It was getting worse. Videos that were posted to public sites were still being censored but not before they were downloaded and shared via e-mail. The flood of videos and messages on every conceivable platform was too much to block without completely shutting down the internet. Humanity was dying and the internet echoed it’s screams.
The origins and effects of the disease itself were less of a mystery now. The video of the archeologists descending into the tomb in Egypt provided multiple clues. It had now been played and analyzed more thoroughly than any other video clip in the history of video clips. It’d been viewed exponentially more times than the clip of JFK being assassinated. That short video clip launched a thousand conspiracy theories. Aliens, mummies, zombies, Pharaoh’s curses, and the wrath of multiple gods were all thrown out as viable causes of the pandemic sweeping the globe clean of humanity.
One of the saner reasons being considered for the insanity was that it all had something to do with the strange green mold growing inside the cavernous space. The date of the entry into the tomb aligned with when the infections had begun. The tomb itself was at the nexus of all of the events that were cascading across the globe. If there was a patient zero, then the smart money was on one of the people who’d gone down into that darkness.
The mold spore theory held up well. It’d been tested numerous times by both professionals and amateurs cutting into the dead bodies of the infected. None of the archeologists had been wearing any sort of advanced air filtration systems or anything when they descended into the tomb. Not only could they have become infected but anyone from the film or support crew in the tunnel could’ve also been exposed to the spores. None of the film or dig crew had made it out of Egypt so there weren’t any witnesses who could be interviewed or examined.
Even if the cause for the disease hadn’t been one hundred percent nailed down yet the actual phases of it had been observed and documented countless times. An exchange of bodily fluids seemed to be the main way to catch the disease. Nine times out of ten this happened when one of the infected individuals caught and bit a non-infected victim. At some point during the attack the victim would flip from being a victim to being one of the infected. Once that flip occurred the attacker somehow sensed it and immediately lost interest in attacking the former victim.
Once bitten the newly infected would wander around with a dazed look for a matter of minutes before also going on the hunt. The defining piece of this phase was the insane energy surge the newly infected exhibited. A newly infected individual didn’t sleep for about three days. They just rocked along on an impossible surge of adrenaline. That meant they could jump higher, run faster and lift heavier objects than pretty much any normal individual. There was a good percentage of people who didn’t survive this phase.
The ones who fell over dead during the surge phase were the ones whose hearts just couldn’t take all the adrenaline. This group was made up mostly of the obese and elderly. They were much more likely to keel over within the first day of surging than any other demographic. The streets of the cities were littered with the carcasses of those who hadn’t made the transition to the next phase.
The final phase of the metamorphosis was the night crawler phase. At some point during the surge the light of day became too much for the infected to handle and they started seeking shelter during the day. They’d dig in under houses or if stuck out in the open they’d resort to digging holes to bury themselves in to spend the day. No one knew why they feared the light or why it took a few days for the fear to develop. Numerous videos of the individuals in the night crawler phase showed them losing their minds when exposed to sunlight though. They tended to avoid any sort of bright light, but it was only actual sunlight that sent them into a panic.
If the spore was an extreme hallucinogenic that could explain the fear of the light. Although how it’d cause the same reaction in thousands of different subjects was a big question mark. The knowledge had been put into practice in the last bastions of defenses over in Europe. Massive spotlights protected the walled fortresses of those who’d survived the initial onslaughts. These islands of humanity were kept supplied by airdrops from the USA. Those resupply missions helped to assuage the guilt of the nation for not allowing the survivors to be evacuated to the safe harbor of the US shores.
“When they come out of the dirt like that it’s pretty much Night of the Living Dead.” Drew said watching the clips on the TV in the loft. LeBron had his smart phone connected to the TV and was sharing the videos he’d downloaded.
“Exactly. Or pretty much like every vampire movie. They fear the light and all that. The drinking blood part works. All of those myths could’ve originated with people inhaling these mold spores. The legend of the mummy. All of that stuff. It makes so much sense.” LeBron said excitedly.
“That’s great. All of our nightmares are coming for us. What I’d be more excited about would be a plan to survive. One that helps us get more toilet paper and some fresh fruit.” Drew said. It turned out when the rest of the world went dark the good old
