"Educated conjecture," he amended. "Conjecture all the same, yes, but... Essentially you're a carrier of the virus until you die, at which point it will animate your corpse and turn you into the next outbreak." He frowned. "This in fact may be how the outbreak began-- It's obviously happened before, there is always a shred of truth to stories, whether they are science fiction or otherwise. Someone was bitten, survived and cleaned themselves up, and when they died, of natural causes or otherwise, likely years after the initial outbreak, it happened all over again. It would be reasonable to say the outbreaks can be localized and small, given the infected don't move very fast and don't maintain mobility for long."