minutes and the heart and lungs go dormant. Unless you run an EEG to detect brain activity, you wouldn’t know that the body is still alive. Somehow, prior to the coma, the virus creates a new, highly efficient pathway for metabolism without oxygen in the infected person’s cells. This results in the infected individual being able to survive indefinitely without oxygen. The body still needs the heart to pump to bring fresh nutrients to the cells and take away the metabolic waste, but as long as the body is not moving, it can go a long time without the heart beating. The new metabolic pathway still isn’t as efficient as aerobic metabolism which resumes once the individual comes out of the coma.
“The Chinese discovered that even if the heart and lungs are destroyed, an infected body can perform between six or seven minutes of intensive movement before the cells exhaust their fuel stores.
“The prions wreak havoc in the brain. They kill large clusters of cells, leaving empty pits throughout the brain. It almost looks like a sponge after the prions have done their work. Obviously, brain damage ensues. The damage seems to be consistent from person to person. The capacity for higher thinking is lost as is the ability to speak. An infected person seems to operate on an instinctual level very similar to an animal.
“The infected individuals crave protein, assumedly because prion production robs the body of amino acids. New amino acids are obtained by the digestion of protein. The infected have an insatiable appetite for meat and immediately resort to cannibalism. They will eat other sources of meat, too. For unknown reasons, they seem to prefer human flesh. According to the Chinese, the infected have never been observed to eat other infected.
“China has a large population of political dissidents and other undesirable people whom they used as test subjects. In the course of their testing, over twenty thousand people were exposed to the disease. Roughly five percent of the population was immune to the virus. The other ninety-five percent who were exposed to the virus became infected.
“In one test, a town was built in a remote location and surrounded by a fence with guard towers to ensure no one escaped. Five thousand people were brought into the town to live. At some point, they were exposed to the virus. In one neighborhood, everyone became infected except for a single family. It turned out that the immunity is genetic. If both parents have immunity, then their kids will also be immune. If only one parent was immune, the kids were not. In the end, immunity didn’t matter. The five percent who were not infected were killed by those who were. In that particular test, immunity was a moot point.
“With no outside source of food, the infected had all died off in about six weeks. If a source of food was available, test subjects were still alive after a year. It isn’t known how long it will take for the disease to prove fatal to the infected. No experiments have lasted longer than a year.
“Initially, damage to the brain occurs very rapidly thanks to the genetic manipulation of the disease. After the individual is “resurrected,” brain damage slows to a near halt. Further damage does occur, but very slowly from that point on.
“According to the information Dr. Chen has provided us, the Chinese leaders are counting on near complete elimination of the America population. After the infection has wiped out the population, they are going to send in their military to mop up the infected and anyone who is still alive. Once that’s done, they are going start moving their citizens to America and colonize the country. The entire infrastructure will be intact. They will come in and pick up where we left off.”
I stood in stunned silence. It took several seconds to collect my thoughts as I processed the information I had just heard. Slowly, the full
“The Chinese discovered that even if the heart and lungs are destroyed, an infected body can perform between six or seven minutes of intensive movement before the cells exhaust their fuel stores.
“The prions wreak havoc in the brain. They kill large clusters of cells, leaving empty pits throughout the brain. It almost looks like a sponge after the prions have done their work. Obviously, brain damage ensues. The damage seems to be consistent from person to person. The capacity for higher thinking is lost as is the ability to speak. An infected person seems to operate on an instinctual level very similar to an animal.
“The infected individuals crave protein, assumedly because prion production robs the body of amino acids. New amino acids are obtained by the digestion of protein. The infected have an insatiable appetite for meat and immediately resort to cannibalism. They will eat other sources of meat, too. For unknown reasons, they seem to prefer human flesh. According to the Chinese, the infected have never been observed to eat other infected.
“China has a large population of political dissidents and other undesirable people whom they used as test subjects. In the course of their testing, over twenty thousand people were exposed to the disease. Roughly five percent of the population was immune to the virus. The other ninety-five percent who were exposed to the virus became infected.
“In one test, a town was built in a remote location and surrounded by a fence with guard towers to ensure no one escaped. Five thousand people were brought into the town to live. At some point, they were exposed to the virus. In one neighborhood, everyone became infected except for a single family. It turned out that the immunity is genetic. If both parents have immunity, then their kids will also be immune. If only one parent was immune, the kids were not. In the end, immunity didn’t matter. The five percent who were not infected were killed by those who were. In that particular test, immunity was a moot point.
“With no outside source of food, the infected had all died off in about six weeks. If a source of food was available, test subjects were still alive after a year. It isn’t known how long it will take for the disease to prove fatal to the infected. No experiments have lasted longer than a year.
“Initially, damage to the brain occurs very rapidly thanks to the genetic manipulation of the disease. After the individual is “resurrected,” brain damage slows to a near halt. Further damage does occur, but very slowly from that point on.
“According to the information Dr. Chen has provided us, the Chinese leaders are counting on near complete elimination of the America population. After the infection has wiped out the population, they are going to send in their military to mop up the infected and anyone who is still alive. Once that’s done, they are going start moving their citizens to America and colonize the country. The entire infrastructure will be intact. They will come in and pick up where we left off.”
I stood in stunned silence. It took several seconds to collect my thoughts as I processed the information I had just heard. Slowly, the full
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