Copyright 1996 by Lon Miller. All rights reserved. The persons and events in this work are fictional.

I don't know if you'd exactly call this a story. It's just something I wrote one day after watching George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" too many times. The science is all pseudo-science, though I did try to background myself before I took a stab at this. The 'viroids' mentioned in the story are quite real; they're thought to be the culprits behind mad cow (Creutzfeldt-Jakob) disease. If you can think of anything for me to do with it, I'd be happy to hear from you. If you surfed in from the Homepage of the Dead, welcome! Check out some of my other stories. If you're interested in viruses and virology for real and don't want to sound like an idiot when lecturing your friends, I highly recommend The Big Picture Book of Viruses. You also might want to check out the excellent World Wide Web Epidemiology Virtual Library.

Alomal-137 Epidemiology Case Study

CDC Center for Infectious Diseases Field Office #201G Anchorage, Alaska July 25th, 1998

Final Status Report

When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Table of Contents
1.INTRODUCTION 2.ALOMAL-137 2.1A-137 Human Positive (A-137HP) 2.2A-137 Human Negative (A-137HN) 2.3Symptoms 2.4Destruction of A-137HN Subjects 3.HISTOLOGY 3.1Pre-necrosis 3.2Post-necrosis 4.EPIDEMIOLOGY 4.1Viral Genesis 4.2Propagation and Mutation 4.3A-137HN Genesis and Spread 5.PROJECTIONS 5.1Future Population Trends

Table of Figures
Figure 1. A-137 Infection Physiology - Head Figure 2. A-137 HP Viral Slide Figure 3. A137HN Viral Slide Figure 4. Attack Patterns - A-137HN Populations Figure 5. A-137HN Propagation - USA Figure 6. A-137 Projected Epidemiology

Centers for Disease Control -------------------------------The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is a federal agency that is a part of the United States Public Health Service. It was originally established (1946) as the Communicable Disease Center and acquired its present title in 1970. Its headquarters and main laboratories are in Atlanta, GA.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this document is to provide a final, comprehensive study of the contributing factors and epidemiology of the Alomal-137 (A-137) pandemic. CDChttp://www.mercy-limited.com/johnian/rant_cds/rant_pages/scripts-fiction/Alomal_137/alomal.htm Page 1 / 11 Anchorage will continue to update this report at Internet and Skynet locations as long as our facility remains operational. As we are the only American facility still online in the Northern Hemisphere (other operational pandemic investigations facilities include several Scandinavian installations, McMurdo Sound in Antarctica, and CDC-

The purpose of this document is to provide a final, comprehensive study of the contributing factors and epidemiology of the Alomal-137 (A-137) pandemic. CDCAnchorage will continue to update this report at Internet and Skynet locations as long as our facility remains operational. As we are the only American facility still online in the Northern Hemisphere (other operational pandemic investigations facilities include several Scandinavian installations, McMurdo Sound in Antarctica, and CDCGuam), we have taken responsibility for providing all currently known information to any accessible electronic distribution medium. This report replaces all previous A137 notices originating from this facility. This report is not a definitive version of the history of this epidemic; historical narrative provided in this report is purely the work of this office based on largely anecdotal evidence, with some hard factual data provided by many government and civilian agencies from around the world. The true nature and genesis of this disease will never be truly known; all the principal persons involved have been dead for over a year. Anyone who does read this report is encouraged to contact our facility; our electronic address is cdcalaska@cdc.worldnet.un.gov. We can also be reached by most telephone exchanges, cell phone, short-wave radio and commercial television broadcast at one of the numbers/frequencies printed on the last sheet of this document. We maintain continuous updates and informational broadcasts on BBC World Service, operating out of Bush House in London on standard BBC WS frequencies at twenty minutes past every hour. We encourage anyone who reads this report, especially persons living in North America, to contact us by any means available; however, we cannot accept refugees at our location. Our facility guards are authorized to use lethal force in turning away refugees. Do not approach our facility.

ALOMAL-137
A-137 is a polymorphic mutation of the Panacea-8 megavaccine developed by Peregrine Biomedical Corporation. A-137 manifests in a two-stage form affecting humans:

A-137 Human Positive (A-137HP)

A-137 Human Positive (A-137HP) is a gram-positive, airborne vectored, non-virulent strain which has achieved 100% infection of all human samples, based on direct analysis by CDC #201G and information transmitted by other operational CDC, WHO and IRADC research facilities. A-137HP is actually a viroid form low-molecular weight naked RNA strand, which makes it non-immunogenic and therefore asymptomatic. Without a protein shell, A137HP is insusceptible to inactivation by all forms of radiation, including ultraviolet, heat, and ionizing (gamma rays). Once a host is infected (apparently, primary infection vector is respiratory and contact-oriented) progress is inexorable. The process of viroid replication is not currently understood, but the multiplication of A137HP is extremely rapid and almost completely undetectable without detailed clinical enzymological analysis. Culture samples predict A-137HP cellular assimilation in an average-sized human seems to be complete in less than 27 hours. Certain atypical individuals already under close enzymological observation (specifically those suffering from immunological disorders such as Epstein-Barr, AIDS, and Hodgkin's Disease) briefly indicate elevated serotonin levels upon initial infection, typically subsiding after 2-4 hours and not inducing significant distress in the subjects, with the exception of general feelings of lassitude and fatigue. Upon cellular necrosis, lytic enzymes and the process of cellular degeneration combine to activate the A-137HP viroids by an as-yet undetermined morphosis. Observation indicates levels of lactic dehydrogenase and glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase substantially below that normally found in necrotic tissue, indicating probable subduction of those enzymes. As the A-137HP viroids activate, they interact with free-floating nuclei shards inside the cell and seem to form their own replicator strands. As the cells undergo these morphological changes, some of them are taken by still-functioning leukocytes to areas in the lymph glands for disposal, as would occur in a living body. The end result is these 'activated' A-137HP cells accrete and interact in the lymph nodes with dead cells and various immunilogical components such as phagocytes. Approximately 15-20 minutes after somatic death, a new cellular morphology begins to populate the non-circulating blood, apparently moving, consuming, and activating other cells in a heretofore unseen fashion. This is the A-137HN cell.

