The Scientific Vampire

[The Sum of Awe]

Reading "Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks" inspired me to do something similar. It seems that realism has taken its tole on a lot of stories modernly, the one that sticks out the most is the subject of Zombies. But, I was attempted to try to make a seemingly scientific version of a vampire. Of course this might not be exactly spot on with the science in this world (for two reasons: fiction is fiction and is near impossible to not have flaws. and the fact that the only science I really care to know is nowhere updated as far as Bill Nye, but I'll try).

Criticism accepted, not only for scientific fallacies, but also my grammar and writing style. It's been said to me by quite a bit of people that the way I structure my sentences and paragraphs are not professional (although, I wouldn't say it is horrible).

I am also writing a side-project called Vampire City and planning on using this as an almanac, so criticism would be appreciated! So far the Intro and Virus Info are completed, I'll add more when I have time

Some of the world's brightest and most updated historians and biologists have came together to scruff out information about a past threat to the human race. This is a highly classified project for two reasons:
1) The research is not fully completed, far from it. We have limited information that we must gather on our own, let alone we go unfunded for these discoveries. The lack of enough information about this will not meet up with the public demand of answers, which will cause a widespread panic over a threat that is met with a lot of uncertainties. This will result in not only danger to our facility, but society as a whole may be at hand. We do not have many psychologists taking part in this facility, but we do not have to in order to understand a fundamental truth of human reactions: People tend to destroy themselves before the actual threat comes at hand. Human beings will react with whatever they feel is right and will not listen to orders given by professionals. Alerting people of a threat against humanity without giving them professional orders will result in society toppling itself down, making it harder for us to find orders, and let alone spread these orders to those who are too caught up in their fear-based nature to listen to instructions even if they were given by a professional.

2) We still struggle with covering all of this up when bits and pieces of findings related to this are found by other scientists, dismissing them separately before the other facilities can draw connections between them. This is highly illegal, so we are not only at hand with physical threats of the virus, along with the societal threats of sharing ill-presented information. We are also have the law against us. If the law is to find out that we have been undergoing a private organization without sending any findings or links to high government officials (in order for them to take action), the whole study will go unfinished, widespread panic will occur, and g-men will make assumptions on what actions to take. The world would go to hell and the facility will be sitting in a prison cell, watching the end of the world behind barred windows, knowing it is hopeless to even try.

For this reason, I will not reveal the facility's name, location, or any of the members involved. We are nice enough to actually study this, if you have my writings, please keep us at heart. I will be fired for sharing this information with you.

So why am I? I have confidence that the very few people who will get this information will be rational enough to keep it a secret. But, while we do not know much, the one thing we do know is that the virus is not only going to spread faster, but it will also take out humanity faster than it did in ancient times. Today, society is more interconnected and therefore we are never too far from the virus. I found it unethical to keep it secret when it will be on the rise very soon. I also have doubts we can recover enough information in time. So I present this to you, having faith in you to have faith in us and our studies. Follow this uncovered information. I will only base this around facts that we are sure about, if they are not conclusive I will mention otherwise.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

There are three separate viruses which cause this disease (that lacks any name other than the street-name "Vampire"), each under the category of “Renactus”. Two of the three, most scholars and historians believe, have existed far longer than we would’ve guessed. The earliest recordings that relate to the symptoms of Renactus in general have been found in Mesopotamia. The most recent one is the only one that is still in existence, but its evolution is allowing it to become more effective.

Z2: The earliest virus we have studied. There have been some symptoms shown in early Mesopotamian folklore, but there haven’t been any signs of it existing in any civilizations afterwards. The transformation from this virus was slow, making the infected person very ill, and a little under half of the time did not even make it through the entire transformation, they would’ve died too early or the virus would’ve taken too long after the body died to resurrect the brain.

Vinx: Found in ancient Greek folklore, although it didn’t appear to be common enough as it was easily dismissed as folklore even by the Greeks themselves. There were very few who learned about it, and those who did hear about it often did not take it realistically. The handful of documents we’ve recovered of this virus come off as unhelpful, there was too much myth added over the time of its existence to get clear information of what truly happened and what did not. So far we are positive that this virus has become instinct. The only other things we are sure about is: The transformation was much quicker and more successful than those effected by the Z2 virus, we know of two symptoms that surely did happen from this virus and both relate to the common symptoms of Renactus viruses in general, and the fact that it was found only around the Athenian area, other than two possible accounts near Sparta, but those are only possible accounts, and if they are to be concluded, it’s likely they resulted from contact with Athenians, having occurred during the time of the Peloponnesian War.

Sylvan Parax, or the common name “Forest Demons”: This virus has been proven to exist modernly, and we have quite a bit information about this one, having occurred most recently. Its origins are in the 18th century Transylvania. Compared to Z2 and what we know of Vinx, it spreads a lot faster, although for almost fifty years of its existence, it remained in the woodland area that it originated from. These woods were not often visited by Transylvanians, mainly because of constant dampness. The first few infections were not documented, but later hikers have found their bodies and couldn’t find a cause of death (our team has recovered their preserved bodies and performed modernized autopsies on them, having noticed that the spread of the virus into the city and the first accounts of it came shortly after these bodies were recovered). There indeed was evidence of a virus infecting them, in fact, one body that we were unable to perform autopsy on (due to decay) actually did, still, have a large amount of dead Sylvan on it, and the brain itself differed from the rest of the body, appearing as if the brain had been active well into the 20th century but the rest of the body has been inactive and dead since the mid-18th century.

