Me being me, we honor the dead RISING.
And declare them adorable.
And how DO the dead rise? Well, barring voodoo, witchcraft and other fictional supernatural belief systems, the most common cause is "THE VIRUS". Because none of us are using enough of our sick days as it is.
Normally a result of military or other less-than-above-board experimentation, when given a backstory at all the virus is dispersed any number of ways. Either it survives an attempt to destroy it and is dispersed via airborne means (usually through crematorium exhaust), it is released accidentally when someone knocks the very fragile glass beaker to the floor, the government/military releases it on purpose as simply a vector test or my PERSONAL favorite (Thank you Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant) it gets released by well-meaning but utterly stupid political/environmental dirty hippie activists.
Not this kind of dirty hippie activist. These guys just like fun fur and peyote.
And the sad thing is that we all know this is coming.
Mad-but-well-meaning Scientist: "I'VE DONE IT! I've created the cure for AIDS using retroviruses and pixie sticks! Let me just leave this virus containment unit out in the open where anyone can get to it and go celebrate (before we move to human trials that will tell us whether or not it will reanimate dead tissue) with a Taco Bell and Vodka bender!"
Seriously? Let the face-palming begin.
So, yeah. The virus is loose. Now what?
Well, the very best you can hope for is that either it does not have immediate effects, as in 28 Days Later (which, I'm sorry, does not contain real zombies... they are zombie adjacent) and that you must actually be dead for it to "turn you" or that you're immune. In Mira Grant's (see above link) "Newsflesh" trilogy, everyone is already infected and there's no way to prevent that unless you're raised in a bubble.
Fuck you, John Travolta... or should we leave that to your masseur?
In this type of scenario, though, the slightest scratch or bite from someone who has already seroconverted sets off a chain reaction that "activates" the virus that's already inside you. The virus then proceeds to overwhelm your body and shut down your systems one by one until the virus controls you like a bloody, meaty puppet. The virus is not sentient but it "knows" that it needs to propagate thus the shambling and the moaning and the biting and the oy, geflavin.
Similarly, the virus may only affect dead tissue but it is transmitted through the death-gnaw and the above situation applies yet again. Unless you're immune, in which case you have to worry about imminent capture by the CDC and your own vivisection and no one wants that. Let alone you. The sight of one's own entrails tends to be disturbing and in horror movies you ALWAYS get to watch.
Please note that "The Virus" may not actually BE a virus. In this day and age, it could be a drug or nano machines or a parasite or spore... wait... spores and parasites?
Yep. And they exist RIGHT NOW in real life.
Ohiocordyceps unilateralis is a fungus that specifically targets the Camponotus leonardi ant (or other closely related species) as a means of reproduction. It actually takes hold of the ant's brain and forces it to high ground... err... plant where the fungus then causes its host to clamp down with it's mandibles and stay there until the newly formed fruiting bodies rupture, releasing spores with which to infect more ants and there we have the circle of undeath.
GAH!!
There's also Leucochloridium paradoxum, a parasite which, throughout its life cycle, infects snails and affects their behavior so that they willingly get themselves eaten so that birds will spread their eggs through the miracle of poop.
GAH!!!
We don't know if similar molds or parasites can affect us the same way but I bet you're all calling somebody to clean out your vents right now, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment