NationStates Jolt Archive

Negative 8 days since first death (N8DSFD)

Ten days ago, a man we will call Tad Smith had been on Tallene, the incredibly under populated Kazeci vacation world, hiking in the wilderness. He had cut his hand on a rock. It wasn’t a particularly large or painful cut, really just a nick- barely enough to bring a drop of blood to the surface of his skin. Several hours later it had closed up and he had forgotten all about it. Seven days ago and he was back in the heart of Kazecistan. He went about his daily life, doing his insignificant job within the gigantic bureaucratic machine of the Kazeci Government. For seven days he talked to friends, came home to his wife, and did his work, all the while traversing the underground metropolitan maze of the Kazeci city.

Today, he awoke with a massive headache. It throbbed behind his eyeballs and in his temples. Nothing would make it go away.
“I can’t work with my head like this, honey. There’s no point to me going into work today, I’m going to stay home. Maybe I’ll get over whatever this is.”
“Just tell that to your boss.” She smirked, she knew he had a big presentation today, one which was supposed to convince the department heads to allocate more funds toward his small division.
He chuckled a little, but it hurt so he stopped. “I’ll be alright. They’ve got other people who can fill in for me.” They kissed and parted ways, Tad to his bed and his wife to work. During the day, it grew worse. It spread to his back and would not go away.

Unannounced to him and every other person living in the city was the fact that a horrible and monstrous ‘life’ form had begun the process of his death. From deep within his cells, the first wave was emerging, causing pain as the nerves were compressed with dead cells and virus particles. The infected cells had begun to burst with millions of viral particles.

ooc: The agent is much worse than what has been reveled so far and it’s going to get out of hand fast. This is the first and last graphic content warning I will post.

The first few posts will be by me and similar to this one. No one may post here until after he crashes.

This is open to only those who have signed up in the sign up thread. Link: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=468179

Negative 4 Days Since First Death (N4DSFD)

Tad's headache hadn't improved. In fact, it had gotten worse in the past few days. It had become excruciating. The pain didn't show in the least. His face was expressionless, a pail mask of skin that seemed to be detached from his face. It was, in fact, detached, the connective tissue was being dissolved and he was no longer capable of showing emotion. The eyes, oh the eyes, they too became ghastly, bloodshot and puffy. He had lost quite a bit of weight; he hadn't been eating. He lay in bed, being transformed by the agent into a human virus bomb. Nothing could stop the process or save his life.

His wife was in away on business and he stayed home alone. That day the vomiting began. He expelled blood from his stomach into the waist disposer. They turned to dry heaves and continued through the day.

His condition continued to deteriorate.

0 Days Since First Death (oDSFD)

Tad had been in the hospital for close to a full day, 9 hours, and no one could figure out what exactly was causing his insides to liquefy. Some sort of virus, no doubt, but what? He had been emptying his stomach of blood more and more often. Far more than one would expect to be held within a stomach. It was Vomito Negro, black vomit, it was named such for the many black specs and clumps within it. Its stench filled the room and spread out into the halls. (In order to smell vomit, one must inhale aerosolized particles of it.) What was the black stuff that seemed ever present in the massive amounts of blood he hurled fourth? Viral particles. The vast majority of his tissue was now dead, including that in his brain. He lost all responsiveness. It could be said that the 'who' of Tad Smith had already died while the 'what' of him still lived. (All of his memories and personalities had been killed while physically he lived.)

Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor. His room wasn't isolated in the least. A sound like fabric being ripped cut through the air as his digestive tract, now dead inside of him for several days, ripped free from him and sloughed off. Blood and dead tissue flooded from his anus and mouth. He wept blood and it dripped from his nose. Literally, every opening of his body began to release blood and internal tissue. A large puddle grew quickly on the floor as he blead out. Dr. Kevin Jaxx rushed to his side along with several nurses. Protection was of minimal importance, the patient was dieing.

They lifted him onto a gurney and Kevin leaned over him, examining the eyes. It was at that moment when Tad heaved another load of blood fourth from his mouth, directly into the face of Kevin. Eyes, nose, mouth, all were filled with agent infected blood. It was during this heave, too, that Tad lost his tongue; it had sloughed off like the linings of just about everything else. Jaxx was infected.

