The Rage Virus from '28 Days Later' (2002)

It started as rioting. But right from the beginning you knew this was different. Because it was happening in small villages, market towns. And then it wasn't on the TV any more. It was in the street outside. It was coming in through your windows. It was a virus. An infection. You didn't need a doctor to tell you that. It was the blood. It was something in the blood. By the time they tried to evacuate the cities it was already too late. Army blockades were overrun. And that's when the exodus started. Before the TV and radio stopped broadcasting there were reports of infection in Paris and New York. We didn't hear anything more after that.

The Rage Virus

How the Virus works: The virus is based on Ebola and operates like an enhanced strain of Rabies. The victim becomes infected through fluidic contact, either by a bite, exposure to blood, saliva, or what have you. The victim immediately must make an Endurance FEAT of Rm (30) or better, requiring a yellow. If the FEAT is made, then the victim may have an opportunity to resist the effects of the virus. Enhanced healing, such as Regeneration or Recovery will also assist in combatting the virus, but most normal humans immediately succumb.

Once infected, the victim will begin to show signs within three combat rounds as the virus spreads inhumanly quickly. The virus immediately does the following:

• Grants a +1cs to Strength and Endurance as the brain is constantly flooding the body with biochemicals and eliminating toxic build-up, locking the victim in a perpetual 'on' mode.
• Reduces Reason to Fe (2), placing the character in a feral animalistic state.
• Removes reasoning and language skills. Once infected, a character is little more than an animal who seeks to maim and murder. Simple thing such as feeding, operating tools, and what have you will disappear.
•  Due to the release of biochemicals from the brain, the character will not feel the effects of pain and will not be slowed down by damage. They can be killed or maimed, but the massive amounts of endorphins released will prevent them from registering pain.
• The eyes change color to an unusual reddish-orange
• Oddly, the infected do not attack one another. They will seek out uninfected to attack.
• The infected will swarm and attempt to kill or infect anyone they find.

The Rage Virus, unlike the Marvel Zombie plague is not uncurable. The idea that a natural immunity might exist was explored in 28 Weeks Later, and could be created with proper research and the right intelligence. A hero seeking to cure the Rage Virus could do so if they had a proper lab, the proper skills, and a reason of Ex (20) or better to compensate for the ever mutating strains.

The most common methods of dealing with the Rage Virus is to simply wait the infected out, as the victims no longer can feed themselves nor do they care to. It was believed as the victims could not survive starvation that would be enough to end the threat of the violence....