This virus has never proven to be ineffective, always succeeding in possessing the brain. In the 19th century the virus had already began to spread through the rest of Romania, and in just a couple more years had it spread throughout Europe itself. But still, the infections have declined in the 20th century, and we are unsure why. Though, it remains today, but is still rare enough to go unnoticed. It is beginning to rise greatly, and we believe that by the end of this decade, the virus’s population and the numbers of infected will have increased to the point that many first-world countries will have code red warnings related to it, and the Middle Eastern countries may be completely gone (considering how it appears to be more common there). The highly populated countries, such as China and the United States, are likely to be target points for this virus, and we estimate these countries will help it grow beyond the point of no return.

The virus information

 

[The Sum of Awe]

NOTE: I might consider changing the origination to one of these two, considering how a virus is a very over-used explanation for zombies:

An evolutionary process (wasn't this in Daybreakers?),
Gene mutations done artificially,
A cure gone wrong (though I Am Legend used similar)

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Although we can only name off a few symptoms that we are sure of for Z2 and only two for Vinx, we do not need to worry about those anyways. Luckily, the symptoms that are essential to research are easier to study. All Renactus viruses have similar symptoms, which leads our team to believe that maybe these viruses are not only related, but are different stages of evolution for the same virus. There is not enough evidence to conclude this theory, of course, and our limited studies do not allow us to put too much focus on this theory. I do wish we did put more focus on how this virus has functioned in the past, but the team dictates our research to be put on modern studies, to know how to prevent a viral attack of vampires in our next generations.

Bringing forth what we have uncovered the symptoms to be, I must remind you that these are not in exact order. Our research has proven that the symptoms are different for different people, though we have estimated that this is the average chronological order and set of symptoms

(NOTE - Five out of nineteen subjects were humans who did have consent to be part of our tests. In conclusion, infection occurs only in mammals, reptiles, marine life, birds, etc. are either not responsive to this virus or were killed by this virus):

1. Itchiness - Most subjects would scratch, but the areas remained itchy.
2. Skin Color Distortion - The flesh appears to turn a light blue/purple color, we assume because of the decreasing body temperature.
3. Fever/Nausea - We assume this apparent "fever", along with the nausea, comes from the virus burning out the frontal lobe of the brain.
4. Irresponsive Organs - All organs begin to stop functioning, starting with the heart and liver, then the brain, and then all other organs in harmony.
5. Death - It could be said to be part of the irresponsive organs, but we are not sure if the death is caused by the lack of organ functions or if the lack of organ functions are resulted from death.
7. Resurrection - The brain begins to function once again, and the stomach still digests. The eyes, nose, and other sense organs (other than feeling) work alongside the brain. The only other things that permanently stop working are the lungs, the heart, and the liver. Though, this resurrection is hardly one at all, this virus takes control of your brain, having burning out the frontal lobe (we are unsure why). It has full, manual control over your body via the brain, similar to that of a remote controlled robot. It is not the resurrection of you, all of the memory, thoughts, etc. are gone. It is the virus possessing the "false body".
8. Increased abilities - Strength (and therefore running and jumping) appears to be increased, along with stamina and durability, even intelligence and critical thinking. It actually is not increased, muscles do not strengthen or weaken, the body is dead (though, for undiscovered reasons, it does not decay). Because the virus has full manual control over the body, it can use more of the strength than you ever could (being the flesh itself). The body does not run out of stamina, the virus doesn't feel tired at all. It can run at sixty miles per hour for days, until the muscles pop from over usage.

Transformation: It takes four hours for the body to have gotten to this point. We are unsure of any order beyond this. The teeth will rot very quickly and will eventually fall out from as small a force as wind. We are unsure what creates the fangs at this fast of rate, but in just two days, fully developed fangs will have grown and popped out from where the upper eyeteeth once were. They will have a black tint in the center, this is the venom being shown through a clear-white colored fang. This venom, like that of a snake's, will be injected into whatever the fang bites into.

The victims have complained to have an extremely dry mouth after the transformation is completed (over a nine day period). They also note that they can smell blood from inside of us, and there is a 12-inch glass frame between our faculty and them. This shows they have an increased sense of smell. It appears they have an increased sense of vision and hearing as well, having heard things such as somebody breathing from twelve yards away through very thick, concrete walls, and noticing things that we can't. They do not feel pain, many tests have proven so. We are unsure if that is an advantage or disadvantage for them, considering how they will not know that their bodies are being destroyed, but at the same time they are not going to stop coming after a victim if they are supposed to be feeling pain. It takes a lot more to kill them anyways, considering that in a few cases, they've been shown to be able to manually heal gashes and cuts in a matter of hours. Their skin has a dark-blue tint, their fangs average from 6-8 inches long, their hair has shown to be falling out slowly, they never blink unintentionally, and they tend to show no emotion.

At a distance, a vampire could blend in with the human crowd. Otherwise, up close, they have a difficulty blending in. Another way to tell is by the body temperature, which is very low, you have to remember that it is a possessed corpse, so it will be corpse-like.

