Inside, we all grouped together around the corpse on the examining table.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of you have an intimate knowledge on anatomy." No-one corrected him; we almost all had never gone, were in or just out of college, but none majored in a science like Doc. Hamilton was just smart.

"So, could any of you answer why you all seem to always hit the heart?"

After a pause, I spoke up. "Maybe we're just lucky?"

"No. In fact, many of you have brought me bodies that had stakes nowhere near the heart. Yet they were all dead. So I began to wonder how it was that these things died from a stake in the chest but not a shotgun or Desert Eagle." He moved over to his laptop, which was connected to a TV like display, and hit a key. The screensaver vanished and was replaced by a slideshow of pictures. Almost all were of a capsule like bacteria; some were just the bacteria, others were of it seemingly swallowing a blood cell.

I walked over to the display, staring intently at the germ.

"Is this…?" I couldn't even finish my sentence.

"Yes. That," Doc pointed at the germ, "is the cause of all of this."

"So this germ, it…"

Doc nodded.

"Incredible," I whispered. To think that the thing to topple governments and destroy countries, that decimated the population and made those things was right there. A tiny germ.

"How?"

"Well, I cannot be a hundred percent sure about all of this, and granted there are things still unexplainable, but this is what I have.

"The vampiris, as I call it, is a bacillus bacterium. It exists in the blood stream of humans and, sometimes, dogs, pigs and cats, where it can readily find its food, which you should probably suspect to be blood. Now, you must understand that vampiris lives off fresh blood. In our blood stream, it causes the movement of molecules across cell membranes to stop. It also slows down blood's movement through the veins when the heart pumps.

"Once it has spread throughout the host, it regulates every single organ and is the supplier of energy, thus the Infected no longer need to eat. But should they run out of fresh blood, the host's body becomes an unfavorable environment for the bacteria to live, so the bacterium does what all others do.

"They begin to form tiny spores that, when they meet favorable conditions, can evolve into true vampiris bacteria. But they can also produce bacteriophages, viruses which hunt down and kill the bacteria, thus-"

"Killing the host." I interrupted.

Doc smiled and nodded. "Yes. However, there are many weaknesses the germ and the Infected have as a result of the germ's infection of the host."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vince asked.

"Well, for one thing, there are two ways that the vampiris lives. It is a facultative saprophyte, living either without oxygen, called anaerobic, or with oxygen, called aerobic. You are most familiar with the anaerobic germ. Inside the blood stream it is fed fresh blood, and, in return, it gives the host energy to get more fresh blood."

"So it's symbiotic?"

"Not entirely. You see, when the bacteria are exposed to oxygen, its way of survival changes instantly. It becomes parasitic. It eats the host."

"Well, there's oxygen in the blood. Why doesn't it die from oxygenated blood?"

"There is no oxygenated blood in the infected. While they do breathe, their blood takes no oxygen from the lungs, so neither does the blood carry oxygen, nor do they need to breathe."

"How does that happen? Someone can't just stop breathing, they'd die," Carter piped in.

I answered. "That's the key, isn't it? When they die, the body is purged of all oxygen in the bloodstream. That's when the bacterium takes control of the body's functions. Right, Doc?"

"Yes. That's right. It gives the illusion that the person came back from the dead. And technically, they have."

"Then how does the germ live in the body of someone who's still alive? There's oxygen in their blood, 'cause they're still living."

Doc rounded on the rest of them. "Can anyone guess the answer to that question, class? Anyone?" He paused. "No-one. Well, I can't say teaching was really the bone for this old dog."

"Spores. That's how they live."

"Correct, Sam. Very well done. And can you guess why?"

"Well, you said the bacteria makes spores when it can't live in one environment, and the spores won't germinate until conditions are favorable."

"Yes…"

"Maybe, when the host dies and conditions become unfavorable and the bacteria makes the spores and they go off and infect some-one else; maybe the spores make a person sick, and as conditions become more favorable, the spores throughout the body germinate, and the person gets sicker and sicker until they die and the bacteria takes control of the body."

"Excellent. Now, before you ask any questions or interrupt further," he glared at me, "let me finish explaining.

