The senior person in the group – a portly old man with a bad combover digested this information for a second before motioning the coroner to continue.
“During stage two, the foreign objects re-orient themselves and travel up the body cavity towards the upper spinal cord. As they travel, they ‘drill’ through any obstacle, causing hemorrhagic damage to multiple organs and often resulting in the death of the subject.”
With this statement, the coroner points out damage to the liver, heart and lungs of the cadaver.
“We have determined that these artificial foreign objects only stay active for a limited time after the host is deceased. This is why the phenomena is not happening with all victims–”
“With phenomena you mean rise from the dead.” Somebody remarked
The science advisor was unperturbed and continued.
“The hypothesis that we have proven with this specimen, is that the organisms continue to travel up the spinal cord into the brain.”
“What happens after that is something, we find hard to explain. It is also something that many will find hard to believe. But the evidence is conclusive. The foreign objects situate themselves in specific portions of the brain, while the host is still alive. These objects then hi-jack the brain’s neurons and synapses, causing the host to die but keeping the body animate.”
Most of the officials burst out with sounds of disbelief, and several raised their voices in question. The senior official, holds up his hand for silence, and after a few seconds order was restored. He looked at the second coroner.
“What else do we know.” It was an order, not a question.
The second man in coroner’s garb cleared his throat and spoke. His voice was soft and very hard to hear in the recording, but several things could be heard clearly.
“... the host is truly deceased but re-animated. This is no joke; The dead are rising. ... After they rise ... to primary senses of sight, sound ... attracted to the living ...” The only other word that could clearly be heard was ‘attack’.
Thankfully, the man moved a bit closer to the microphone and his next sentences were heard clearly.
“They are impervious to any damage done to them and will fight very aggressively. They do not appear to use tools or weapons, but will use their own bodies as their weapon, in a most animalistic way. Once a victim is unresponsive, the subject loses interest.”
The man turned away from the microphone again and most of the next words were lost.
“Also, we ...-ded that ... victim perishes, they do not reanimate. One of the small blessings ... is not contagious.”
The senior official stopped the man and asked a question, putting emphasis on certain words. “Very well, but how do we stop them. How do we destroy them?”
The camera had moved in closer, so that the expert could be heard more clearly.
“Sir, the only way to stop these things once they have reanimated is to inflict sufficient trauma to the brain. This disrupts the synapses and shuts down the virus. As George mentioned, we still need to capture a specimen with a live viral infection, so we can learn more – but we are already certain that the way to stop them is by destroying the brain.”
“Wait – you are calling it a virus?”
“Yes sir. The behaviour of taking over an organ is somewhat akin to a viral infection. We can not confirm this until we capture and study a reanimated subject.”
The senior official looked to one of his aides and nodded. The aide spun on his heel and left the room. The official turned back to the coroner and science advisors.
“Anything else?”
Another science advisor spoke up.
“We do not have a cure for HAPS at this time. The syndrome,” She said this as she looked at the other advisor. Clearly, she disagreed with his use of the term ‘virus’. “does not respond to any treatment – be it anti-biotical or chemical.”
“Right. Keep working on it. Anything else?”
“Yes. There is a direct connection between the crop failures and deaths of domesticated animals and HAPS. This virus, or whatever it is–” The rest is drowned out as several people spoke up at once.
“The animals are NOT reanimating!” Somebody’s raised voice could be heard over the din.
The senior official stood in silence, with a stern look on his face, until gradually all talk ceased.
“Anything else.” He forced the words through a clenched jaw. He was clearly upset and angry.
“Uh, not at this time, sir.”
The senior official turned to the camera. “Ok, wrap it up and get this info to the pentagon.”
At this point the recording ended, and the viewers are brought back to the Channel Eight newsroom. Tammy was sitting at her desk, ready to address her viewers.
“This recording was date stamped October 24th. Yesterday. We can not confirm the validity of the recording, but it appears to be real. This information also is corroborated with many sightings, videos, and reports on the internet, and we at the station believe this to be true.”
Tammy took a deep breath and her eyes flared wide as she looked down at her desk.
“I can’t believe this is happening! The dead are rising?” She snapped out of it when she looked up and saw the camera in front of her. Tammy collected herself.
“My apologies.” Tammy picked up the next piece of paper in front of her and regarded it for a second before facing the camera once more.
“We are also hearing unconfirmed reports of army units opening fire on people that are attempting to flee cities, including our own city. The official statement from the army is that any aggressive maneuvers or encroachment upon check