As for the non-physical transformation: They've been shown to outsmart us in many intelligence tests, and they have become very rational. We are unconvinced by anything they say, as it could very well be trickery. We have had extensive conversations with the infected, and we have noted that their personality is much unlike that of the body's before infection. They appear to lack empathy, have a lot more patience, and have a bad craving (which appears instinctual) for blood. If they do not have a pound of blood (from any species) every four hours, the brain will shut down. It appears that, since the lungs don't work, they have an instinctual need to drink blood in order to get oxygen. The stomach will digest the blood and the oxygen will be used (we are unsure how).

It appears that they do not have any memories from their body's past life, though if that body had a significant event in a certain area before, the vampire will recognize said place if traveled there, but there will be no memories of what actually occurred there.

Another physical trait is - vampires do not bleed. The blood is still in place as the heart does not beat.

Symptoms & Transformation

 

[The Sum of Awe]

There is no known treatment for this virus. Anti-biotics and vaccines have been proven useless against viruses in general, although we have tried multiple chemicals and continue to do so. We plan on stopping this testing, it appears to be a total waste of money for something damn-near hopeless.

It is true that this virus may not appear bad, in fact, some findings may prove that it wasn't created naturally, but it was genetically structured artificially in order to change the growth and development of a human body containing it. These findings include lab documents that have marked similar symptoms and trying to contain them (abandoned laboratories from the forest that we believe is the source of Sylvan contained these lab reports, these were illegal studies and the team behind it simply disappeared). Some are skeptical, however, because even today we don't have enough advancement in the field of genetics to be able to do such a thing, how would they 3 centuries ago?

Perhaps this virus even is being implanted modernly for medical purposes, under a different name and involved within multiple formulas. This would explain why many modern cases of these "vampires" share a similar medicine called AniMotion. Studies by larger companies either have not undergone or else have been covered up. This medicine is meant to do exactly what this virus does: grant "eternal" life, an ability to heal faster, to never age, and to become more powerful. Such miracle medicine would be popularized if media got a hold of its existence, no matter what the outcomes appeared to be, people would try to work with this medicine and create an entire dominance of vampires in our species.

Because this virus is being used as a medicine under a different name (which we are unable to study, for now) we cannot find a cure, it appears to be given as a cure itself. The fact that this could've been created for the same purpose would extend it to be even more profound and most likely untreatable. This virus is meant to dominate over all viruses, if that purpose is the sole reason for its existence, there is a great chance that there will never be a counter virus available for it.

As of now, we are nowhere close to a cure, it spreads much too fast once it gets into the brain. For now, the way to prevent transformation when bitten by a vampire relies on cutting the bitten limb off, anatomists estimate that for each minute extended on since the time you were bitten, you should cut off another six inches away from the bite. If you cannot cut the limb off without killing yourself, then you are most likely going to transform into a vampire. It is then recommended to kill yourself - for those around you, and for the safety of you. It will not be you in control of your body, and would you really want somebody else in control of your body, especially if this "somebody else" is a virus?

Our team will further our studies for as long as our team exists. As of now, we have no treatment. Though, we do have information on how to prevent catching this virus. This will be in the next chapter.

Treatment Information

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Beyond the virus that has been the main focus of this guidebook, I will chip in a little information about "vampires" that are not classified by the nature of Sylvan.

D-Types D-Types or Dracula-Types are more of a general type of vampire. Not all D-Types are effected by Sylvan, and not all Sylvan-infected are D-Types. D-Types is a broad label for vampires that have an emotional element to them. They can love, they can hate, they can be sad, they can be happy. This is not true for all vampires. D-Types also require one more characteristic - intelligence. There are vampires that have emotional feelings, but do not have intelligence. The D-Types can speak the language of the body's previous life, through memory. Most of the time they will not recognize any other language beyond the one that was used more in the previous life.

Cultic Vampires (Vampies) Vampies are classified as vampires because of their similar features of a vampire - Drinking blood, staying in the dark, an obsession of the dead, and the fact that vampires are a very important symbol for them. They are not infected, they simply are a cult. They believe that blood will give them eternal life, and drink actual human blood. Some of these cult groups have been known to purposely get infected, believing that vampires are gods, angels, or something even bigger. They find that the near eternal life of a vampire, the vampire's psychological repulsion of religious symbols, and their superhuman abilities prove them to be greater than humans, they have advantages beyond humans so the cultists have no reason to believe these creatures are not evil, but merely an improvement.

Bio-Types Biotypes are the vampires who were infected by Sylvan, they stick out in the group because of their blue, suffocated skin and lack of hair, needless to say their large fangs that hang out of their mouth and down to their cheek. The recently-made vampires have large intelligence, but after three months of the infection they become extremely instinct-based and stupid.

Boomers Boomers are usually of the age group 12-19, in very rare cases even older, and have been obsessed with fictional vampires. They will act like vampires, but they certainly are not vampires.

