Resident Evil - The Umbrella Files [04 (Part 2)]

The T-Virus

When the body dies, a residue electrical energy remains in the body, thus our hair and nails continue to grow for a short while as the pulses stimulate cell reproduction. This energy takes up to months to dissipate, and it is this fact that became the basis for the T-virus.

This genetically engineered virus was designed to feed the residue electrical pulses that remain in the body when you die, thus prolonging life. The T-Virus was supposed to be a medical breakthrough that could cure all diseases and even extend life, but practice and theory did not match.

Rather than to extend life, the T-virus reanimated the dead, feeding the electrical pulses giving the dead basic motor functions, but as the brain had only very little activity, the reanimated dead became driven by the basic instinct to feed, thus creating mindless zombies.

The T-virus soon mutated to adapt to its environment switching from airborne to transmit by body fluids. So when an infected subject wounds someone, he or she becomes infected as well. But the T-virus does not take effect until death incurs. However, the T-virus has a mutating property that corrupts basic cell structure as well. This means that people are killed slowly by pneumonia-like symptoms and as their bodies wither, the T-virus keeps the body alive, thus effectively turning the living into zombies. The T-virus, however, reacts differently to other animals. All mammals like dogs, bats, and even some birds are affected like humans, whereas reptiles, insects and arachnids, due to their different cell structure, tend to mutate, often growing to massive proportions or even mutating into entirely new species.

This side effect, though devastating to the virus’ medical use, proved a valuable source for the creation of B.O.W. The virus’ mutating abilities have been utilized by Umbrella researchers to create fierce and deadly creatures for their B.O.W. department, such as the Tyrant project and the somewhat failed Licker project.

There have been other projects by Umbrella that were initiated on the base of the T-virus, such as the unstable G-virus. This virus is a basic T-virus where the mutating abilities have been enhanced. The G-virus project is considered closed after the failure with the G-Type Tyrant, but no one knows if that is true, or if the project has been perfected.