"We basically understand the situation now. The virus was sent to Earth without causing a collapse, yet it turned out to be a product permitted under the ordinary rules."
The Research Department spent two days properly storing the virus carried by the zombie heart.
There was no antidote serum, but nanomedical treatment could kill all the Zombie Virus in a human body. Of course, that depended on it not having mutated.
Once mutated, it was incurable. The target had to die completely, and the remaining zombie was already a different species.
The virus could withstand temperatures as low as forty degrees below zero and tolerate temperatures as high as 280 degrees Celsius. It spread through organisms and water sources. It only infected animals with brains—specifically, the brains of vertebrates. According to the researchers' analysis, it had originally been some kind of encephalitis virus that had evolved an extremely aggressive nature for some reason, along with the bizarre ability to turn its host into a zombie.
It first squeezed out most of the host's energy and destroyed the brainstem, then stimulated the host's instincts, turning it into a zombie crazily seeking food.
Although the host's body rotted and died, the virus inside its cells could still take over the functions of its various organs. In other words, a heart that appeared to have stopped and begun rotting could actually still work.
Likewise, because the virus was doing the work rather than the organs themselves, it did not matter how badly the organs or muscles had been deformed or damaged.
To kill a zombie, one had to destroy its motor neurons or brainstem, or forcibly wash out all the virus.
The virus was not particularly dangerous to Adams. Although it hid deep within Adams's cells and became even more tenacious by making