"The vampiris has a number of weaknesses, some as a bacteria, others that it gives to its host. For instance look what happens to the bacteria when it is exposed to sunlight, specifically UV." As he said that, he tapped a key on the laptop, and on the screen the picture changed to the vampiris, but the normally capsule like bacteria had decomposed into a twisted, rotten version of the image that it had once been.

"What the hell happened up in here?" Vince asked.

"This is the result of exposure to ultraviolet light. Once exposed to that specific light frequency, the bacteria rapidly begins to breakdown. Thus, the Infected cannot go out into the sunlight, or the UV will kill the bacteria, then all the organs shut down, and leading to the overall death of the host."

"Uh, Doc, sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering…"

"What is it, Carter?"

"Well, you said the bacteria eat the host once it decomposes."

"Yes?"

"Then, why is this one," he jerked his thumb behind him to the corpse on the examination tray, "still pretty fresh lookin'?"

"Oh, quiet sorry. Completely forgot. You see, the longer a host has been undead, the faster it decomposes once the body is exposed to air."

"Oh. So why…"

"Please save all questions for the end of the tour.

"Now, when the bacteria gathers in the sinuses, exposure to garlic enflames the smell receptors, causing anymore exposure to garlic's extremely pungent odor to be so overwhelming it actually becomes painful. Thus they avoid it like the plague. Pun intended.

"Also, the bacteria cause something else to the host." He paused for a minute.

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"Brain damage."

"What? What are you talking about? Is that why they're so stupid?"

"No, Sam. Now will you let me continue?"

"Sure. Sorry. Go ahead," I motioned to him with a jerk of my head.

"It's a phenomenon I have only encountered once in my two decades of dissecting. It's called 'hysterical blindness', a condition that causes blindness to one or several things. For example, the cross. A Christian Infected will fear the cross because of the legend that vampires fear the cross; the hysterical blindness causes them to be blind to the fact that the cross is bringing them no real harm.

"I recall a story that you told me," he looked at me, "about when you came across an Infected who had a rather large beard and the remnants of a turban around him?" I nodded. "When you showed him your cross, it had no effect on him."

"Yeah," I said, "I bagged him and brought him here, just for you."

"And I thank you for that. Would you like to see what became of him?"

"You kept him here?!" That pissed me off. The Infected where extremely dangerous, and keeping one here… what if it got free? There were too many variables to have one, even if it was stuck in a bank vault. That thing was still a danger.

"Relax. I have them under complete control."

"THEM?!?!"

"Yes, them. And if you think that I would hold them without caring for any sort of containment measure, then you are sorely mistaken. Frankly, your assumption of my lack of caring for your safety is unnerving. I cannot stress enough that that alone is my primary concern. Now, if you please, follow me." I could tell that I had pushed a nerve on Doc. The venom in his voice was evident.

Doc walked around us, and took the right from the entrance hallway. We were led into a dark room that was probably a little smaller than the animal's warehouse. Without breaking stride, he flipped a switch on the side, and the area filled with light. Along both sides of the room, Plexiglas sealed off what were best described as holding cells. They were divided into separate sections, each less than five feet by seven feet.

I walked over to one of the sheets of glass and rapped on it with a finger. "And you're sure that this will protect us from them?"

"Well, aside from the fact that," his sentence was cut off by a loud thud, and I jumped as the Infected slammed into the Plexiglas less that six inches away from me. The Infected, it was once a man, continued to slam against it, but the Plexiglas refused to crack even in the slightest.

"What the hell man?! Those things should be in a coma by now!" Carter shouted.

"Don't shout. You'll just aggravate them even more."

"Your keeping those things, what, a hundred feet from us with only an inch of glass to hold 'em back, and you tell us to calm down?! They're awake!!" Carter shouted back.

The other Infected, some of whom I realized had been sleeping, were moving around. They too started screaming and wailing, slamming against the Plexiglas hoping to gain freedom and food.

"Oh, damn it, look what you did," Doc muttered. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote, and pushed a button. Immediately, above our heads there was a quick flash, and an eerie violet glow filled the room and lingered for only a second.

But every single one of the Infected cried out and grabbed at their bodies, wiggling and thrashing on the ground.

While we all looked in different directions, Doc sighed and deposited the remote in his coat.

