[Info] Kellis-Amberlee
[Note: Here be spoilers for... everything Newsflesh related that has ever been published. If you care, DO NOT READ THIS.]
The Basics
Kellis-Amberlee is the result of an accidental combination of two man-made viruses: Marburg Amberlee and the Kellis flu. Marburg Amberlee was a modified form of the Marburg virus - originally a nasty hemorrhagic fever related to ebola, it had been genetically engineered to cure cancer. The Kellis flu was, as the name implies, based on a strain of influenza, and designed to cure the common cold. When both viruses were released into the wild and the two met, a quirk of their design allowed them to lock together and form a whole new virus.
Kellis-Amberlee is just as helpful as the original viruses that created it. Those infected with it never develop cancer, and are immune to the common cold. In its dormant form, it doesn't actually kill anyone, simply acts as a helper virus within the human body... and waits. However, when the host dies, causing a disruption of the body's nervous system and activating the virus, or when some of the virus that's already gone "live" hits the host's mucus membranes or bloodstream, the entire stockpile of dormant virus will quickly go live as well, the host undergoes amplification (see below), and instead of a thinking human being, you're left with a zombie with only one purpose: spreading the virus.
At present, there is no cure for Kellis-Amberlee. Everyone in Georgia's world is infected from birth, and everyone alive will one day become a zombie unless someone puts a bullet through their head or spine first. Blood tests exist to detect the live virus, and as long as it hasn't actually touched any mucus membranes or open wounds, the live virus can be destroyed with bleach, so bleach showers are standard procedure for anyone who's been anywhere near a zombie or possibly infected blood. You can't hold off amplification forever, but extreme, obsessive caution goes a long way.
Transmission
The dormant virus spreads in much the same way as the common cold - it is droplet-based, released into the air by coughs or sneezes, can remain airborne and therefore able to be breathed in for long periods of time, and is extremely hardy. If you remain in the same space as an infected person for any period of time, chances are extremely high that you will breathe in the virus, and once it hits your lungs, it will take hold. Kellis-Amberlee is transmissible to all mammals, and is 100% infectious *.
The live form is considerably less hardy outside of the human body, and thankfully not airborne. It is only transmissible through bodily fluids - all fluids, including blood, vomit, tears and saliva. It cannot be absorbed through the skin; the live virus must contact mucus membranes (usually the nose, mouth or eyes) or an open wound (often a bite or scratch).
* in its natural state. If you're playing with Georgia in beyondtherift, the virus has been modified by the Rift so it is considerably less infectious - maybe around 10% now.
Amplification
When any mammal over forty pounds *. comes into contact with live Kellis-Amberlee, they will begin to undergo amplification. The live virus flips the switch on any of the dormant-form virus it meets, activating it, and thus setting off a chain reaction that will eventually turn the host into a zombie. The presence of the dormant virus in the body is not a requirement for amplification - someone who is uninfected by the passive form of the virus and is exposed to the live virus will still amplify, but the need to create more of itself rather than simply activating the already-present virus may slow the process somewhat.
Amplification usually takes thirty minbutes to an hour, but it depends on a number of factors, the most important being body weight and heart rate at the time of the bite. If someone were bitten while sleeping and didn't wake up, they may take all night to complete amplification. For this reason, sedatives can slow the process, especially if mixed with hyper-activated white blood cells from the person who was bitten, but that's only a temporary measure, typically slowing amplification for an hour at most if you're extremely lucky. Anyone who has begun amplification is immediately contagious, and should not be touched under any circumstances.
Early signs of amplification include dry mouth and throat and lack of pain sensitivity. As it progresses, the pupils dilate, and the host experiences a loss of motor control, and extreme confusion and disorientation, becoming worse the longer it progresses. Finally, the virus completely destroys the conscious mind, and the host becomes a zombie.
* Mammals under forty pounds seem to lack some crucial brain-to-body-mass ratio to make conversion and reanimation possible. When they die, they're just dead. They can still carry the live virus if they come in contact with it, but the risk of being infected by a smaller mammal is significantly smaller.
Post-Amplification Manifestation Syndrome Humans (aka Zombies)
Zombies are essentially a means for the live version of Kellis-Amberlee to spread itself to new hosts. They're controlled by the virus, and... Well, you've all seen the movies. All the normal rules apply: they can be killed by a bullet to the head or spine, they don't care a lot about other injuries, and all they want to do is bite and/or eat you.
Fresher zombies look almost like people: their movements are a little stiff, and they're a little expressionless, but if you're not paying attention, you could almost ignore them. They're also much faster than most zombies, capable of running - not as quickly or with as much coordination as a living person, but fast enough. They don't need to eat yet, so they're most likely to bite you and move on to find their next victim, and they have fluids to spare, so spitting or vomiting on their victims is pretty common if they can't bite them easily.