It should be noted that such agents as the one released here undergo a process called extreme amplification, in which the virus makes as many copies of itself as possible with total disregard for the host. It races to make as much virus as possible before the host dies from its activities. At its peak, there can be as many as 2 trillion viral particles in a single drop of blood.

Also, a chemical secreted by infected cells before they burst open causes blood to clot. With all of his blood clotting in the early stages of infection, there wasn't enough clotting factor to repair all of the many rips and tares in his body, causing his blood to flow freely.

Dr. Jaxx simply wiped his eyes and pressed on, attempting to give a blood transfusion to save the patient's life. Each time he poked with a needle, he ran into mush. The veins fell apart as he touched them, causing his blood to flow freely from the needle holes as well.

The virus had broke into the population, it's first victim having crashed and blead out.


ooc: This opens it up to posts from anyone doing anything in the city. Just about anything you want to be doing. Please remember, though, to sign up in the sign up thread first, though. Thanks.

0 DSFD

Samples of the hemorrhagic fever-causing agent were sent out around Kazecistan within an hour, perfectly contained and packaged. A few more hours and the agent was isolated. Study began and quarantine was enforced.

KCDC Lab AA-45

Every precaution was taken with the unknown agent. A man recorded only as G. Johnson stripped of all his clothing in the prep room of lab AA-45. After changing into surgical scrubs, putting on gloves and a surgical mask, he taped his wrists and ankles closed. Proceeding forward into level two, he felt the air suck him in (the rooms beyond this were under increasing negative pressure as one continued to prevent agents from escaping.) The ultraviolet light washed over him, it would destroy any virus particles clinging to his body. As he traveled into the next level, level three, he could see his space suit hanging on the wall, next to an emergency phone. With some difficulty, he stepped into the bulky ChemTron suit that would protect him. Finally sealing the front and lowering his helmet, he paused. He was about to enter a Hot Zone, one with an unidentified hemorrhagic agent. Exposure would mean two weeks and a horrid death alone in that lab. He entered into the airlock. When he left, he would have to go through a 4-minute decontamination cycle in there and another back in level 3.

He stepped into the lab. When he plugged his air hose into his blue space suit, it billowed up around him with fresh and clean air. He walked down a hall to where the samples of unknown agent were. Hours passed while he prepared the samples for analysis. It was lonely in the lab, alone in the many rooms, trapped behind so many barriers, and surrounded by Biohazard signs everywhere.

In the City

Dr. Jaxx continued his work in the clinic, having been confined to it along with anyone else who might have been exposed. They arrived in a special transport marked with numerous biological hazard warnings and other strange symbols. After all ten of the men stepped off, a one way field was activated around the open sides of the vehicle, causing nothing to be able to exit. They walked in slow motion, it seemed, and their sight struck fear into the doctors who knew what they did. Few had heard of the incident before their arrival. None of them spoke and their faces were hidden by breathers underneath their sealed space suits. They fanned out through the clinic, sealing one containment field after another. Doctors and nurses could get around within the clinic but could not leave. Patients and visitors were trapped within the room they were currently in. When they had finished the lock down, they came for the body. All the public outside the clinic entrance would have seen would be the ten men in orange suits carrying a body in a bag on a stretcher into the transport. The transport sped off, leaving those who understood the situation in panic.

5 DSFD

Another body arrived in another clinic, its blood flowing freely from every orifice and face an expressionless mask.

5DSFD
A total of 6 cases have now turned up in clinics across the city, each in different stages of the illness.

KCDC Lab AA-46 (unknown hot agent autopsy lab)
Adam Rush now had two bodies in his lab, both had bleed out and died in Kazeci medical clinics, both had sloughed their tongues and intestines, and both were packed "to ten-to-the-umpteenth-power" with virus particles. He too moved slowly in his bulky space suit. A steady hand manipulated a laser scalpel with extreme precision as he opened the first body. as he worked, he saw inside the man tissues that looked as if it had been dead several days, despite the fact that the body had crashed only hours ago. This was, according to the report, sever pre-mortem necrosis. It occurred in every tissue of the body other than bone and had a special affinity for the eyes and reproductive organs, which had swollen to the size of softballs and were hard with blood clots and virus blocks. Most of the insides had either been liquefied (cells that have burst with virus loose their rigidity and turn to a jelly like mush) or, like the liver and testicles, had become solid masses of blood clot and virus (during the early stages of illness the blood is stimulated to clot and the clumps of platelets [the part of blood which clots] get stuck in the narrow veins found most common in the liver)

