Walking Dead Sickness
Transmission & Vectors
Causes
The carnivorous Corpse Flower will release spores high into the atmosphere when it requires nutrients. These spores are carried by the wind miles from its hosts. When inhaled by either of the homon species, the spores invade through the lungs and attack the nervous system of its host.
Symptoms
- Dry, racking cough
- Wheezing
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of appetite
- Fever
- Chills
- Cold sweats
- Constant dull aches
- Fatigue
- Cognitive difficulties
- Migraine
- Insomnia
- Wandering
- Coma
- Aggression
Treatment
Prognosis
5-7 days after the initial infection, the victim will lose responsiveness except to be drawn inexplicably towards the corpse flower. If left to wander, the victim will shuffle towards the interior of the territory where the Corpse Flower lays. The victim will have enough awareness to avoid obvious danger but will not have any decision making ability for complex problems.
For example, the victim will avoid obstructions in its path and will have the capability to climb, but it will not select a safe route up or down an object that cannot be avoided. It will attempt to avoid dangerous beasts but will not deploy any attempts at deception or stealth. Indeed, most of the victims of the corpse flower will not make it to the desired destination of the digestive pit of acid at the Lord's center. Most will perish in transit.
Certain victims will violently resist detainment and be driven towards the Corpse Flower only 2-3 days into infection and maintain seemingly all of their cognitive abilities. Once in the presence of the flower, they will exists in its vicinity protecting it from all creatures and outsiders not already infected. This victims will maintain this protective vigil long after their death.
Victims with a weak constitution usually will not survive the infection and perish before the wandering symptoms take root. The body, if left to decompose naturally, grow a small whitish, yellow stalk about 3 feet high, after 24 hours. Once it reaches full height, it will unravel into a bloom that emits a single plume of yellow spores that will cause any that inhale them to obtain Walking Dead Sickness as well.
