Mwahaha
I don't write horror, but I just thought of a lovely way to screw with genre-savvy characters.
It's a zombie pathogen that normally only activates after the carriers are dead. In the living host, it reproduces and can be spread, but is asymptomatic (with the possible exception of hosts with extremely compromised immune systems, depending on the exact biological mechanics.) However, while it can't control a living being, a colony of the pathogen is capable of using a recently deceased corpse as its meat puppet. And so you get the zombies running around biting people.
Thing is, if our plucky survivor doesn't let the bite wound get infected or succumb to any of the other hazards of life in survival-horrorville, they should be fine for the foreseeable future. It's only if they have any horror-buff heroic sociopaths on their side who insist on putting them out of their misery before they transform and turn on their friends that everyone's in trouble.
Admittedly, this would reduce the menace of the outbreak once everyone figured out what was going on, but it would be great for provoking some "Oh god, what have I done?!" moments.
It's a zombie pathogen that normally only activates after the carriers are dead. In the living host, it reproduces and can be spread, but is asymptomatic (with the possible exception of hosts with extremely compromised immune systems, depending on the exact biological mechanics.) However, while it can't control a living being, a colony of the pathogen is capable of using a recently deceased corpse as its meat puppet. And so you get the zombies running around biting people.
Thing is, if our plucky survivor doesn't let the bite wound get infected or succumb to any of the other hazards of life in survival-horrorville, they should be fine for the foreseeable future. It's only if they have any horror-buff heroic sociopaths on their side who insist on putting them out of their misery before they transform and turn on their friends that everyone's in trouble.
Admittedly, this would reduce the menace of the outbreak once everyone figured out what was going on, but it would be great for provoking some "Oh god, what have I done?!" moments.