A/N: I want to point out I started this, story earlier in the Fall than I did with my other crossover: Arashi Uzumaki of the Blue Plague, but still no where in the beginning, so if you want to know what happened in Blue Plague series before the point I used, you got to read the actual books. Just don't let kids read it.

I'm also censoring curse words as it's too many used in more than just saying usual ways that I can't ignore them all. At least with censoring I'm not going against my usual way of avoiding curse wordsof the Blue Plague series Tomas W. Watson, whose wife is Tina Watson. I should also tell you Watson always based a character after himself in his books, and in the Blue Plague series that's Bruce.

Finally, I don't own the Blue Plague series or the Naruto series or it's characters. But I do know the wife of the writer of the Blue Plague series Tomas W. Watson, whose wife is Tina Watson. I should also tell you Watson always based a character after himself in his books, and in the Blue Plague series that's Bruce.

If you haven't read it yet, read this first:

Blue Plague's Nine-Tail Fox's Son: The Fall

Stephanie's Report on the Blue Plague Virus

It took three days to unload the vehicles, organize and categorize everything they got from the checkpoint. They had to make a lot of crates for all the weapons. Then, they numbered each one and stacked them in the bottom of the barn after each weapon was wiped down with oil. Keeping his promise, Bruce gave Danny a P90 from one of the police cars. Then, Buffy started whining she wanted one too, so she got one. Bruce got four more SCARs from the escapade. Three were select fire, found in squad cars. The other was a single shot like his used to be. His and Mike's now fired single shot, three round burst, and full auto, using the equipment from cases they had buried before the outbreak that the family dug up while the duo was either at Shreveport or on the way home.

They had scored big time with the convoy. They now had over a half a million rounds of 5.56 alone. Ammunition could now be measured in tons. One of the pallets held a crate of AT-4s, which were rocket launchers used to take out armor or fortifications. From the Strykers, they pulled out ten Javelins, and fire-and-forget rocket launchers. Once one was locked on a target and fired, it would chase it down. It could take out an Abrams tank. In the back of the RG were two cases; one held another Raven, and the other held a Puma. The Puma was a larger micro UAV, but you could move the camera in flight instead of turning the whole plane to look at a target. To Bruce, those alone made the trip worth it, even if it did made Naruto's bat transformation and camera suit obsolete.

Naruto didn't seem to mind as it meant he can now fight more often than just watching others fight part of the time. He was more of fighter than a scouter, after all, and sometimes it was hard to get good footage for the command base without flying too low to be notice since even without one of his tails appearing, Naruto stood out as Bat in daylight.

The convoy had attracted a lot of attention from blues but only forty-six found the farm. Those were quickly shot and fed to the growing gator population. Naruto had a chat with the gators who were rather interested in finding what they thought was a human that can speak to other animals. Naruto didn't have the heart to tell them he wasn't actually human, but the gators did agree to leave humans that feed them alone, but they made no promises about between meals, especially with livestock. Bruce just shrugged it off as typical gator behavior, with the only difference is that they now know exactly what the Gators are saying when they're being fed. Plus it get rid of the blues so they don't have to worry about the smell of infected staying around with the bodies.

It started raining the day after they finished storing equipment, so everyone stayed inside, learning weapons. Bruce had everyone an M-4, and several had the M-4A1. The Military M-4 came standard with a 14.5 inch barrel, unline the civilian one, which had a 16-inch barrel. Bruce told everyone in the family that unless they were exempted from the family, they had to get two military M-4s and one had to be an A1. The A1 had a heavier barrel and could be fired on full auto instead of three round burst.

Only ones so far exempted were Naruto, Joshua, Cassandra, Cade, and of course G-. Bruce made it clear that the little ones don't have to learn how to fire a real gun until they first learn how to properly use a BB gun as that's how all the kids but Buffy had originally learned. Naruto was his deadly weapon with just basic jutsus humans in his world can learn and just need a pistol in case he's low on chakra. And G- was still being monitored and not fully trusted to be given a gun.

Along with the M-4AI. They had fourteen 40 mm grenade launchers and hundreds of rounds of High Explosives—also known as HE, High Explosive Dual Purpose—or HEDP, tear gas, some XM1060 thermobaric grenades, and even buckshot rounds, but no practice rounds. That was why only people who had fired the M-203 were given one. The three soldiers each had one, and Paul had one. Mike and Bruce each had two, one on their SCARs and one on an M-4A1. Everyone would train on the M-203 but not fire it. Shooting the weapon was not really loud, but the grenade exploding did make a little noise. Bruce had never fired the thermobaric grenade since it was new to the inventory, and he was really fighting the urge to. When Danny found out she couldn't shoot the grenade launcher, she started throwing a fit. After Debbie had calmed her down, Debbie gave Bruce the "look".

