‘The Sin of Tantalus’ By Maikel Yarimizu

This is a story of stigma, victimization, and apathy. It also runs somewhat perpendicular to the normal sort of zombie narrative. Not so long ago in the recent past, a company developed an artificial pheromone that improved the taste of otherwise low-quality beef or pork: Tantalus. To improve results, and thus sales, they decided to find a way to vector it directly into meat animals. In hindsight, this was a really bad idea, but that didn’t stop someone from spreading the vector as widely as possible.

In the present, the country is currently on its fifth wave of Tantalus-related infections in as many years. As a primary side effect, an unlucky handful of consumers with the wrong genetic predisposition develop a savory scent that proves too tempting for many of their uninfected peers. The government has had to step in to ensure that fewer cannibalistic murders occur after the disastrous first wave, but the treatments are palliative at best, and much of the related legislation seems to be written by people who don’t necessarily care about the victims of the situation.

The population at large doesn’t seem to mind as long as there’s more savory bacon and hamburgers to eat.

And one teen’s personal zombie apocalypse will be live-streamed.

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