Day Walkers These vampires are infected by Sylvan, although the one, most common symptom, does not appear in these ones: the fear of sunlight. Often times it isn't that they lack this symptom, but simply because the are blind and their hair is really long, so the sunlight serves as no threat to them. Though, in the day, they tend to be more passive, unless they are really desperate from blood. At night, they are poor nocturnal hunters unlike the other Bio-Types.

types

 

[The Sum of Awe]

An obvious weakness of a vampire is sunlight! What does sunlight do to vampires? It brings them quite a bit of damage actually. Here are the stages, in order, of what happens to a vampire when introduced to sunlight.

Stage 1: The vampires almost immediately become blind, their eyes are way too sensitive to observe a light as bright as the sun's. They will bang their head, kick and punch in the air, and sometimes even scream. If they have not died from smashing their head on concrete, the next series of stages are still to come.

Stage 2: The vampire's skin will be burned. Their ultra-sensitive skin has very low temperatures, not only that, but it receives very little oxygen. Over time, the vampire's skin becomes very thin. They will not feel the pain from burning, the only pain they feel is in their eyes or in their brain. The skin will boil up, smoke, and eventually burn off.

Stage 3: If the vampire is still alive after stage 2 (very rare), stage 3 activates. In the 3rd stage, the virus inside the vampire's head will die very quickly. Once the head is warmed up enough, the virus will die from the warmth. This virus cannot stand to be in any temperature over 50 degrees.

Stage 4: Almost never do vampires live beyond stage 3, but stage four is still available if they do. We only have found 2 out of hundreds of experiments in which the vampire makes it to stage 4. At stage 4, it is completely fatal, there is no surviving it. The flesh is burnt off, the eyes are blinded, the virus is dying. In the fourth stage the vampire will begin to decay like any corpse would. In just three minutes will the body no longer function at all, the organs would be decayed way too much to have any further reliability.

Stage 5: As noted, Stage 4 is fatal and is impossible to live beyond it. Stage 5 is what happens to the vampire's corpse. The vampire's corpse will be dry, dead, and decayed. Only the bones remain during stage 5, in which will make the bones as weak as glass.

Another weakness of the vampire is garlic, just like in legend. Garlic is not going to scare the vampire away or kill it on contact, the only way that garlic can dispatch a vampire is if the vampire digests it. For some reason, it completely destroys the virus. Unfortunately, it does not let the body's original owner return, so this is not going to work as a cure. Many people have reported that lacing their blood with spectrums of garlic, and then sacrificing themselves, is very successful for killing zombies.

Vampires tend to be afraid of religious symbols that they remember from their previous life. It is a highly psychological reason - but the reason why it scares them is still not known. One hypothesis that makes the most sense is that vampires have memory of that said symbol was once known as a means of self-sacrifice. Vampires do not feel comfortable with self-sacrifice or putting something (such as a deity) before themselves. This is not going to stop them forever though, don't think that a cross on your neck will keep you forever safe, the vampires will overcome their fear if they are desperate for blood.

Other than that, the only other thing that may be useful is that they vampires do not recognize their own reflection. How that could be used as an advantage is still unsure of, but we are trying to find a way.

Weaknesses

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Many religious people have had their own opinion on the vampires when they have not heard of the Sylvan virus. These opinions have known to be dangerous to the one believing them and the ones surrounding them. Here are some examples shown in past cases:

Christianity A lot of Christians who haven't heard of Sylvan have been known to have three popular concepts about vampires: They are God's tools of judgement day, they are angels, or the belief that they are demonic. The last one has not been shown to have any dangers more than the people who know of Sylvan, the only occurrences in which it is bad, and it doesn't happen often, is when people believe that the vampires will not harm them ever while holding religious symbols - while it is true that they are often times afraid of religious symbols that they recognize, it is not true that this will restrict them or weaken them. The first two, though, have had incidents in which people went up to them, to be intentionally turned, seeking judgement, or simply to communicate with these "angels." Judgement day believers often times may continue to hold that belief, unlike the people who believe they are angels and find out they are not as good as the seem when it's too late. The judgement day believers may believe that they are sinners and were judged unworthy, or perhaps they believed that it is a good thing to be turned.

Buddhists Buddhists haven't shown much spiritual or supernatural claims of these creatures, but there have been cases in which Buddhists thought of them only as impatient, unenlightened humans and wished to teach them of the Buddhist way. This is no very often, though. Buddhists often times, though, have been known to sit and meditate, not worried about being attacked, appearing apathetic. Little did they know that they would become a member of humanity's greatest threat.

Pagans Oddly, there are very few cases of Pagans believing them to be supernatural entities, most of the time it's shown that Pagans find them to be simply mentally deranged. There's no known case of Pagans thinking of them as good, so they tend to avoid them as well.

Islam Muslims have regarded them similarly to how Christians have, but it's shown that most Muslims think of them as evil, wicked creatures, or humans that have been overdriven in sin and transformed into this type of monster. A majority of cases have shown that Muslims attack them, in belief that Allah did not want these sinners on earth, destroying the world.

Writings Here are some writings from religious people in a vampire outbreak:

"God sent out the judgement, it is sad that this happened with it being only my daughter's third month on earth. All that God does is good, though. I have sent her to be judged, she will rewarded with eternal life! I am grateful for this".

"Hell is overpopulated, so the demons came to earth. I will obliterate these unholy creatures one at a time!"

