[Games] War of the Dead Session #7, Epilogue (AKA Part 4)
War of the Dead Session Summary #7, part 4 - Sat 29 Jan 2011
Although we officially ended the session at 9 pm, the players had a few bennies left, and since they were in a place with power (from a generator), they wanted to dig through the papers and crack into that laptop. After all, it was a chance for Father O’Shaughnessy to use his rarely-used Investigation skill, and Dominic to use his even-more-rarely-used Knowledge (Security Systems) (and I let him apply his Thief bonus to it). They ended up doing a Cooperative check, maxing out the supporting roll, for a final result of some 20+ or so. It was high, so I figured this was as good an opportunity as any to dump even more information on them, to help them fill out the “connections” between the various types of undead and how things worked.
Investigation and Epilogue:
Dominic, being a curious sort, decided to find out what was on the hard drive of the UniMed laptop, and got Father O’Shaughnessy’s help to sift through all the data, with Stephanie analyzing some of the paperwork.
First of all, the experimental supplies in the back of the UniMed Humvee were apparently slated for that experimental trial that none of the group had elected to take part in … and judging from some of the notes, it was probably just as well. Apparently extensive screening was required for any participants because exposure to the virus (that is, not just the airborne variety, but a higher dose such as might be acquired by a bite, being splattered with zombie gore, etc.) could result in unspecified side effects that would compromise the value of the treatment. This “vaccine,” even in an ideal situation, was not expected to give anything like real “immunity,” but just to boost the subject’s resistance. According to notes, testing would not involve actually exposing the subject to the virus afterwards, but rather require blood and tissue samples which would then be exposed to infected material to determine a reaction.
Especially concerning, however, was that in one interpretation of the report, the only way you could really be certain of immunity was by seeing how brain cells reacted to exposure to the virus, because that was the critical point where the virus took over. (Nothing indicated termination of the subject being required for testing purposes, but there was nothing to assuage their concerns nonetheless.)
Although the warnings weren’t specific, the general gist seemed to be that these vaccines should be handled as if a potential biohazard - that, exposed to the wrong elements, what was meant to be a cure could somehow become threatening. Although some sort of a previous “incident” was hinted at, no details were to be found.
In data from the laptop, they gleaned a lot of information that confirmed what they already suspected about the infection, but it filled in a few more details. Of specific interest to Father O’Shaughnessy were records of methods taken to try to treat people who had been exposed to body fluids of the Living Dead, and various success rates. Roughly put, if a bite occurred to a limb, and a tourniquet was applied and amputation performed within minutes, tops, there was approximately an 83% chance of successful treatment, though the final actual survival rate was much smaller due to mitigating circumstances (i.e., the likelihood that the subject would survive the blood loss and shock associated with amputation, plus the problem that if the subject was just bitten by a zombie, he was quite possibly still in a high-threat situation, and that getting him proper long-term medical attention would be a challenge in areas where the power grid had gone down and hospitals were overrun).
If treatment was applied any later than that, the survival rate dropped markedly; furthermore, chances could be further impacted by the severity of the wound and thus the degree of initial infection.
Demon Babies, Fast Zombies, Mutants, and Other Strangeness:
Father O’Shaughnessy also discovered some incomplete accounts about “Infected Newborns” - special cases where an expectant mother had been infected (typically by a bite, though it could also theoretically come about simply due to a weakened immune system while exposed to the airborne version of the virus), but had survived long enough for the unborn child to develop. The virus in this case exhibited mutating properties that somehow interacted with the development of the infant, altering it on a genetic level, resulting in the development of something that was quite possibly no longer even human, at a remarkably accelerated rate. This creature would exhibit self-healing properties to a degree never before seen, though there was speculation that this “regeneration” ability might decline as the creature developed further and (presumably) grew in size.
Bites from this creature (better known to the heroes as the “demon baby”) were infectious, but resulted in a “stage 2” strain of the virus that was more likely to cause victims to retain more brain activity required for better coordination once “turned.” In other words, bites from an Infected Newborn were what produced “Sprinters.” If the bitten subject managed to live on for a while before finally succumbing to the infection, there was still a transformative process in some ways similar to that exhibited in the creation of an Infected Newborn: The victim would develop “feral” features, such as replacement of teeth with “fangs” (existing teeth would be displaced or fall out, as new ones grew in), and replacement of fingernails with “claws.”
Infected Newborns and these “Mutant Sprinters” displayed a high incidence of mutation. Many of those cases that would have theoretically produced an Infected Newborn instead produced a misshapen creature unable to carry its own weight, exaggerated features, or runaway “regeneration” that resulted in cancerous growths. Similar distortions were to be found in those individuals who underwent mutation before becoming full-fledged “Sprinters.”
So far, it appeared that the bite of a Sprinter only produced more Sprinters, not some sort of “stage 3 strain” that might lead to something stranger.
