Virology

Lucile's hypothesis came as a shock to Cyrus. The infection wasn't killing people? They weren't decomposing? He wondered if other people had made these observations as well. Of course, many of the people who were infected were rounded up and slaughtered by government institutions or civilian groups. So all of the people who actually "died," of the virus were few and far between.

"If you don't think it's a virus, what could it be? Bacterial infections don't attach themselves to blood cells. But they do eat flesh, viruses don't. I've always suspected this disease was artificial. It appears to be a splice of some kind of Rotavirus, and an unknown bacterial strain. In the early days, Robert used interferon and Levaquin on the infected. A virus would have responded to the interferon, and a bacterial infection would have responded to the Levaquin. Yet, no responses were detected from either. The people continued to degrade as if they'd never received any medication at all. Robert believed the virus had been genetically altered, as a weapon. But who would design a weapon of mass destruction... that doesn't kill anyone?"