Please note that what follows is a VERY rough draft and subject to extensive change before publication. Red Markets is the intellectual property of Hebanon Games and Caleb Stokes
The Blight
Here’s everything we know about it, or have been allowed to know:
0: Classification:
We don’t know what it is. It behaves like a virus or bacteria for large portions of its life cycle, but develops complex physical structures given a long enough timeline, suggesting some sort of asexually reproducing parasite. But, unlike anything else in the animal kingdom, the damn thing seems to violate the Conservation of Energy, producing kinetic force even in cases where the infected hasn’t ingested protein or any other food source. It’s either the most remarkably efficient organism ever – converting energy from photosynthesis, heat absorption, and a number of other sources simultaneously – or a manmade substance engineered and yet to be understood. People are throwing around the word nanotechnology a lot lately…
Then there are the Aberrant, which, if they actually exist, imply everything from alien fungus to supernatural plague to new stage of human evolution.
Like I said, WE DON’T KNOW. Or, as an even more unsettling possibility, someone knows and doesn’t want to tell.
1: Infection:
Infection occurs from direct contact with infected fluids: spit, blood, saliva, sexual fluids, or pure Blight (that black stuff they bleed). Not every bite or exposure is enough; five years of hindsight have produced documented cases of exposure without infection, which were later proven not to be Latency or Immunity when a second exposure produced full-transformation.
Immunity complicates things immensely, as we know it exists but have no idea why. Certain individuals can’t be infected no matter how many exposures occur. Science has determined that it has something to do with bone marrow, and they’ve determined that a processed form designed for direct injection can cause Blight in the midst of initial viral amplification to go dormant (thus developing the drug Supressin K-7864). Other than that, the Immune share no known commonality: they have no common sex, upbringing, diet, race, age, blood type, or ancestry. Medical science is racing to find the magic factor…usually by cutting it out of the poor bastards with document Immunity. A lot of doctors regret the thousands of potential golden guinea pigs shot for harmless wounds (cold bites, as they are called) during the initial outbreak.
The injection of Supressin K-7864 directly after a hot bite can prevent the development of symptoms, though the Latent condition has also been recorded as occurring inexplicably and spontaneously. Latents are infection carriers, able to spread the Blight by all the same means of a Casualty, but they retain their mental faculties and life. The Blight amplifies in the system without attacking the brain, entering a dormant state. The only sign of Latency is persistent necrosis around the bite area, caused during the transition from active Blight to its dormant/reproductive state. A single kiss from a Latent loved one has been the cause of many an outbreak, and their blood remains another valuable resource in researching the Blight. Worse, the continual reproduction of the Blight even in its dormant states means that, after the death of a Latent, the virus goes live within seconds.
This creates a Vector, which is the fate of 98% of the population after receiving a hot bite.
2. Vectors
Upon infection, the Blight cells (or whatever they are) amplify in the bloodstream at a speed unprecedented in the history of viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Some documented cases report as many as a couple of days passing before full transformation, but many transform within a matter of minutes. The process is so fast that many victims, torn apart by other Vectors, are eventually reanimated into Casualties even after death; hot Blight needs only a partial journey through the circulatory system before reanimation becomes inevitable.
In cases where the body is infected but escapes violent death, the cells of the victim serve as fuel for the Blight as it attacks and converts blood vessels first. This leads to the hemorrhaging and bloody vomit typical of the freshly infected.
Once distributed throughout the circulatory system, the primary activity occurs in the brain. Dilation of pupils become irregular and is followed by a sense of euphoria, then confusion, muscle tremors, and slurred speech. The hormonal dump follows – a pituitary explosion of stress chemicals – and leads to the first violent tendencies. Predatory instincts develop around the time all higher brain functions begin to completely break down. This causes the unfortunate, psychologically scarring “apologies” victims commonly report as being screamed by some Vectors when they first begin to infect, kill, and eat loved ones.
Vectors are extremely fast and very infectious. They bleed from every orifice and wound, and their fluids are in the midst of a frenzy of Blight reproduction that can carry over to victims easily. All governors of physical exertion are destroyed in the corruption of the brain, meaning that even physically weak individuals can move with uncharacteristic speed and ignore mortal trauma for disturbing amounts of time.
The Vectors remain dependant upon the brain stem to function. As with all Casualties, a headshot is the only way to ensure immobility.
3. Death
Due to combination internal hemorrhaging, trauma, overexertion, exposure, dehydration, and starvation, all Vectors qualify for medical definitions of death within a matter of hours or days after transformation. The actual time of death is difficult to pinpoint since the corpse remains animate. Signs include slowed hemorrhaging, stiffness due to rigor, gastrointestinal bloating, and a pallid skin tone.
In all but the most robust individuals, transition from Vector to Casualty involves a period of torpor where the corpse appears inanimate and still. Twitching may occur, but the overwhelming predatory instinct that define Blight infection relax for a number of hours as the victim enters the so-called “puppet” stage.
4. Casualties
According to pre-Recession science, dead things cannot move. The dead have no way to metabolize energy into electrical impulses to trigger muscle twitch. Technically, that logic holds even though the dead walk and kill the living.
The Blight uses it’s torpor to focus on metabolizing dead flesh, either consumed during the Vector phase or from the victim’s own tissues, into “strands.” These black, fibrous monofilaments duplicate throughout the body rampantly, occasionally even bursting from the flesh in the form of black spines or bulbous tumors. The purpose, near as we can tell, is to form a redundant nervous and musculature system on the wasted anatomy of the human’s. These strands originate in the stomach, quickly metabolizing consumed proteins and the victims own intestines (thus the gaunt look typical of most Casualties). A separate clutch develops in the cortex, mirroring human neurophysiology almost exactly.
When the strands have infiltrated all muscle tissues, they begin to excrete a viscous, liquefied form of the Blight known colloquially as “juice.” This substance has remarkable preservative properties unseen in other organic compounds and serves to pickle the dead flesh rotting around it. While not a perfect chemical, the black juice preserves the tissues of the dead victims for many years beyond the human norm and makes consuming the dead flesh toxic to all carrion eaters, even those not directly susceptible to Blight infection.
When the torpor ends, the Blight has essentially become a multiple-cellular parasite, sending nerve impulses down its strands to trigger unsophisticated muscle twitch reactions in the host. It’s suggested that the drive to consume flesh arises from the metabolic need to fuel these electrical impulses, but if this is the case, the Blight has the most remarkably efficient metabolism imaginable, approaching a 1-to-1 transfer ratio. Other theories posit that starving Casualties supplement their energy needs through some sort of photosynthesis located in the breeches of Blight strands, or that the creature operates off a form of heat absorption.
Regardless, the durable strands “puppet” the corpse around, now typically referred to as a Casualty, and repeat the behavior of a Vector, albeit slower and less coordinated. The strands are so redundant and resistant to damage that only total body destruction can render the body immobile. Thankfully, the impulses that drive the creature forward are routed through the central location of the brain, meaning that destruction of the brain stem or separation of the head will render the body inert.
5. The Aberrant
The existence of Aberrant types is widely debated in the medical community. No active specimens have ever been recovered, but supposed witnesses account this to the remarkable danger posed by these creatures. Accounts vary wildly and smack of urban legend, but enough reports occur simultaneously in geographically distinct areas to suggest at least some validity to the claims.
If the Aberrant do exist, they suggest that the Blight is entering a new evolutionary stage or has some even more complex stage of its lifecycle. As the existence of run-of-the-mill Casualties is problematic enough and reported sightings are rarely reputable, the scientific community has done very little work trying to categorize this supposed final stage.