They did not find many pistols at the checkpoint on the ground like they did of rifles. Bruce figured form the rifles and packs there had been fifty-five army personnel at the checkpoint. Then, he figured about fifty cops with them. They had only gathered thirty pistols, most being police issue. He figured that number should be doubled at least.

This did not include the mountain of weapons that Naruto had gathered from the civilian cars. In that mountain, they had gotten over three thousand two hundred rifles and shotguns. Everything from high quality civilian assault rifles to black powder muskets in hundred of different calibers.

Bruce had to tell Naruto the clan won't be using the Muskets unless it was an emergency, since Muskets—although can do damage—were no where near as accurate as guns from today, and most of them Naruto found were probably originally for reenactments wars fought in this world before the outbreak happened.

There were also over sixteen hundred pistols: again, everything from high quality weapons to pieces of c-. From pea shooters to hand cannons, which again were stored for emergencies do to lack of accuracy. In Naruto's defense, Bruce did tell him to gather anything that look like it can shoot something or have a smell of gun powder before they left.

Also in that pile were hundreds of pounds of ammunition in everything from Wal-Mart Bogs, boxes, ammo storage boxes, and loose rounds on the ground. The calibers the clan did not use went in boxes with the Muskets and were moved to a storage shed. Some of the weapons from the pile Bruce had only seen pictures of, and others he never even heard of. Naruto even somehow found what look like an original Chinese design first gun where it was basically a long narrow barrel hand held cannon that can be fired by lighting a string at the end. Bruce didn't know if it was authentic as he never seen a real one before.

They had put all the high quality weapons in the basement in racks they had made. It turned the open area of the basement into a maze. Bruce issued everyone that weren't exempted a pistol because now, everyone had tactical gear. He told those not trained on the pistol yet not to load it until they were trained on them. He would make suppressors for them later. Only exemption allowed to have a pistol was Naruto, who was given two pistols, following the family motto—two is one and one is none.

Lynn did voice her opinion about giving the kids pistols. "Bruce, I can understand about the rifles, but pistols are much more dangerous. The kids could hurt themselves or others."

"Lynn, the days of childhood are gone. The kids have to learn how to fight and survive just to live. What if we're attacked, and something happens to us, and they manage to escape? If we don't teach them, we're killing them. The same as if you took a gun and shot 'em yourself." Looking at the kids, Bruce said. "Anyone caught playing with a weapon will be beaten. Then, they will be the g-'s b- for a month. I don't care if it is child or adult."

Lynn looked at Bruce in shock as she replied. "That's a little harsh, but you're right. I didn't look at it from that point of view." Bruce was glad she agreed because that woman can cook, and he wanted her to keep doing it. With her doing the cooking, it freed up a lot of people to do other things—including him and Mike since Lynn don't want the duo on Kitchen duty.

It rained three straight days, then one afternoon at lunch, Bruce told Naruto he was going to use shadow clones to learn how to hotwire cars. They were moving some of the vehicles off of the farm to the dead end area of the road. Both the HEMTTs and the convenience store gang's trucks were going to be left down there because it was getting a little crowded, and they served no useful purpose. Then Bruce made the announcement to the clan that tonight was movie night for them.

After Naruto learned to hot wire every car using shadow clones, Naruto drove them to the dead end a map of the land. Naruto didn't know this, but it was part of his test to also see what kind of sense of direction Naruto has, before Bruce really put Naruto on the spot by having him lead a convoy home from another outing. If it was anyone else in this world, Bruce would just put them on the spot, but Naruto was new to this world, and Bruce want to make sure Naruto can adjust to driving in this world on his own before leading a group.

That night, only those who were on watch didn't come to watch movies in the game room on Mike's and Bruce's high definition projector. After the first movie, they stopped and ate supper then returned to watch another. It was such a big success in boosting morale that Bruce declared every Saturday nigh would be movie night.

The next morning, everyone was eating breakfast and relaxing, Bruce had told everyone that Sunday was a day of rest if nothing came up. Workouts were not required even though most did, just later in the day, except for Naruto who did his early morning workouts before most of the clan was awake.

Bruce was eating and making notes in his notebook when Stephanie called his name from the middle of the table. Naruto even poked Bruce several times to get his attention, but Bruce just shrugged it off. Then Debbie kicked him under the table and Bruce finally looked up. "That hurt, d- it," Bruce said glaring at Debbie as he rubbed his leg.

"Stephanie has called your name several times, baby. Naruto even tried to get your attention by poking you. So I took it up as my job to keep you alert," Debbie said as she continued eating.

