The Infected

== The Infected ==
The Infected are the titular main antagonists (later turned supporting characters) of the Zombies timeline. 
They are living humans that were infected by the N-14 virus that transforms them into rage-filled, cannibalistic, zombie-like monsters that began to hunt down and infect/kill uninfected humans throughout the United States.
== Overview ==
'Infected' refers to humans who have been infected by the N-14 Virus that originated from Arrowood Corporation. Highly contagious and spread through bodily fluids such as blood and saliva, the virus takes over the adrenal gland and the bloodstream of an exposed host within ten to twenty seconds. Symptoms include constant spasming, high fevers, constant sweating, muscle aches, constant salivation, and internal bleeding from all bodily orifices as well as haematemesis (vomiting infectious blood). 
Usually, the Infected exhibit no goal or trace of their former selves and will not hesitate to attack former loved ones and random strangers out of sheer aggression and rage (however, some infected are shown to retain some elements of their humanity and intelligence, as such as food workers cooking meals and accepting payments and soldiers firing their weapons at uninfected survivors). The infected individual is driven by constant, rabid, all-consuming rage with a single-minded motivation to always violently attack and pursue any uninfected individuals they find. 
Though the N-14 virus slowly kills the host as time progressed, the Infected end up lacking the instincts to find food and do eventually die from starvation, but not before cannibalizing any uninfected individuals to breed their army first. Infected also lack a sense of self-preservation, and will not act to evade or respond to mortal danger (at least not when they are in pursuit of uninfected), showing some self-preservation and sheer bravery in response to their aggression.
Due to the N-14 virus' easy transmission, very short incubation stage, and the extreme effectiveness of the rage-driven, mindless vectors; a single Infected can induce a severe domino effect in heavily crowded areas, causing various outbreaks to spread like wildfire as the Infected rapidly multiply. 
However, the virus is shown to be extremely lethal to certain primates and non-primate hosts, killing them, but retaining the virus within their corpses, which could lead an unsuspecting survivor to become infected with the virus.
== Infection ==
A human (either a child, adult, or elder) that is exposed to the N-14 virus through bodily fluid contact, whether it's from a scratch, a bite, ingestion of infected flesh, a direct injection, or infected bodily fluids getting in their eyes, mouth, or simply open wounds of the skin - will become infected in between 2 minutes or an hour, depending on what method of infection and the physiology of the infected individual. It's revealed by Walton that a bite or scratch needs to be deep enough to allow the virus to enter the bloodstream. 
The methods of infection play a huge role in how an individual can become infected. Direct injection or ingestion could turn someone in a slow, but painful way in between a few hours or a few days (notably 48 hours), in contrast to a simple bite or scratch, which could rapidly turn someone in between 30 seconds or a full minute. 
== Physiological symptoms ==
The N-14 virus causes the infected to experience a severe case of symptoms similar to Influenza and Rabies. Their notable symptoms are: from minor symptoms, such as a fever, a cough (sometimes with bloody phlegm), and flushing to major symptoms, such as profuse sweating, muscle aches, headaches, constant salivation, high sensitivity to light/noise, and short-fused aggression.
The physical signs of an infected individual are easily characterized by their pale skin, constricted and dilated pupils, bloodshot eyes, and wounds (whether they're bitten, scratched, or not) while the heavies and super-infected individuals are easily characterized by their sickly pale skin with purple/bluish veins, a burly muscular physique, and monstrous traits, such as cat-like pupils and sharp claws/teeth.
The Infected regularly, if not constantly, bleed from their bodily orifices (such as their eyes, nose, and mouth), and vomit copious amounts of infectious blood as the virus slowly kills the body due to internal hemorrhaging of the capillaries. However, it's later revealed that the virus targeted the adrenal glands, giving them enhanced senses while keeping their bodies and organs intact as the body is slowly dying.
There are notable symptoms of Infected individuals afflicted with the N-14 virus:
* A rash in the shape of a butterfly (implied to be a malar rash) appears on an infected individual's face, burning itself all the way down to the skull.
* Intense internal burning feeling, possibly a fever.
* Complete loss of empathy and morality, potential loss of overall sanity. (not the case of Rational Infected, who retained their sanity and humanity)
* Extreme levels of sadomasochism.
* Intense desire to harm others physically, sexually, psychologically, and emotionally.