Over time, zombies become more obviously undead. They dry out, they get battered by the elements, their clothing and bodies get tattered and torn... and, most importantly to anyone who engages with them, they get slower and less coordinated. Older zombies do need to eat, and the only thing they can eat is fresh meat - they convert protein to viral bodies, and in the absence of food will begin to convert their own bodies. The more well-fed the zombie, the less it decays; the zombies kept for research by the CDC and fed a regular diet of cowflesh might well live indefinitely.
Individually, zombies are not terribly smart. The larger the group, however, the more intelligent they become, and in a large enough group they will start displaying pack hunting techniques, setting simple traps and using their knowledge of the terrain to their advantage. They are attracted to the scent of living mammals, as well as to sound. A zombie approaching prey will start to moan, practically a dinner bell to other zombies, and exponentially increasing the danger the more zombies are drawn to it. They see better in the dark than humans, due to their dilated pupils - bright lights don't bother them that much, but sudden bright lights after being in the dark can make it hard for them to see for a short time.
Reservoir Conditions
In some cases, those who come in contact with very small amounts of live Kellis-Amberlee (usually before they are large enough to amplify, but sometimes simply because of natural immunity as an adult) will kennel off the virus in one specific part of their body. Georgia has retinal Kellis-Amberlee, especially common among women, though it does manifest in other forms: cerebro-spinal (primarily found in men), ovarian, testicular, pituitary, cardiac, pulmonary, thyroid... The person exposed gets sick for a time, gets better, and at some point in the future develops a reservoir condition. The virus is still live in whatever part of the body it gets quarantined in, and that part of the body may display symptoms of amplification (such as the dilated pupils and lack of tear production associated with retinal KA), but it doesn't send the body into amplification.
Reservoir conditions are an immune response that teach the body how to fight live Kellis-Amberlee when it encounters it. In two in ten thousand cases, when someone with a reservoir condition is exposed to live Kellis-Amberlee, they will fight it off - they still amplify like anyone else, and during that time are still as dangerous as any zombie, but if no one shoots them first, in a few hours or a day, they'll get better. The odds go up with the density of viral particles in the existing viral reservoir, and the number of reservoir conditions a particular subject has. At a certain point, with enough conditions, a subject exposed to the live virus wouldn't even amplify - they'd get a little sick, and then recover, and fairly quickly at that.
Questions?
If you have a question about Kellis-Amberlee or zombies I haven't answered, feel free to ask in a comment here, or contact me through other methods.
The Basics
Kellis-Amberlee is the result of an accidental combination of two man-made viruses: Marburg Amberlee and the Kellis flu. Marburg Amberlee was a modified form of the Marburg virus - originally a nasty hemorrhagic fever related to ebola, it had been genetically engineered to cure cancer. The Kellis flu was, as the name implies, based on a strain of influenza, and designed to cure the common cold. When both viruses were released into the wild and the two met, a quirk of their design allowed them to lock together and form a whole new virus.
Kellis-Amberlee is just as helpful as the original viruses that created it. Those infected with it never develop cancer, and are immune to the common cold. In its dormant form, it doesn't actually kill anyone, simply acts as a helper virus within the human body... and waits. However, when the host dies, causing a disruption of the body's nervous system and activating the virus, or when some of the virus that's already gone "live" hits the host's mucus membranes or bloodstream, the entire stockpile of dormant virus will quickly go live as well, the host undergoes amplification (see below), and instead of a thinking human being, you're left with a zombie with only one purpose: spreading the virus.
At present, there is no cure for Kellis-Amberlee. Everyone in Georgia's world is infected from birth, and everyone alive will one day become a zombie unless someone puts a bullet through their head or spine first. Blood tests exist to detect the live virus, and as long as it hasn't actually touched any mucus membranes or open wounds, the live virus can be destroyed with bleach, so bleach showers are standard procedure for anyone who's been anywhere near a zombie or possibly infected blood. You can't hold off amplification forever, but extreme, obsessive caution goes a long way.
Transmission
The dormant virus spreads in much the same way as the common cold - it is droplet-based, released into the air by coughs or sneezes, can remain airborne and therefore able to be breathed in for long periods of time, and is extremely hardy. If you remain in the same space as an infected person for any period of time, chances are extremely high that you will breathe in the virus, and once it hits your lungs, it will take hold. Kellis-Amberlee is transmissible to all mammals, and is 100% infectious *.
The live form is considerably less hardy outside of the human body, and thankfully not airborne. It is only transmissible through bodily fluids - all fluids, including blood, vomit, tears and saliva. It cannot be absorbed through the skin; the live virus must contact mucus membranes (usually the nose, mouth or eyes) or an open wound (often a bite or scratch).
* in its natural state. If you're playing with Georgia in beyondtherift, the virus has been modified by the Rift so it is considerably less infectious - maybe around 10% now.
