Zombies

Zombies are major antagonists in Majestic League Volume 2, and minor antagonists in The Last Resistance and Cataclysm.

 File:Zombie.jpg

## History

### Majestic League Volume 2

The Zombies were first created when a large portion of The City of Heroes' inhabitants were infected by a mysterious red mist that permeated through the city's ventilation and water systems. This red mist was the vaporized form of a virus that was engineered by The Plague Doctor.The Plague Doctor unleashed this bioweapon upon the city as part of the plague doctor cult's ritual to summon The Moon.

Soon, zombies swarmed all throughout the city, hordes upon hordes feeding on innocent civilians and even turning some of them as well.
Additionally, a green sludge that had been concocted by The Plague Doctor caused some of the zombies to fuse together into monstrous Amalgams that caused major destruction in the city.

later, The Moon was successfully summoned, and every zombie and amalgam in the city systematically congregated together to form one giant amalgamation to serve as The Moon's body, fused together by the green sludge. The Moon would ultimately be killed by a lightning bolt conducted through Axiom's spear, and his body sank to the bottom of the ocean. The zombies that comprised his body remain fused together still to this day. The rest of the remaining zombies were reversed back into humans by an antidote created by Project Runa with the help of a Chem-X scientist, and the same antidote completely eradicated the virus from the city, and is now used worldwide as a vaccine to prevent further outbreaks.

### The Last Resistance

Due to The Xir'algath's invasion jumbling up the entire Multiverse, zombies from the original outbreak in 2019 were displaced in time, winding up on a chaotic Post-Invasion Earth. The zombies roamed through the desolate wastelands of Earth, along with bandits and mutants and other sorts of fiends that preyed upon the chaos of this new world. Eventually, when The Multiverse was restored, these zombies were erased in the new reality and sent back to their native universe/timeline.

### Cataclysm

The zombies would briefly return one final time, along with Amalgams and Scourge Soldiers as parts of Plague Knight's army, which he lent to The Xir'algath to contribute to their efforts.

## Biology

Zombies are initially created when they are infected by the virus. This could occur either directly(firsthand exposure to the virus itself) or by proxy(A turned zombie infecting a human). When humans are infected by zombies, it usually occurs through being bitten, in which the zombie's virus-ridden saliva is transported into the victim's bloodstream.

Humans turn fairly quickly, with the longest lasting recorded victim turning within 2 hours. When a human turns, they are effectively "killed" by the virus, which stops their heartbeat and oxygen and blood flow. The humans of course die, but the virus revives their bodies mere minutes after the initial death. However, although they are considered living in the scientific sense, all bodily functions are slowed to such an extent that they are still considered dead, with only one heartbeat every 20 minutes. The victim's mind and most of their body is in a comatose state, unaware of their circumstances or what is even happening. The virus now has the wheel, and it's what drives the host's primal instinctive actions. They are now a zombie.
It is no secret that Zombies are nowhere near as intelligent as humans; they are incapable of simple things such as speech(Except for the occasional moan or grunt), long-term memory, operating tools or machinery, or critical/analytical thinking, to name a few. They can only perform simple motor functions, and most of these occur accidentally. They can ascend and descend staircases and enter rooms through doors, but only by stumbling through them.
Zombies are driven by humans' most primitive of instincts(besides mating), which has been corrupted and perverted by the virus: eating. They have the need to feed, but 100% of their diet only consists of living humans.
This was no mistake. This function was intended in the virus' design by The Plague Doctor himself, as a means to purge humans faster as well as transmit the virus faster, through contact with human blood.
In social situations, zombies have been seen to operate as packs. Their moans and grunts signal other nearby zombies that they have located food/victims, and are seen to be in large hordes.
Zombies also seem to be part of a hive-mind, or at least they were once. Upon The Moon's summoning, all zombies in the city immediately stopped what they were doing at once, and began to approach The Moon in a near-perfect synchronized motion. It was possible that the Moon had sent out a signal that only zombie brains could be effected by, and used it to override all other priorities they may have potentially had at that moment.

Over time, the virus overrides more and more of the zombie's brain, mutating and damaging it as it slowly begins to completely take over.
However, all hope is not completely lost. Zombies can still be cured of the virus with the antidote, and if done in enough time thet will revert back into normal, living humans. However, this is a very Time-Sensitive operation. The longer the host is infected, the more irreversable damage and mutation that's dome to the brain by the virus. Necrosis will also set in on the body after a long enough period, and so that is another risk. If a zombie is cured after a prolonged period of infection, the human will have heavy brain damage for the rest of their lives. If the zombie goes long enough without being cured, the host body will just drop dead once the antidote is administered due to the overwhelming amount of brain damage preventing basic bodily functions from working properly.

As far as physical abilities stand, zombies are only about as strong as their host body was in life. So the stronger the human is, the stronger the zombie they will be. However, this is not too useful as zombies cannot engage in hand-to-hand combat due to their impaired motor functions. But their increased strength and weight can still be applied effectively in situations such as breaking through doors or barricades.
Ironicly, despite the common depiction of zombies in fiction as being heavily impaired in terms of senses, these zombies actually have heightened senses of smell, hearing and sight to make them more efficient hunters.

One final, interesting to note, is that all natural metahumans and superbeings appear to be immune to the virus. It may be due to a common trait in metahumans that grants them a natural immunity, but the true answer remains debated to this day.