Religious Responses

 

[The Sum of Awe]

You might have wondered, since vampires are animalistic and tend to be against humans, if vampires are therefore another species. They are not, at least technically, but might as well be viewed as such, it might be useful to. Most species tend to have cultures, no matter how simplistic, because most species work as one and do not do what they do mindlessly.

Vampires are not mindless either, they have a high level of intelligence actually, but when they have been turned for over a year, this intelligence seems to fade away, and eventually they do becoming seemingly mindless, but still they are not completely.

They can either go out individually or in a group, both have been observed. But it is believed, from observation, that these groups are at most random vampires that were in the area and were told of where prey is hiding. These groups have no leaders or interest in saving each other.

As a whole, vampires are not organized, and they are indifferent to each other's lives or pain, they don't befriend one another, they simply live for themselves. However, research has concluded that they do in fact have a trading system amongst themselves, often times trading attack areas. For example, when a vampire outbreak occurred in south India in 1992, scientists working for our team (we have groups around the world) observed their nature. They mentioned overhearing vampires talking to each other about trading "feasting areas", for what purpose is unknown, but they hypothesized that the nature of these areas are useful for their hunting strategies, which would explain why vampires are known to stick around in the same area for however long prey resides there. It seems that they are better in some areas compared to others, and that varies among the individual vampire's abilities.

Why don't vampires just travel to that area? Why do they have to trade? They do not always have to trade, it's actually very uncommon. Some vampires are not as indifferent as the others. There are those who want an area to itself and will use force when another vampire tries to steal their prey. Similar to spiderwebs, or humans who own a field to themselves so no other hunters can invade. This aggression usually appears more in vampires who use certain degrees of trapping.

Culture

 

[The Sum of Awe]

How much an outbreak effects a vampire entirely depends on how bad the situation is. Often times, the government doesn't shut down completely. In almost all outbreaks in history, there are three things that a government might do:

1) Usually near the start of the outbreak, when it is still small, they try to find a cure or send out armies to take them down. This will always mean that taxes will be raised big time. It only matters during the start of it, because as it grows bigger money will be useless. Society will last from anywhere to a month to two years, depending on how rich and populated the country is.

2) Later on, as it grows gradually and all seems hopeless, the government will still exist but society will be destroyed by lack of communication, only the government will have means of communicating with each other. That leads to the government's apathy to its country and to use all of its resources to protect themselves.

3) Sometimes, but not often, a government will shut down altogether, and most of a time the governments that do shut down skip the second step of the process, and even sometimes the first step.

A government ruled by one person, it does not last very long, because one man cannot make the correct decisions. If one man could, then it should be easy for all people to take down the vampires.

Ironically, a Democratic government, both Representative Democracy along with Direct Democracy, doesn't work any better in a vampire outbreak than a monarch or republic, actually they are shown to last the shortest out of any other governments. In a direct democracy when the people are in fear, they will vote simply out of fear, not thinking it through. For a representative democracy, it's too long of a process to decide what to do.

Fact is, the government will eventually stop interfering if it gets too big. But society is the first to go.

civilization

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Our teams, even though global, lack a good number of any scientists in the field of psychology, the few we have are often times not as experienced as the average psychologist is. Though, we have been able to uncover a few things with research of the vampire's psyche.

1) As mentioned before, vampires show to be very frightened of religious symbols that they can recognize from their past life. There doesn't appear to be a reason, as far as we can study, but many hypotheses are out there. The most popularly believed hypothesis insists that the vampire is afraid of the symbol because they subconsciously remember it to be related to that of a power above all, and logically a vampire would want to avoid a power greater than itself unless it has a good chance of bringing it down. Another hypothesis is that there is no logic to the fear, it simply is a subconscious trait that somehow got switched in the mind during the process of transformation, in which now they perceive it as a threat. We are not likely to come up with an official answer to why they are afraid of these symbols, most of us dismiss it as unimportant because the symbols are not powerful barricades, it wont hold vampires off for very long if they desperately need blood. In the same way an arachnophobic would walk past a bunch of spiders if it meant life or death.

2) Vampires are extremely intelligent. Right now, humans use only a small portion of their brain. But if you were to have full control of the brain and function it manually, you would be able to use all of the brain, which is why vampires are smarter than the average human. After a while, though, the mind will fade away, and the vampires will act mindless, but still somewhat smart to the point where they will be able to recognize most obvious tricks and will know how to operate simple things that they are used to, such as opening a door. Driving a vehicle, on the other hand, is not possible when they are at this point. Even when they are very intelligent, vampires will not drive. They very well know how to, but since the virus is controlling the brain manually it becomes extremely complicated to do such a task. Besides, vampires have no limits by stamina or strength, they could sprint for an entire day and still not be tired.

3) This one is obvious, but I decided to put it on here anyways. Vampires, who feast on blood at first for oxygen, will quickly become addicted to blood. When they need blood they will go through any task in order to get blood, they get unimaginably crazy, jumping into a brick wall to break it down, screaming blatantly, sometimes even cross through sunlight, when they are thirsty, they will do anything in the body's power to get blood, even if it means risking their own lives. But if a vampire only wants blood to fulfill its addiction, it will not go crazy on the hunt, unless it went mindless. The vampire would be patient, sometimes trick the victim into a trap, they will hunt quietly or try to blend in as a human. Some of them will even toy with the victim for their own pleasure, not of seeing the victim afraid, but when a person is afraid their heart will pump more faster, giving it a richer taste (supposedly) and a strong smell.

