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First Infection

A blue and green planet spinned slowly in the darkness. Covered in white spots, the clouds moved in tandem with the spinning world as it drifted steadily in the sea of stars. Its massive size was diminutive compared to the great expanse of emptiness that is space. Nothing but a colorful marble in the galaxy, carrying a multitude of tiny organisms on its surface.

An asari wearing a bright beautiful dress walked out from behind the planet.

"Shanxi," she said, her voice elegant and firm, "once, just a simple garden-world. But that changed, six years ago, when Desolas invaded."

She walked away from the planet and stood in front of an image of Desolas being hanged at the Kowla stadium.

"After a long bloody conflict, Desolas was executed for his crimes by the very people he invaded: humanity."

The image changed to various pictures of the humans.

"The Council and a diplomat of the humans were able to successfully broker a peace treaty between the two governments."

A picture of Anita Goyle talking to the Council was shown.

"Later, humanity was offered a place in the Citadel government. But, in a surprising twist, humanity declined the offer. They stated that their society was at odds with a number of our laws and that, strangely, they considered themselves to be too dangerous to live with us," the asari paused, "since then, humanity and the Citadel government has had a peaceful but tense relationship. With humanity rapidly expanding into space while simultaneously keeping any foreign bodies away from their planets, the Council has grown suspicious of humanity's intentions."

The asari then smiled and said, "But these suspicions might soon be laid to rest, as the human's government, the Collective, has recently released a statement saying that they will conduct cultural diplomacy with the Citadel. That is to say that they will be exchanging items of cultural significance, like films and music."

The asari started to walk away from the images, "Tonight, Citadel News has the privilege of interviewing one of humanity's celebrities. My name is Elisa and I will be your host for the evening."

Citadel News Channel

Elisa sat purposefully in a red cushion chair, her legs crossed, and her fingers interlaced together. Under her was a vibrant red carpet that stretched to the white walls behind Elisa and to the balcony that looked over the Presidium.

Elisa turned toward the cameras, "Good evening, tonight's subject is humanity. The mysterious race that fended off an insane general of the turian Hierarchy, executed him, and denied themselves entry into the Citadel. A race draped in mystery, one of the few confirmed facts about them is that they are infected with a virus that they refuse to cure. A revelation that only brings up more questions," Elisa picked up a cup containing some kind of liquid, after taking a sip she set down the cup on the knee-high table in front of her, "questions that will hopefully be answered by our guest."

She looked to the individual sitting opposite of herself in an equally comfy, red cushion chair.

"Would you please introduce yourself?"

A smile, "Certainly."

The women sitting across from Elisa was known to the humans as a witch, and her long claws draped over the arms of the chair. She was wearing a simple red dress that left her legs and arms bare. Her dark brown hair cascaded down her back and her eyes glowed a bright green.

"I'm a prestigious movie director and an old friend of the administrator," her voice was kind yet strong too, "but you can call me Zoey."

"Well, Zoey, could you tell us what brought up this cultural exchange? After all, your government seemed quite insistent on keeping your people separate from us."

"It's not that we don't want to separate from you," replied Zoey, "we've been dreaming and hoping that we weren't alone in this galaxy for so long. And when space travel became so easy, we expected first contact to be just around the corner."

"So, if humans actually want to interact with us, then why does your government try so hard to prevent it?" Elisa questioned, "We've had reports of your military preventing any Citadel starships or any other alien starships from getting close to your planets, while also keeping your people away from our own planets."

"It's because we're dangerous," Zoey said. What caught Elisa's attention was that Zoey didn't say it with any kind of pride like how a krogan would say it, or with sadness the way a quarian would talk about their immune system. Zoey said it so simply like it was fact, as if she knew that there was no point in pretending that it didn't exist.

"There are the commons, and they are one of the major reasons why we don't let people travel to our planets. You see, they breed like crazy and we don't want to risk them spreading to your planets."

