Infected

## The Infected

The **Infected**, also known as **twitchers**, are the universal antagonists and the catalyst of many of the events in *Black Blood*. They are humans that have been infected with "Red Eye", a prion disease that became contagious and grew out of control in the early 2020s. The resulting creatures are blind, highly aggressive and attack anything on sight.

## Overview

The infected are the result of a sudden outbreak of a mutant prion disease that originated as a revolutionary cure for Alzheimer's. Although initial trials gave positive results, the prion mutated after it entered public use. Known colloquially as "Red Eye", the prion infects the brain, replicating itself over the brain's own proteins; this erases memories and drives the host insane, modifying their instincts to seek no goal other than spreading the prion to others.

The prion quickly became a nationwide pandemic, decimating the general population, creating panic and disorder. The initial infection caused the total breakdown and destruction of several major cities, inciting widespread violence. Martial law failed to contain the outbreak and law and order ceased to exist. Within six weeks, the nationwide state of emergency had collapsed most state governments, with only Texas maintaining any level of order as it descended into a fascist "free state", leaving the federal government and the FRF scrambling to keep order.

In the weeks following the outbreak, the prion continued mutating until it could trigger physiological changes in the infected, giving rise to variants such as shriekers that posed an even greater threat to what few survivors remained.

## Biology

### Infection

For people who have been exposed to Red Eye, the prion attacks the brain and hijacks the host's motor functions, altering their behavior and driving them insane. The infection spreads through direct contact with an infected, via a bite or their bodily fluids. Upon being bitten, the infection will spread through the new host's body, turning them into a twitcher within a matter of minutes. The bitten area will turn red and black, causing the host to sweat profusely and become disoriented; their eyes become bloodshot and they eventually go blind, forcing them to rely on their sense of hearing and smell.

### Behaviour

Following infection, victims quickly lose any ability to think freely and begin to behave irrationally as the prion spreads in the brain and hijacks their motor functions. Relying on primitive, animalistic instincts caused by the infection, they will attempt to attack and/or eat any human they find. Infected can often be seen erratically twitching and sometimes clawing at their own skin, strongly suggesting that there is some vestigial elements of the host attempting to resist the infection. They develop a primitive form of echolocation due to their blindness and produce a loud clicking and croaking sounds, which survivors can clearly hear. Since all infected are blind and make distinctive noises to find prey, survivors can easily avoid them, as long as they remain quiet.

The infected are far from invincible and can be killed by conventional means, including gunshots, stab wounds and blunt force trauma. However, their heightened aggression has also significantly heightened their pain tolerance, meaning an infected will continue its attack even while it is being shot or stabbed. They are not alarmed by sudden noises and display neither fear nor hesitation before attacking prey.

When an infected goes too long without audible stimuli they can enter a lethargic state characterised by reduced aggression. During this state, their movement becomes sluggish and they make fewer noises for the purpose of echolocation; this amounts to an infected having slower reaction times when prey does present itself.

## Variants

In the weeks and months following the outbreak, the prion evolved, creating variants of infected that posed new threats to survivors.