"Bruce grumbled at Debbie then turned to Stephanie. "Yes, Stephanie?"

"Okay, I will get ready," Stephanie said, getting up.

"Bruce, can I borrow a notebook?" Naruto asked.

"Why?" Bruce asked.

"So I can write down any medical stuff mention I don't know to ask about later," Naruto said.

Bruce thought of it and he agreed that was a good idea, because he know he'll have questions after the report too.

After lunch, Naruto joined the rest of the clan in the game room. Apparently everyone was interested in what Stephanie had to say because the room was packed like they were having another movie night. Only those on guard weren't there, but Jake and Matt fixed that. Between Bruce's and Mike's recliners was a projector aimed at a sheet on the wall. Naruto took his seat next to David with the notebook and pen Bruce gave him.

Stephanie walked up to the front and set a stack of papers on the coffee table. "Can everyone hear me okay?" she asked. Everyone said they could; even two voices from the intercom that Jake and Matt put together replied.

"First, I want to tell Matt and Jake thank you for getting the information from my e-mail account. Before anyone asks, yes, some of the net is still up, but we only have connection here via satellite, and there are people trying to trace signals down. We don't know if it's government or someone else, but when Matt and Jake went to my e-mail, someone tried to track them. Whoever it was tracking them was not able to, so we are safe. Until the tech team says so, no one is allowed online." She saw happy faces that at least others were out there. It was going to break her heart to kill that little bit of hope.

"Hold on a second there, pretty woman. I want you to explain this virus and infection using words that don't make me feel like a d-. Just use words I can understand." Mike, Nancy, and Debbie stared at Bruce with astonishment on their faces.

"Stephanie, when you start talking about viruses and DNA, you use words I can't even find in a dictionary. Well, I might could if I could spell 'em. Molecular density of the helix strand, the 'whatever' transfers to the 'do hicky' to change the genetic makeup and code for that gene complex. I can understand the verbs and conjunctions you use. After listening to you talk, I run to Mike, Nancy, or Debbie to get them to explain what the h- you said. I've even bought several books to try to get a grip on what you're saying, but I'm still lost," Bruce admitted out loud for the first time. He could not understand something that he had tried to learn.

Debbie got up from the couch, ran over, and jumped in his lap, hugging Bruce while Mike was patting his shoulder. "I'm so proud of you, stud muffin. In the life time we've been together, you finally admitted you didn't understand something for the first time," Debbie said, kissing him.

"What, you're proud I'm a d- and no matter what I try, I can't wrapped my brain around the molecular world? It's too small for that much c- to be taking place. Once you go smaller than a single cell, it gets complicated for me," Bruce said, disgusted with himself. He had not wanted to admit it out loud, but he really wanted to know what they were up against the virus."

"Bruce if you're a d- for not understanding the molecular world of medicine, then I'm a bigger d- than you for not understanding medicine at all," Naruto said. "I can do a lot of things and learn a lot using shadow clones, but when it comes to medical stuff the only thing I know to do is slap a band aid on a cut. I wouldn't know how to check vitals or understand an EKG machine. Heck I wouldn't even know what an EKG looks like."

"Naruto is right—about you not being a d-. Bruce, other than Stephanie, you are the smartest person I have ever met. You commit things to memory easily and know lots of information. You can explain how a medication works to someone, take apart a car and put it back together, cook a gourmet meal, then fight a battle. I'm proud of you admitted that you're human, baby," Debbie said.

Mike looked at Stephanie as he was holding Bruce's shoulder, proud of him. "Stephanie, it has nothing to do with you, baby. I've watched Bruce read those books and throw them in disgust. Last year, he took two books, Physics of Atoms and Molecules and Advance Molecular Biology, on our hunt to Canada. I watched him over the period of four days try to read both books in a huntin' blind, waiting on a bear. When he was three quarters of the way through one and half-way through the other, Bruce started ripping pages out, yellin' the whole time. Then, he burned the pages along with the books as our guide just started at the crazy man."

"Overreaction, but nothing different than what I probably would have done when I was a little kid-fox," Naruto said. "If I knew the Rasengan back then I would have probably used that on those books."

"Not one time did Bruce ask me for help," Mike continued. "Bruce wants to teach himself and understand somethin' on his own."

"Oh yeah, just rub it in, Nancy—and you two Naruto, that I'm an idiot child-man that should be kept in the basement wearing a rubber helmet playing with crayons," Bruce snapped.

"Ooops," Naruto realized his mistake. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Naruto," Debbie said as if it wasn't the first time Bruce acting childish came up in conversation.