"But what about you?" Elisa asked, "Can't you and the rest of the humans visit our planets without bringing any of your commons?"

"Try convincing that to a boomer," Zoey joked, but then she shook her head, "but no, we are also part of the problem. Us humans have a high pain tolerance and can heal from anything that didn't out right kill us, easily. You guys can't. If a human got an arm accidently sliced off by someone like me," Zoey gestured toward herself with her deadly claws, "it's not really a big deal. I mean, yeah, sure the guy would probably be pretty miffed for a while, but give him a week or so and that arm has probably grown back by then. Now, if I applied the same situation to one of you guys, I doubt the problem is going to be resolved in a few weeks."

"An elcor can crush a person by simply stepping on them, yet they have an embassy on the Citadel," Elisa rebutted, "and the krogan can be very dangerous too, but they're still seen often enough. I'm sure that with a little self-control, humans can do the same."

For a moment Zoey didn't say anything, and Elisa though that she had convinced her. But that didn't last long, as Zoey opened her mouth to speak.

"There are two sides to us humans," Zoey said as she raised two claws to make her point, "first, there is our human side, which allows us to be philosophical, to do math, to create art, to be able to learn science, and basically anything else we could do before we were infected. But," Zoey said in a more gloomy fashion, "then there's the side of us that was created by the Virus. The side of us that's more animalistic, that loves the taste of blood, the feel of flesh ripping upon our claws, and to do other kinds of urges."

Elisa remained quiet.

"We satiate these urges by going out in nature to hunt and kill," Zoey explained, "or by simply making a jump to the left, cutting off the head of a common, and feasting on its entrails."

Elisa took a momentary nervous glance at Zoey's claws before speaking, "Why are you even bothering with this cultural exchange, if you believe that you and the rest of humanity is so dangerous?"

"Being dangerous and being hostile are two different things," Zoey answered, "I mean, it's not like we're planning to destroy the Citadel and everything that you hold dear, no, that's not it at all, we just have a few …instinctive tendencies that we have to deal with," Zoey leaned forward, "social problems aside, we really do want this to go well."

"Well, that's good at least," Elisa replied, "but I think we've strayed off topic. Let's get back to discussing what we're really here for." Elisa leaned back in her chair comfortably and gestured for Zoey to speak, "Zoey, as a prestigious film director, could you tell us what kinds of movies we'll be seeing from this exchange."

Zoey smiled, "Oh, you'll be seeing all kinds of movies, although most of them are pre-virus movies."

"Pre-virus?" Elisa questioned.

"It's basically anything that was made or had existed before we were infected," Zoey answered.

"Ah, I understand," Elisa nodded, "so why are these movies the majority?"

"Because they're safe," noticing Elisa's confused expression Zoey explained, "the movies were made before the pandemic and don't show many insights into our present day society and culture."

"Doesn't that go against the whole point of this cultural exchange?"

"No, because there are still plenty of post-virus movies too," Zoey replied, "and we think that the pre-virus movies will be a good comparison to present day humanity, to show what has and what hasn't changed about us."

"What about yours?" Elisa asked, "You're a film director, are any of your movies being shown?"

Zoey nodded, "Yeah, there's one specific film I made that I personally recommend, it's classified under the horror genre."

"Horror?" Elisa's face scrunched up in confusion. She had never watched a horror movie before, she had seen some police and military movies that had some terrifying scenes, but Elisa never imagined anyone making an entire genre around the very subject of horror.

"Yeah horror, you know, movies that are based around scaring people," Elisa still looked confused, "do you not have those?"

Elisa shook her head no.

"Wow," an amazed Zoey said, "that's a real shame. I can't even imagine where I would be without horror movies, heck, if it wasn't for the zombie films I probably wouldn't have survived the pandemic."

"Zombie films?"

"Zombie films are about the dead coming back to life, en masse, to eat the flesh of the living," Zoey answered, "when the pandemic hit, it was like practically being in a zombie film."