* Self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
* Change in speech patterns.
* Complete loss of fear and self-preservation.
* Unrelenting persistence to achieving goals in harming others.
* Heightened abilities to track down the uninfected.
* Rarely, an infected individual will retain their intelligence and be able to plan ahead instead of merely acting in the moment.
* Extreme varying amounts of time for someone to turn into one of The Infected. Some take mere seconds while others take hours or an entire day or longer.
== Intelligence and behavior ==
Despite being rage-driven and highly aggressive people, the Infected seemingly retain their humanity and intelligence, as seen as an Infected walk away from a decaying cow, despite being extremely hungry, and fast food workers fixing up meals while customers pay for their meals for example. This could be because they appear to be freshly turned and the virus isn't killing them yet. 
It also does explain how they are seen by various survivors to go through doors, windows, and entrance points and navigate around other obstacles to reach sources of possible uninfected activity and are extremely determined to check every nook and cranny to find the source, even checking potential hiding spots without giving up the search unless they're distracted by another noise or survivor. 
It has been shown that when an uninfected individual is near, an Infected individual will become enraged and try and get to, and infect or kill the uninfected. However, those infected with N-14 will also ignore each other, only attacking those who are not infected and/or do not show symptoms of infection. The Infected use their sense of smell to find the uninfected and to tell other Infected from the uninfected, and trace amounts of products such as perfume or soap will attract the Infected to the source, showing a slight enhancement of their senses. However, some Infected are seen not attacking survivors, which strongly hinted that some infected individuals might retain some calmness when they were alive.
However, some Infected can retain most, if not all, of their intelligence, as shown as they are capable of using weaponry, opening doors, and climbing ladders with ease, making them slightly more dangerous. They are also shown to be extremely creative to lure unsuspecting victims into their traps, most notably begging for help in a dark place. It's presumably that the virus is enhancing the Infected both physically and mentally, which allowed them to retain who they were and to do simple commands.
As shown with Henry Weaver III, it appeared that the virus is actively choosing how to infect and those infected individuals with violent tendencies or a history of psychotic behavior are shown to be more dangerous due to their heavy use of weaponry and tactics to outwit and slightly outmatch their victims. These Infected appear to be far more sadistic, violent, and aggressive than most Infected in a weaker state, which caused most survivors to grow weary of them and has been prepared to either kill or avoid these infected at all costs. These traits are a result of the Infected giving into an animalistic mindset and are shown to be capable of having rational thought while eager to bite, scratch, and kill anyone in their sights. 
Surprisingly, they are still self-aware individuals, albeit with the virus influencing the host and turning them into homicidal maniacs. The actual level of insanity between different Infected demonstrates ranges across a wide spectrum as well. Many are practically feral savages with absolutely no regard for their self-preservation, to the point that they will gleefully mutilate themselves or others for the sheer thrill of it, including amputating their own limbs (understandably, they don't tend to survive very long) and using them to infect humans. 
Most are capable of basic albeit deranged speech and wield whatever (whether it's a knife, club, or their bare hands) is at hand to attack anything around them. The more insane Infected will even attack each other (not to kill) to show their dominance, though they prefer the non-infected survivors. 
Some characters (such as Jay Roberts) speculate that this preference is due to their need for sadistic gratification: given that the Infected are so insane that they will mutilate themselves voluntarily, it isn't as fun to torture their fellow Infected allies as it is to torture and devours uninfected, frightened victims, which strongly implies that they rarely attack their own than uninfected humans and knew that they would be killed if they were to do so. 
The more insane and violent Infected enjoy artfully mutilating the bodies of their victims, amputating limbs, or worse. They can survive on any food source they can find but frequently rely on basic cannibalism – not just because they have a zombie-like need for human flesh due to their increased metabolism forcing them to eat any food source available, they're just so brutal and cruel that they get warped enjoyment out of it. Moreover, as years pass after the outbreak and the normal food sources of civilization disappear, other Infected increasingly cannibalize the non-infected survivors or each other (even though it could kill them) to survive.
The Infected (the violent ones) are consumed by a pervasive bloodlust and constantly try to mutilate, kill, or rape anyone they can chase down. The infection spreads through bodily fluids (such as blood, saliva, mucus, or sperm), thus anyone who was raped or infected by an Infected by any means (whether it's a bite, scratch, or injection in an open wound) will become an Infected themselves, provided that they don't kill them before they turn (which they frequently do). 