A-137 Human Negative (A-137HN)

A-137 Human Negative (A-137HN) is a gram-negative, secretion vectored, highly virulent strain responsible for the reanimation phenomenon. Following the process described above which seems to generate the A-137HN cells, they multiply both in the dying tissue and in the lymphatic system. There are also extremely high concentrations of A-137HN generated in the cranium, especially the thalamus, adrenal gland, cerebellum and pineal body. The cells in this area, although not well observed under clinical conditions, seem to cluster together in the classic appearance of a virus. Coagulation takes approximately 8-12 minutes upon cessation of EKG function. Post A-137HN brain tissue has a parboiled appearance, with the ordinarily spongy brain mass showing extreme liquefaction and large areas of general necrosis, especially on the cerebrum and areas of higher brain function. A-137HN's infection rate is several levels of magnitude superior to that of anaerobic bacteria. When the world scientific community (or what was left of it) first began to approach the phenomenon as idiopathic instead of being caused by toxins or radiation, the initial theory was that A-137HN was caused by a virulent somatotype of bacteria, perhaps related to that of the allergic reaction which usually occurs in victims of human-human subdural bites. This was due both to the unremittingly fatal nature of exposure to A-137HN (by biting from an infected individual) and the edema and suppuration always found at the location of these bites. When a living human is bitten by a A-137HN subject, massive quantities of saliva (approx. four times that generated by a typical human) are injected into the bite location and immediately begin to devour cells, reproducing themselves by a seemingly morphologically impossible form of cellular meiosis. The reproduction rate is extremely high; 100 cells exposed to a population of 1,000 normal human cells will devour 900 of them in 15 minutes, creating 450 additional A-137HN cells. The 100 remaining cells are somehow 'captivated' by A-137HN, as they continue to reproduce (at a drastically reduced rate) and operate semi-normally, bathed in a variety of enzymes and proteins that A-137HN cells seem to constantly emit. Detailed enzymological workups have not been fully accomplished at this stage, due to A-137HN's extremely delicate nature outside a living organism. Phagocytes arriving at the bite area to consume the invading A-137HN cells are captured themselves, and changed from a agent acting on the body's behalf to one that assures its destruction, as they carry intact A-137HN cells to the lymph glands, where A-137HN repeats the process of accumulation and consuming of dead cells. Ahttp://www.mercy-limited.com/johnian/rant_cds/rant_pages/scripts-fiction/Alomal_137/alomal.htm 137HN enzymes also seem to activate the A-137HP infected cells in the host body, resulting in complete breakdown of normal body function and eventual cellular 11 Page 2 / death, followed closely by somatic death and subsequent reactivation. Typical time between biting and somatic death is 3-6 days, during which time all blood products and secretions from the individual are extremely infectious; time between death and reactivation is 8-12 minutes.

Phagocytes arriving at the bite area to consume the invading A-137HN cells are captured themselves, and changed from a agent acting on the body's behalf to one that assures its destruction, as they carry intact A-137HN cells to the lymph glands, where A-137HN repeats the process of accumulation and consuming of dead cells. A137HN enzymes also seem to activate the A-137HP infected cells in the host body, resulting in complete breakdown of normal body function and eventual cellular death, followed closely by somatic death and subsequent reactivation. Typical time between biting and somatic death is 3-6 days, during which time all blood products and secretions from the individual are extremely infectious; time between death and reactivation is 8-12 minutes. It is the opinion of CDC-Anchorage that the A-137HN consumption of living human cells and the preponderance of A-137HN in the most primitive areas of the brain are the primary causes for the behavior exhibited by A-137HN infected subjects. Physiological studies have shown that A-137HN consumes the captivated cells faster than they can reproduce; hence, the feeding behavior of the affected subject. Why the feeding is so limited, and precisely how the ingested cells are transferred to the host in any kind of an efficient manner are still unresolved. A-137HN subjects which do not feed for a prolonged period (2-3 weeks) will go into a dormancy phase, usually finding a location inside and away from sources of incoming sunlight, wind, or moisture. They remain in a sessile state until a suitable source of prey comes within their sensing range (see section 2.3 for more on this), and then move to the attack. Computer modeling indicates that with no source of food, A-137HN infected subjects will become sessile in 2-3 weeks as described above, and survive 10-15 years as they gradually consume the captivated cells in their own bodies. Eventually, all the living cells will be consumed, and the A-137HN-emitted enzymes will attack the nuclei cores of the A-137HN cells themselves, resulting in complete cellular disintegration and final somatic death of the affected individual.