"I chose Plexiglas because not only is it strong, it absorbs no ultraviolet light.

"I equipped the Plexiglas with an infrared beam that runs through the sheets. Should the beam be interrupted, which is only possible if the glass is cracked or broken, then the room is flooded with UV for ten minutes. If one of the Infected cracked their cell, they will all die. Now follow me." As we walked, I looked at the Infected. They were more animal like than I ever remembered seeing them; they also carried their bodies in a different way.

"Hey, Doc, why do these ones look so weak? And why are they acting crazy? And how are they awake?"

"Well, most of these haven't had any food in a few months, so they will be weaker. My guess is that as the body deteriorates from lack of fresh blood, they start to lose what shred of humanity they had left. Total animals now. And they are conscience becaue I fooled their biological clock. Here we are."

He turned sharply to face one of the Infected, what had been a young and probably beautiful woman. He pulled out the remote and pushed several buttons. What I recognized as a Master Controller sent a signal out, and the light bulbs dimmed all around us, except for the one above the woman's cell, and another cell right down the hall.

Though I only got a brief glimpse at the person inside, he looked vaguely familiar, but before I could look any deeper, Doc called our attention.

"This Infected was a Roman Catholic."

"How do you know that?" Carter asked.

"Simple," Doc replied. He rapped on the Plexi just like I had done, and the woman who had previously been on the opposite side screamed and charged at us, jumping mid-way.

Moments before impact, Doc, with the speed and reaction of a much younger man, reached into his coat and pulled out an ornate cross of silver. The woman's facial expression changed from fury and hunger to fear in an instant.

She tried to maneuver away from the cross, but her momentum carried her through and she crashed into the Plexiglas. Recovering, she scampered back to the corner, holding her head in her hands, shielding herself from the sight of the cross.

Depositing the cross in his pocket, Doc moved on to the other cage that was lighted.

Inside was the man who Doc had talked to him about. Whatever his original garments were, they were unrecognizable. It was difficult to tell what color they had originally been. Doc repeated the process with this man, but when he was shown the cross, the man had no reaction.

"You see?" Doc asked as he turned to them. "This man was not Roman Catholic. Nor was he a Christian at all. He does not react to the cross because the legend is not a part of his culture. However, show him this…" As the man made to jump into the Plexiglas again, Doc reached into another pocket and pulled out a small black book with golden edges on the paper and a golden fabric that served as a bookmark. The book had the same effect on the man as the cross had had on the woman.

"Wait. How…?" Carter was confused. Granted, he never was a bright one.

"The woman," Doc explained patiently, "was a Christian before she became infected. Thus, because of that, she had the idea that vampires are hurt by crosses, and remains blind to the fact that the cross inflicts no bodily damage on her whatsoever. This man," he motioned to the man before them, "was a Muslim. The cross had no effect on him, but the Qur'an does, in the same way that a Qur'an will not affect a Jew or a Christian. The Bible will affect some Muslims, some Jews and all Christians. The Torah frightens all three of them because they are the five basic books of the Old Testament that all three religions find their origins from."

Doc led them out of the room, where he fooled with the remote, shutting off all the lights, and then closed the heavy door behind them, continuing his lecture all the while.

"It is important to realize that these people are under heavy mental duress. As you all know, yellow journalism was as much a plague as the vampiris was, and all these stories about the dead coming back as vampires scared the public greatly. Downright terrified to go out at night. Being infected meant a possible fate worse then death, to become the monster that human kind has loathed for centuries, and that was soon an overwhelming fear. Even more so when the people did start coming back from the dead in their own neighborhood. Now things had gone from being rumored all throughout the country to having nightmarish creatures springing up from where they were buried.

"The only good thing that came out of the press was the executive order to burn all the bodies of the dead. While many people snuck off and buried their husbands, wives, children and so forth, most of the people complied, and most of the Infected's bodies were burned. How many would actually come back, we don't know for sure.

"Still, can you imagine the duress these people felt when they learned they were going to die? Even more so, to have those fears confirmed, to wake up, buried in the ground and dead, to know that death had not brought rest? That certainly could break what was left of the mind. And that is why we have those things acting so…"

"Stupidly?" I provided.

"You could say that. And you could not say anything at all, thank you very much."