"Those d- books might as well be written in hieroglyphics to me," Bruce replied, p- off that everyone knew he was a d- now.

"I never meant to make you feel bad, Bruce. Please believe me, I would have helped you understand me," Stephanie said with tears in her eyes. She loved this family more than her own. They always treated her like one of their own. Bruce was her idol. He treated her the same as everyone else. He taught her how to shoot, change a tire, hunt, fish, and so much more.

Debbie got off Bruce's lap as Nancy got up from the couch, and they went to Stephanie. "This is a boy thing, Stephanie, and Bruce is the king of the boy club. Until you came, he thought he could learn anything on his own. He doesn't realize that it's a lot easier to be taught something by someone who knows the subject. In college, he would read the night before class until he understood the next day's lecture. When he got to class, it was only reinforce what he'd already learned. He graduated with a 3.7, but if he would've asked for help sometimes, he would've had a 4.0. Most men have a stubborn streak of not wanting to admit that they can't understand everything. Bruce's streak is just a mile wide. That is why most men don't read instructions; they just do it," Debbie said.

"Mike had it, too, but medical school knocked that out of him real fast," Nancy said.

"That's no s-. The four years of college in pre-med, I just bulled my way through, but the four years of med school and the information you have to take in made me humble very fast," Mike said.

"Chakra control training knocked it out of me," Naruto said. "Climbing trees, walking on water, the Rasengan—that takes chakra control of different levels, and not everyone can master it on their first try. Especially the Rasengan, which took me a month to learn."

"We all knew Bruce was lost every time you talked about your work. Bruce would come up to one of us later and steer the topic toward what you had talked about. We would then tell him our understanding of it," Mike added.

"Because you would've tried to teach someone who had never admitted until today that he didn't understand the details of the topic. Don't get me wrong; he understands a lot more now about the molecular world since you came along. Like my mama said. 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

"Unbelievable, he still not getting it," Naruto muttered.

Mike jumped out of his chair and turned t0ward Bruce. "If you refer to yourself as a d- one more time, we are fixing to fight. Not spar or wrestle but a knock-down, drag-out right here," Mike yelled, balling up his fist. Everyone close by cleared the area, seeing the anger on Mike's face. "You are a Ranger, trained sniper, and a registered nurse. Then, you taught yourself to be a gunsmith, mechanic, carpenter, mechanist, landscaper, the list goes on. You read one f- book on how to make bio-diesel then go to the barn and in one day made a machine to do it. Everyone in this family looks at you like the greatest thing since mayonnaise, including me. I have never met or heard of anyone as smart as you until Stephanie came along. For you to say we would hold a d- in such high regard p- me the f- off!" Mike yelled, looking at Bruce.

Looking at Mike, Bruce thought he was about to tote a gold-medal a—whooping. He never knew they looked at him like that; he was just Bruce. He always considered himself the least intelligent one of the group. Bruce realized Mike was mad because Bruce had degraded himself not because he didn't understand something. "I'm sorry I made you mad, Mike," Bruce said, looking down at his lap, hoping Mike wouldn't start the beat down.

Mike let out a puff of air, thankful he was not going to have to fight Bruce and get his a- kicked. "Bruce, you are only human, brother, and you were the only one who did not know it. Bruce Wayne Williams, you are a hero to this family and to this clan. People do not take kindly to be like you, brother, and I do try, but the mold was destroyed after you were made."

"I love you too, brother," Mike said. Bruce let Mike go and walked over to Stephanie, who was still being held by Debbie and Nancy. They let Stephanie go as Bruce came over, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest.

Bruce looked at her tear-streaked face, explaining. "It's a guy thing called 'pride'. Us guys like to think we can at least learn everything. We don't like to admit we can't."

"Well, you should start wearing a bra and drop some testosterone. If I had known how it made you feel, I would've never spoken about my work. You do believe me; don't you?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes, I know you would never hurt anyone's feelings in this family. As for wearing a bra, I'm gonna decline. I swallowed my pride today for the first time admitting I couldn't do something in front of others. Now, I want you to start this briefing, okay?" Bruce said, kissing her on the forehead.

"That's okay, we could've saved you," Nancy said. Bruce kissed Debbie then turned to Nancy, kissing her on the head. Then he walked back toward his chair. When he reached it, he stepped over to Mike, who had sat back down. Reaching down fast, Bruce grabbed both sides of Mike's face, kissing him on the lips. Mike struggled to push him back. Finally breaking the embrace, he started to spit in the air.

After the laughter died down, "Bruce said, "I just wanted you to really know I love you too."

"You can't kiss me like that in front of the wives. Only when we're alone. In front of them, just pass me a love letter," Mike said, sending everyone into another round of laughter.

