Necrotization

The root of our doom

[CW : Death and necrosis]

I managed to snatch Mike's notebook to write this entry. I love this guy and owe him more than a life, but he's been spouting scientific nonsense for too long. Not that it's wrong, I thoroughly reviewed the information. But his opinions and the baseless accusations are too much for me to tolerate. So here's an unbiased article about the end of our world. Well,mostly unbiased. That was no virus or magic. Let's talk about Necrotization.

Stages of the pathology

Although it is no supernatural disease, you cannot call it natural either. Of course, it came from Organesque. After a while, the biorgans made from this material began to decay and drive the bearers mad. It didn't come immediately, mostly divided in three stages.

Abnormal necrosis

Usually, necrosis is an unprogrammed cell death caused by serious environmental stress like physical trauma, bad immunity response, or ischemia. The fact that the immunity system fails to notice the dead cells and clean them results in the dark, gross wounds you may have witnessed. If left untreated, it will destroy the tissue entirely and may be fatal. However, surgical removal (or amputation) of the dead cells is a typical treatment for such afflictions. The thing is, necrosis is never a disease, but merely an impressive symptom of a deeper illness.

Now to our case. Biorgans were doing great for the first year. They adapted well to the body, without any immunity reaction whatsoever. Blood flow and hormone communication were both fine too. In short, nothing announced the upcoming disaster. About thirteen months after the transplantation, the organesque part of the biorgan would begin to necrotize at an alarming speed. Of course, they searched the first subjects for another pathology explaining such decay, without success. No bacterial or viral infection, the blood flow was fine and if anything, the immunity system was way too relaxed.

Despite having all the signals of perfectly healthy tissue, the cells are dying at an unprecedented rate. What's more, the gangrenous tissues seem to retain their functions, as if the cells are zombies, despite having no active cellular mechanism. I don't know if it makes sense to you. It does not to me. The suffering becomes unbearable to the griefed as their nerves are dying painfully. The only way to deal with it is to amputate the whole biorgan, as it isn't only affecting the skin. It proved difficult to do so when the transplants were internal though, as it would require a spare organ to replace the dying one.

Hormone disruption

Soon after the appearance of the first symptom, the following wreak havoc. To stay integrated with the body, biorgans had specialized cells releasing plenty of cytokines and hormones to send calming signals and enable cooperation with the augmented organ. As the cells around them die and they lose access to most nutrients, the produced proteins were malformed and detrimental.

This flood of deregulated toxic signals overwhelms the rest of the body and makes its way to the brain, scarring it permanently. Victims are to enter a brutal frenzy, with all their violence disinhibited. Before the role of the signaling molecule was highlighted, it was believed to be caused by the excruciating pain provoked by the necrosis of organesque. Even though this erroneous theory was quickly dismissed by further research, it seems the public mainly remembered that. Mike was the first to refuse to listen when I correct him on that point.

Terminal necrosis

Eventually, the brain gets so messed up it stops sending some vital signals, and the body as a whole begins to fall apart. The necrosis spreads to healthy tissues, which don't have the resilience of organesque. This is the final stage, people reaching it don't have long before they pass. Nothing can be done to save them at this point, the only sensible thing to do is to put them out of their misery.

The Cure

At long last, a Cure was engineered to contain the deleterious side effects of the implants. And it worked, at least at first glance. Since the first stage was not visible anymore, some people mistakingly believed it was over, and even lucid researchers laid on their success. However, what the cure addressed was merely the symptoms, the real cause still unknown. One by one, people with functioning implants turned mad and attacked everyone around them. The trial subjects almost all died during the research of the Cure, now it was the turn of the second wave.

The military.

It wasn't pretty. At the time, augmented soldiers were basically super-humans, and they were everywhere. Their brains have been completely cooked by whatever hormones their implants were producing, beyond saving. However, their biorgans never underwent necrosis, were fully functional. Well, not exactly fully, a lot of cells still died, but it wasn't crippling anymore. A few months later, they took over the world and claimed it as their own.

Notwithstanding, the Cure did not turn out to be a permanent remedy to the necrosis. It slowed the decay of the body, but could not stop it in the end. Which is, after what happened, a very good thing. It means that sooner or later, every necrotized will succumb to their inevitable fate. All we have to do now is to survive until we outlast them. Easy as pie, right ?

Not so senseless

Necrotization mess up the nerves of the victim, but most importantly the brain connections. It severs the seat of reflection and conscience in nearly every case but looks more random in other areas. They can lose their senses, become blind or deaf, or be a part of their limb coordination. But don't count on that. Rather, it is safe to assume every necrotized has retained their senses. For the record, I even saw one who clearly felt the pain of the dozens of gunshots that pierced his chest. Didn't put him out of his misery though. Serves the bastard right.

However, it does not stop there. The brain is a weird thing, especially when confronted with weirder stuff. In some cases, they got enhanced senses to an unreasonable degree. I heard the story of one noticing a short breath at over a hundred meters. No doubt it was exaggerated, but you get the gist of it. And that's not even considering the ones who got their enhancements from biorgans.