4) Vampires, as smart as they are, do not recognize their own reflection. They never are in interest of its reflection however, it would see it as another vampire and vampires are indifferent to each other, unless a vampire has aggression over a certain area, though even still the vampires that claim an area will often give signs that it is their own and the vampires trying to enter will not disturb the environment. There has been a study where a vampire was trapped in a room full of mirrors, but the vampire still, after two and a half hours, couldn't realize that the reflection was of him. Most people would think they would realize this right away, knowing their intelligence, but they just don't for an odd reason.

5) Vampires have no passion for anything other than blood. They even put blood before their own life. They can smell blood from over two miles away, studies have shown, and possibly even further (further testing is needed).

psyche

 

[The Sum of Awe]

CREATURE FILES: Children of Z​

A short passage has been recently recovered by a historian, luckily working for our team, who found an entire library of books buried 6 miles down (in what we believe is a destroyed nuclear bunker). In this very organized library, it contained a variation of books, a majority of them being informative books in many subjects (cooking, hunting, surviving, mechanics, etc.) Along his scope through the books, the historian (who wishes to be unidentified) has found a few that were writings of whoever was living in this bunker. Two of them were self-learned things, one was filled with notes and sticky notes about things he needed to accomplish and a daily routine, the last one contained scientific discoveries on his own while he was down there, filing a creature that seemed to be threatening his environment at the time, which he labels a zombie. Sadly, only his studies and equations that were written down remain. The man and his classified research has disappeared, the lab emptied.

I know this is about vampires, but this discovery has an increasing interest on our studies. It was found just a week ago in some location in Africa. Revealed data has been sent to us, but some has not, trying to limit it to the important speculations. However, the entire book has been sent to us, being that we are the largest English-speaking facility out of all other bases.

As to keep this about a more major threat, vampires, I will not write much about these zombies, but will cover enough information considering that it may be another threat to mankind that we simply haven't found yet, though the main focus is vampires for two reasons: 1) Vampires have shown to be more of a larger threat, containing more victims, and having more historical outbreaks. 2) Many fictional universes parallel hypotheses of a zombie apocalypse, ranging in many different ways zombies have appeared, while vampires haven't been shown in a more in-depth detail, and the variations of a vampire are all completely out-of-reality, almost often relating to each other and the survivors having access to futuristic or high-tech weapons.

Aside from a limping, slow moving, mindless, moaning, decaying corpse moving across your yard, there is a necessity to tell the difference between a human and a zombie. All of my crew is dead, the last two members died in a tragic accident in which resulted from such ignorance. One of my men, guarding the base with me doing lab work in the base, saw the third of my men returning, but only from a distance. The man was sent out to find more survivors (the team seems to be needing more group at this time, it started out with a team of 20, all names written down in this book), loot for useful things, and in general just to see how good the area was doing. One person would go out once a day, and we would take turns.

Anyways, the man doing the look out while waiting for the third to return always was a little paranoid and trigger happy, it was foolish of me just to let him do this guarding task. He mistook the third man as a zombie. Apparently he was limping, moving slowly, and his vest was off (It appears this group would give the gatherer a vest to wear which would protect his torso from bites and would also allow the "Guardian" to know they are one of us, the turnoff for this vest was the hellish exhaustion it brought during humid days, but they were meant to carry lots of water and to return when they were down to their last water bottle). This is what we termed "Guardian Betrayal", and we always required the reaction to be "Guardian Slayer" in which a separate member of the team, uninvolved in the Betrayal, would kill the Guardian to remind everyone that hesitation was a quality they needed to have before firing at a zombie, it was required to kill the Guardian so people are reminded to be patient to make sure what they are seeing is a zombie, there are listed characteristics of a zombie before:

1) The Eyes: The zombie's pupils are permanently constricted, and they are so small that you cannot tell that it even has a pupil unless standing only a couple feet from them. The iris will turn to a yellow, gold, or just as often a rich orange-brown color. These colors are not too far from each other, however, though these different tints would depend on the original eye color. The conjunctiva will be very red, dark pink, or (extremely rare) brown, no white will remain.

2) The Act: If you cannot, for some reason see the eyes (zombies, according to this documentation, have been known to wear glasses if they hadn't fallen off of the corpse), the way it moves and is driven will be another factor, although not an official factor. This means, while all zombies will move in a similar way, injured people may move that way too. They will move slow, often times limp or fall over from having such a confused and unfocused brain. If their only attraction is towards a certain sound, then it is likely to be a zombie. But a common way to test it is throwing fire crackers behind them. If they turn around almost instantly it will likely be a zombie (this does not permit to shoot just because this is observed). If it does not turn or can't sense direction of the sound, it is either a deaf zombie, a zombie with hearing problems, or a living human who is confused. A living human will often react by jumping, waving arms, and shouting something in a language and not in mumble.

3) Decay of the Flesh: Zombies most of the time will have flesh that is either decayed, ripped, or otherwise. Some remain fresh for a week (the longest notable period of time without decay). Also, they do not bleed.