Bruce sat back down in his chair, looking around at everyone. When he got to Angela, she was just staring at him. "What?" he asked her.

"Bruce, it's not just here. Everyone at the hospital knows and respects you. If someone wants to know something or wants something or wants something done, then the answer is usually 'find Bruce.' I always knew you and Mike were great, but on the trip here, if you had walked on water, whether it's like in the bible or like Naruto, I wouldn't have been surprised. It's refreshing to know you're human after all," Angela said.

"I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we don't want to be led by someone who is perfect. That would set the standard way too high, not that we can reach it now but at least we can see it," Angela pointed out.

"Thank you, I think. Little Foot."

"Bruce, I love you, and so does everyone else here. If you pointed at someone here and told them to go beat their head against a tree, they would do it. Everyone here for the most part would be beating her head against a tree before the thought even crossed their mind to ask why. Have you not noticed everyone that you brought here with an exception of Naruto eats with their non-dominate hand, me included. The ones from the convenience store were told you said to do it, and Mike said it was to train your weak side, and that Naruto was already trained in doing that. Train it to do what, we don't know, but we were told by the duo, so we do it," Angela said as Bruce stared at her in gratitude. Angela returned his stare and said, "Just to show you how much I love you, tonight, you can sleep with my husband."

Stephanie stood in front of the group again and started, "First, the virus is a single-strand DNA virus. Now before you say DNA is two strands and RNA is one strand, let me finish."

"I knew that," Bruce whispered to Mike.

"Good boy," Mike whispered back.

Stephanie looked at the two as she continued, "DNA viruses attack the cell nucleus, infecting the host DNA. Unlike any virus we have ever seen, this virus targets and invades every cell in the human body. If you want my hypothesis on how it does this, see me later. Right now, I'm only going into general terms," Stephanie said, holding up a ream of typed pages then put it back on the table.

Holy s-, Bruce thought, We would have read that to them if I had not spoken up. Understand, h-, I would have had trouble staying awake. There is an easy three hundred pages in that stack.

Thank you Bruce for speaking up, Naruto thought.

As if Mike was reading Bruce's mind, he whispered. "I owe you one."

Bruce whispered back, "We're even."

With a smirk on her face, Stephanie looked at the two of them, shaking her head, and continued, "The virus incorporates into the Host DNA and changes the genetic make up of the cell. Normally, the body would kill the cell, but it still recognizes the cell as normal. The actual cell structure and genetic make up is changed after the infection. The infected running around out there may look human, but we actually have more in common with chimps and even Naruto than with the infected. They are a new order of species. The rate of infection through the body is extraordinary and unlike any DNA virus known. There are fifty trillion cells in the average human body, and it takes at most three days for the virus to infect every cell. Now, as for the reason we have walkers, joggers and runners. Walkers are infected people that turned fast, in some cases less than an hour. Let's get something clear first; those infected are alive. I know there were reports of the dead rising, but that's b-. The virus slows the body's metabolism, vital signs, increase muscle density, chemical makeup, and actually reverses the aging process, which I will come back to later."

"The virus attacks parts of the brain first but only the lower functions areas, none of the higher function areas. Then it goes down the line from respiratory, vascular, and so on. Now, don't think that the virus is smart when I say this. All the systems are under assault at the same time, but the lower functions of the brain turns first. By lower functions, I mean the lower portions of the brain that maintain homeostasis, our normal body metabolism. It alters the pituitary and lower functions of the brain to keep running as the body turns. Now, in a walker's case, the person turned before the virus was finished turning the whole body. Now, virus will continue to infect the uninfected cells, but they are dying off with the decreased oxygen and the chemical change of the body. For example, a human's pH is 7.4; an infected runs at 6.2. A human will usually die at 7.0. All the chemicals in the body of the infected are off the charts and or incompatible with human life," Stephanie said, looking around noticing Naruto's hand up. Figuring out what Naruto's question is, Stephanie said, "pH is the acidity of the blood. It basically keeps acid fluids from building up. The lower it is, more acid can build up."

Naruto lowered his hand and thanked her.

"Now back to the walker. As the normal uninfected cells are dying off with the changes going on, the infected cells are reproducing, making new infected cells. If enough of the cells are left for a frame, the walker will survive through the infection. It all depends on how many cells the virus have a foundation to work with." She pushed a button on her laptop, and the projector came on, putting a picture of a dead blue on the screen.