Symptoms
A-137HP is asymptomatic. Culture testing indicates viroids initially infect the hemocytoblasts ('stem' cells) and from that starting point propagate through the blood cells, autoimmune system, and eventually the majority of body tissue. The viroid seems to be neuro- and immunotropic, although nearly all cells are affected to some degree. A-137HN causes the bodies of the recent somatically dead to return to a form of activity which includes muscular, motive, and limited cognitive forms. This can be attributed to the deposition of A-137HN cells in vital areas of the cerebellum (see Figure 1) as well as the endocrine system, salivary glands, core CNS areas, and the lymph glands. These areas of the formerly dead individuals are essential to A-137HN function and propagation. Reactivation usually takes a matter of minutes, as high concentrations of A-137HP already exist in the above mentioned areas (particularly the brain and specifically the cerebellum) and quickly transform to A-137HN. Reanimated individuals share one universal trait; an unremitting urge to attack, kill and consume the flesh of somatically alive individuals. They are able to detect and track 'living' humans across open ground at ranges claimed to be as great as one-half mile (approximately 804 meters). Aside from that base function, other behavioral characteristics seem to vary by individual. All reanimated subjects show drastically decreased intellectual capacity. Physiologically, the subjects do not seem to operate in biologically normal ways. Testing at CDC-Anchorage and other locations have shown parallel results. A137HN subjects are non-homeothermic and have no pulse rate to speak of, as their hearts do not seem to function. However, they do have fluid circulation, and blood pressure, as well as intracranial pressure and CNS fluid circulation per a normal human subject. How this happens without functioning pump organs is an ongoing mystery. Senses seem to be more or less the same as a normal human, although they have an extraordinary awareness of the proximity of other A-137HN subjects and living humans. Maze testing with human subjects has demonstrated extreme homing talents and an ability to coordinate attacks (in terms of covering escape routes, attacking from different directions, etc.) without any communication of any form. This topic will be fully detailed in the next revision of this report. Cognitively, A-137HN subjects seem to function at the approximate level of a pre-verbal infant. They walk with a random, shuffling gait, and are capable of avoiding obstacles and manipulating objects around them. Although they seem to gravitate toward certain places or objects (most often possessions they had when alive, places they'd been, etc.) they seem unable to remember why these objects and places were so important to them. Restrained A-137HN subjects show a limited ability to respond to motor commands and demonstrate some degree of object permanence, although the difficulty of working in close proximity with A-137HN subjects impedes the interview process. Rare subjects (5-10% of the population) are capable of using tools, up to and including discharging firearms. However, reanimated subjects seem incapable of any problem-solving or intuitive ability; although certain individuals are capable of discharging firearms or opening doors, they cannot seem to recall how to reload those firearms or close a door they have just opened.

Destruction of A-137HN Subjects

Although this topic has been exhaustively discussed in the popular and scientific literature, principal points are reproduced here for clarity, with additional information based on CDC-Anchorage testing: 1. A-137HN subjects cannot be deactivated by any of the following means: Poison, gases, pressure changes (blast overpressure effect generated by explosives) Gunshot wounding to anywhere but the region outlined in Figure 1 (also see below) Blood loss of any type, including internal bleeding, impalement, or dismemberment short of decapitation Hypoxia: e.g., suffocation, drowning Electrocution (shocks applied to head of >20KV will sometimes stun/kill subject) Broken neck or non-severe blunt force head trauma 2. Subjects are non-homeothermicandcannotadjusttowarmer/colderenvironments.Theywillliterallyfreezesolidatsustainedtemperaturesof0Chowever,they do not die in this state. Once thawed, they will resume attacking immediately. They will also retreat from fire. 3. The only realistic way of accomplishing deactivation of a subject is to destroy the brain or sever the brain from the rest of the body. To destroy the area of the brain responsible for reanimation, the outlined area in Figure 1 must be penetrated and physically mutilated. The body may also be completely destroyed using fire, explosives, or manual implements. The body should be destroyed following deactivation and not simply buried.

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Figure 1. A-137 Infection Physiology - Head.

HISTOLOGY
A-137 is a binary infection with two distinct phases: pre-necrosis and post-necrosis. Most species, especially mammalians, are affected by various non-intraspecies capable A-137 mutations.

Pre-necrosis
Pre-necrotic A-137 (A-137HP) is a pandemic manifestation. All samples of species tissue examined by CDC field offices and other world medical institutions show A137HP infestation.

Figure 2. A-137 HP Viral Slide. The viriod can be seen as the dark oval in the right half of the slide.

Post-necrosis
Post-necrotic A-137 (A-137HN) manifests itself following cellular death, as the enzymes responsible for cell destruction activate latent A-137HP infected cells. A137HP activation occurs initially in the brain and brain stem cells, with activation spreading throughout the body as cellular death due to hypoxia spreads across the organism.

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Figure 3. A137HN Viral Slide. The A137HN cell is the dark circle in the center; the white blossom is a indeterminate collection of enzymes and proteins.

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Figure 3. A137HN Viral Slide. The A137HN cell is the dark circle in the center; the white blossom is a indeterminate collection of enzymes and proteins.

