The E-virus was an artificial retrovirus engineered by the Umbrella Corporation in the late 20th century. The virus was the result of a medical breakthrough in repairing and reviving dead cells. Despite its medicinal qualities, Umbrella Corporation Founder and Virologist, Dr. Mark Zurchill, saw profitability in using the virus as a military weapon. It was ultimately responsible for a catastrophic pandemic that was from 1998 to 2002.
History
Accounts differ as to the origins of the E-virus. Two separate scientists have been credited with E-virus research, though both may have taken part in research. Both Dr. Clark Jamison and Dr. Wills began research on the virus as a means of reversing the degenerative effects of a disease which had afflicted their respective daughters - Sarah Jamison & Alice Wills - and, in Wills' case, had seen the loss of his daughter's motor-skills. The virus' ability to repair damaged or dead cells nonetheless made it a medical marvel, and Umbrella, which Dr. Wills was a senior partner in, was quick to mass-produce it.
The virus itself was fast-tracked across the world, before side-effects could be identified. One civilian (unnamed age) who received the treatment choked to death on a peanut, which kickstarted the virus' repairing of his cells. He quickly revived in a brain-damaged state and attacked others. His victims quickly died and infected with the virus, were revived. Individuals suffering from this were later known as "Undead". While Dr. Wills wanted the project to be cancelled to prevent further deaths, Dr. Zurchill saw opportunity as a military weapon. Dr. Wills would soon be killed on Zurchill's orders to ensure it continued development. Dr. Jamison then took over the project and also developed an anti-virus.
By the 21st century, E-virus research had been decentralized, with research conducted in different facilities across the planet. In Bloxaberia (Tovokian Federation), a facility was constructed beneath a Soviet-era submarine pen to study the viability of using mutants created by the virus as weapons for military use, while The Nest beneath Fox City performed its own research on the anti-virus. Changing their minds on the military application of the virus, Umbrella's leadership unleashed a pandemic which spread it across the world in an effort to wipe-out the human race by first allowing the Undead to take over, and then release the anti-virus in the air to kill the Undead, offering room for Umbrella's leadership to safely leave their bunker under Fox City to resettle the world.
Over the four-year long pandemic, Umbrella continued, however, to research means of halting or reversing the spread of the virus. Unaware they were clones of the 'real' leadership, they were not made aware of the anti-virus until a time chosen by the leadership by which it was projected, they be released. Among the breakthroughs in research was the Enhanced E-virus, developed by a clone of Zurchill in Rovada. Ultimately, however, the virus was eliminated by way of the intended means by Aleen, a clone of Wills' daughter.
Somehow in 2031, Tan Industries manage to retrieve dormant samples of the E-Virus and modify it to remove it's infectious ability and to be come deadly for the sole use to cause harm against their corrupt competitors, the first controlled usage was the unexpected biological release at a Monika Corporation research facility.
Transmission
The E-virus typically transmits from host to host through transfer of biological fluids, such as infected saliva entering a bite wound or blood-to-blood transmission though transmission may vary. The virus is also known to transmit as an airborne pathogen under certain environmental circumstances.
Effects
The E-virus is described by the Blue King as a major medical breakthrough for the Umbrella corporation, but it also possessed profitable gain for the company if sold to the military. When injected into uncontaminated living tissue of specific species (including Robloxians), the virus can cause uncontrollable mutation.
Like any other virus, the E-Virus makes contact with a cell's membrane and inserts its genetic coding into the cell. The cell absorbs the viral genome into its own, which hijacks the cell's intended functions, using them to produce virions similar to the original. The new virions are then released from the host cell and infect the neighboring cells, which starts the process all over again.
If the method of E-Virus infection is transmitted via contaminated bodily fluids (bites, scratches etc.), airborne or waterborne means, the mutation is vastly different from the preferable method of infection (injection). If infected via contaminated bodily fluids, airborne or waterborne means of transmission, the pathogen then travels through the host's circulatory system and produces a fatal physiological immune reaction known as a cytokine storm, causing severe fatigue, aches, sweating and eventually cellular breakdown in which causes rupturing in both the host's adrenal glands and pineal gland in the brain, finally resulting in death. However, like meningitis, the E-Virus also invades the host's lower half of the cerebellum within the brain, causing subsequent partial reanimation and an unquenchable hunger for flesh. So far, several test subjects, who bonded with the virus and became the equivalent of a superhuman, is the only exception to this rule. The research Umbrella was conducting on the E-virus was considered illegal by environmentalists outside and within Umbrella Corporation, who planned to steal the virus and expose Umbrella's work to the world.