Follow up

That's what we call necrotization. The process that transformed every implanted into murderous lunatics. It is not contagious as-is, unless one transplants a biorgan in your body since it comes from the organesque. However, their bites, rusted weapons, and open wounds harbor their share of pathogens. Any injury they cause, admitting it is not immediately fatal, must be promptly disinfected and cleaned. We don't want forgotten diseases to resurface, do we?

Nonetheless, the Cure wasn't distributed evenly and some were already at the advanced stage of the necrotization upon receiving the treatment. The earlier they received it, the deadlier they are. We devised our own system to classify them, from what we've seen and the testimony we gathered during our trip.

Superior Necrotized

Right off the bat, the greater threats. The lucky ones, you could say. They were the last ones to get transplanted before it all went South. Thus their implants are the best, especially military ones. Peak biotechnology, bundled with the Cure. They were the vanguard of the defense back then, able to fend off multiple necrotized at the same time. We believed they may escape this terrible fate, and almost elevated them as heroes. Until they, too, turned and utterly destroyed the shelters they were protecting. Their necrosis is almost unnoticeable, but they can't be reasoned with.

Needless to say, there aren't enough humans alive to take down a single one of them, even if all the survivors banded together. Our only hope is to outlive them, however, it is faint. Their necrosis progress very slowly, and their lifespan can solely be guessed. Wait, hide and see, eh?

As a side note, I'm discussing the creation of a new category for the Ultimate necrotized. They would be very smart, completely devoid of any necrosis. They are only a few, but from what I've heard they really stand out. Never confronted worth the title though. I can tell because I'm still alive and kicking.

On infection and bites

I said it before, but this point needs to be highlighted. This is no ordinary disease. It can't be transmitted. I've seen too many idiots getting themselves bit on purpose, hoping to turn. That. Does. Not. Work. Only thing you'll get will be tetanus, hepatitis or worse, if you even survive the encounter. Though we refer to it as such, necrotization is not an infection in the sense that it does not seek to reproduce or spread. It just kills.

How does the Cure works?

To be honest, the thing is kind of misnamed. There was an media hype to announce the end of the crisis, but it was only just a patch. The spread of the necrosis was due to the uncleaned dead cells blocking the access to nutrients for healthy ones, and the difficulty to remove the bad tissues without amputating the whole biorgan. I did not look into the Cure's recipe, but it made somehow the immune system circulate better in the biorgans, phagocyting the junk and freeing space for boosted cells to divide and fill up. The necrosis wasn't really cured as mentioned above, merely mitigated.

In regard to the inhuman features

I include there both the super-human physical prowesses and the grim look. They are both somewhat intended from the start and not side effects of the necrotization. The grafteds were for the most part buff soldiers, and they took special mixtures to enhance their bodies in order to sustain the burden of the massive transplants. Even without the crazy abilities they gained from them the dudes are above any normal human. Concerning the appearance, they are damn ugly. I think the distorded look was made to instill sheer terror in the enemy's ranks. Works even better now with all the rot and killing intent.

On the gender distribution

That's a point that deserves to be adressed. We don't see that much female necrotized, and there's an explanation for that. Most of the necrotized out here are former soldiers, and the military is a notoriously machist corp. Women were sparse, and even fewer got to try out the aguments. Something about test trials only held on men, and the difference of the effect on the anatomy poorly understood. Whatever they said, necrotizeds do not care about genders, and a female will kill you just as easily as a male. Gender disparity would have been welcomed for once.

Inferior necrotized

I love to call them "inferior", it's so misguiding. Almost feels like they are less of a danger than they are. But don't get fooled, they are the most numerous for a reason. The advancement of their necrosis is variable, and sometimes the original body is partly necrotized too. They received the cure after the endocrine disruptors were released in their body and the necrosis already deep in their biorgans, too late to be saved and too soon to be controlled. Not only are they hideous, but they retained most of their abilities. A common point is their lack of intelligence balanced with an unleashed aggressivity.

They come in all flavors of death, and some can even be bested. Furthermore, their decay is substantially faster than their superior counterparts, and some already fell into the next category.

Biombis

These ones, they are somewhat ok. Not that I would stand a chance against any of them, of course, but a group has no problem dealing with them. They are, for the most part, the ones who did not receive the Cure until their body were already badly damaged and their mind broken. They look pretty much what you would expect when thinking of zombies, with their rotten faces and awkward walk. Their brains are deep-fried, making them nothing more than roaming beasts. They can be felled fairly easily by a seasoned fighter, however even the most decayed is still slightly stronger than a strong man. That's not counting the dozens of diseases they carry in their open flesh.

They are our least concern, and they may as well be gone by the time anyone is reading these lines. Or perhaps since the biombi is an inevitable stage of a necrotized cycle it will not disappear until the very end.

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Suzie just asked me who made the system of ranking and what was its use. I did, okay? The categories are mine and yes they aren't that useful because if you are to face anything higher than a biombi, you're pretty much fucked. But it was fun to make them up, and distractions are rare enough nowadays. Feel free to disregard them. I just think they're neat.