The Z-Virus, or Zombie-Virus, is a sickness that kills people and makes them rise as zombies. It broke out in March 2035. There is no cure and no vaccine.
Bites. A zombie bite that breaks the skin.
Blood and bile. Zombie blood or bile that gets into the eyes, the mouth or an open wound.
It does not spread through the air.
It does not spread through water.
Zombie claws and hits do not infect. Only bites and fluids do.
The Z-Virus only lives in people. Animals never get it. Meat from a deer, a pig or a cow is safe to eat, even if a zombie was nearby.
Only people who die while infected rise again. People who die any other way stay dead. The dead are burned anyway, to be sure.
Some infected people do not turn. They wake up alive as Mutated. The Z-Virus is still in them. Their blood and their bite can infect other people, the same way zombie blood can. That is why strongholds keep them out.
The Blood Test Kit is a paper strip and a drop of blood. The strip turns black if the person carries the Z-Virus. Gate guards use it on everyone who comes in. Mutated always fail the test.
Most people know it started in northern Norway and spread by air from the city of Tromso. Nobody alive knows the full story.
It began at Brekka Station, a small permafrost research station on an island off northern Norway. Scientists there thawed very old ice cores. A lab worker was infected in March 2035. A supply helicopter carried the virus to Tromso. The station archive may still be on the island. The Northern Commonwealth guards this secret and keeps boats away.