The more he saw of the bodies, the more it disturbed him. Most viruses reproduce in small amounts, so that the host can survive long enough to pass the agent to new hosts. This one, however, took the extreme rout. It underwent extreme amplification, turning much of the host into virus then killing it in such an explosive manner that it was sure to get infected material into a new host. Death was quick and horrible. It was while he was thinking these thoughts that he experienced what is known as a 'major puker factor', a strong nausea that overcomes people during times of great fear.

KCDC Lab AA-45 (unknown hot agent sample isolation and study lab)
G. Johnson examined the images of virus under extreme magnification. They looked like strands of rope or string and were absolutely everywhere. Kazecistan had had only a few encounters with filoviruses (string viruses) before, and none were recent. Searching through pathogen identification databases, he came to the conclusion that no filovirus ever encountered had been less than 25% lethal and most were over 60%. None matched exactly in protein structure. The computer produced a model of each of the 7 proteins that made up the virus' structure. 4 had been seen before and 3 were totally unknown. Time to call in reinforcements.

KCDC Labs AA-30 through AA-50 (all labs in the unknown agent division of the KCDC)
People flooded into the labs, dozens of them pouring through the airlocks into the many roomed level-4 laboratories, all clamoring to study the unknown agent, to reveal its secrets. They labs were no longer quiet and lonely; bodies in blue space suits were everywhere. Something needed to be done to solve the problem and someone would get to name the pathogen.

6DSFD
The City, within 10 blocks of the ‘epicenter’
More men in orange space suits fanned out, searching door to door for people with any signs of the illness, even early stage ones like sever headaches. They searched for people who had come into contact with those recognized as infected. They hauled away those identified as at risk in transports the same as they did with bodies. Word spread like wild fire. No one thought of defying the government’s efforts (other than a few of those being taken) but all feared becoming sick. They began to take precautions, disinfecting often and avoiding unnecessary contact.

Roxanne H. and her friend C. Bennett were on a tram stopped in front of a clinic picking up passengers when one of the teams of orange suited men pulled up. The sight of their masked faces was frightening. “My god, what’s happening?” she asked.
“Looks like there has been an outbreak of something, we only see those guys when there is some disease loose.” Her grip tightened both on her friend’s hand and on the poll she was holding. Her stomach turned. Just then the team came out bearing a stretcher with something in the shape of a body covered with a sheet. The tram smoothly accelerated.

10 DSFD
Jerome had had problems since his Awakening, really before that. The program had gone down due to a faulty connection while he was immersed three times, each time it was bypassed by the secondary connection within minutes, but the damage was done. He had discovered the real world in brief glimpses and it had ruined his conditioning, he secretly hated Kazecistan for doing it to him, making him live a lie. Despite this, he had been patient and hid it well. Now, 10 years later, the programmer saw his opportunity.

He walked into his office just like any other morning and sat down, bringing up the many holodisplays about his chair. Today, however, after logging in, he opened a program which he had been working on for years. It wasn't perfect, it would be stopped, but that would take enough time for it to inflict the damage. For the first time ever, he chose the execute button, rather than the modify one. Within seconds, the program had spread and begun its task. System after system failed, lights and trams ceased to function and files were deleted by the millions. Information terminals shorted and power was cut. Containment fields of all sorts failed. Windows popped up in rapid succession as tasks were completed.

A minute later, all the safety techs and programs in on the planet had begun to take action. Only a Kazeci could have taken out the system so thoroughly and completely. All hard connections with a 5km square radius were uncoupled and all virtual connections shut down. They weren't going to let this thing spread. Within half an hour, they had to expand the area of electronic lockdown by a few more kilometers. The parasitic program had been contained and could now be worked on safely. The technicians breathed a sigh of relief.

KCDC HQ
There was no question as to the seriousness of this minor out break now. The dozen that had died already were now going to number in the thousands. To contain the outbreak, the entire area affected by the computer virus and a mile diameter was quarantined. Trams ceased to run and force fields stopped any on foot. All were considered contaminated. No one left who didn't enter in an orange space suit.