelerate because of the favorable effects cooling weather had on the virus. After over half a year of living with the virus it was starting to noticeably slow down, however, scientists warned that the world shouldn’t become complacent because it could spring back up again without warning. Reports of roaming hordes were still coming in from Asia as the initial spread of the virus there had been the most significant. Most of the major cities had been brought under control but the occasional incident of an infectee sighting or an attack was still being reported. Many of the cities reported that it appeared that infectees had figured out the sewage and utility system tunnels beneath some cities and were using these avenues to both hide from authorities and to move about the cities undetected. Attacks usually occurred in quick sequence when a number of hordes suddenly appeared above ground and went on a rampage before descending back to their lairs and into hiding again. Attacks also seemed to occur more frequently at night when the possibility of detection by authorities was greatly reduced. Fortunately, throughout this virus outbreak, the utilities in most cities continued to run without any noticeable interruption. Many of the smaller cities didn’t fare as well.
The military decided early on that they would begin to secure access points to the sewer systems to prevent the infectees from using them. Manhole covers were either welded shut or secured by other means and that seemed to reduce the occurrence of attacks. They also tried to disperse various gases into the tunnel systems in an effort to kill the infectees, although that proved to be only partially effective as the scientists believed that destruction of the frontal lube was the only guaranteed way to kill a person once he became infected.
The scientists at Fort Detrick worked away on a solution to the outbreak and finally narrowed their counter virus down to the polio virus. After extended research they found that the super virus worked in a similar manner to cancer cells and that once the polio virus entered a person’s body it quickly took command and began to destroy the super virus cells until the body started its own process of rejuvenating the destroyed cells with new and unaffected ones. Given the fact that polio had basically been eradicated from most of the world and almost all cultures now provided polio vaccinations to newborns, most persons already had a starting base for the new polio inoculation that they planned to administer. Initial tests on infectees at Fort Detrick and at a lab in Asia revealed that in 99% of the cases where the vaccine was administered, the infect d’s body began to fight and eventually overpower the super virus. The only major problem was that once a person became infected and reached the latter stages of infection where bodily skin eruptions took place, the healing process would be slow in healing the sores on one’s body, and in many cases, the person would be left scarred for life. Research also had not established whether the brain would rejuvenate once the super virus died and it was possible that many people would remain mentally handicapped after their recovery. Although not the best news, it was still a way to finally bring the virus under control and hopefully eliminate, or at least slow its spread, to other parts of the world. Unbeknownst to the general population, the military, in consultation with the governments of the infected nations, had already decided that people who had progressed beyond a certain stage would be euthanized and humanely disposed of. This was done as clandestinely as possible so as not to unset the population.
All the major drug companies were brought under total government control until the necessary quantities of the counter virus vaccine could be produced, although the companies were still allowed to produce drugs that were essential for keeping people free from other diseases and maladies. Even at maximum production, the government estimated that it would be at least six months before enough vaccine could be produced and distributed to all countries so they could start an aggressive inoculation program. In the meantime the police and military still had to try to control the existing hordes that were forming secretly in many cities. The Asian strain also presented additional problems for the scientists since the pneumonia cases in Asia had mutated the virus and use solely of the polio vaccine alone did not stop the disease. They had to combine other medications with it to totally slow down and stop the mutating super virus.
Gradually some airline transportation was allowed in areas with lesser or no infections. People desiring to travel had to be thoroughly screened and placed in quarantine for a week before they were allowed to board a plane. This ensured that the person wasn’t a virus carrier. Some ships were again allowed to begin transporting needed goods around the world. Crews were thoroughly screened and quarantined before being allowed to work on the ship. Doctors were also assigned to every seagoing vessel and all crewmembers were tested weekly to insure that seafaring birds didn’t bring the virus on board. If a virus were detected, the ship would be required to report it immediately and end its voyage. They were then directed to the nearest quarantine screening station where seemingly uninfected personnel were observed for seven days before being declared safe and persons displaying signs of the infection were inoculated and observed to see if the virus could be stopped. In cases where the infectee didn’t show signs of improvement in a required number of days, he was put out of his misery.
The spread in America had been controlled more effectively than several other countries, mainly because the authorities had some prior experience with the virus. Several lessons were learned when it first broke out in New York State after ISIS terrorists unleashed it there. The west coast remained unaffected and the midland states also had a very small percentage of reported infections. The east coast was the hardest hit but doctors were sure that only a very small amount of infectees still were on the loose. Washington, D.C., had not reported a new case in over two months although the President and his staff remained in seclusion and ran the government from a secretly located bunker. The Carolinas and Northeast also hadn’t had any reported new cases in over two weeks and doctors hoped that once everyone was inoculated the cases would eventually zero out. The doctors believed that the new vaccine not only would reverse the effects of the virus on infectees but also would provide almost complete protection for anyone who was not infected. The only fear they had was that a mutated version of the virus would make its appearance somewhere and then the doctors would have to scurry to find a quick cure for the mutated strain. Unfortunately they could only deal with one problem at a time.
After almost seven months of scouring through thousands, if not millions, of files from the experiments at Auschwitz, one search finally uncovered a cryptic research paper where Mengele talked about developing a vaccine for the super virus. He was concerned that the virus, once it had been used to infect the Americans, would make its way back across the ocean, much like several diseases had done in the past. At that time scientists weren’t one hundred percent sure how viruses could make their way to other continents, but they had history to show that sure occurrences had, and could happen again. The paper went on to discuss how Mengele envisioned the virus would work once it was released and how he would proceed with producing a cure. Records indicated that he had in fact produced a counter vaccine and that after the virus was sent on its way to America, he had conducted some tests on infected inmates at Auschwitz to see how effective his vaccine was. Initial results revealed that with some additional work the vaccine could be a cure all for the super virus, however, research abruptly ended when it appeared certain that the Allies Forces would arrive at the concentration camp in a matter of days. Although Mengele had given strict orders to the guards at the camp to destroy all his files as they began to evacuate the camp, most of the guards abandoned their posts and left the camp as soon as the doctors departed. The CDC was certain that with this new bit of information, someone at Fort Detrick would be able to come up with a total solution to the virus. Scientists and doctors were already comparing what Mengele wrote in his notes with research they had already done and with the antivirus vaccine that they were now administrating to the general public. Things were starting to look up.