Bloggaday: Bloggaday 150 – The Supernatural Handicap Battle Royal of the Century Christmas Party Spectacular pt 5… kinda

Bloggaday 150 – The Supernatural Handicap Battle Royal of the Century Christmas Party Spectacular pt 5… kinda

Well, if you’re on the east coast, this post is late, but for us west coasters, this is still well within Wed-nes-day. I don’t know if this will directly follow last Wednesday’s chunk of words, I need to get the string of segues together for the next couple of parts, so it’s probably going to get a bit of a change-up*.

Melinda patted Paul’s arm and said, “Oh, yeah. Paully here tries to get me to go out with him every year for some caroling.”

Contempt still in her voice, Sandra said, “Werewolves and caroling, why am I not surprised.”

“I was actually quite the enchantress prodigy don’t you know, but once I met Paul here, well you know what they say, once you canine, you’ll be doin’ fine.

“Aaaanyways,” Paul broke the silence. “While we’re on the subject, are these guys zombies? I’ve never seen them this fast or brutal.”

They are, in fact, zombies, and I have seen something like this. Back in 1940's Germany. They were supposed to be the crowning element of the Blitzkrieg, and it nearly happened."

"Here we go again," Sandra said with a sigh and eye roll.

Henric stared at her for a moment. "Given the active mutation of the infection, it was actually a very stable program."

"When I think zombies, the first thing that pops into my head isn't stable,” Paul said, starting to ponder.

"Ah, that is because like many people, you do not understand the nature of the affliction," Henric started.

"Maybe mahem," Paul interrupted.

"Yes, well," Henric continued. "the infection starts by mutating the cells in the person."

"Plague even, but not stable,” Paul interrupted yet again.

With a quick, yet audible grinding of his teeth, Henric said, “If you are quite done.” Paul feigned a bow before the vampire continued. “Once it has gone through the body, the affected cells continue to mutate. Over and over, the body is swept by the infection, increasing the severity of the mutation every time.”

Another interruption came, this time from Sandra, “You can think of it as a copy of a copy of a copy.”

“Put simply,” Henric said, “yes. Now, almost every single zombie will deteriorate, losing what brain function they have.”

“What brain function do they have to lose?” Paul asked.

Henric nodded and continued, “As you can see, they typically retain things like the pack mentality and resistance to cannibalism.”

Paul readjusted the small man in his arms and said, “So as they become more zombified, they’ll eat each other?”

“Yes,” Henric said. “This is why there has never been a global catastrophe. As long as there is a minimal containment force in place, there is not usually any major threat.”

Puzzled, Melinda finally spoke up, “But now you said this is most of them. What happens to the others, eh?”

“The small minority can cause what you see here. Rather than continuously degrading the human sample, the mutation has a positive affect. They become faster, smarter, but it takes a considerable amount of time.”

“So this thing could go global then?” Paul asked.

“Unlikely,” Henric said. This is the result of one old zombie who likely infected someone, who infected someone, and so on. While more dangerous, these will burn out like other zombies. Even though the original zombie carries a relatively advanced form of the infection, transfer from a destabilizing zombie means subsequent infections pose less threat of a positive mutation. The real danger here is if the original, more advanced zombie gets out. If it were to increase the number infected itself, it is far more likely to infect an already stable infection to someone who could stabilize it even further.”

“So why don’t you think the original zombie isn’t among these ones?” Paul asked.

“Because it’s nearly impossible for this advanced of a zombie to occur naturally. Such a positive mutation takes much longer than it would take for a degenerative zombie to go wild and kill every other zombie around it.”

Listening to

A Sympathetic Crotch to Cry On by Two and a Half Men

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