This is just a matter of preference, however, as other Infected with violent tendencies will kill their victims first and then rape their corpses. Still, it is more common for them to rape live victims, because they enjoy causing their victims to suffer through slow torture instead of giving them a quick death. 
A major way the infection spread in the first hours and days of the outbreak was when in a veritable blood orgy, the Infected would rape and sodomize entire families and neighborhoods, rapidly expanding the growing hordes of Infected. Many of these rapes aren't consciously intended to infect other people, it simply occurs as a byproduct of their insatiable need for violence. Female Infected will also try to violently rape and sodomize people with whatever tools or weapons are at hand. 
On rare occasions, pregnant women who have been infected and turned survive long enough to give birth, but their babies are born infected as well - apparently, the placental barrier does not protect against the infection. Surprisingly, the babies can quickly mature into an full-sized adult within days due to the uniqueness of the N-14 virus, which gave them enough HGH, testosterone, and adrenaline to help them accelerate the growth process and transformation.
The mental effects of the N-14 infection are not just a zombie-like drive for basic desires like violence and sexual gratification. It seems to give the Infected a driving need to perform the evilest acts they can, somehow with the virus actively triggering the parts of their brains that control their darkest, subconsciously pent-up inhibitions, which truly implies that the virus does play a part in how these infected individuals react to their environment and turns the average mild-mannered person into violent, insane, and bloodthirsty sociopaths with an insatiable lust for carnage and flesh. 
The Infected do not just simply rape and kill their victims, but they would gleefully torture and mutilate them to cause the maximum amount of pain and suffering before either killing them or infecting them to add more numbers. Another symptom of this is that they tend to attack and deface things and places that are considered particularly sacred for no reason, examples being defacing government buildings with corpses, or desecrating religious buildings. 
Infected (at least Rational Infected) who manage to capture a non-infected human on a scouting expedition from a survivor enclave will frequently proceed to torture and mutilate their captive within sight of the survivors' fortress, to inflict psychological torment on the unreachable people inside before either leaving the premises or attacking the fortress, with a cost of losing a few of their numbers.
At the other extreme, however, some Infected are quite capable of complex pre-meditated actions. While they're not consumed by unthinking bloodlust to the extent that many of the other infected are, they have enough mental capacity to plan ambushes and traps and organize gangs of Infected to assault survivor enclaves, most notably as they're capable of blending in while having no noticeable wounds before turning and infecting the community with relative ease.
The more mindless rage-consumed Infected will still know how to use firearms if they find them but usually won't think rationally enough to plan out where to acquire more firearms. The more rational and calculating Infected, in contrast, will actively seek out armories to acquire new firearms build up an army, and use better tactics to better combat survivor groups with ease, making the Infected far more dangerous. In addition, these more rational Infected will self-consciously coat their weapons and ammunition in their bodily fluids, actively trying to turn non-infected survivors into more Infected hordes with relative ease or hostile survivors would use Infected as a method to wipe out the country or survivor enclaves. A notable example is Hudson Bender, who ordered his soldiers to capture mutated Infected and sent them to various states to create outbreaks to rule over the country.
As for Heavies and Super-Infected, they appear to retain all of their humanity and intelligence while still retaining an animalistic mindset to kill and infect non-infected survivors. Surprisingly, some Infected are aware of the fact that the virus is controlling their mind, and unlike most people, they seem to enjoy the virus' influence and prefer to be bloodthirsty and sadistic monsters with a taste for blood rather than being back to their past life as a human. A notable example is Henry Weaver III, who wanted to take over the world by creating infected super-soldiers and sending them worldwide.
== Abilities ==
The Infected possess a highly adrenaline-heightened mobility and have been known to ignore or quickly shrug off pain and injury that would be debilitating if not outright fatal to people under normal circumstances; such as gunshots to body parts that don't instantly kill them, dismemberment, and being burned alive. They're extremely sensitive to smell, sight, and sound, as seen as a horde of Infected are attracted to an encampment where many teenage survivors were partying until they're attacked. Since the Infected managed to retain their intelligence, they are creative enough to use weaponry, form armies, and utilize unconventional tactics (swarming, coating infected fluids on their weapons, and using hostages), adding more danger to various survivor communities.
