1997: Undead Outbreak

In this reality that greatly diverges from our own, a mysterious virus of extraterrestrial origins causes a zombie-like outbreak that causes a near-global destruction upon civilization itself.

Point-of-divergence
It began on September 2nd of 1997 when a report was printed on the local newspaper of the town of Lead Hill, Arkansas about a man who brought to a medical clinic after contracting a mysterious virus from a meteorite that crashed landed a few days ago. The man was identified by police as an escape convict by the name of Alvin Clements of Little Rock, Arkansas. Alvin Clements was known in Little Rock, Arkansas for stealing cars and selling scape parts for profile until he'd left the city a week prior to the meteorite crashing down to Earth itself. After a few hours in the medical ward of the medical clinic, Alvin Clements began to show strange symptoms never before seen in the medical history of mankind itself. He'd began to have such strange symptoms that a local newspaper began writing an article about it. This is what the article of the local newspaper said:

'Alvin Clements a.k.a. the Car Thief of Little Rock, Arkansas was brought into the medical clinic of Lead Hill, Arkansas by the police after reports of children witnessing a bearded man lying behind the strange meteorite that crashed landed about three days ago completely comatose. It was in the wee hours of September 3rd that the criminal known as Alvin Clements began to show strange symptom like 'yellowing of both his eyes and skin' followed by his blood turning from a healthy red color to a putrid, sickly green color with no explanation given how or why this happened. Then, around 7:29 a.m., a nurse began to scream. According to her, it was around this time to check up on Alvin Clements, when she saw Alvin Clements standing up from his bed and attacked her. Orderlies were called in to subdue Mister Clements, only for Mister Clements to bite one of the orderlies on the right side of his arm. Mister Clements was finally subdue, but at the cost of five orderlies getting bitten on their arms and hands. But that wasn't the worst yet. Soon after, the first of the orderlies that got bitten began to have the inability to experience pleasure in normally enjoyable activities followed by the other four. Then, the five orderlies began to have abnormal fears of loud sounds and bright lights, which puzzles the doctors of the clinic. Then, all of the five orderlies began to have a low-grade fever of 101.6 as well as passing out to the point that they were put in beds and given plenty of water and juice to help their immune systems. Then, all of them began to have epileptic seizures to the point that they went into a coma, and never woke up. But that's not all of the story goes. Soon, the five orderlies began to show that exact same 'yellowing of both their eyes and skin' and having putrid, sickly green blood like that of Mister Clements, who was locked up in a room somewhere in the clinic. Then, the clinic goes into lockdown with no explanation given at this time. '

The Outbreak Begins
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had began to quarantined the town of Lead Hill, Arkansas after ninety-seven people were infected by the mysterious virus that came from the meteorite itself. Suddenly, the quarantined soon became breached when one of the bitten, secretly, snaked his way on to Little Rock, Arkansas before the quarantined was placed upon the town of Lead Hill, Arkansas. Because, of this, the bitee whose name was Augustine Clay, suddenly, became a biter. An infected person who began to bite twelve to seventeen people before being subdued by the Little Rock Police Department. Soon after, twelve to seventeen people began to become the infected and started to either bite or cannibalized their 'prey' for 'dinner'. This caused the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make a horrible discovery, which was published in the local newspapers of each state, which was this:

September 9th, 1997

'Upon our discovery of this mysterious virus, we had made a horrible discovery of it. The mysterious virus, it seems, is made of organic form of boranes that, somehow, have became stable in our environment, and it is the shape of a hexagon, which proves that this mysterious virus is absolutely an extraterrestrial biological agent that had absolutely came from the meteorite that had crashed landed in the town of Lead Hill, Arkansas. Also, upon more studying of this mysterious virus, we had found out that this mysterious virus is an organoboron extraterrestrial pathogen in the shape of a hexagon that has, somehow, reanimates the recently deceased by sending out its both bio-electric and bio-chemical signals to each other inside its host. Another horrible discovery of this mysterious virus is that the virus is eating its host inside-out as well as ordering its host to get more heated food sources such as us, human beings. Also, it can spread like a wildfire. More test will be done about this mysterious virus of extraterrestrial nature, and how to stop it before it's too late.'