The nature of the virus is protean; once released into the environment, it adapts accordingly. According to the Blue King, the virus is both an airborne and blood-transferable pathogen. A simple scratch or bite from the infected subjects allows the virus to pass from victim to victim. In the case of animals (and their related counterpart), ingestion of infected flesh or consumption of contaminated water is all that is required to contract the disease.
During its gestation, the E-virus attacks the adrenal glands, eventually working its way up through the spine to the pineal gland in the brain. The virus may cause violent convulsions in the body just before the pineal gland bursts, killing the victim. The virus then resides inside the brain, making reanimation of the body possible.
The rate of infection varies, depending on the severity of an infected victim's wounds. In record testing, there were four instances of infection rates:
- A severely injured test subject manages to last less than two and a half hours.
- Another experienced immediate mutation from the scratch of a mutated variant.
- Another test subject lasted for more than three hours before showing any outward signs of infection.
- An unnamed victim during the Fox City incident became infected, said victim lasted two days before dying and reanimating.
When the outbreak in Fox City occurred and the pandemic decimated the planet, unchecked mutation within the undead populace or further experimentation by Umbrella may have given rise to a severely mutated variant, designated as "Majini Undead"; a type of undead with mandibles that sprout from their mouths as a secondary mutation.
In an attempt to replicate the success seen in "Project: New Days", Robert Wisker infected himself with the E-virus and showed enhanced speed, strength and healing instead of becoming an infected. The side-effect said subject experienced for a time, however, was the sole strong hunger for robloxian flesh. He fed on the Umbrella employees and survivors he captured for experimentation. Wisker has since appeared to have conquered the adverse side-effect. Sometime after removing Alicia's powers, Wisker injected Aleen with the E-virus, instantly restoring her infection and all of her powers, claiming at the time that she was the "ultimate weapon" in the war against the Blue King and the Undead hordes.
A stronger strain of the E-virus also exists; created by a clone of Dr. Mark Zurchill, he treated the infected with a serum derived from the blood of the Aleen clones. The resulting severe-enhanced undead carried a much stronger viral load; once bitten, even multiple doses of the anti-virus could not remove the infection and was implied to have actually exacerbated the situation rather than help. However, all of the infected were killed by Aleen and the members of Claira Greenfield's convoy and Zurchill was killed by Aleen and one of her clones.
There was one attempt to recreate the virus in 2034 by Umbrella Corporation, but was halted and irradicated by the Global Furry Agency.
Treatment
When Umbrella seized Clark Jamison's E-virus, they also took the anti-virus he created to counter its effects. The anti-virus, while able to reverse the degenerative nature of the E-virus within a host, is only effective if the patient does not have a large amount of the E-virus in their bodies, or if the infection is caught in the early stages.
Said anti-virus is a biological-medicine created by the Umbrella Corporation to treat those infected with E-virus. It is or is used like an antiretroviral drug. It behaves differently depending on the condition of the infected patient
- If the patient was infected deliberately, the anti-virus can be used to prevent runaway mutations.
- If the patient was infected in an outbreak, the anti-virus will halt the spread of the virus and its accompanying fatal disease if taken recently after infection.
However, those who were infected with a massive viral load or took the anti-virus too late, no effect will be exhibited. Umbrella also engineered a second anti-virus ahead of the global E-virus pandemic, designed exclusively for the company's re-colonisation project. This was able to spread in the wind and was fatal when exposed to reanimated infected.
As of 2002; the existence and physical item of this anti-virus was kept by the Roblox Health Organization and World Parahealth Organization, and later theGlobal Furry Agency in 2009 (by request of the URC), it is likely that the organisations would begin production of said item as a contingency plan if the E-Virus re-emerge.