EPIDEMIOLOGY
The term 'Alomal-137' was applied to the phenomenon in May 1997 by the CDC central office in Atlanta, Georgia during an online satellite teleconference with world disease experts. Alomal is an almagam of 'Alpha-Omega-Alpha'; literally, life-death-life, with 137 being the culture serial number of the sample in which the viral cells were first identified. The original 'Romero-137' was deleted on concurrence of CDC and WHO and should no longer be used.

Viral Genesis
Investigation by several US Government cross-functional teams indicates that the pre-mutated form of A-137 originated at the Peregrine Arbovirus Research Facility (PARF) in Jefferson City, Missouri in February 1997. PARF was destroyed on May 11th, 1997 by an armor unit of the Missouri National Guard working in conjunction with the Cole County Sheriff's Department and a Army Medical Command/CDC/FBI investigative team. Their operation was conducted due to the large numbers (approximately 1500) of A-137HN subjects found near the site. It is assumed that PARF was keeping large numbers of A-137HN population on its grounds prior to and after the initial outbreak. Methodology of A-137HN development is unknown, but salvaged documentation provided by the Cole County Sheriff's Department indicates experimentation with recombinant segmented viroids to cause post-infection formation of a vaccinia (smallpox) virus. This development was part of a program to create a viral 'bus' which could deliver an entire sequence of crippled viral cores to a patient. The end result of this research path was a preliminary (non-human certified) panimmunic termed Panacea-8 (for the number of contagions it was to inoculate the patient against). From the documentation reviewed by CDC, contagious outbreak seems to have occurred immediately prior to or during a tour of the PARF facility by a delegation from the World Health Organization in that same timeframe. From that location, delegates returned to the United Nations building in New York City, interacted with hundreds of international representatives and spread the infection among all of them.

Propagation and Mutation

Large-scale infection was assured when a chartered 737 aircraft bound for the Antilles with 105 passengers, all leaving that conference, lost power and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on February 21, killing all aboard (see Figure 6 for specific location). Fish feeding on the bodies of those victims ingested the proto-viroidal, and when they were subsequently consumed by birds, cross-hybridization with forms of influenza-A and B strains was inexorable. The viroid inserted itself into the protein sheath of the influenza virii, adding a vector, and polymutation with the segmented nucleus of the influenza virus increased the flexibility, complexity, and amino acid RNA replicase activity of the original A-137 sample. Re-integration of that cross-hybridized strain with the human-attenuated strain already spreading pandemically among the human population caused the inevitable result, on or about April 6, 1997; reanimation of a recently somatically dead human. Spread of the highly durable and contagious viroid was rapid and completely uncontrolled. Propagation was facilitated by the asymptomatic nature of the infection. CDC computer models shown in Figure 6 indicate that propagation waves, originating at the United States Eastern Seaboard, Mexican Yucatan Peninsula, the African Ivory Coast and Spain, coincided in less than three and one-half weeks. In most respects, A-137 contagion seems to meet many important characteristics for pandemic initiation, as postulated by Dr. Richard Shope of the Rockefeller Institute of Comparative Pathology: 1. Unexposed population. Since this viroid was deliberately developed to be non-immunogenic, the population had never been exposed to anything even remotely similar. Furthermore, the asymptomatic nature of the infection resulted in no unusual outbreak of illness, which would have provoked a detailed scientific investigation. A-137HN's anaerobic nature and close resemblance to human-attenuated vacilla ensured it would spread quickly and completely once introduced into a human host, whether by bite or A-137HP transformation. 2. Area of high population density. The United Nations International Infectious Disease Symposium was an ideal place for the A-137 viroid to gain an initial human acclimation. There were 1600 scientists and unknown numbers of support personnel, political representatives and journalists present at the meetings, most of which were held in large open-air auditoriums. 3. Cross-hybridization. Infectious disease specialists from around the world, all of whom had been exposed to - and therefore carried humanattenuated samples of - various diseases in the course of their research, provided a excellent cross-hybridization source for A-137HN. Furthermore, the crash of Flight 227 and the subsequent introduction of A-137 bearing human cells into the ichthyoid and avian food chain, (specifically the influenza A viruses in the lower gut of several species of waterfowl, which then returned to the United States via the Mississippi, Atlantic and West Coast flyways and reintroduced the A-137 viroid along with a mild late February/early March influenza epidemic) was another opportunity for cross-hybridization of the A-137HP strain. This vector is also a likely explanation of why other species of mammal (including, but not limited to, domestic dogs, wolves, pigs, cats, squirrels and almost all other rodents with the exception of the weasel) have shown similar traits of revivification following somatic death. 4. Opportunity for infection and re-infection. The population density of New York City in particular and the US Eastern Seaboard in general meant that A-137HP was passed back and forth between literally millions of people in the weeks between 2/19 and 4/7/97. The symposium scientists, most of whom returned to their home countries immediately afterward to share their findings, also started core infections in their host populations. Additionally, the reintroduction of A-137HP with a mild "Hong Kong" influenza-A epidemic started a new infection wave in the human population.