Amplification
When any mammal over forty pounds *. comes into contact with live Kellis-Amberlee, they will begin to undergo amplification. The live virus flips the switch on any of the dormant-form virus it meets, activating it, and thus setting off a chain reaction that will eventually turn the host into a zombie. The presence of the dormant virus in the body is not a requirement for amplification - someone who is uninfected by the passive form of the virus and is exposed to the live virus will still amplify, but the need to create more of itself rather than simply activating the already-present virus may slow the process somewhat.
Amplification usually takes thirty minbutes to an hour, but it depends on a number of factors, the most important being body weight and heart rate at the time of the bite. If someone were bitten while sleeping and didn't wake up, they may take all night to complete amplification. For this reason, sedatives can slow the process, especially if mixed with hyper-activated white blood cells from the person who was bitten, but that's only a temporary measure, typically slowing amplification for an hour at most if you're extremely lucky. Anyone who has begun amplification is immediately contagious, and should not be touched under any circumstances.
Early signs of amplification include dry mouth and throat and lack of pain sensitivity. As it progresses, the pupils dilate, and the host experiences a loss of motor control, and extreme confusion and disorientation, becoming worse the longer it progresses. Finally, the virus completely destroys the conscious mind, and the host becomes a zombie.
* Mammals under forty pounds seem to lack some crucial brain-to-body-mass ratio to make conversion and reanimation possible. When they die, they're just dead. They can still carry the live virus if they come in contact with it, but the risk of being infected by a smaller mammal is significantly smaller.
Post-Amplification Manifestation Syndrome Humans (aka Zombies)
Zombies are essentially a means for the live version of Kellis-Amberlee to spread itself to new hosts. They're controlled by the virus, and... Well, you've all seen the movies. All the normal rules apply: they can be killed by a bullet to the head or spine, they don't care a lot about other injuries, and all they want to do is bite and/or eat you.
Fresher zombies look almost like people: their movements are a little stiff, and they're a little expressionless, but if you're not paying attention, you could almost ignore them. They're also much faster than most zombies, capable of running - not as quickly or with as much coordination as a living person, but fast enough. They don't need to eat yet, so they're most likely to bite you and move on to find their next victim, and they have fluids to spare, so spitting or vomiting on their victims is pretty common if they can't bite them easily.
Over time, zombies become more obviously undead. They dry out, they get battered by the elements, their clothing and bodies get tattered and torn... and, most importantly to anyone who engages with them, they get slower and less coordinated. Older zombies do need to eat, and the only thing they can eat is fresh meat - they convert protein to viral bodies, and in the absence of food will begin to convert their own bodies. The more well-fed the zombie, the less it decays; the zombies kept for research by the CDC and fed a regular diet of cowflesh might well live indefinitely.
Individually, zombies are not terribly smart. The larger the group, however, the more intelligent they become, and in a large enough group they will start displaying pack hunting techniques, setting simple traps and using their knowledge of the terrain to their advantage. They are attracted to the scent of living mammals, as well as to sound. A zombie approaching prey will start to moan, practically a dinner bell to other zombies, and exponentially increasing the danger the more zombies are drawn to it. They see better in the dark than humans, due to their dilated pupils - bright lights don't bother them that much, but sudden bright lights after being in the dark can make it hard for them to see for a short time.
Reservoir Conditions
In some cases, those who come in contact with very small amounts of live Kellis-Amberlee (usually before they are large enough to amplify, but sometimes simply because of natural immunity as an adult) will kennel off the virus in one specific part of their body. Georgia has retinal Kellis-Amberlee, especially common among women, though it does manifest in other forms: cerebro-spinal (primarily found in men), ovarian, testicular, pituitary, cardiac, pulmonary, thyroid... The person exposed gets sick for a time, gets better, and at some point in the future develops a reservoir condition. The virus is still live in whatever part of the body it gets quarantined in, and that part of the body may display symptoms of amplification (such as the dilated pupils and lack of tear production associated with retinal KA), but it doesn't send the body into amplification.
Reservoir conditions are an immune response that teach the body how to fight live Kellis-Amberlee when it encounters it. In two in ten thousand cases, when someone with a reservoir condition is exposed to live Kellis-Amberlee, they will fight it off - they still amplify like anyone else, and during that time are still as dangerous as any zombie, but if no one shoots them first, in a few hours or a day, they'll get better. The odds go up with the density of viral particles in the existing viral reservoir, and the number of reservoir conditions a particular subject has. At a certain point, with enough conditions, a subject exposed to the live virus wouldn't even amplify - they'd get a little sick, and then recover, and fairly quickly at that.
Questions?
If you have a question about Kellis-Amberlee or zombies I haven't answered, feel free to ask in a comment here, or contact me through other methods.