Two big influences created the R140 “zoms”. One being Cathinone drug users, seen in other blogs. The other is classic rabies, vastly more known about and common than Mokola is.
The scariest thing is that neither human nor dog look rabid at the onset. Their behavior could easily be mistaken for many others things – things that aren’t able to spread to you. Unless they start doing the classic foaming at the mouth, they could have any number of other problems without contagion coming to mind. For horror dramatic purposes, the R140 “zoms” were made to look worse – we expect this in our entertainment and I do not disappoint. NatGeo even got into the game, HERE. Their Cathinone as well as 2012 influences cranked them up to ceiling in good ole horror action.
To depict how it would be realistically is actually a hell of a lot scarier in the real-world sense. And vastly sadder. It would be depressing to write and to read. I might as well have written about a massive solar storm enveloping Earth, as geologist Dr. Robert M. Schoch (yup, the man who re-dated the Sphinx) believes occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, and the cause of the flood myths. Depressing stuff to write an apocalypse series about. So much better with the infected and show other items of how things could unfold. Get the badasses going and the jokes. All that is fun … while real facts presented.
Here’s a breakdown of influences on R140 infected that may surprise readers.
(Warning, gotta be steely for this video! It’s hard to watch for dog and all animal lovers.)
Rabies in Dogs (Extract) YouTube video shows the “characteristic howling” among dogs that influenced the “Gollum-bark” described in the series. Obviously, Gollum is from The Lord of the Rings, cited in the books to CYA.
Though I thought I made up the “movement and sound” aspect, thinking it logical, it turns out this is real with rabid dogs, as specified in Rabies in Dogs (Extract).
Gagging, choking and “bone in throat” symptom. This occurs in both humans and dogs. Dogs are unable to swallow while humans develop hydrophobia in addition. This difference gave rise to the extreme hydrophobia experienced by R140 infected humans, so much so that they fear bodies of water, rain, fire hoses, and any other forms of water that are not normally consumed. An amped up virus could exaggerate hydrophobia that only humans experience from classic rabies.
Like the scene in Book One in which roommate Rebecca fears the water Phebe presents, humans infected with rabies experience hydrophobia – the fear of water – and will violent reject even a wetted cotton ball or washcloth presented to them. Both humans and dogs begin to experience the inability to swallow, caused by the virus seizing up those throat muscles. A horrid thing. Fortunately, our R140 “zoms” are more out-of-it than a human with rabies would be.
Humans do bite. They are capable of spreading the virus through a bite if their teeth break the skin. See Rabies symptoms in people. Other humans typically lock them up and strap them down by that stage to prevent such behavior. Rabies in Man (US Army Medical Service, 1955) (it is silent – no audio – & a hard to watch, but educational). The patient tries to bite the attendant as well as shows profuse foaming at the mouth and wild eyes. He is strapped down. Like a mad man at the controls, the virus infecting the brainstem causes disruptions in signals to vital organs. Evolutionarily speaking, it’s not the best way to spread itself; hence, there’s never been a documented large scale epidemic, never mind a pandemic.
Since the Western world seems to have serious issues in showing the violence that happens in humans with rabies – some kind of weird cultural taboo including among medical – we must go to other areas of the world to see the real deal of how bad it can get. Even then, the violence gets censored – so, wait a minute. We can handle massive and ridiculous levels of violence in fiction, e.g., Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but when it’s real life from a virus, we suddenly have taboos? Bizarre. Rabies, Actual Cases, Reaction and Explanation | Episode 11 Zero Mella states, “This video shows actual patients suffering from rabies. The original unadulterated video has been pulled out from YouTube [because of the violence]. I have edited out parts that have scared countless Youtubers before.”
Rabies, Actual Cases, Reaction and Explanation | Episode 11 is an excellent source.
Rabies In Cats | Signs Of A Rabid Cat | Understanding Rabies In Cats tells of the pupils fully dilated, a trait shared with R140 infected.
Note, the R140 infected we see in Book One – the roommates Rebecca and the Missionary – have influenza as well. The flu is causing them to sleep. Since lyssavirus onset causes agitation and restlessness, the two viruses are tug-a-warring in the roommates’ behaviors between fatigue and restlessness. They are swinging back and forth. Later in the series, in Book Six, we will see R140 infected who do not have influenza.
R140 human strain infects a different part of the brain, either caused by Nature in the older strain
discovered in melting glaciers or tweaked by the terrorist group. This makes a vastly worse virus, because they are mobile longer. R140 human strain infecting a human can live up to 10 days, and die of catastrophic organ failure caused by dehydration. If continuing on to the maximum of days, they smell of gangrenous tissue and move slowly and uncoordinated – much like the “living dead”. It is not actually R140 human strain causing this. It’s dehydration’s effects.
Lyssaviruses infect the brainstem, which is like having a mad man at the controls. Signals to vital organs are disrupted, eventually going too far and producing shut down.
Acts of cannibalism only entered into the symptoms of R140 because of what occurred in 2012, particularly with Rudy Eugene, the “Miami Cannibal,” though there are cases with Cathinone drug users committing cannibalism too. Cannibalism is rare in R140 human infected, and no cases known to me of the rabid committing cannibalism.
Rudy Eugene's victim:
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