"All right, Doc. We get this. So why don't they die from-"

"I was getting to that. Quiet, please." Again we gathered around the corpse on the examining tray. "Please observe the sunlight coming through that," he motioned to one window, "window. If the bacteria in this body were exposed to sunlight in one area, it would awaken this man, giving him enough energy to get away from the light. However, that energy is limited, and shuts off as soon as the body is safe from daylight. While ineffective in some conditions, it does permit the host to get to safety. Since this host is dead, we must go to another one. Follow."

We followed the same path we had before, then to the end of the Plexiglas hallway. Doc opened the door which I had not seen before, then led us into a small, more square-like room. We were greeted by the shriek of an animal. I jumped back as I realized an Infected was charging at us. Carter, Vince and I panicked, but the others didn't.

"Cassidy, be a good man and bring me one of the swords. Thank you," I heard Q say. Cassidy went back out of the room. Then I noticed that the Infected was chained and behind Plexiglas.

"She's awake. Damn. I had hoped to give you a demonstration. Ah, well. To other matters.

"One remarkable thing I have noticed," Doc started out, "is that the vampiris forms a sort of tar like glue around and inside the body. This glue protects, to some extent, the insides from coming into contact with oxygen. Still, the glue can be broken. While the force of impact plays a role in the damage of glue and body, mass plays the most important role. Too small an object will have no effect on the glue."

I stared blankly.

Somebody else did too.

I hope.

"Bullets." He said. Before I could do anything, he picked up a gun from a desk and moved over to a large metal object on the Plexiglas that I realized to be a handle. Even as I moved to stop him, he slid open the door and fired at the Infected when it charged and jumped.

Its body jerked in mid-air, then was caught by the shackles attached to the wall. Doc kept firing after its body tumbled to the ground, the Infected crying out in an animal voice that was all too human.

Doc jettisoned the clip, and the metal creaking of the door behind them alerted them to Cassidy's return. In his hand was a long sword.

"Mr. Hamilton and I worked together for quite some time before we were able to decide what kind of weapon was best. We settled on a sword, a variant of the Spartan Xiphos to be specific, because it is well suited for both stabbing and slicing. I dare say this is Q's finest work yet."

"But it did take me quite some time to get the process down. Now we have enough of these swords for everyone. Cassidy, you may do the honors." After some hesitation on Cassidy's part and some encouragement on Q's, he stepped up towards the Infected. It flinched back, centered itself, then charged at Cassidy; Cassidy swung the sword, and metal and flesh collided.

Blood splattered the floor and wall, and the Infected groped at its right side. There was a long, deep gash in the flesh; it looked at its bloodied hands, then looked up at us. It screamed, and fell to the floor, withering and screeching so loud, I thought the Plexi would shatter.

Then, from the hole and spreading to the rest of the body from there, the flesh turned a grey color, a fell from the body.

The flesh, I realized, was turning into ash.

"What you see before you is the other side of the vampiris bacteria. It is now eating the host, and leaving only, what is close to it in compostition, ashes. You see, when a bullet hits the flesh of an Infected, the body glue prevents the bullet from penetrating, so the bullet does no damage to the flesh. This process is repeated with every bullet that strikes an Infected. Since the body is sealed off before the vampiris is exposed to oxygen, bullets have no effect, no matter how many there are."

"And there are no exceptions?" I asked.

"Well, some manner of explosive round would work, but not nearly as well as a sword or stake. And can you guess why?"

"Uh, because they open the body up?"

"Open the body and keep it open, nullifying the body glue. It lets the air in. A deep cut like the one you just observed is all that is needed to kill an Infected. But please realize that the longer someone has been dead, the quicker they become ashes. And if they are asleep, they will wake up, so be sure to watch yourselves."

Q clapped his hands together. "Well, it seems that you are all ready. Its," he checked his watch, "near noon. Go now, and don't forget to pick up your swords on the way."

"Wait," I said. "Aren't you gonna teach us how to use those things?" I gestured at the sword in Cassidy's hands.

"What's to learn? Just aim and stab. They are not going to move, so it's not like rocket science."

I lead the way out, unsure about what we were getting ourselves into.

Well, what do you think? And for the swords, think 300. Review or you will die!