Thing 38: The next blockbuster medicine and what will happen as a result

I've been on a bit of a hiatus, and I apologise for that. Not that I have any fllowers, really, but I tried to commit to posting regular entries from the book, and I haven't done so. In any case, here's to the next one.

Thing 38: The next blockbuster medicine and what will happen as a result

Crap! I had a great intro written for a game that I want to develop which fit this topic perfectly, but sadly I've lost the book I had written it in. I wish I could find that...


Anyway, the premise is simple. Researchers believe they have discovered a cure for AIDS. The disease works by weakening your immune system and making you fatally susceptible to other illnesses and infections. The proposed solution was to introduce a virus into the host that would bolster the their immune system by regenerating dead white blood cells. In animal trials, the medicine worked perfectly. It didn't remove the disease from the host's system, but it counteracted the negative effects, effectively neutralising it.

Issues arose, however, when the first human trials were conducted. Something about our specific biology caused the virus to evolve in an unexpected and horrific way. Instead of simply bringing dead white blood cells back into action, viral cells would split and infest all of the host's cells, eventually replacing them entirely. The new being was single-minded in its purpose: produce more viral cells. To do this, the virus needed to be spread into a new host, such as through blood or saliva.

The virus created zombies.

What's worse, is that in order to spread more effectively, the virus evolved. While it couldn't seem to survive in aquatic environments, it could expand in a limited capacity to the air. The contact strain remained 100% effective in converting hosts (with dead hosts converting more quickly), the airborne strain only converted about 40% of hosts. An additional 40% of those who came in contact died outright, with the virus overwhelming their systems and halting further regeneration. That left 20% of humanity immune to the airborne strain and facing off against an ever-growing horde of the undead.

Down but not out, humanity rallied in whatever ways it could. The zombies had a strong sense of self preservation, as their primary directive was to create additional viral cells, so settlements were able to crop up and remain reasonably safe. Small groups were able to live in the wasteland using their wits and survival skills, trying to outsmart and outmaneuvre the undead. Slowly but surely, the survivors began to dwindle, but hope lived on.

We weren't about to give up that easily.

Notes:
- This idea stays true to the "undead" philosophy of the zombie mythos by effectively reducing the scale. The individual cells of an organism are killed, and then regenerated by the virus, so the host is mutated into something that is no longer strictly human.
- In this world, animals are not compatible with the mutated virus, so zombies and wildlife tend to avoid one another.
- The actual percentages for mutation and death of the airborne strain are subject to change. I'd need to run some simulations to get an idea of how many zombies there could be such that humanity could live on without being utterly overwhelmed.