As of Heavies, these Infected are seen with bluish skin, bloodshot eyes, and a stout muscular frame, which is the cause of high testosterone, causing increased mass in both muscle and bone, making them practically resistant to some attacks against small-arms fire, bladed attacks, blunt force trauma, and explosions. As rumored by Jay Roberts, the Heavies are strong enough to endure lots of pain, but they're not immune since decapitations and explosions can harm and outright kill them. 
As for Super-Infected, these Infected are seen retaining all of their humanity and intelligence, but with an animalistic instinct to infect and kill survivors on sight. They appear to have darker skin and bloodshot eyes and are seen to be bigger and bulkier than the average Infected, given the fact that unusually high amounts of testosterone and adrenaline are flowing into the bloodstream, giving them superhuman strength, agility, endurance, durability, speed, senses, and reflexes, making them far more dangerous. Surprisingly, these Infected are shown to be capable of eating animal carcasses with Infected DNA, which modifies their genetic structure into something unique, giving them protractile razor-sharp teeth, claws, and wings. 
As revealed by Henry Weaver III, their strain of N-14 is so strong that one bite or scratch can immediately turn a human in less than 10 or 20 seconds. It's also implied that the Super Infected are given semi-immortality because these Infected never physically age and are capable of healing massive wounds at an extremely fast rate.
The notable Super Infected are Jay Roberts (by eating Infected meat unwittingly), Henry Weaver III (by unknowingly ingesting a variant of N-14), Garry Whitaker and his army (implied to be willingly ingesting N-14 capsules to become semi-immortal).
== Weaknesses ==
The Infected individuals' aforementioned durability and disregard for harm to themselves make them difficult to slow down or even disable with means that would usually literally or figuratively cripple a person (such as fire and gunshots). 
However, the number of major body parts severed will affect their mobility despite their disregard for it, as seen in one Infected crawling toward Jay after getting his legs shot from the kneecap. Another notable weakness is their love of carnage and since most Infected are single-mindedly focused on killing non-infected individuals, most survivors took advantage of this and lured these bloodthirsty hosts into traps to kill them or capture them for research. 
According to Walton, he claimed that if a person were to become infected by pure N-14 without being bitten or scratched, they tend to crave more and would try to inject, ingest, or breathe more of N-14 to keep their infection at bay, which was another huge weakness. Without a constant intake of the virus, the Infected individual would go through a withdrawal process and it could potentially kill them because the virus kills the body (in some rare cases, it might turn them and/or mutate). A notable example is Garry Whitaker and his soldiers using experimental N-14 capsules and breathing machines that constantly flow amounts of concentrated N-14 gas into their bloodstreams to become Super Infected and gain near-immortality. However, the rational Infected that were infected by ingesting pure N-14 or inhaling the gas never died due to their genetics building up a tolerance.
As for the Super-Infected, their transformation is shown to be extremely painful, as their muscles and bones begin to tear and break before reforming to be more stronger and durable. Despite being more durable and resilient to physical damage, decapitation and headshots with high-powered weaponry are enough to kill these Super Infected for good. Another weakness is their extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet radiation, due to a mutation in the skin. Because of that, they tend to hunt at night and even too much UV light could potentially kill them. This was exploited by Jay Roberts after seeing Henry retreat from sunlight during their first fight and set up a trap with UV guard lights to weaken him. Like all other Infected, the virus fights them for control and they need to feed on either animal or human flesh every 2 hours or they would go into shock and potentially die due to their unusually high metabolism. 
== Infected Types ==
* Runner: The basic type of Infected. They appear to be extremely tenacious and eager to kill or infect uninfected survivors. They're characterized by their pale skin, skinnier frame (caused by rapid dehydration and starvation), bloodshot eyes with dilated pupils, and their injuries (which resulted from either bites or scratches). Depending on their condition and intelligence, they're also characterized by their excessive use of profanity and menacing threats that showcased their sadism and brutality upon coming across survivors. Since they're still technically alive, every method that would kill an average human can end them, but most survivors follow the "shoot it in the head" trope. According to Walton, destroying the brain or the spinal cord is an effective way to put them down.
