I was thinking bandit-like NPCs that start hostile from the get-go, just with the difference that they’re unarmed, wear robes or patient suits, and they’re called… lunatics? Psyche patients? Something. Of course we might have to explain how they’re not infected, assuming that’s even possible.
Either that or a new zombie type that mimics humans, but not perfectly. There would be at least visual cues.
Or the psych hospitals could be infested just with normal existing zombie types. (Easiest route)
Or they could be empty altogether.[/quote]The latter two would fit best with the mechanics and description of the world as a whole.
If you just have a “hospital of psychos”, you got to explain how they’ve been kept fed, how they’ve avoided being killed by wildlife, military units, zombies, or aliens.
You don’t simply have “infected individuals”, with concern to zombies. Read the zombie lore, specifically the slime lore. The infection has no notable affects on still-living individuals, the infections you get from bites? That’s from a gangrene. The reason? Because the mouth is a rotting pile of tissue with a saturation of mundane but still horribly septic bacteria, which get under your skin by the teeth digging into your flesh. Not pleasant.
