History Main / ZombieInfectee

* In the 2004 remake of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'', pregnant Luda gets bitten. Once her husband Andre discovers the bites turn the victim into a zombie, he sets his wife up in the maternity store, separate from the other survivors. Andre sinks so deeply in denial that he refuses to accept the truth, even when it's obvious TheVirus has her; instead he becomes her twisted [[TheCaretaker caretaker.]] Ironically, Luda doesn't kill anyone, because Andre restrained her when she went into labor (during which she died and reanimated). When Norma discovers zombie Luda, she shoots the undead new mother. Norma and Andre then exchange more gunfire, killing each other. Ana then arrives and shoots Luda's [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute newborn zombie]] [[InfantImmortality infant]].

* In the 2004 remake of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'', pregnant Luda gets bitten. Once her husband Andre discovers the bites turn the victim into a zombie, he sets his wife up in the maternity store, separate from the other survivors. Andre sinks so deeply in denial that he refuses to accept the truth, even when it's obvious TheVirus has her; instead he becomes her twisted [[TheCaretaker caretaker.]] Ironically, Luda doesn't kill anyone, because Andre restrained her when she went into labor (during which she died and reanimated). When Norma discovers zombie Luda, she shoots the undead new mother. Norma and Andre then exchange more gunfire, killing each other. Ana then arrives and shoots Luda's [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute newborn zombie]] [[InfantImmortality infant]].

* In the 2004 remake of ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead|2004}}'', pregnant Luda gets bitten. Once her husband Andre discovers the bites turn the victim into a zombie, he sets his wife up in the maternity store, separate from the other survivors. Andre sinks so deeply in denial that he refuses to accept the truth, even when it's obvious TheVirus has her; instead he becomes her twisted [[TheCaretaker caretaker.]] Ironically, Luda doesn't kill anyone, because Andre restrained her when she went into labor (during which she died and reanimated). When Norma discovers zombie Luda, she shoots the undead new mother. Norma and Andre then exchange more gunfire, killing each other. Ana then arrives and shoots Luda's [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute newborn zombie]] [[InfantImmortality infant]].

* Subverted in ''In the Flesh'', where the only Zombies to exist were individuals who died in the year ''before'' the Rising. However, due to multiple zombie tropes being ingrained into people's heads through pop-culture, there is a widespread belief that anyone who died during the Rising will come back as a Zombie (they don't) and you can become a Zombie after being bitten (you can't).

* The short film ''Cargo'' plays this to devastatingly tearjerking effect.

* In the 2004 remake of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'', pregnant Luda gets bitten. Once her husband Andre discovers the bites turn the victim into a zombie, he sets his wife up in the maternity store, separate from the other survivors. Andre sinks so deeply in denial that he refuses to accept the truth, even when it's obvious TheVirus has her; instead he becomes her twisted [[TheCaretaker caretaker.]] Ironically, Luda doesn't kill anyone, because Andre restrained her when she went into labor (during which she died and reanimated). When Norma discovers zombie Luda, she shoots the undead new mother. Norma and Andre then exchange more gunfire, killing each other. Ana then arrives and shoots Luda's [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute newborn zombie]] [[InfantImmortality infant]].

* In ''Film/LandOfTheDead'' not a single infected person hides their status; if they are bitten they commit suicide or die fighting. However, the prize goes to Chollo, who is just about to abandon the city when he unexpectedly gets bitten. He's been on a zombie-killing team for years, so he knows what's coming. His right hand man asks if he wants to be shot or shoot himself. Chollo [[TakeAThirdOption chooses neither]], but instead goes back to Fiddler's Green, intending to take his flesh-eating revenge on his CorruptCorporateExecutive BadBoss Kaufman.

* [[spoiler:Sam]] in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''. Provides a DownerEnding for the "Summer" portion of the game, since they have to be killed just when everyone thinks they've gotten away safely.

The Zombie Infectee is almost certainly (and, in their defense, rightfully) afraid their friends will kill them in cases where the protagonists have figured out that a bite or scratch will pass on TheVirus. Fear of discovery means they live their now shortened lives terrified and in denial, and as a result they end up behaving irrationally because of it. Alternatively, they will desperately cling to the hope that they will be the person immune to TheVirus, despite it so far having a 100% fatality and 100% conversion rate — in the most headstrong cases they may try to ResistTheBeast.

** In fact they now operate on the idea that bites DON'T infect them with a zombie virus and that if the wound is treated properly (Which unfortunately in the post apocalyptic WalkingDead verse means amputation) the person bit can live.