"Look closely; there are no injuries on it. This was a walker that not enough cells were turned, and it died because like us, it takes a lot of cells to make us work. Unlike us, though, they are very hard to kill once infected. At one of the labs in the CDC, there was a severed infected head on the table. The head was alive, and it even ate a rat. It would even follow you with its eyes. Sandy told me it took seven days for it to die. When the virus takes over a cell, there are several new structures we have never seen before. We found out one stores ATP and a lot of it. ATP, or Adenosine triphosphate, is what life uses for energy."

"Like Chakra?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, actually Naruto you're right. I did research on what you call chakra, and it's actually among the many names we call ATP in this world, along with Chi, nen, and other stuff. Most importantly, it's referred to as currency of life, and we don't know how it does this since ATP is inherently unstable. Naruto is the only person who can control ATP and I would guess same goes with most people in his world since I been told it's common there. In a normal human body, at any given time, there is roughly eight ounces of ATP. In an infected body, ATP averages over ten pounds or a hundred and sixty ounces. Humans store fat to make ATP later; infected just skip the process and store ATP."

That explains why ninjas from the Akamichi Clan are fat, They probably store a lot more chakra for their clan's jutsus, Naruto thought before saying, "Stephanie, is there another way in theory for someone to transfer a large amount of ATP into another body?"

"Not in this world, but I don't know about your world to be 100% sure," Stephanie said. "Why?"

Naruto decided to use Sage mode as an example as he didn't want to bring up Jinchurikis without having to explain that most tailed beast are considered monsters.

"To go into sage mode, I have to gather chakra from nature itself and mix it with my own chakra," Naruto said. "There are other techniques like that."

"Well in theory, in this world I would think it's possible," Stephanie said. "Normally ATP is unstable though, so it be hard to mix it with the original source."

"Even if the source is from a living creature—say size of one of your sky scrapers?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, especially if it's from a large source."

That would partially explains why Gaara had hard time controlling the one tail at one time and since the chakra is a trace of a tailed beast conscious it make it easier for them to take over, Naruto thought. And how Nagato was able to control six different bodies with rods that transmit chakra.

"Now remember;" Stephanie continued with her report, "infected run at a lower temperature, around eighty degrees, so they need less energy at rest. If you shoot an infected in the heart, it will die, if enough of the heart is damaged, it will repair itself. The infected rates of healing are off the charts. Only one possibly higher from what I been told is Naruto's." Stephanie paused, letting that sink in, then continued. "I have the report right here where two runners were shot in the heart. One was shot with a shotgun, the other with a 9mm. The one shot by the shotgun died in six days; the other one actually healed. It just sat down like it went to sleep then woke up two days later, healed."

"That gives them quite an advantage," Mike admitted with a frown.

"Oh, I haven't even got to the best part yet," Stephanie said and then continued. "Back to the walker on screen, it died because there were not enough cells infected at the turning or reproducing to keep the system running. Does everyone understand so far?" She asked and saw nodding heads everywhere, including from Naruto.

"As we understand the virus now, twenty-five percent of walkers will die eventually. It may take up to six months, but they will die. Forty percent will live and slowly develop into joggers. If they can feed, they will live. The remaining thirty five percent will stay walkers. Now, several scientists thinks they will die off not being able to feed, and I disagree with this. With the slow metabolic rate, they can go a long time between meals—I mean weeks not days—and they have been observed eating bugs. So I think most will live," Stephanie said then continued.

"Now, with our current understanding of the virus, the walkers that move to a jogger cannot progress into a runner. Too much damage at the cellular level has occurred. Too many holes in the framework to be filled. An infected Jogger means most of their system was turned, and up to ninety-five percent will progress into runners. Studies predict anyone taking at least ten hours to turn would develop into jogger. What the CDC called midlevel infected, which estimates seventy-five percent of those who were infected."

"Now, runners. First, this is what the virus is trying to reach. They are carnivores, make no doubt about it. Studies have confirmed that their teeth are harder than ours, and fingernails are thicker and harder than ours. Their speed is actually increasing, and pound for pound, they are three times as strong as humans. Now, I'm going to go over some examinations that have been run on the infected."

"Intelligence is of animal level of creatures. Yes, Naruto, I'm aware there are animals out there that are smart, but I'm referring to in complex thought. But the infected can learn. They have been observed to set ambushes like lions and use stealth to kill prey. They have been observed using rocks and sticks to beat prey with like chimps but nothing more. They will even cover themselves with something when they are cold like leaves and boxes. They will not put on a coat, and once the clothes they have on are off, they stay nude. Several have been observed chewing their shoes off, not being able to untie them."