A-137HN Genesis and Spread

First reported cases of A-137HN reanimation occurred in Greensboro, Georgia, at seven o' clock on the evening of Sunday, April 6th, 1997. A Greyhound bus crashed into a ravine on Interstate 20 just outside of that town earlier in the day, killing all 38 persons aboard. Police reports from the scene, when the bus was discovered 4 hours later, indicated that 17 bodies had been found on the bus, all having died of severe head trauma. The 21 persons not at the scene are assumed to be the first A-137HN subjects. They had wandered away in search of food.
http://www.mercy-limited.com/johnian/rant_cds/rant_pages/scripts-fiction/Alomal_137/alomal.htm In the hours that followed, the Georgia State Patrol responded to 25 calls from motorists who reported seeing 'dazed' persons wandering on Interstate 20 and its / 11 Page 5 associated county roads. Most of the time, GSP was unable to locate those persons after arrival on the scene, as the motorists would drive on to the first location with a pay telephone. Finally at approximately 11:30 PM, a elderly man whose car had developed a flat tire on Highway 20 12 miles west of Greensboro used his cellular

discovered 4 hours later, indicated that 17 bodies had been found on the bus, all having died of severe head trauma. The 21 persons not at the scene are assumed to be the first A-137HN subjects. They had wandered away in search of food. In the hours that followed, the Georgia State Patrol responded to 25 calls from motorists who reported seeing 'dazed' persons wandering on Interstate 20 and its associated county roads. Most of the time, GSP was unable to locate those persons after arrival on the scene, as the motorists would drive on to the first location with a pay telephone. Finally at approximately 11:30 PM, a elderly man whose car had developed a flat tire on Highway 20 12 miles west of Greensboro used his cellular phone to call AAA. As he spoke on the phone to the service operator (such calls are routinely monitored), he reported a small group of people walking through the forest towards him. The service operator advised him to stay in the car and lock his doors. Before he could do that, the group fell upon the car, smashed the windows, hauled the elderly man outside and consumed him. The entire event was clearly recorded on the AAA monitoring tape. The first GSP cruiser and ambulance unit which responded to the area were not heard from again. By the time additional units arrived 15 minutes later, they reported that the two troopers in the first car, as well as the EMT crew, were part of the group of at least 25 persons which swarmed the arriving police as they exited their cars, injuring by bite six GSP officers and several paramedics. This initial (documented; it is suspected by this office that there were many other similar, but less spectacular incidents on 6 Apr 1997) incident demonstrates three aspects of A-137HN which held up in the spread of the infection:
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Law enforcement and medical personnel bore the highest casualty rates during the breakout stage of the infection. The Georgia State Patrol lost 50% of its field officers in the first three weeks of the pandemic. Doctors, nurses and police officers were most frequently attacked, as they were most often in direct contact with the A-137HN population. Journalists, firefighters, army reservists and vehicle operators were also decimated. Reanimated humans, although seemingly without intelligence or cognitive ability, nonetheless have a capacity to act in concert - especially in groups of 10-50. Concerted attacks on responding emergency personnel or fleeing civilians are a common story. Since the A-137HN population seems incapable of communication, how they organize such attacks is unknown. Initial reaction of emergency management authorities, specifically FEMA and state/local civil defense agencies, was to order persons to stay in their homes while the facts were determined. This enabled A-137HN attacks to occur on individual persons and families, allowing for a larger spread of the infection. After 10 April 1997 (when a secret United Nations Security Council emergency conference concluded that this was an international, long-term pandemic), official policy changed to that of ordering the public to enter 'rescue stations', which were buildings commandeered by FEMA and the Red Cross. Such stations claimed to offer food, shelter, medicine and protection by armed local, state and federal forces. The chaos that resulted from a general public rush to poorlysituated, ill-equipped, underdefended rescue stations (along with battles between looter gangs roaming deserted neighborhoods), contributed greatly to propagation of A-137HN during April and May 1997. By June, when the Army took over administration of rescue stations, the public was generally suspicious of rescue stations and very suspicious of the Army in the wake of events like the Roanoke Massacre (see below) and public support for the stations was nonexistent. Federal attempts at forced relocation, especially in high-density, low-income areas, contributed greatly to the A-137HN population. The only way to neutralize a reanimated human is by destroying the brain or severing the brain from the rest of the body (specifically the brain stem area indicated in Figure 1). This knowledge took several days to realize and several weeks to become widely known; before that, reanimated individuals were seen as 'unstoppable' (explained in next paragraph). High numbers of firearms in the United States meant that the most popular method for private individuals to defend themselves against A-137HN population was by gunshot wounding; another factor contributing to the rise in background death rate. There were many stories in the first weeks of the pandemic about A-137HN individuals being shot several times (especially in inner-city neighborhoods, where automatic weapons combined with the close quarters of dense housing) and continuing to attack without seeming to notice.