4) Distract it with an animal. Throw a living animal at it and if it tries to eat it then you are fully right to shoot!



The last page of the book has a large writing on it, finalizing it: "The last man was given the Guardian Slayer, and with this message I will result my last bullet to good use."

Though it is likely the man sadly lost hope in such a small outbreak (only an estimation of 500 "zombies" in that area, and the virus was very hard to catch, most people being immune to it and thus surviving most bites, sadly they listened to popular culture and believed that the bites would turn the human, resulting in death of more people than necessary) A man of great contribution could have survived.

But some insist he did not mean suicide by that quote, or maybe he intended to but changed his mind, finding a better hope, which is insisted because all lab work has disappeared and no bodies or blood were found within the bunker (it is believed to have collapsed long after the date of the book, which the man wrote the date for every single entry).


As for vampires encountering zombies, which was always an interest of man, it has not been researched for we have no extra knowledge of zombies, but the man writing this book claims that the virus wouldn't continue spreading for long, it was just the already turned that had threatened them, so it is doubtful enough to be passive of this. Even if remnants of the virus do exist, it only infects 2 out of 10 people, according to the author.

If they were to hypothetically encounter or exist simultaneously, in theory the vampires would not be interested in the cold, dry, unmoving blood. If they were, they would just dig up cemeteries. The zombies, according to the author, seemed to only act on the instinct of hunger, filling their bellies but never digesting the food, always feeling hungry. In that case, we can neither say that the zombies would or wouldn't attack the vampires, too little information of their motives are revealed, there is many things needed to be considered: if zombies don't mind cold, dead flesh, in that case they would eat each other.

If that were to happen, vampires would most likely defend their individual selves, but otherwise be passive. The only thing that's important to know in a situation of both vampires and zombies dominating over man; the most effective tool would be prayer, faith, and hope, which is saying a lot about the desperation at such a time.

With vampires we are safe to explore in daylight, but with zombies on board daylight is just as deadly, and the night even more deadly.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Back to vampires!

Though it is as unlikely as meeting aliens, Sylvan needs to take higher considerations in the case of everyone becoming infected. If uncontrolled by all major governments, that will be the only time it could spread to all people.

Sylvan has been shown in multiple other species, including insects, although not very often for insects because insects depend on a natural way of getting it. Considering this, it is very dangerous at the time of a vampire outbreak, you must escape the area far away in order to get away from any infected bugs or animals. In a near-pandemic world however there will be nowhere to go, and no reason to survive, even though it is in our instincts to do so. If you do intend to survive, you will have to be cautious of pretty much anything living.

It might cross your mind what vampires will do when all blood is gone, but that's doubtful to happen considering all of the species in nature that do have blood. if they do happen to run out though, the vampires will remain until they die again, the majority of earth's inhabitants no matter the species is going to flush.

A lot of people believing sending survivors to the moon in such a hazard would be a great means of survival, in theory it wouldn't be, it would simply result in moon vampires, they do not breath air. Although, that is just what I based it off of, and I am no astronomer to know if they would die in another way.

All in all, there will be permanent havoc, there will not be enough government to act, not enough people to survive...

Pandemic

 

[The Sum of Awe]

We have been succeeding at an incredible pace for finding useful information that go in depth of an outbreak, such as a journal kept by people during an outbreak. Here's a bit from a man (Hank Howard)'s journal. It may deem worthy to read other accounts so history doesn't repeat itself, so we can use the advantage of trial and error for survival. It was found in Egypt:

December 5 - Televisions globally announced a warning of a hazard happening, but not much was said, it just kept replaying all day, every day until the power went shot. I followed the instructions right away.

December 9 - An explanation of what is actually happening was announced on the radio, and it's useful to know not to go out there, but being kept in doors blocks what is going on. This update said that it is fine to go out in daylight, but always be ready just in case. They didn't say what they were, it only mentioned mentally deranged mutants resulted in the death of hundreds in this area. Also, no other area is known to have this problem. I do my looting in the daylight, supplies are near everlasting as long as I can keep this up.

December 25 - It's Christmas... Boy do I miss my family who lives in Canada. I'm happy to be reassured that they're safe, but having been sent to Egypt for a military mission, I am now stuck until these crazies are killed.

January 1 - New years... but so far it is the same as last year. It's not as enjoyable trapped in your basement, cold and without a light or electricity. I feel so isolated and alone. No further communication was released since the time, as far as I know, because the power is beginning to go untreated and we will not have it for very long. Sometimes, though, I will hear the mentally deranged's footsteps up above the window, never entering my house. It makes me think that... I don't know, everyone else in the area were killed by these folks. I can never for sure know when it's clear. There's no people walking during the daylight, and only a few supplies left in the closest gas station. Had they evacuated?

Feb 12 - I bet it's fake! The government was hiding something and wanted us not to see it. The ones walking above me are payed to act like that.