"Are you saying that you are a walking corpse?" Elisa asked.

Zoey's eyes widened and she started laughing, "Oh, no, no, no, we're still very much alive. I'm just saying that the experience was very similar to a zombie film."

Elisa was about to say something, but she then remembered an earlier comment, "Wait, hold on, did you say that you were alive during the pandemic?"

"Yup," said Zoey

"I thought that the pandemic happened a long time ago, when humanity was still only living on their home planet?"

"It did," Zoey answered, "it was around one hundred fifty years ago when it happened."

"So, that makes you…"

"One hundred sixty-eight years old," Zoey said bashfully, she then rubbed her arm in an embarrassed manner, "I'm sorry, you probably thought I wasn't older than you. Not that I can blame you, I mean by pre-virus standards I only look like around thirty-five."

"You're not older than me," Elisa replied.

Zoey stopped rubbing her arm.

"I'm over three hundred years old," said Elisa, "my species can live for over a thousand years."

Zoey gave Elisa a once-over and then said, "Okay, now that's just not fair. My species had to have a virus infect us just to extend our lifespans past a hundred."

Elisa just gave her an apologetic shrug.

Zoey sighed, "Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain. But anyways, yes I am a survivor of the pandemic, more specifically I'm an L4D."

"What's an L4D?" Elisa asked.

"It's an acronym," Zoey answered, "it means: left for dead, which means that I was a survivor that was left behind by our government to fend off the infected horde."

"That must have been terrible."

Zoey laughed, "That's the understatement of the century, and I should know, I lived through that century."

As Zoey had a good laugh, Elisa shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. She had been ordered by her boss to ask their visiting celebrity a few specific questions. Questions about humanity that many people wanted answers to, and Elisa was feeling a bit trepid about asking them, but she was a reporter and she will ask them because it was her duty to ask them.

"Zoey, can you tell me about the pandemic?" Elisa asked confidently.

"Sure," Zoey said.

"Oh," thought a surprised Elisa, "that was easier than I thought it would be."

"Okay, uh, how did the pandemic start?"

"I remember first hearing about it at college on the television," Zoey answered, "reports of the Green Flu sweeping the nation."

"The Green Flu?" Elisa asked, "Is that what you call the virus that infects your bodies?"

"It's what we called it back then."

"What about now?"

"The Virus," Zoey answered, she then gave a small shrug, "just …the Virus. After all, there's not really any other viruses out there that can do anything to us."

"Why not?"

"Because the Virus destroys them," Zoey said, "Any and all diseases or dangerous chemicals that enters our body gets destroyed by the Virus. You'll have to ask a scientist if you want specifics though."

"Did the Virus come from nature, or was it made in a lab?" Elisa asked.

Zoey blinked, "We're not sure, there was so much chaos and it was so widespread that we're honestly not sure where it started."

"What was living through the pandemic like?"

"It was tough, every day was a battle for survival. And I do mean battle, because every day there were more infected, around every corner there were a dozen infected ready to tear you apart, and there was always a special infected," Zoey gestured toward herself, "us, that was lurking behind you."

"Were they all hostile?"

"Yes."

"Why are you not hostile now?"

"Because some of our scientists were able to modify the Virus," Zoey answered, "they made it less…damaging to the brain."

"Why are the commons still hostile?"

Zoey sighed, she seemed to be getting tired of all the questions, "The scientists said that there was too much damage to the commons' brains, that it was impossible to repair them. The special infected were saved, because the Virus focused less on their brains and more on their bodies."

"When did you become infected with the Virus?"

Zoey smiled, "At the end of the pandemic, when everyone became infected."

"Why did everyone become infected?"

"Why indeed," Zoey was still smiling, "they called it a global solution."

Elisa stayed quiet so that Zoey could continue explaining, but she never did. Elisa was about to question further when Zoey interrupted her.