Reports of other peculiar variants of the Living Dead, however, hinted at the possibility of rare mutations that might pop up frequently enough to be classified as subtypes, or perhaps some other connection to the “development tree.” Unfortunately, such mention was only in passing, without useful detail on just what these “mutations” might be, other than the usual references to claws, fangs, differences in speed and coordination, etc.
Immunity, Resistance, and Jumping Species:
A few cases were recorded of individuals found to be immune to the virus - that is, totally unaffected by exposure to infected material, other than normal infections that might come about due to open wounds and diseases brewing inside walking corpses. Although not verified, some reports seemed to suggest cases of the Living Dead shunning such individuals, or at least preferring other (vulnerable) victims over them if given a choice (similar to how a Living Dead would prefer to go after a human target rather than a dog, though it would still feast on a dog if no human alternative presented itself).
This appeared to be connected with genetics, rather than evidence of any sort of built-up immunity; therefore, it was doubtful that such immunity could be exploited to develop “immunity” for others, unfortunately.
Mention was made of reports of individuals who had been exposed to infected material, gotten sick, but somehow recovered, but no specific examples were given, nor any indication that the conditions had in any way been replicated, or even solidly verified.
Of more concern were a few notes about observation of spread of the virus to non-human primates. It appeared that some primates had presumably been exposed to the airborne variety of the virus, like most everyone else, and upon dying, sometimes reanimated as Living Dead of the typical sort. Their bite was infectious and fatal to other primates (human or otherwise), and sometimes (but not consistently) would result in the reanimation of another Living Dead. The cases were, however, rare and poorly documented. No cases had been verified of any non-primate animals being reanimated as Living Dead, though some animals appeared to nonetheless be killed by exposure to bites of the Living Dead that would not have otherwise been fatal from the physical damage alone.
Origins and Speculation:
Various other cases were noted or referred to in passing, with mention of previous cases of reanimation that had happened prior to the global outbreak, but in isolated cases, and in all of them there was some sort of exposure to high levels of radiation involved. The supposition here was that the global outbreak had occurred due to the global bathing of the Earth in radiation levels not seen since the solar event of 1859, thus putting the dormant, airborne variety of the virus into an active state.
Also, due to the complex nature of this virus (and even “virus” was often put in quotes), it was speculated that this could not be of truly natural origins. The idea of something with so many levels of complexity, so specialized to affect the human race, and yet having somehow failed to leave a mark on history up until this very point was seen as implausible. How could something have evolved to be? More likely, the speculation pointed to deliberate engineering by agents unknown, perhaps as some sort of bioweapon that had gotten out of control.
A Matter of Sabrina, T-Man, and Father O’Shaughnessy:
Father O’Shaughnessy, seeing that Dominic was taking considerable interest in these documents, decided to bring up the matter of Sabrina. He noted that in the various accounts made of those who had been infected, and how long it had taken them to succumb, there were no notes of anyone surviving after being bitten for as long as Sabrina had, unless perhaps she were immune. (Dominic, however, pointed out that aside from a few hinted-at references to isolated cases of reanimation that had occurred before the big outbreak, the time that had elapsed was hardly a sufficient sample set to draw any great conclusions about how long one could survive before eventually succumbing.)
Father O’Shaughnessy argued that something special must have happened on the Pinnacle. Perhaps, he speculated, it had been intended to be a test case for a limited release of the virus in its active form, but things had been thrown into disarray when the solar event caused a global activation. He noted how armed militants had shown up on the scene so quickly, even before the Coast Guard could respond, and had started shooting survivors in the lifeboats rather than letting them escape. Something like that couldn’t just be pure chance, he reasoned; they had to be connected somehow.
And thus, perhaps there was something special about the “strain” of the virus they were exposed to. He had been in close contact with infected individuals at the very start of the outbreak, and he had gotten sick while on the lifeboat, yet he recovered. T-Man had done even worse than he had (though at this point, T-Man fervently denied it, despite an eye-rolling response from Stephanie, who’d had to tend to him the whole time), but came through it as well. While he reasoned that either one of them might have a sort of innate resistance to the virus, the odds of the both of them both being immune and both knowing each other were pretty slim. More likely, there was some sort of a common connection that they shared - perhaps because of their encounter with the “Patient Zero” aboard the ship. If they could find out what had allowed them to live, then there might be hope to develop a vaccine or even a cure for others.
Dominic wasn’t so sure, but his curiosity was piqued, and at least he seemed a little less likely to hastily shoot people who “might be infected” with the prospect raised of some sort of longer-term hope. Plus, he was interested in finding out more to fill in the pieces - and perhaps if they could find out more about this UniMed corporation (particularly what information they might have had about the infection prior to the global outbreak, and just how far back such incidents might date), that might lead to more options.