Thread: How did the infected in actually get infected?

I was just thinking about that and I wondered if any of you knew or had theories on how the world became overrun with this epidemic. Ideas? Comments?

no one knows?

Well, I'd hope it's fairly self-explanatory. It's an unknown disease similar to rabies that induces mindless rage. Disease spreads. People are dirty.

Get the idea?

And yes we have to assume an epidemic on that scale would have to reproduce at an extreme speed and be sustainable in a multitude of environments. It would have to be ridiculously contagious to spread through an entire city and countryside before the government agencies stepped in to issue military-grade extermination and/or quarantine.

Obviously, we also can't assume it causes the same symptoms and retains the same properties as rabies (though some are similar) because of the mutated "special" infected. The "special" infected are the original carriers and spreaders I presume, as they have mutated to live and hunt with infected hordes.

That's all I could think to explain.

- Sinn

Maye it was bird flu,or swine flu or even donkey flu!

watch the opening scene thing bill says something about them changing maybe they were just good 'ol fashioned common zombies like the rest of them and they just mutated faster than most of the other zombies... who knows in a few weeks/month/years they would ALL be boss infected?

No the "Super Rabies" theory is for people who never play the game. They always ask, "What turned them into zombies?" So we just say "Super rabies." They shut up, everybody wins.

via wikipedia:
An important distinction from the former is that while the infected do resemble traditional undead zombies, they are, as cited in the game's manual, living humans infected with a rabies-like pathogen, very much like the infected in the latter film. While they are never seen eating human flesh or brains, the manner in which they are portrayed is meant to create and sustain a more brutal, believable reality for the player to immerse his or herself in. In an interview with 1Up.com, Mike Booth commented on the concept of using a pathogen as an inspiration for the setting:
“

Even though we obviously pushed well beyond the realm of believability with many of our "boss" infected, the core idea of a mind-destroying, civilization-collapsing pathogen is more horrifying to me than magically animated corpses, precisely because it is plausible. Rabies is a good example of a pathogen that can turn a loyal, friendly, protective family pet into a slavering attack machine. It's a virus that reprograms the behaviors of a complex animal – a mammal, in fact. What if something similar happened to humans? Left 4 Dead is one possible answer.