No further posts were revealed

reported history

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Although some have been dismissed as myths and legends, while others have simply not been recovered by historians, the following list includes some famous vampires in history, fictional and real vampires. It is information that we have and may serve as an interest to many, nothing really relevant to surviving the Sylvan virus or its overtakers:

Cain Cain, best known from the biblical story of Cain and Abel, is someone that we are not sure exists. Some accounts from early Christianity mention seeing Cain, and oddly, an engraving on a stone that was dated back long before even Judaism has shown a drawings of a man forced to walk the earth forever after killing another man. In the same area as this engraving, not too long after the engraving, there is evidence of a small vampire breakout, killing the entire village very quickly. This makes our Christian, Jewish, and Muslim staff believe God has turned Cain into a vampire, or else that Cain was infected at the time of killing his brother and myths circled around it insisted that God turned him.

Dracula Dracula is the first thing that comes to mind for many people when they think about vampires, and almost everyone has heard of him, so it is needless to say he is a popular vampire. Many of you know that Dracula is a fictional character created in Stroker's book, but Vlad the Impaler took huge inspiration over this creation. He himself is considered just as a king and protector of ancient Transylvania, but some things we have found may conclude that his family has a history of vampires, almost appearing as if the virus can spread genetically, but only through DNA because a vampire's sexual organs do not function nor do they need to because the virus most often shows to spread by biting. On the other hand, this could be an entirely different virus as we know it. Two generations ahead of him, his great grandmother has shown vampiric actions through many written records, but only simple things such as drinking blood, avoiding church, the mysterious disappearances of her friends... many possibilities are left here: 1) she was infected after the birth of Vladimir's grandfather. 2) it was an entirely different virus 3) both of those 4) she was not infected at all just had a tendency of acting in such a way (cult behavior?) 5) these could be myths properly misplaced. Before that, her grandfather has very small information to work with, only two paragraphs have been found about him, and only one line that mentions he was abusive in such a way that "maybe the devil even finds disturbing". Another sentence talks about his teeth rotting out and other teeth problems. With that, we have found information that may have resulted in Vladimir's hostile behavior, it may reveal a secret history of Vlad that many people have waited too long to find out.

Daimen Vento Daimen Vento is largely unknown, only a few people wrote about him as if he were some kind of folktale to keep people scared for fun, such as the modern day monster in the closet. It appears, though, that two of his victims have been found according to literature of his killings. All that is known is that "The disappearances happened more and more often as time went on, we may not have a village left if it stays at this rate. Five local protectors of the village have been sent out to hunt him, only one returned with bloodstains and looking ill. The first man to see Daimen and live has lasted overnight until his body disappeared." Other writings insisted that a man who supposedly seen him noticed that Daimen puts the bodies in a cave and described the location. After hearing this and a long process of finding its exact location, our team has found the cave and a couple of skeletons. Later on, texts now described Daimen as unorganized and simply crazy, having no rationality, and even further on he was found on the ground unable to move but was not injured, all that Daimen was doing was lying there, breathing heavily, and his eyes were twitching wildly. The author supposedly killed him, but mentioned that there was no blood that came out. Knowing this, it is very likely that this man did exist and was indeed a vampire.

*may edit later, may not*

famous vampires

 

[Monk Of Reason]

If I had my way I would have made Vampires a very close relative of humans but an evolved hominid that would have developed different traits. More nocturnal and their bone structure would be slightly different so they could be more like our Chimpanzee relatives and be far stronger per pound. They would have developed elongated canine teeth as they were effective ways to puncture skin as part of their diet has been blood which they evolved to drink to replace several normal options for minerals and water.

They probably evolved in the Deserts of Africa where they lost pigment from being nocturnal and have a much lower body temperature (making them feel like a corpse) to reduce the amount of energy they need to expend to keep going.

Something like that if I had to throw it off the top of my head.

 

[goodhunter819]

Speaking of throwing things did anyone read Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today?

I did a short study on the myths of vampires, in Romania Count Vlad Dracule is a Christian legend and during a certain moth of the year he is celebrated, you all probably know this but the myth of the vampire gained notoriety in western Europe just as the birth of Christianity reformation then the vampire myth took shape, there was no romantic associated with vampire and like Nosferatu the vampire was seen as a despicable ugly monster that prayed of the weak and defenceless, the vampire was always said to be the local man at the end of the street, the little boy that played in the square or the nice couple who just came back last week from visiting their in-laws, the vampire was never the person that would be obviously suspected, the myth was given life because lacking advancement in pathology and autopsy, they would bury a man, woman or child and wrongly pronouncing them dead and as such they would be buried in shallow grave as they did back then, the person would then come back to life obviously not being dead and any unfortunate sole passing the graved yard of the unduly deceased would hear moaning coming form the graves and assume them to be the unholy un-dead , at times buried people would claw their way out of the grave and be sighted walking through the town centre only when they had been buried some hours previously and so the vampire myth was born, it is the same with the zombie, what would happen was the witch doctor would mix the derided fin and parts of the puffer fish and when inhaled would decrease the heart rate so low that it could not be detected and so unduly pronounced dead then buried, some hours later as the dried and grounded to a dust fins, bones and parts wore of the victim would awake in a shallow grave and claw their way out to be seen as the living dead roaming the streets and so the zombie association was made as zombie living dead just as the vampire myth was born. (a fact moment from my old personal study)

 

[goodhunter819]

Did you ever read anything by Sandozar entitled The Spiritual Vampire- Not all Vampires Suck Blood. I read some of his works objectively.