"Now about the cold, they don't like it. At fifty degrees, they will group together, usually in a structure, until it warms back up. This has been tested and confirmed in a lab. They threw several infected in a large sealed room with a small building placed inside the large room. Then, the researchers dropped the temperature, and the infected broke a window out of the small building, crawled in, and huddled in a corner together. They never used the door even after seeing someone else use it. They always went in and out the windows unless of course the door was opened. Interestingly, when the door was opened, they never closed it either."

"Another part of this experiment, they froze an infected, dropping the temperature to minus twenty degrees. All signs of life were gone, no brain activity, heart lung, nothing. Thinking they had killed it, they warmed it up, and one of the scientist was infected when she was bitten when it woke up. Only frogs and some lizards are known to do this. Frogs will flood their system with glucose before they freeze so the ice crystals don't rupture the cells. Infected glucose levels average 2,500 while humans average 80."

"Infected try to infect others to spread the disease. This is their goal. They have been videoed running up to someone, biting them, and then leaving. In China, we have started getting bad reports. The infected are purposely killing humans and no longer trying to infect. The hypothesis is they no longer see us as potential members but as competition. The same way a lion will kill a hyena and not eat it just to get rid of the competition. Naruto also confirmed they do communicate through growls and roars, but from what he reported, it's nothing more than simple alerts of food or danger and that kind of stuff. Now, any questions so far?" Stephanie asked.

Several hands shot up, and Stephanie pointed at Mindy, the oldest teen from the convenience store. "Do they remember anything from before they turned?" Mindy asked in a small voice.

"No, the higher cognitive areas of the brain are dead. After they turn, it's like they were just born. Nothing of the previous person remains," Stephanie said then asked for the next question, and no one asked anything.

Stephanie continued, "Now, infected are more active at night, like most predators, but will hunt during the day. Runners' night vision are a lot better than ours. We do not know how, but they seem to be able to detect heat in the visual field. Scientist took a runner, burned its nasal passage and rupture both ear drums, then put it in a dark room with a dog. If the dog stayed still, the infected could find it, but when the dog moved, the infected could not see it until it stopped. They repeated the process to determine that a runner's sense of smell is the same as ours, but their hearing is better. They are visual predators. They hear something, go to it until they see it, then attack it."

"Bruce and Mike have an interesting hypothesis. They think the infected star near roads because they associate roads with food and more people to infect. I believe that they use roads for the same reason we do. It's the fastest way to travel. Now, if you look at this slide," Stephanie pushed a button, and on screen was a thermal picture, "you will see a group of thirty-four moving through the woods at night to the east of us. There is no prey around them, and they are not moving fast. The little spy plane watched them for twelve minutes, and they were just moving through the area. Now, they do not like moving through heavy brush and seem to have a mortal fear of water."

Stephanie changed slides again. This one listed countries on the left and had three columns with numbers in each one across from each country. At the top of each column was Infected, Dead, and Survivors. Then, she continued, "This slide is the three-month prediction from the infection rates. In America, they were using the population projection of three hundred and twenty million. In America, two hundred million infected, eighty million dead, forty million survivors. It is worse everywhere else in the world as you can see. In Britain, they will only have a million survivors in three months. Current predictions are that in one year, there will be less than twenty million humans in America. The only reason we are lasting longer with better survival rates is that guns and food are everywhere in America. But most people don't stock the amounts of ammunition and food that is needed to survive this and will run out. In most countries, the population can only hide and wait. In the war-torn, third-world countries, they might have guns but not the food stores. This means over seventy percent of the world's population, almost five billion, will become a new species. "

"How many do you think will be runners in a year, here in the states?" Debbie asked.

"About a hundred fifty to a hundred and eighty million," Stephanie replied. Hearing that number, Debbie slumped down in her seat.

Bruce interrupted and asked. "Stephanie, I know they age slower than us and heal faster than us, but what is their shelf life? When are they gonna die?"

"Bruce, you have not been listening," Stephanie said then enunciated. "The-virus-infects-every-cell."

"Yes, I've been listening, and I know that. Every cell lasts for a real long time, but how long?" Bruce asked.

"Bruce, I think what Stephanie is getting at is that the Blues can reproduce," Naruto said.

Everyone stared at Naruto in shock and turned to Stephanie who just nodded. Man was no longer the dominate species—not the humankind at least.

Bruce broke the silence first. "Well, f- me."

"Sideways," Debbie added.

"With a monkey holding a broom," Angela added.

"And wearing high heels," Mike added, shaking his head.

"Yes, it's bad. They artificially inseminated one female in the lab with the infected sperm. Human sperm was not genetically compatible, believe it or not. Not that a human male could mate with her because she would tear him apart," Stephanie said.

"Where did this virus come from?" Nancy asked.

