Virus (novel)

Virus (復活の日 Fukkatsu no hi^?), literally Day of Resurrection is a 1964 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. The film was adopted into a movie of the same name in 1980.

An English translation was released in November 2012.

A US space mission in 1964 gathers a group of microbes in Earth orbit and are later recovered by American biowarfare researchers. Two microbes are found to be coccus-shaped supergerms capable of surviving in absolute zero and have the potential to grow exponentially in terrestrial conditions. One of the researchers, Dr Meyer, discovers the germ's regenerative ability and tries to stop work on the project. However, a sample of the germs is stolen and sent to Britain's Germ Warfare Research Laboratory in Porton Down for further development.

In February 196X (actually implied as 1970, later to be known as the Year of the Calamity), a scientist at Porton Down smuggles a sample of the developed virus, codenamed MM88, and gives it to a group of men who have been tasked to bring it to Dr. Leisener, a Czech molecular biologist who is skilled at developing antidotes for it. The scientist, Dr. Karlsky, insists that the germ must never be exposed to warm temperatures. However, the men double-cross him and an assistant later kills him under the guise of a suicide. The group flies out of England bound for a rendezvous with US intelligence agents in Turkey. They never make it; their plane crashes into the Alps in the middle of a snowstorm and the vial holding the virus breaks open. The crash site is investigated but investigators could not link it with the theft of the virus.

The virus, which is designed to piggyback with other existing illnesses and make them more lethal, begins to reproduce with the advent of spring in the Alps. Although some local communities have been reporting small animals suddenly dropping dead in their area, an Italian matinee idol's death in an auto crash in early March sparks media attention. His girlfriend dies shortly after a press conference eight days later, but not before she reveals that the actor died of a heart attack just before the accident despite being in good health. Several European countries are also reporting sudden deaths of important livestock.