* The weird but excellent ZombieApocalypse/House fic "The Rampant Disease" features an infectee House refusing to let his love interest kiss him because they know TheVirus is spread through bodily fluids. (That the story also contains two of the more egregious instances of DieForOurShip ever seen detracts slightly, but it's still a great story.)

* Happens to several characters during the DCNation version of ''Blackest Night,'' most notably to Troia and Oliver Queen.

* In George Romero's short story "Anubis", plunging a knife into the brain of a dead person is part of the funerary rites---note that Romero revenants are not infected with a zombie "virus", it's just that the bite of a zombie is fatal, and ''everyone'' who dies rises.

* Subverted in VideoGame/TheWalkingDead video game, when [[spoiler: Kenny Jr., aka Duck]] is bitten, no one hides it. It's less of an issue of denying the bite, but rather [[spoiler: the parents coming to grips with the fact that they're going to have to kill their son.]]

** In the original, [[spoiler:Frank West himself is infected in Overtime Mode. He survives by developing a delaying medication, and appears in updated version of ''2'' with a supply of Zombrex on hand.]]
* In ''Franchise/{{Pokémon}}, the Mummy ability is a sort of mild version of this. Making physical contact with a Pokémon that has this ability (in other words, Yanmask, Cofagrigus, or a Pokémon already infect by one of them) changes that Pokémon's ability to Mummy. Potentially, this can cause a ''lot'' of Pokémon to be "infected". However, this is temporary, and wears off when the Pokémon returns to its PokéBall.

* The "Sex Machine" (played by SFX guru Tom Savini) in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' hid his rapid [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampirization]] for fear of being killed. Fortunately he was killed without much problem. Unfortunately he let all the ''other'' vampires in.

* ''Film/DogSoldiers'' has [[spoiler:three werewolf infectee's each with different reactions.]]

* ''Quarantine'' involves a news crew and a group of firefighters locked into an apartment complex with a bunch of other people and a zombie infection. They store the infectees in the same room that most of the living people are congregated. Guess what happens?

* As the title might suggest, this is the entire point of the movie ''{{Carriers}}''. While you don't turn into a zombie, the plague's extreme contagiousness makes you just as much of a threat. After being infected, Bobby plays this trope painfully straight, until being abandoned with a little water and directions by her boyfriend. When he in turn is infected, he initially forces his companions to carry him, and then makes his brother shoot him when they try to escape, rather than leaving him to die a slow death.

*** Not exactly. That scenes happens fairly early in the movie, when no one, including Eben, understands what they are dealing with. The man hiding under the house DID NOT KNOW he was turning (he got wounded trying to save his wife from the vampires) and was just so relieved to find somebody alive that he trusted. THEN he starts to turn and attacks Eben who kills him in self defense, then runs back to another group of survivors and reports what happened. Getting attacked by the infected survivor is what tips everyone off that victims can be turned.

* Parodied in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Epidemiology" when a zombie plague hits the campus. Rich (a doctor) hides being infected among the main characters and doesn't reveal it until he starts turning, as he thought "it made him special." A jealous Britta then reveals she was bit too and immediately starts turning as well.

* This was why they needed to ShootTheDog in ''OldYeller'': the title character became a Rabies Infectee.

* ''Manga/HighSchoolOfTheDead'' has several of these. None so far have tried to hide it, and most of them get put down by the heroes or die by their own hand after expressing a firm desire to die rather than become one of '[[NotUsingTheZWord them]]'. The first arc of the outbreak in particular features two infectees (Hisashi and the boy in Shizuka-sensei's office) who are MercyKill'd. It's probably happened a few times off camera, though, since we see that "they" have [[spoiler:somehow gotten aboard Air Force One]].

* Near the end of Creator/StephenKing's short story ''[[NightmaresAndDreamscapes Home Delivery]]'', itself an homage to the films of George Romero, a member of a group of zombie hunters who help protect a small island community realizes he's having a fatal heart attack, and demands that his fellow hunters shoot him in the head (after he completes the Lord's Prayer) so that he doesn't rise immediately after he dies.

* Near the end of Creator/StephenKing's short story "Home Delivery", itself an homage to the films of George Romero, a member of a group of zombie hunters who help protect a small island community realizes he's having a fatal heart attack, and demands that his fellow hunters shoot him in the head (after he completes the Lord's Prayer) so that he doesn't rise immediately after he dies.