An unofficial memo to General Falk of Nyx:

Thank you for your inquiry, but despite our best efforts to amass concrete pre-war information and/or research about the virus, we still have not found anything that we do not already know.

This is the general consensus on how the virus works, substantiated by our own research:

- Transmission happens via direct contact with an infected patient’s bodily fluids, most often from a bite.

- The virus enters bloodstream and eventually the patient’s brain.

- The onset of first symptoms happens within 4-6 hours from contact, often preceded by a volatile infection around the bite area.

- First symptoms are flu-like (fever, cough, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, etc), but unlike flu, the symptoms worsen a lot faster. 

- Death occurs within 12-48 hours from contact if it was nontraumatic (if infected fluid was for example ingested), or the bitten part of body was an extremity such as lower limb.

- Death can occur as quickly as within 2-6 hours if the patient contracted the infection from a bite near the head or torso.

- Reanimation happens within one minute in most cases.

- The reanimated bodies do not decay (for the love of God do not ask how; we do not know!), and remain in the state they were at the moment of death. Sustained wounds do not heal and after having bled dry start oozing black ichor. Our research on it is still inconclusive as of this moment.

- We do not know which makes the infected crave for living flesh, but they seem to consume it with vigor.

We have no knowledge of a vaccine and it is generally doubted if manufacture of one was ever attempted as our pre-war records are lamentably inexistent. A cure is even more implausible, although records show that amptutating the affected limb before the infection spreads any further via circulatory system can save a patient from an infected bite. The time frame for this operation is of course mere seconds, and naturally cannot be considered if the patient has been bitten in the torso.

And the most useful information for you is likely this: yes, infected can be killed. You need to destroy the brain, or the entire body. Burning them is very effective. The infected are very resilient: just the head can stay animate virtually forever if the brain remains intact.

Frankly, and with all due respect, I’d hole up until the bastards freeze to death.

Best regards,

Annabel Franklin, ’M.D.’