Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis

The Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis report is a fake medical research document produced within the world of the Life After series, a collection of new adult horror fiction by American author Bryan Way. It was published on June 7th, 2013 through Homepage of the Dead. The report examines the epidemiology and known scientific data gleaned from the events surrounding both Life After: The Arising and Life After: The Cemetery Plot.

Summary
The report opens with a summary of the Emergency Pandemic Response Summit between the CDC, HICPAC, USAMRIID, and WHO as conducted by the United Nations, detailing the events of October 9th 2004, when a presumed outbreak of an unknown pathogen begat the spontaneous reanimation of human corpses interred at the Brookwood Cemetery in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. As no cause for the spontaneous reanimation could be determined, the condition was termed Undeath Syndrome. The report delineates that healthy, uninjured persons should be referred to as unaffected, while persons injured by a reanimated corpse must be referred to as affected and reanimated corpses are referred to as a specimens. A general analysis of the basic data is followed by a table of contents, then a summary of the report, followed by a first contact narrative.

Part I of the report details the incident at Thomas Massey High School on October 9th, a car accident near the route 3/I-476 interchange, and an escalating disaster scenario at Mercy Community Hospital in Havertown. Following these events, local law enforcement in Delaware County began enacting quarantine procedures to contain what appeared to be a viral outbreak before elements of the Pennsylvania National Guard established road blocks at all major thoroughfares in Broomall and Newtown Square. Very little cumulative data was gathered at these road blocks, but it became clear in the early hours of October 10th that local law enforcement and PANG suffered a complete and total failure of containment, leading to the dissolution of their check points.

The dissemination narrative speculates on how the nature of Brookwood's burial practices may have contributed to the ease with which the specimens were able to resurrect from the grave, followed by the difficulty faced by local EMS in the first hours of the disaster. Reports circulated by area hospitals detail the lack of healthcare infrastructure necessary to handle the combination of reanimation and cannibalism, bringing to bear ethical concerns regarding procedure with the bodies of the recently dead. By the afternoon of October 11th, martial law had been declared throughout Delaware County and all disaster relief efforts fell under the aegis of FEMA.

By October 12th, all area check points and rescue centers had been compromised, culminating in the evacuation of the Lima Mall. PANG units were recalled and reassigned the following day, making the containment of both Philadelphia and Harrisburg the priority, but by October 14th, cases of Undeath Syndrome were being reported throughout Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, and Delaware. By October 19th, martial law had been declared throughout the entirety of the United States, including a national media blackout designed to ensure the efficacy of crucial local news broadcasts containing information about evacuations, rescue centers, military movements, and healthcare procedures.

Part II of the report examines the known scientific data surrounding the affected individuals and specimens, including transmission, treatment, symptoms, and an Undeath Syndrome Index that details the generalities of how treatment affects the onset of the condition. What follows is an assessment of the bodily functions of a specimen as near as can be approximated both physiologically and psychologically, surmounted by an assessment of the specimens' studied behaviors when hunting unaffected individuals in maze environments, generalities on mobility where it concerns the fast-moving short-term reanimated specimens and slow-moving long-term reanimated specimens, their hunting patterns, vulnerabilities, and lifespan.

Part III of the report details a series of recommendations regarding interaction, deterrence, attack, evasion, termination, and destruction where specimens are concerned, in addition to suggestions regarding shelter and supplies for unaffected individuals. Part IV offers projections on global dissemination, potential future population trends, and briefly describes the planet's unaffected regions. Part V offers a temporary conclusion indicating that the epidemic has yet to be studied in full and that, while future reporting is recommended, none can be inferred.

Conception, Writing & Publication
When Way was first writing zombie fiction, and regularly contributing to Homepage of the Dead, he was enraptured by a fictional CDC report on zombies available on the site. To Way, the Alomal-137 Epidemiology Case Study represented a masterpiece in fiction writing, and he would frequently refer back to it when writing new stories.

A dozen years later, while editing Life After: The Arising in March of 2012, Way stopped writing mid-sentence, struck by the realization that he'd failed to substantively detail the particulars of the undead in his novels. Immediately recalling the Alomal-137 report, Way sought to forge a comprehensive in-world CDC document that would cover both medical analysis of the undead and the epidemiology of the outbreak specific to his story.

Utilizing several viral outbreak incident reports and epidemiology guidelines from various healthcare organizations, Way began meticulously crafting the document, which he quickly termed the Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis report. The work was slow and occasionally grueling, as Way attempted to copy the spirit, style, prose, and presentation of legitimate medical documents. As Way worked to develop the rationale for how the dead might rise from the grave, an absurd impossibility that nevertheless delighted him, he conceived the premise for Life After: The Cemetery Plot in one fell swoop.

Later in the process, Way would spend days extensively studying the minutiae of various organs and bodily functions just to feel as though he could convincingly write a sentence or two, only to flush out everything he'd learned on the subject to focus on the next area. The effort took slightly over a year, after which Way attempted to surreptitiously distribute the finished product on various social networking sites, hoping to establish a viral groundswell that would help create anticipation for the eventual release of Life After: The Arising. After getting virtually no response, and with Lon Miller's blessing, Way published the story on the Homepage of the Dead website and refocused his efforts on the impending release of his first novel.