Twitch Meat

The first twitch is easy to ignore. A finger jerking sideways. A facial muscle pulling when it should not. Fatigue, you tell yourself, or nerves. Then your shoulder rolls on its own, hard enough to throw off your aim, and the groan that comes out of your throat is not a sound you meant to make.
  Twitch Meat is a neuromuscular disease that occurs when the Infection within the body misfires along nerve pathways, creating involuntary muscle spasms and reflexive bursts of movement. The host's own Infection loses coordination, firing signals at random, and the result is an unpredictable blend of jerking motions, strained vocalizations, and violent reflexes that look disturbingly like the behavior of the hungry undead. The disease is non-contagious but deeply unsettling to witness. More than one carrier has been put down by jumpy settlement guards who mistook the twitching for early-stage zombification.
  The condition develops from exposure to unstable necrological energy, contaminated radiation systems, or mutated Infection samples that affect the nervous system. Documented cases cluster around survivors who handle malfunctioning Necrology equipment, work in damaged Morgues, or receive weaponized injections. Those with heavy Infection saturation who suffer electrical trauma are also at risk. The disease cannot spread through air or touch.
  Progression is slow, measured in months, advancing at the end of each attended game or the first time the carrier enters Bleed Out. Early stages interfere with fine motor control: Artisan and Medical skills require conscious effort to complete, traps trigger on the user, and Culinary work carries the risk of self-injury. By Stage 3, the spasms become impossible to suppress. Involuntary guttural moans and lurching movements toward nearby people create social danger; once per hour, with a weapon or brawler in hand, the afflicted must spend Resolve or attempt a Strike against whoever is closest.
  The defining feature of Twitch Meat is what happens at Stage 4. The body's Infection becomes hyperactive, charging muscle tissue with excess bioelectric energy. The host's flesh takes on a faintly metallic scent, and the blood and muscle fibers undergo a chemical alteration that makes the carrier irresistibly desirable to Gorgers. Upon dropping into Bleed Out or dying, the afflicted broadcasts a signal that draws every Gorger within earshot into a feeding frenzy. The disease does not just threaten the carrier; it turns them into bait for something worse.
  Treatment relies on Medical skills and conductive materials: massage and acupuncture at early stages, muscle surgery with salinated fluids, conductive needle insertion into nerve clusters, and electrocution of the neuromuscular system at the severe stage. Death cures the disease entirely, though survivors are rare and often carry lingering spasms and the uncomfortable knowledge that their own Infection once tried to turn them into both the monster and the meal.