"Look," Zoey said with the same tone she had throughout the interview, except now it had a bit more weight to it, "if you really want to know what life was like during the pandemic, then I suggest you watch my movie, it details the events of a group of survivors during the pandemic."

"Alright," Elisa relented, "but what about after the pandemic, what was life like after everything was done?"

Zoey looked up in thought, "Well, most governments were still operating, underground and underpowered, yes, but still operating none the least. The cities were without power, we didn't have as many luxuries as we used to have. The entire world was no longer burning, but it was burnt. All-in-all, we had a lot of work to do."

"Like what?"

"Powering up generators, getting factories in working order, giving people jobs, setting up communities, creating an economy," Zoey listed off, "you know, stuff like that."

"What about finding homes for people, or repairing the environment?" Elisa asked.

"Finding homes was easy," Zoey said with a grim humorous tone, "just find an empty room in one of the many abandoned buildings and sit in it. As for repairing the environment," Zoey gave an indifferent shrug, "Well, let's just say that that problem took care of itself."

Zoey shook her head, "No, the real problem was our mentality."

"What do you mean?"

Zoey stared at Elisa, "Our world had been turned upside down, our cities were crumbling, our families and friends were either dead or walking around as a common, while the rest of us," Zoey raised her claws, "were turned into monsters. Can you picture it? Turning into the very monsters that destroyed your world and you learned to hate, while those very same monsters were regaining their intelligence and memories, if even that. Some didn't get their memories back, never knew who they once were, while some actually remembered what they did during the pandemic," a sigh, "there were a lot of suicides."

Elisa wasn't sure if she should ask this, but, "Did you ever consider…"

"No," Zoey laughed, laughed, "I never once thought of doing that."

"I… don't find the humor in that question," Elisa said. She honestly thought that Zoey would be more offended by that question than anything else.

Zoey gave Elisa a smile, a nostalgic kind of smile that a grandparent would give their grandchild when they were about to tell them an old war story, "Elisa," Zoey's voice was full of pride, "for nearly four straight years, I had fought for my life against an ever-present enemy that did not know fear. To survive, I had to eat whatever was edible, even if it was out of a trashcan, I had to kill people that I recognized as friends, and I had to fight alongside with complete strangers. And not once, did I ever lose my resolve to live."

Still wearing that smile on her face, Zoey raised her claws up, "So, no. Me turning into Mrs. Scissorhands wasn't going to do me in."

Elisa nodded in understanding, "What about the children, how well did they adapt?"

"Quite well, actually," Zoey said, "In fact, those buggers actually liked it. They kept jumping everywhere and climbing over everything, the only real problem was keeping them from climbing too high and starting fights with infected-born kids."

"Infected-born kids?"

"Kids who were born from an infected during the pandemic," noticing Elisa's confusion Zoey said, "that probably needs explaining. You see, during the later years of the pandemic some parts of the world were becoming filled with only infected humans. And without any people for the infected to hunt, the Virus started to become less active in their bodies and the infected became more animalist. They started to regain their survival instincts, like actually hunting for food and not just out of impulse, they started to roam in packs, which led to socializing, which led to… well, mating."

"How did your people learn about this?"

"A few of the saved infected who remembered everything, told us about the experience," Zoey answered, then she started to giggle, "It was quite a shock for the saved infected who didn't remember the experience."

Elisa looked at her Omni-tool to see that the time was getting late, "Well, Zoey it was great to have you here, but our time is up. We would like to thank you for answering so many of our questions, we hope to see you again soon someday, and…oh, wait a minute. I just remembered that you never told us what your movie was called."

Zoey smiled, "Remember when I was telling you about the L4D…"

STG Base

Marin turned off the vid, and looked toward the other occupants of the room. They were the recently inducted STG scientists and operatives.

"Alright, rookies," Marin said with his ever-present sarcastic tone, "which one of you, walking data-leaks, is actually smart enough to tell me what is the most peculiar tidbit about Elisa's and Zoey's interview?"