* Heavy: The second type of Infected. They appear to be extremely determined to kill their victims and are willing to kill even their own Infected, showing that the Heavy is extremely aggressive and destructive. They're characterized by their bluish-gray skin, red eyes, and bulky muscular frame (given by high amounts of testosterone). Despite being a bit tougher, they're still vulnerable and can be killed with explosives and high-powered weaponry, given that their brains are destroyed in the process.
* Super Infected: The last type of Infected. They appear to be extremely intelligent and retained their humanity, capable of using weaponry, and simple tools, and outwitting most humans into thinking that they're normal humans. They're characterized by their dark bluish-gray skin, bloodshot eyes with cat-like pupils, and their tall, muscular frame (given by high amounts of testosterone). They have access to retractable razor-sharp teeth, claws, and wings if they choose to mutate themselves into more dangerous monsters and their viral strain which they can use to turn people by all means necessary into Infected within less than 10 seconds. It's also revealed by Walton that some Super Infected are capable of splitting their jaws open for a much stronger bite and according to an autopsy on Whitaker's body, their bodies (skeleton, internal organs, tissue, and skin) are toughened to endure heavy amounts of fatal damage and are given an accelerated healing factor that surpasses the average Infected, making them practically invulnerable to small arms fire, melee attacks, and explosions. Despite their strengths and near-invulnerability that made them deadlier, their high metabolism can weaken them if they can't get their hands on flesh and their extreme sensitivity to UV radiation caused them to hunt at night. According to Jay, the preferred method to kill them is to use high-powered weaponry aimed at the brain and then destroy the remains as soon as possible.
*Hybrid: A rare type of infection. They appear to be human with all of the strengths of the N-14 virus (strength, speed, agility, intelligence, durability, endurance, and healing). While they're on par with a Super Infected, they're least common since the N-14 can kill the host in a slow, painful way after a while. Despite their strengths, they still have the same weaknesses as other Infected types, and removing their heads is the most effective way to kill a Hybrid.
== Known Infected Individuals ==
* Henry Weaver III (unknowingly ingested, reanimated upon death, became a Super-Infected)
* Craven (willingly injected, reanimated upon death)
* Matthew Copeland (infected, reanimated upon death)
* Jennifer Norwood (scratched, reanimated upon death)
* Garry Whitaker (strongly implied to be willingly using N-14 capsules to be semi-immortal and drank pure N-14, making him slightly more stronger and durable, becoming a Super-Infected)
* Whitaker's Army (willingly used N-14 capsules to be semi-immortal)
*General Hudson Bender (willing used an N-14 capsule, became a Super-Infected)
*Nathan Wilson (bitten, reanimated)
*Jay Trevor Roberts (unknowingly ate Infected flesh, still retained humanity, and became a Hybrid)
*Donald Piper and his men (mauled, reanimated upon death)
*Dennis Briggs (bitten, reanimated upon death)
== Trivia ==
* The Infected are the overarching antagonists throughout the Zombies' timeline since they play a more dangerous role.
*The N-14 virus is revealed by Christopher Walton to be genetically bio-engineered to create super-soldiers by enhancing the average human's physiology with super-human abilities, such as speed, agility, strength, durability, endurance, aggression, and problem-solving intelligence. They also gained longevity and an accelerated healing factor caused by a usually high metabolism, making them near-immortal. However, it became a major issue because the virus mutated due to the strain of H151 and Rabies changing the genetic structure of the host.
*The Infected are shown to be extremely intelligent, as shown as they're capable of using weaponry or machinery, luring victims into traps, destroying survivor communities within via unconventional tactics, and being able to speak, albeit with a sadistic and menacing tone and in some cases, profanity. 
* The Super Infected are shown to be more dangerous:
** They have enhanced strength, speed, agility, endurance, durability, reflexes, and semi-immortality.
** They're strong enough to lift a tank (which weighs between 55 and 73 tons) and throw it easily, quick enough to catch up with most victims (especially with wings). They can tank heavy injuries, such as near dismemberment, and can reattach their limbs with an accelerated healing factor.
** They also retained their humanity and intelligence, as shown as they're capable of transforming at will, using weaponry, and purposefully injecting themselves with more N-14 to become monsters for the greater good.
** According to Henry and his allies, they enjoyed the semi-immortality and are willing to infect the whole world to become more powerful over time, due to their strong strain of the virus that infected people in less than 10 seconds.