Chapter Four: Evolution
(Storytelling & Antagonists)
It wants me to go outside.
I've been pacing in here for days. It wants me to eat, that's why I'm hungry. I'm only breathing because it wants me to. I'm awake because it won't let me sleep when I want.
It wants me to call Dale, I know it does. It lured him over here yesterday, to pound on my door, to bring flowers. I shouted at him to go away because it wanted him to come inside. I knew what it wanted. It was playing with my head, but I figured it out. I figured it out and now it's mad, so it's making me hungry so I have to go outside and get food.
Once I'm outside, it's going to try to run. I boarded up my door so it couldn't get out.
I'm so clever. I'm going to stop it.
Insane in the Membrane
Mortal Versus Infected
Mortal Versus Chimera
Infected Versus Mortal
Infected Versus Infected
Infected Versus Chimera
Chimeras
Animals and plants can become infected. The true mechanism is unknown, but a few powerful Cambions claim to have friends who have done it. Chimeras take shape wherever infected gather; one might say they seem to appear in the wake of the infected, though the infected often find that chimeras confront them as soon as they arrive some place, be it a bedraggled, dust-filled town in the American west or the bright lights of the big city.
Lost Ones
Those infected who go mad, who lose all Fusion, or else find themselves driven insane by the change are known as lost ones. They were infected and abandoned, were infected by chimeras, or by some quiet, back-alley transfer of Resonance. In some cases, infected who are reborn from the ground up lose all memory and become lost all on their own, while others seem to have lost themselves entirely to whatever lives during blackout.
The Unquiet Dead
Sometimes infected with low Resonance and Fusion get back up when they die. Other people, when infected, run the risk of simply dying from the transition. These dead do not ever remain quiet and still as all polite corpses should. So called "ATP zombies" tend to gather in groups and hunt for flesh and energy among the living. Unlike lost ones, they can't blend into the human population due to their obviously rotting and fleshy nature. The disturbing part about these individuals is that they are more common than normal infected, often coming in large groups, usually in conjunction with chimeras.
ATP zombies develop over time. For each month an ATP zombie lives, it manifests a mutation feature (from the subversion of the same name). A given ATP zombie might possess long limbs, crawl on walls, and possess armor plates.
Handcrafted
Very recently, infected have found themselves pursued by shadowy organizations and strange paramilitary groups who seem disturbingly informed about the presences of ATP zombies and chimeras. It is obvious that these groups don't know about the infected in general, possibly because zombies and chimeras are much more common manifestations of the pathogen. The organizations seem to man facilities stocked with beakers and cages, talk of viruses, macrophages, bacteria, and all manner of more bizarre things, including references to old gods or darker things.
Enemies & Allies
Quentin Felps
Director Johnson