A salarian operative raised his hand to speak, but Marin interrupted on him, "Actually, on second thought, if I allowed you rookies to keep guessing until one of you stumbled upon a right answer, I would probably die of old age." Marin raised his hands in mock defense, "I know, I know, since I am getting on in years, that's not really an exuberant statement, but, darn it all, I just don't have the time for it."

Marin gave them all a hard stare, "The most peculiar tidbit of information that the human had revealed during the interview that has baffled the STG ever since it was aired, was how, I repeat, how humanity was able to ascend from a worldwide post-apocalyptic setting to an up-and-coming extra-solar superpower in less than a hundred and fifty years. It should be nearly impossible for any species to recover and advance that fast, in fact," Marin yelled out a mocking kind of laugh, "in fact, the humans should have had an even longer time recovering, because of what the Virus did to them, especially if Zoey's two sides to humanity's mentality holds up to any truth. Which, anyone who looked over the recordings of our spy drones would say, it does."

Marin gave out this kind of twisted and combined form of an ironic laugh and a scoff, "And I have to tell you, that the STG must really be going down the toilet it they can't even figure out the obvious answer to this question."

"Luckily for you all, I'm here," Marin announced snarkily, "the answer is really quite obvious…"

Everyone subconsciously leaned forward as Marin's voice deadpanned and became more serious.

"Humanity didn't do it alone, someone helped them. The real question, is who or what?"

Author's Note

Hey, sorry this chapter took longer than usual. The day after I posted the third chapter, I went to Disneyland. And I have to say that it's kind of hard to write a fic about zombies when you come back from the happiest place on Earth, especially when you're practically bubbling with that happiness. Luckily, I was also reading World War Z at the time, so I got back into the proper mindset soon enough.

Alright, so this chapter revealed a few things.

First and foremost: humanity is not a bunch of walking corpses, they are still very much alive, just infected with a virus.

Second: Zoey is still alive! HOORAY! But what about the other survivors? Are they still alive? This tremendous question will be answered with a mysterious: definitely.

Third: just to make sure that no one gets confused about the third and fourth chapter: It's just the common infected that have the shorter life-span, while the special infected have the longer-lifespan.

Four: there are no un-infected humans.

Also, thedoctor97 gets 5 points for guessing that Marin was based off of a character from Scrubs, but not the full 10 points because you didn't say that Marin was based off of Dr. Cox.

In fact, that whole Doctor-Professor bit actually came from a Dr. Cox scene in Scrubs: Med School.

Yes, you can now go back and read Marin's parts with Dr. Cox's voice now.

Dragonheart967: they just call them: pre-virus humans.

Kaioo: yes, this does have the potential to be awesome. How did the STG learn all this? Why with SCIENCE and espionage of course.

(These were originally supposed to be a part of the third chapter, but I forgot to put them in.)

Omake 1

"Anita," Tevos greeted, "we have heard that you wish to inform us about humanity's decision in joining the Citadel government."

"That is correct," Anita said neutrally, "and I'm sorry to say that humanity has declined your request."

Tevos groaned, "Oh, please don't tell me it's because of something ridicules like the Treaty of Farixen. Because if it turns out that you people have a ton of dreadnoughts that you don't want to get rid of, then the turians are going to have a bitch-fit and start mass-producing their own."

"Hey!" the turian councilor cried out indignantly.

"Oh, look me in the eyes and tell me that's not true," Tevos dared.

"I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just a bit offended by the term: bitch-fit."

Omake 2

"Alright," Marin said cheerfully, "That's all the information the STG has," And is willing to share, went unsaid, "So, any questions?"

An asari raised her hand, "where did you get this information?"

"That's classified," Marin said.

Meanwhile, at a remote base…

A jockey was sipping some sweet coffee as he entered his office to find that a large blue-case was missing from his desk.

The jockey spat out the coffee.

"OUR INTELLIGENCE HAS BEEN STOLEN!"