The Virus

Lex infected with the virus

The virus was a worldwide pandemic that wiped out the entire adult population, leaving kids and teenagers to survive on their own in a ruined civilisation.

History

Origins

The origins and cause of the virus was unknown to the public. In some of the governments' classified documents, there were references to bacterical warfare, genetic engineering and germs from outer space. However it was confirmed by Danni that her father tried to make an unknown mechanism or treatment to stop aging but back fired causing the average adults' aging process to go faster than normal.

Official Response

Governments of the world co-operated with the United Nations Emergency Task Force in a top secret project to survive and mitigate the effects of the virus. They established a series of military bases in key strategic points around the world, which contained compounds to house top scientists, leading members of the government and talented minds. The bases were customised from earlier designs for nuclear proof bunkers and shelters from the Cold War. The scientist were going to continue trying to find a cure for the virus.

Similar ocean-based approaches were taken, where fleets carrying important cargo were sent to sea, like the Jzhao Li, hoping to keep the inhabitants quarantiened so they could one day return to land and rebuild civilisation. However, the virus reached the ships as well. At the height of the pandemic, the governments were even planning to implement a repopulation program.

Public information

In order to minimise panic, a program of propaganda was designed to drip feed information as the governments saw fit.

Return

A time after the virus had killed the adults, some of the young survivors got the virus, indicating that it was still active and had possibly mutated. The Mall Rats searched for answers and discovered an antidote, which was distributed freely. However, it turned out the kids didn't have to take the antidote after a while, either because they had adapted to the virus or the disease organisms were defeated. A new virus was unleashed by Mega on the city, forcing the tribes to evacuate.

True Origins

When Amber, Jack, Ellie and Ram were taken to Eagle Mountain and forced by Eloise to figure out the code to access the other levels, Ellie suggests typing "Pandorax" as the password but it gets an error sound. Ram remarks that Pandorax was simply a cover up, as he believes the virus was not an accident. This is because the adults had time to prepare by sealing some adults in Hibernation Chambers all over the world. Ram believes the virus was a deliberate move, but Amber, Jack and Ellie aren't sure. This possibly means Danni's father might not be responsible for the virus.

A possible origin that Cami believes is that the Virus originated from accelerated implications of global warming, which released micro-organisms that had been buried away for millennia underneath the Earth's ice caps. The Virus was a mutated version of one of these reawakened, long-dormant pathogens. She believes the Virus was a consequence of humanity's damage to the environment, where the past came back to haunt the present due to the neglect of previous generations until their time. However, Cami admits she is not entirely sure on this theory.

Trivia

• Doctor Jane Gideon wrote in her journal that the engineers who showed symptoms of the pandemic succumbed to "R18SYT," which was accelerating within its mutation. This could be a possible alternative name for the virus.
• The show revived interest when the Covid-19 pandemic occured on the show's 21st anniversary, due to the show's premise happening in real life and older people are more susceptible to Covid like the Virus. Creator Raymond Thompson personally interviewed most of the actors during the 2020 lockdown that were published as podcasts for fans to listen. Actress Jennyfer Jewell even jokingly commented that: "I really like that for The Tribe's 21st birthday the whole world decided to just cosplay The Tribe."
• In The Tribe Game, the virus is continually referred to as "The Darkness" by all the characters, which is a term that was never used in the show.