Let's Pretend: If It's Not a Virus, What Else Could It Be?

[Eviebae]

who: government
what: Nanobots!
why: attempt at a new weapon gone terribly wrong
how: no idea...gets put in bottled water meant for shipment to troops in the middle east???

Nanobots--I just realized that just about everything they call nanotechnology these days is just 'make it smaller' technology. Make chemicals smaller so that they can be absorbed better etc. That would fit with the absorbing into cuts.

Wikipedia, I love you!

Nanotechnology (sometimes shortened to "nanotech") is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometre in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices possessing at least one dimension within that size. Quantum mechanical effects are very important at this scale, which is in the quantum realm.

Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.

[timberwoof]

Just the way its transmitted doesn't give me the impression of Nanotech. I honestly think its a bio-engineered "super soldier" type virus constructed by the government but the transportation truck got struck in an accident and one of the test subjects got loose. My idea.

[Eviebae]

Could all be happening in a virtual reality....

purgatory...

[jamman39]

Honestly part of me hopes we don't find out, id be ok with it being an infection but if its a 'supersoldier gone wrong!' I'm pretty sure no amount of great writing could make that not suck. The Aliens theory actually could be interesting, I mean what if its just some symbiotic microorganism and a side effect of it is a release of HGH in the host's system? I don't know if this story would go that far into left field but if it does I know ill still be listening. What do you guys think?

[timberwoof]

Could all be happening in a virtual reality....

purgatory...

Not with the Lost Theory..... *shakes head* hehe

[cycogod]

I just think it's some type of accelerator that enhances..? a behemoth is a big person maybe on steriods.(a bodybuilder)
whatever is in your body or mind at the time of death is the main trait that is re-animated. the ink zombie was insane so in death he's unique.don't they say that 99.9 % of people think the same. jumpers were more athlethic before death.etc
still don't know what causes the return from death? What about the hive mind ?

[Pteranodon]

It hasn't yet been established that they ARE zombies. They behave like 'zombies' from certain movies, but bullets seem to stop them. Are they rotting? Are they just rabid humans? Do chest wounds injure them? Are their hearts beating, do they digest food or starve to death? We don't know, NONE of this has been answered yet. We can't know what caused it without first knowing what the 'zombies' ARE.

Who/what are the 'usual suspects'?

It could be a virus, a fungus, an infectious Prion (Look up 'Prions' if you wanna read something REALLY scary; they're infectious proteins that spread exponentially and can't be stopped and they kill you fast), mass-mutations, or nanobots- and that's only things from KNOWN science. What if this plague comes from some totally undiscovered branch of science? That'd be like the Black Death back in the day- people were baffled about what was causing it. We know what it was now (Bubonic plague) because we have microscopes etc. What if the modern world doesn't have the tools yet to even DETECT whatever's causing the 'Zombie Plague'?

My crazy theory; What if some weird radiation pattern from a Black Hole (or a Gamma Ray burst) caused instantaneous mutations in billions of humans? Something like a Gamma Ray burst would hit the entire planet all at once, even the side facing away from it; maybe only certain sets of genes (or proteins) are affected, found ONLY in humans and maybe chimps, so MOST humans are mutated in a matter of hours and the rest only get the 'plague' via a bite. Other animals and plants wouldn't be affected cause they don't share the target chromosome (or protein)

Can it be cured? No. But once the Zombies are all wiped out the survivors can repopulate the world.

[Pteranodon]

Besides, nanotech gone awry becomes "Gray Goo", not Zombies.... (Gray Goo would destroy the entire World, not just the humans, and NOTHING could stop it)

[Pikepaw]

I think maybe it is a blood-borne parasite. Government engineered parasites that implant in a host and grow in and on them. Sort of explains the leather skin and the different dimensions of the jumpers and behemoths. I admit the theory has its holes, but I like it. Some microscopic parasite that mutates its host, there are some that exist that can manipulate your brain in scary ways.

Also, the evidence the show gives us says that the zombies are alive. Even in the very first episode, Angel is sarcastic about, "the dead returning to life" and Saul repeats, "Who says they're dead?"
Burt shoots a jumper through the chest with a shotgun and it goes down. There are other times when they shoot zombies through the heart and seem confident they are dead (even when they are still dangerous). Also, when on the back of the firetruck and blasting the zombies with the SAW, you cannot honestly tell me that Burt (awesome though he is) shot each and every Zed through the head with a machine gun. Still, the zombies do have a higher endurance, can withstand more hits than a human

[Private Parts]

Let's get creative...

What if Radon Labs (or someone nearby) was in possession of an alien (duh duh duuuuuuh!). They were running tests on the tissue and someone in the lab was contaminated. The alien blood/tissue could have acted like a virus. A pretty nifty defense--if you bite me, I colonize you.

sounds a bit like were the Day by day seires is goin