The Horsemen virus literally stampeded across the globe. Panic fueled it and attempts to outrun it created havoc and increasing mortality rates in its path. Large cities and densely packed metropolitan areas weren’t designed to contain an epidemic nor deal with the results of one associated with such high death rates.
Worldwide pigs, poultry, cats and monkeys were destroyed in attempts to stop the virus, despite the fact that no scientist went on the record stating any of these were the source of the infection. The memory of what had been the source of prior infectious outbreaks was enough to fuel fear and create a need to try and control and eliminate the threat.
Like every resistant virus, the Horsemen mutated multiple times, constantly confounding attempts to curb or defeat it. Rumors began to circulate that infection survivors did not recover so much as change. Some had developed aggressive, anti-social tendencies and had to be ostracized from their survivor groups. Some seemed to have lost higher brain function, sitting or laying for long periods of time, before sound or movement stimulated disorganized and wandering behaviors. Unable to support this kind of care, most of the “locked-in” were abandoned and left to die. Survivors needed working, stable groups to stay alive and attempt to rebuild.
The attempts of governments to sequester and guard selective sites for research, treatment and hopes to contain the spread of the contagion met with limited success, so these selected sites eventually became fortified outposts that isolated and aggressively refused outside contact.
Surviving became a “them versus us” mentality. Survivors believed a zero-sum game was the only one to play. The world was not looking very good for the survivors.
Zero-sum thinking by its definition puts you at odds with another person or persons. When you believe that you can only win by way of others losing, you act in one of two ways:
Try to win by making others lose, or allow others to win and believe you will lose as a result
Either way, you are buying into the belief that you are destined to fail in some way, or you intentionally put yourself in conflict with others in an attempt to win.