Upon the published of this article, reports of the infected began to appear in four states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and finally, Mississippi. An local newspaper article in the town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma had this to say, which was this:

'Paige Nichols, a native of Broken Arrow, was visiting her sister in Little Rock, Arkansas during the spread of the infection, when she was bitten on her way home, while, trying to help, what she'd thought, was a person in distress until it was too late for her. She got bitten. When she'd escaped with her life and came home without telling a soul about her ordeal, she died and reanimated in her home, in which she'd attacked a neighbor of hers. After twenty-seven to thirty-seven people were infected by the mysterious virus, local police department of Broken Arrow were called to deal with the situation. But little did they know, that forty-seven to fifty-two, or, fifty-four to fifty-five partially cannibalized corpses also began to reanimate by the same mysterious virus, leading the local police department of Broken Arrow to become stricken with both panic and mass hysteria. The local police department of Broken Arrow didn't stand a chance against the infected, some were cannibalized, others became infected with the disease from outer space, leading to protestors to begin rioting in the streets of Downtown Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Locale police have been informed to stop the spread of the infection as well as the rioting in the streets of Downtown Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. That's all for now at this moment in time. Thank you and good night. I've always wanted to do that, you know.'

Shortly after the publishing of this newspaper article, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had made another horrible discovery about this mysterious disease that came from outer space, which they published in this article, which was this:

September 19th, 1997

'After doing many more test on this mysterious pathogen from outer space. We had made a another horrible discovery, which is that we think that this mysterious disease from the cosmos may have been engineered by an extraterrestrial intelligence far greater than that of mankind itself. However, this is only a theory, that's not yet proven, so there's no need for panic except this pandemic that's spreading across our great nation. Also, however, we had found no way to stop this mysterious disease that's spreading across our land, but we well not give up in our search to find a solution to the pandemic problem. Keep hope alive. Thank you for your time.'

After the article was published, reports of the infected began to appear in the three states of Illinois, Alabama, and Tennessee. The locale newspaper of Florence, Alabama had an article about this, which was this:

'Reports of mass suicides are taken place in the town of Glenwood. These reports came from the locale police department of our town, here, in Florence, Alabama. Glenwood, Alabama will be missed by us. Meanwhile, the military has set up a military safe-zone in the Florence Mall. It will be known as 'Safe-Zone Beta' after 'Safe-Zone Alpha' a.k.a. Mars Hill Bible School became 'used up'. The military led by Master Sergeant Noah Lowe has this to say. "We are setting up 'Safe-Zone Beta' at the mall, here, in Florence, Alabama in order to keep the infection from spreading. However, for the town of Glenwood, Alabama, a massive military clean-up crew will get rid of all the dead bodies from those massive suicides that took place. I'm confident that we'll stop this mysterious disease from the stars as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, you people will be ordered to the 'Safe-Zones' as soon as possible. For the sick and elderly, however, they will be put into places known as 'the Camp-Zones'. That's all for now".'

Shortly after this published article, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to communicate with the Israel Sanitary Surveillance Institute via an e-mail, which was this:

Dear Lily Morgenthau,

'''I'm sending this e-mail because the Israel Sanitary Surveillance Institute is more technologically equipped than the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this kind of disease. Which is why the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending an sample of the putrid, sickly green blood that contains the alien pathogen to your facility in the hopes you'll will succeed where we had failed to do. Your facility also has a very powerful computering system, which is why it's necessary to stop this virus from outer space. Also, all of the information and data will also be sent to your computers as well as some samples of the alien pathogen in that putrid, sickly green blood.'''

Signed Fisher Horn.