Part One- The Virus

It would be decades after the restructuring of human society before records were found declaring that the virus that caused the zombie apocalypse was not the first. It wasn’t even the second.

According to scientific records, there had been at least four earlier outbreaks of related viruses. Government organizations had been successful in all cases until the final virus. Prevailing theory was the virus’s mutations finally outran the scientists.

The final mutation was all the virus needed to survive.

It is unknown how many people were spreading the virus among the world’s population before the first carrier died and re-animated.

***

It is believed that every member of the human species became a dormant carrier of the virus. Thus, every human that died came back as a re-animated corpse. No cure could be found, no recourse.

However, worse than the fact that people knew their body would come back as a voracious nightmare, was the discovery that a bite from a zombie would mean death and re-animation within 24 hours.

And that those bitten became contagious within twelve hours, infecting friends, family, co-workers, anyone they in turn bit.

And bite, they did. No exceptions, no remorse, no reasoning.

Madness was unleashed.

***

Only one thing could be confirmed regarding the virus: everyone infected became a zombie.

No one was spared. No matter what anti-viral drugs were used, immuno-suppressants, gene therapies, nothing worked. Nothing even slowed it down.

Once the living died it took less than twenty minutes for the corpse to re-animate with only two things on its mindless brain: kill and eat.

Killing seemed to be its first priority. Feeding would not distract the virus driven undead from their need to kill. Too many citizens learned the hard way, thinking a zombie was distracted by flesh; thinking they had a chance.

***

The zombies the virus created were not shuffling, foot draggers, but active, homicidal, very hungry re-animated corpses bent on killing every human they could and feasting on their flesh. They were unbelievably strong and fast.

They were driven to kill, first and foremost. This insured the supreme dominance of the virus.

Feeding was secondary. And feeding on fresh flesh was the key. While never proven substantially, the belief was that the zombie was able to feed off the energy still stored. Old, decaying, rotten flesh was of no interest to the zombies. Thus they did not feed off each other.

***

The zombie physiology differed greatly form its original human form. No longer were organs needed for survival, since they could not digest or process what they caught.

All energy, all sustenance went into building and maintaining connective tissues.

While bones could not be reset, they could be healed, the break fusing and strengthening. Tendons, cartilage, ligaments and muscle could be rebuilt and re-grown. As long as the zombie fed, the zombie stayed fit and deadly.

This was another triumph of the virus. It gave the zombies a sense of self, a reason to fight, to kill, to feed. To survive.

***

The virus learned and encouraged learning.

It had the potential to allow its victims, the zombie hordes, to process, store and analyze information. It was a stripped down, simplistic way of reasoning, but the zombies could think and learn.

They learned to hunt in packs. They learned to split up, to surround their prey, to actively catch their victims instead of just running them down.

They learned to listen, to smell, to watch.

They learned to be predators, not just scavengers.

Worst of all, they learned their limitations and adjusted accordingly.

The fast pursued, the slow waited, the broken hid.

***

The speed with which the virus took control of a dead body astonished the doctors and researchers assigned to find the cure. In minutes their test subjects would go from corpse to zombie, ready to kill, eat and kill some more.

Too many lab assistants and eminent scientists lost their lives by underestimating the power and scope of the virus. Soon many of the researchers became the researched. Their re-animated corpses dissected and studied using protocols and procedures they themselves had created.

By the time the virus was isolated nearly half the world’s population had succumbed.

The other half cowered.