Infected

Written by John Scalzo  on January 19, 2005

Early Impressions: Top Secret - Classified - Eyes Only

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December 1, 2005: My name is Officer Stevens of the NYPD. This Operations Journal marks the beginning of the month of December. As a first year member of this department, it was suggested to me by my Training Officer that I should keep this journal to aid in my peer review at the end of the quarter.

December 2: My Training Officer tells me that over the next few weeks we'll see many acts of kindness during this Christmas season, but also many con-men who will try to take advantage of that sense of good will. For example, today we busted a department store Santa for attacking a mother and her child. He stole the woman's purse and we found him holed up in the bathroom trying to stop a bite mark on his arm from bleeding. We sent him to Central Lockup with instructions for them to check his arm.

December 9: Small mobs have taken to the street in what looks like hysteria. The media is picking up rumors of a virus that causes violence sweeping the city. The CDC is non-responsive. We were sent in today as non-lethal crowd control.

We fired warning shots from our service weapons into the ground. The crowd would not disperse so we moved in with bean bag cannons. A few went down, but almost half got right back up again. It appeared to us that some members of this mob were trying to bite other members of the mob. With our non-lethal measures proving useless, we were told to fall back. It was here that one of the members of the mob bit me on the leg.

December 10: It's after midnight now as the medics are performing tests on me from the bite. Hepetitis, Tetanus, Rabies and something a Dr. Brooks referred to as "Solanum". I don't know what that is.

December 12: I had slept for the last two days. The infection ravaged my body, I ran a very high fever and the doctors feared for my life, but I did not succumb. A Dr. Schaeffer stepped forward and explained the situation. He told me I was immune. The first case they'd seen. In the last two days the virus had proved to be fatal to what they assumed was 100% of those infected. The strange thing was that each member of the Infected class (as they were called) rose from their deathbed and started attacking people. They craved human flesh, just like a zombie movie. It sounds crazy and I noticed that none of the doctors are using the 'Z' word.

December 14: Preliminary tests have shown that my blood is toxic to the Infected. The doctors say my blood is the key to an anti-virus. When the blood is mixed, the resulting reaction is a form of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC). In other words, the zombies explode in gory splatterhouse style.

December 16: Dr. Schaeffer has created a gun that filters my blood into a 9mm cartridge. When fired on the Infected these cartridges penetrate their skin and start the SHC reaction. Tests in the field show that after a zombie explodes from the reaction their blood is just as toxic to the other Infected. If they get close enough, it's possible to use one bullet to take out a chain of zombies. I'm still the only one using that word.

December 18: I have finally been released from the CDC holding cell. At least I think it was the CDC. Dr. Schaeffer's motivations are unclear and his methods are suspect. I don't completely trust him. But field tests of the gun and the antivirus have proven successful. I have been given my new assignment. It is time to hunt.

December 19: As I comb the streets of New York for the Infected two sets of cameras monitor my movements and send data back to Dr. Schaeffer. One mounted on my eye line gives the doctor a first person view of the action while traffic cameras and repositioned security cameras give them a view from the third person.

A combination of small arms fire and incendiary rounds will weaken the ghouls. It is then that I use the Viral Gun. Dr. Schaeffer has told me he is continuing his work to develop new and improved weapons that can use the Viral cartridges. I have found that shotguns and machine guns also work well against the Infected.

December 21: While the barricades and quarantine keep the zombies in certain sections of the city, I have learned that civilians are still trapped within those sections. I will try to rescue all that I can, but if they're bitten, my orders are to terminate on sight. These things used to be people's families.

December 23: There were too many zombies during my last foray into the city. Dr. Schaeffer says that there was so much Solanum in the air that it caused a "viral overload". Being the only human in the area caused all of the zombies to race for my position. A last minute air strike was all that saved me. The Army has pledged to provide future air strikes in case I need them. Word from the media is that all of the Tri-State area has been quarantined. We're truly on our own.

December 25: Christmas Day. I came across the department store Santa with the bite mark from several weeks earlier. If only we had known then. I shot at him with shotgun fire until he dropped, then injected him with a shot from the Viral Gun. All I found was a blood soaked red hat with a white puff ball. It's almost morbidly humorous.

December 27: Chatter over the Wireless Network leads me to believe that others have joined the hunt. Roaming the streets individually and in Team Formation, these new hunters engage each other just as often as they engage the zombies.

December 28: Tangled with one of the new hunters today. heard the chatter over the Wireless, "Wanna Deathmatch?", right before he ambushed me with non-lethal rubber bullets. I retaliated, but it was too late, he scored a hit to my chest, knocking me down. After I was beaten he was gone and left behind his Avatar identifying this particular hunter. The Avatar mark was also visible on his clothes. I must pass a copy of this Avatar on to other hunters to warn them about this guy. Thinking about it now, passing around these Avatars will act as a secondary virus, albeit a less deadly one. It could even lead to increased morale among the hunters. Almost like a game to relieve the tension of the hunt.

But for me, I'll never stop until I remove every last zombie from this city.