Another factor which contributed to the slow response in determining the best method of combating the reanimated was popular culture, specifically a series of horror films which featured a threat quite similar to the A-137HN population. Unfortunately, those films depicted any sort of damage to the head area as destroying the reanimated individual: in reality, a large amount of damage had to be inflicted on a specific area to destroy A-137HN subjects. When it seemed to the public that attacks to the head were ineffective, there was a short-term panic among the population that the reanimated individuals were completely unstoppable, outside of airstrikes, artillery barrages or (as was concluded in the Helms Act) nuclear bombardment. Even then, the highly mobile and adaptable A-137HN cells were sometimes able to reconfigure themselves inside the surviving brain tissue and 'restart' an apparently destroyed individual 1-3 hours after brain injury. Such unexpected reanimations, which usually occurred at collecting points and in areas with high concentrations of A137HN persons and many lightly armed humans, were the major contributive factor to provisions in the Helms Act which required burning of the dead and also required all hospital, morgue and corpse disposal workers to carry sidearms. Humans consumed by A-137HN population generally lose only about 5-10% of their body mass, typically from the intestines, extremities and renal system (see Figure 4) during the attack, which usually lasts only 5-10 minutes. After this time, the A-137HN attackers seem to spontaneously cease feeding and move off in search of new prey. Exceptions to this seem to be in the cases of large numbers of A-137HN population and few somatically alive humans, when the human has recently died from another means, or if the revived population has not fed for some time (e.g., initial entry into PARF, the clearing of Cabrini Green in Chicago, the Beantown Sweep in Boston, etc). It is not known if the attack procedure ends because the attackers are satiated (which seems unlikely, as they typically immediately move off to attack new prey), if they have consumed all relevant parts of the victim, or whether they simply reflexively cease their attack after a certain period. With the small amount of tissue lost, the consumed body is usually intact enough to be mobile when it revives. There have been no documented cases of A-137HN population consumption of any region of the human brain or spinal cord. The reasons for this are unclear. A human which has been consumed typically transitions to A-137HN in eight to twelve minutes. Following the initial reports in Georgia, more reports of groups of apparently deranged humans attacking other humans, cattle, and even wild animals began to stream in at an accelerating pace. See Figure 5 for detailed descriptions. The initial series of reports, which were (until 4/17/97) confined to the continental United States east of the Mississippi River, seemed to have four distinct centers with subsequent reports spreading out and overlapping from those areas:
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Greensboro, Georgia Albion, New York

Evans City, Pennsylvania Wytheville, Virginia

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Figure 4. Attack Patterns - A-137HN Populations.

Figure 5. A-137HN Propagation - USA. Why, or even if, A-137HN first manifested itself near smaller towns is unresolved. Several factors could be involved: Rural communities tend to be more socially and physically closed, with the result that the viroid had more transferences among a small community of humans, allowing for rapid attenuation (basic principles of epidemiology seem to contradict this); l There could have been some environmental commonality among the locations (though the Helms Act nuclear strikes along the Eastern Seaboard make that possibility impossible to verify) which facilitated the final A-137 mutation; http://www.mercy-limited.com/johnian/rant_cds/rant_pages/scripts-fiction/Alomal_137/alomal.htm ignore what's going on around them, especially if it's unpleasant. Page 7 / 11 l Or, as one immunologist stated at the May CDC telecon: "most people in big cities deliberately Maybe the smaller towns simply noticed what was happening earlier than big places like Atlanta or Philadelphia."
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allowing for rapid attenuation (basic principles of epidemiology seem to contradict this); There could have been some environmental commonality among the locations (though the Helms Act nuclear strikes along the Eastern Seaboard make that possibility impossible to verify) which facilitated the final A-137 mutation; Or, as one immunologist stated at the May CDC telecon: "most people in big cities deliberately ignore what's going on around them, especially if it's unpleasant. Maybe the smaller towns simply noticed what was happening earlier than big places like Atlanta or Philadelphia."