"The outbreak began in the Congo, but I can tell you one thing; this virus did not come from nature," Stephanie stated. "And actually, Naruto's own hypothesis about animals being immune to the virus convince me even more that I'm right."

"What makes you think that?" Debbie asked.

"The CDC and USAMRID, the army version of the CDC, started to break down the virus. They found gene sequence in infected DNA that come from several other species—animals, plants, fungi—which might be why animals are immune as the virus is made from most likely their own genetic make-up."

"So then, Naruto could be immune to the virus," Nancy said.

"Yes, but because he's not human or your average fox, I would guess it be difficult to make a cure out of his blood. I already tried around found that Naruto's blood overwhelms the host's with ATP, or chakra as he puts it," Stephanie said. "When I told Naruto this, he was rather shock as he mention he once was able to transfer his chakra into human. My guess is because he was only transferring his chakra and not his cells."

"Humans use twenty percent of our DNA, infected use fifty percentage, and I don't know how much Naruto can use. But let me list some of the infected viral makeup. Super healing, age regression, strengthened immune system, boundless energy, and super strength. What comes to your mind?" Stephanie asked.

"Genetic research for the fountain of youth," Mike answered

"Exactly," Stephanie said.

"Why not a bio weapon?" Angela asked.

"My director at the CDC said the same thing. Do you really want to infect your enemy with something that makes them age slower, heal faster, run fast, have super strength, is a carnivore, and has an infection rate of 99.9%? Meaning if it gets in your bloodstream, you will get it. When you develop a bio weapon, you find a cure while you develop it," Stephanie explained.

"What about drugs?" Maria asked.

"It would take at least a decade to find a drug to stop the infection if you got bit. Especially without an immune case you can use. We do not have the understanding to reverse the process. It would be like me trying to make a drug to give you blue eyes. The infected have been changed at the genetic level," Stephanie stated. "As I said before, animals are possibly immune because the virus is already in coded with enough of their DNA that their bodies already recognize it as a threat. Something I would guess it's lacking from the Human genetic code."

"You mean someone made this virus but can't undo it?" Danny almost shouted.

"Danny, just because you can do something is not a good reason to do it. Genetic research is the most dangerous thing in the world. Screw nanotechnology and atomic weapons. This is how life was formed, and screwing with DNA is wielding God-like powers." Stephanie answered, looking at her.

"How long does the virus last outside the body?" Nancy asked.

"Not long; it's very fragile. If it is kept warm, out of light, and moist, the virus has been recorded to stay viable for five hours. That is the extreme limit. The virus usually is not viable after ten minutes when exposed to the elements. Direct UV light kills it. It must enter the body quickly, through blood or mucus membrane exposure."

"Okay, so what can we expect the infected to do? I just want your best guess," Bruce said.

"In China and India, the infected are not staying in huge groups, but are breaking down in groups of several hundred to hunt. They will converge in masses a large target of humans to kill them. I feel we will be seeing that soon here. They will then try to just kill us, not infect us. We will be seen as competition. We are hearing fewer reports over the radio of infected breaking into groups and infecting people. I pray that they will start to fight each other for resources, but as long as we're here, I don't see that happening. Humanity is on the verge of extinction," Stephanie said.

"Mankind may be going extinct, but let's get this one thing straight. One thing mankind has proven time and time again is we can kill s- on an astronomical scale. Starting tomorrow, we start hunt and kill patrols. Let's start makin' a dent here," Bruce said, standing up.

"Bruce, we may have almost a million rounds here now, but that's not even enough to make a dent in North Louisiana, much less America," Nancy said, trying to rein him in.

The military orders over two billion rounds each year of 5.56, and civilian market produces half that much. The government stockpiles several billion round of 5.56 not to mention everything else. We just have to get it. We aren't gonna just sit here holding our d- waitin' on a mob of infected or gang of raiders to hit us. I want ideas on how to strengthen the fence fast. Training is to be three hours every day, including hand-to-hand and knife throwing starting tomorrow. This is a war, and we're gonna f- something up," Bruce said looking around.

"H- yeah; let's get some!" Jake yelled, jumping up. Danny jump up with him and gave him a high five. The rest of the clan started jumping up with excitement.

"Okay, Bruce, but don't you think this might be inviting trouble here?" Nancy asked. Everyone got quiet.

"Trouble has already gotten an invitation. All that matters now is how we fight it when it gets here. Let's make everyone and everything fear us," Bruce said, smiling.

Nancy looked at him, knowing he was right but scared for the battles that were coming and what they would cost. Then it hit her; sitting there doing nothing, they had no chance. By fighting, they at least had a small hope.

Looking Bruce in the eye, she grinned and said, "Let's get some."