These are the changes proposed:
Vectors are gone as an axis or rather merged into a new one. Symptoms are expanded and now also define the ATP regain method and the Infected's inherent Achilles heels & vulnerabilities.
Names are very much pending, and new ones will need to be invented.
X axis:
- "Tetsuo" infected: machine-men, half flesh half steel cyborgs.
- "Undying/Unborn" infected: zombie infected, those who are cursed never to die.
- "Samsa" infected: bug-men, those who walk backwards on the evolutionary tree.
Y axis:
- Insomniac
- Fevered
- Dermis
- Hungered
UNBORN
alias: Undying, Creepy Children, Paedomorphs
Vector: Unborn are created by being born to an infected mother. The mother can be from any of the five Strains, but more commonly, the mother is not even aware that she was infected: sometimes the Pathogen invades a mother that is already pregnant, and dives directly for the child. Many mothers remember some supernatural incident during their pregnancy when things started to go wrong. The source of the "bad seed" may also the father, passing on the infection through his semen.
Curse: Unborn age fast…Very fast. An unborn ages as much in a month as another child would in a year, learning to walk when they are only 1-2 months old. Between their 1st and 2nd birthday, they already look like any school-age child. It is usually around this time that the parents start to freak out and disown them - if the parent is particularly imbalanced and superstititous , they might even try to kill them. In what can only be described as tragic irony, the Unborn are impervious to all forms of harm: blunt trauma, fire etc. are all just temporary nuisances to the Creepy Children.
mangled body, hurt and uncomprehending, asking what they did that was wrong.
Some parents, when they realize this, are driven to sadistic extremes: since they can not kill their children, they
more and more savage beatings to "punish" them, or to "cast the devil out". Many Unborn have messed up childhoods.
Those that survive this period eventually reach adulthood - looking like a person in their early 20s, but still only around 5-6 years old in paper, at which point the Unborn body stops aging. In a tragic twist, the Unborn suddenly receives everything that they could had no part in in their childhood - permanently stuck with a healthy and youthful appearance, they get showered with friends and suitors.
Many of them settle down and have families - at which time the tragedy repeats itself, the mother giving birth to a horrible mutant or worm-thing.
Mutation:
Undying frequently look as if they have been mutilated. Parts of the body open up to reveal inner organs, impossible wounds that should be life-threatening or -ending remain permanent, organs turn inside out leaving the Undying's biology visible for everyone to see.
Subversion: Regeneration.