Although this observation is somewhat populist and cynical, the large numbers of A-137HN subjects discovered by police and military units in the sewers and ghettos of New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Washington D.C. and Boston lend it some credence. Soup kitchens and shelters in eastern metropolises reported record declines in attendance over March and early April 1997 at the same time as an influenza epidemic and cold pre-spring weather were making conditions extremely harsh for those who lived on the street. Perhaps the decline was due to unpleasant conditions for walking and fear of catching cold; more likely, it was because the actual population of exposed homeless persons was itself declining. News organizations immediately picked up on the massacre in Georgia, and with several major news organizations based in Atlanta (CNN, Reuters US) the area around Greensboro was quickly covered by journalists. The subsequent slaughter of those journalists, evacuation of the survivors, and flight of the general population during the evening of the following day (4/7/97) is a microcosm of general reaction to the A-137 phenomenon in the Western industrialized countries:
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Initial reports (until roughly 5/1/97) were inevitably followed by a rush of personnel to the area; usually police, firemen, EMT and relief workers, onlookers, government specialists, and journalists in the greatest numbers of all. The resulting A-137HN congregation to and attacks on such a massed group, which was typically staying in exposed conditions (Evans City, Pennsylvania, ordinarily a town of 2500, grew to over 5300 people in less than 72 hours from April 6-April 9th, 1997) created far more casualties (and hence new A-137HN subjects) than would have otherwise occurred. Most television stations began broadcasting news reports on eight-second delay after a large scale attack on 4/30/97 near Roanoke, Virginia. An entire journalist corps of 160 reporters, cameramen, and support people were attacked and devoured on live television by a group of 250 A-137HN subjects, a youth retreat group from a nearby Christian camp. The images of young people clad in suits and dresses eating the flesh of national network news anchors was sufficient to induce meetings among the states straddling the Mississippi River, which culminated in the Mississippi River Embargo Act (see below). The subsequent Army reaction of calling in a napalm strike on the area without evacuating the 40-odd surviving journalists (most of whom, hiding in trees with their cameramen filming the milling A-137HN population below, narrated their own demise as the planes came in) raised questions among Americans about the United States Government agenda and concern for the general safety of the population. That event, carried live around the world, also caused most nations of the world to close their borders to American flights, eject all remaining American citizens (sometimes in a quite bloody fashion, which did nothing to help the situation in their own country), and finally close their borders to all incoming foreign traffic. By then, of course, it was too late; A-137HP had become a pandemic manifestation and there was no way of stopping revivification. Even China, which instituted a policy of burning all corpses on April 27th, experienced net A-137HN growth. Initial (until mid-April) news reports, especially those from local stations (which were usually the first to issue such news bulletins and were therefore providing primary information for local, state and federal authorities to work from, as well as the bulletins which were quoted by national and international wire services) invariably attributed the attacks to criminals or motorcycle gangs. An asylum escape in Rochester, New York on the night of the 6th (the subject was shot by an NYSP sniper as he approached reporters on the morning of the 8th, shouting that he'd seen the dead walk and they were walking right towards all of them) added to the misdirection, with the end result that several US news organizations continued to attribute the phenomenon to such causes as disciples of the Branch Dividians and the Manson family as late as May 1st. On that date, following the Roanoke massacre, ABC televised an experiment at the CDC which finally showed a bitten CDC immunologist expire and return to 'life', then proceed to attack and bite several journalists and immunologists before being destroyed. The reaction among law enforcement and civil authorities, even in the face of evidence of cannibalism and revivification, was to treat the situation as a riot (even in outlying rural areas, where riots were unheard of) and order mobilizations of the National Guard and Army Reserve units, equip them for crowd control, and send them on sweeps of small towns and rural areas. Sending large groups of humans armed with clubs, tear gas, and rubber bullets (all of which were completely ineffective against the revived humans) into heavily A-137HN populated, forested areas was, as Dr. Colman of the CDC-CID stated on an April 26th episode of 'Crossfire', "ringing the goddamn dinner bell and setting out a plate of beef for those things". The primary cause of initial A-137HN population growth was not the spread of the disease itself, or even the infection by bite of the human population; it was the complete breakdown in law and order occurring in large cities and suburban areas once the pandemic nature of the phenomenon was understood and reported. Almost every metropolis, even those west of the Mississippi River which were not affected until after April 28th, began to experience major riots beginning April 26th-30th in places such as Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas (specifically starting in Brownsville when two armor units of the Texas National Guard fired on Mexican Army infantry attempting to force entry at Brownsville, sparking the Third Mexican War); St. Louis, Missouri (it was Army attempts to clean up A137HN specimens from this event that led to the discovery of PARF on May 9th); and New Orleans, Louisiana.Those riots, and the casualties from them, were undoubtedly the seed population for growth of A-137HN west of the Mississippi. Canada, which did not have the same rioting problems as the United States, maintained a relatively low level of A-137HN until the July 14th border skirmishes between Canadian Army and US forces attempting to enter Canada, which were specifically composed of large groups of armed refugees and deserting US militia and Regular Army units. Although many nations began to fortify their borders following the April 12th WHO advisory stating that the phenomenon in the US was probably contagious, much of the secondary violence which occurred was not between operating, organized militia or national guard units, in the United States or elsewhere in the world (with the exception of the Korean peninsula, Israel, South Africa and Zambia, Serbia, China, Russia/Ukraine, and other brief wars which erupted in the wake of world chaos). Military actions usually occurred in an area, even those mentioned above, only once. The large number of persons killed in these actions, and therefore the large number of subsequent attacks upon the living, convinced most combatants that for live humans to kill each other was extremely counterproductive. Exceptions to this include the Canadian/US, US/Mexican, German/Polish, Finnish/CIS, North/South China and North/South Korean borders, where the fighting continues to this date and is due more to migration attempts than actual differences of political opinion). Most violence that occurred was between irregular units, frequently segments of former military units (most often local militia or police) with a surrounding band of armed civilian refugees, fighting with other such groups over resources. The most dangerous place to be in the United States between the months of June 1997 and January 1998 was a supermarket, a gun store, or a shopping mall, especially one which was physically intact. A-137HN subjects would attack any living human, but all humans, alive or dead, attacked citizens who tried to claim a Safeway or a Piggly Wiggly for their own.

Secondary breakdowns began to occur after the first four weeks. On May 26th, under the provisions of the Mississippi River Embargo Act (which was unrecognized by the federal government, the Supreme Court and understandably every state east of the Mississippi) Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana blocked all east-west crossings of the Mississippi with National Guard units and commandeered all federal military assets in their states. Soldiers, some with no real combat experience, were positioned on bridges with M-60 machine guns and Claymore mines and told to shoot anything that tried to make its way across. Case example: As huge numbers of refugees tried to escape the accelerating A-137HN population to the east, a group of 3500 refugees traveling with two Illinois National Guard armor brigades were challenged by two divisions of Missouri NG infantry and one Regular Army armor group (which was ironically reinforced with the same Missouri brigade which had stormed PALF on May 11th) on the outskirts of St. Louis on June 15th.

After two hours of negotiation, the inevitable happened; a group of refugees (the Illinois http://www.mercy-limited.com/johnian/rant_cds/rant_pages/scripts-fiction/Alomal_137/alomal.htm reports claimed it was 50, the Missouri reports

stated 700) attempted to run across the bridge between the two groups. Two automatic cannons on the Missouri side fired, and most of the group died on the spot - for eight to twelve minutes.

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was ironically reinforced with the same Missouri brigade which had stormed PALF on May 11th) on the outskirts of St. Louis on June 15th. After two hours of negotiation, the inevitable happened; a group of refugees (the Illinois reports claimed it was 50, the Missouri reports stated 700) attempted to run across the bridge between the two groups. Two automatic cannons on the Missouri side fired, and most of the group died on the spot - for eight to twelve minutes. The Illinois NG returned fire, and in seconds there was a pitched combined arms battle (as the Missourians called in AH-64 attack helicopters waiting on station, to which the Illinoians responded with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and ground cannon fire) going on in the midst of the refugees, many of whom were killed by shrapnel and area effect fire. After about twenty minutes of shooting, the soldiers and civilians who remained alive were attacked by those who had just died; usually the people who had just fallen beside them. Out of approximately 4300 people involved, 27 survived as live humans - mostly refugees who had thrown themselves into the river when the shooting started and floated downstream, turning up at an Hannibal Red Cross rescue station. Most Red Cross rescue stations treated anyone who came to them for aid, no matter which side of the Mississippi they'd traveled from.
l

Almost every national government worked to stop dissemination of information about the true nature of the infection to the general population until scientific agencies had pronounced the phenomenon unstoppable. The world telecon on May 15th, 1997, which followed the discoveries made at PARF and was carried live by all major cable and broadcast networks, was the first 'open-air' (non-classified) meeting held. There is considerable evidence to suggest that during mid to late April of 1997, agents of many world governments executed journalists who had begun guessing at the truth that A-137 was a worldwide phenomenon and not a strictly United States infection.. There is also evidence that Dr. Colman's disappearance after the 'Crossfire' episode was carried out by agents of the United States Army Special Investigations Branch.

Figure 6. A-137 Projected Epidemiology.

Note A - Initial Contagion: Jefferson City, Missouri, USA Note B - Crash location, United Flight 227 Note C - Last Continent Reporting Infected Cases: Melbourne, Australia

PROJECTIONS
Projections are largely irrelevant at this point. Reanimated A-137 subjects currently outnumber native subjects by approximately 40,000 to 1. Specific disease progression models will be included in the next revision of this document. A preliminary model modelling the first six months of A-137 activity in the United States is provided as Table 1. We estimate there are approximately 50,000-100,000 living humans on the planet, with approximately 2 billion A-137HN subject in various stages of dormancy around the world. Nuclear strikes, air bombardments, explosions, and chemical leaks in many populated areas have rendered much of the settled area of the Earth uninhabitable. In addition, there are between 2.5-3 billion corpses scattered across the globe, with corresponding increases in the population and aggressiveness of carrion eaters, scavengers and insects. Table 1. A-137 six-month initial model, USA. Week 0 1 2 3 4 5 Living 262,754,000 262,657,803 262,506,925 262,264,150 261,877,989 261,318,990 Dead 27,225 61,872 92,098 169,902 275,977 415,133 Deathrate 0 37,097 35,795 38,796 34,464 35,718 Attacks 0 24,775 56,303 131,106 241,513 379,415

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

262,264,150 261,877,989 261,318,990 260,497,666 259,344,849 257,755,358 255,598,888 252,839,169 249,305,986 244,534,294 238,585,892 231,241,558 222,514,779 212,516,231 200,092,129 186,640,335 171,315,598 154,772,838 137,339,622

169,902 275,977 415,133 649,225 948,602 1,372,670 1,955,361 2,629,757 3,547,392 5,013,416 6,692,331 8,809,930 11,183,991 13,790,051 17,796,570 21,629,890 26,350,052 31,292,470 36,515,882

38,796 34,464 35,718 38,239 34,723 35,892 34,920 30,898 31,068 36,152 34,078 34,745 30,876 28,164 32,540 28,184 29,110 26,731 25,302

131,106 241,513 379,415 610,986 913,879 1,336,778 1,920,441 2,598,859 3,516,324 4,977,264 6,658,253 8,775,185 11,153,115 13,761,887 17,764,030 21,601,706 26,320,942 31,265,739 36,490,580

Future Population Trends

Based on known physiology of the A-137HN population, it is assumed that the last of the cases which have occurred during previous 15 months will expire in approximately 2012. Rates of new case generations cannot be specifically depicted due to lack of a proper world population distribution model; awareness of the surviving population regarding the A-137HN physiology will undoubtedly keep the number of new cases down. The implication of this sudden and drastic reduction in population is indeterminate; scientific study is insufficient to determine the future viability of the human race. A huge amount of damage has been done to the human genetic pool; entire races have virtually vanished from the face of the earth. It is difficult to state with any weight of scientific or biological imperative that the human race, in its present form, is still capable of sustaining itself on Earth. Based on current information, locations of known concentrations of surviving live humans, and the reasons for those areas, are summarized in the following table: Table 2. Survivor Concentration Areas. Location Between70-90latitude Above elevations of 30,000 feet Small islands England Tierra del Fuego Deserts Australia Madagascar Inner Cities (very small numbers) Cold temperatures Rough terrain, cold temperatures Lack of existing population, defensible Aggressive control of corpses, closed ports Defensibility Low population densities, heat, aggressive control of corpses Aggressive blockading of immigrants and control of corpses Large, defensible structures, access to supplies Reason for concentration

END TRANSMISSION CDC FO #201-G 25 July 1998 04:42Z

Copyright 1996 by Lon Miller. All rights reserved.

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