I believe it's never explained before but I'm very interested to know.

How it's all started in game? Is it all started from an accident on a nuclear factory or something like that? Is the virus airborne that only applies to the dead? Or by rodent transmission (with the help of rats, mice, squirrels and other rodents) or something similar.

What do you think?

well, if its RE2 all over if its rats or rodents.... and squirrels? too Humorous to fit everett's conditions. Nuclear factory, not likely..... unless it happened somewhere else and the Nuke Dump is transported to everett, or maybe to the seas and it drifted to the city. Hmm........

I'd rather think of it as the cause of biological experiments gone wrong.... classic, I know. But between Ebola and just... hell, Chickenpox. There's a lot of viruses out there ready to be mold into a deadly weapon. And when things go wrong, they dumped it to Everett. For observation and trial purposes probably.

I'm not sure there's a world outside of everett. they'd probably be in the same state as everett. Just maybe larger groups, perhaps some remnants of the governments, which will explain that chopper mission in map 1...

I'd suggest to read carefully through the clues listed in the Journal.
Hint : when it comes to world's end, a Sarah is always involved. This time she's not a Connor, though.

There was 1 clue I found that talked about a blue Beetle. So that could have something to do with it. But I vote for government experiment gone wrong. I mean they made made wolf human hybrids (Me) So they could have easily made a zombie virus. Escaped lab rat or monkey? Always what happens.

Actually, the beetle can be found more than once in the clues, my furry friend

Ah. Didn't know that. Guess I will have to find that one too. Thank you my friend.

Yep the blue beetle is sen crawling down a sewar, running across a body,? another journal entry mentions smashed vials found with a doctor and also something about a cold virus as lots of people ringing in sick at work.

Intreasting.

between the journal entries I have, and the ones that have been compiled, it appears that students went to a southern hemisphere country(to investigate insect life), then came back with the beetles. Also, the suspected patient zero, as well as each of the other initial patient suspects were all college students that visited pharmacists shortly before the outbreak; however, as I remember, there is also an entry talking about some preschoolers/kindergarteners that were experiencing symptoms.

Hint : when it comes to world's end, a Sarah is always involved. This time she's not a Connor, though.

There's one named Sarah Rodgers according to some journals.

I suspect that Sarah Rodgers is a student from Gaines University and she is interested in insects.
From an another journal it says you find a picture of a young woman that has "PhD in bugs!" written on it. I don't know what PhD means but that "woman" might be Sarah Rodgers... I never found any clue for a "beetle" but here's another journal I found:

Journal Entry #15
While you stand looking at the building, a survivor comes rushing out with a box full of CDs and is startled to see you.
When talking to him, you find out that he is a programmer trying to save some of the company's electronic media.
As he wishes you the best of luck and moves quickly towards the nearest shelter, you notice a nasty bug bite on his arm.

Notice this "nasty bug bite"? According to your posts and this journal abone, I believe it is all started by insect transmission with the help of beetles or anything like that. But it doesn't ends here, the question is how a beetle started it all, you know all these zombies and the real hell in game.

Gav aka the goon, that's some very interesting journals you found. "blue beetle is seen crawling down a sewer, running across a body" and "smashed vials found with a doctor" I suspect that Sarah Rodgers gave a blue beetle to a doctor for experiments with neurotoxins,neurological or something like that and the insect named as "patient zero" but I might be very wrong.

Since I didn't found all the journals the HOW it is all started is still a mystery.

There was also something about escaped orphanes a few days before the outbreak

Here are a few more journal entries i have found


3/31/2012 9:39:11 AM

(53,143)
Journal Entry #5
Peering into the helicopter, you find a binder with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) logo on it.
When you open the binder, you find a very technical report detailing theories of what caused the pandemic.
Scanning through the report, you find a section hypothesizing that a parasitic wasp brought in from outside the country is the most likely source of the virus.

3/29/2012 5:43:31 PM
(33,140)
Journal Entry #6

Amazingly, there are still several magazines in the racks of the news stand. One magazine catches your eye: the "Bucks Quarterly," the magazine for Gaines University.
As you thumb through the pages, you find a story on a young graduate student and her discovery of a new species of beetle in the Amazon.
There is a picture of her sitting in the rain forest holding a fairly large blue beetle in her hand. The magazine along with most of the article has been ruined.

4/6/2012 11:27:09 AM
(20,26)
Journal Entry #7

Standing inside the pharmacy, you notice Bill, the pharmacist, talking to another person helping behind the counter.
You overhear him saying that on the day of the outbreak, he had filled out several drug prescriptions for students from Gaines University who had the flu.

6/9/2012 11:49:05 AM
(65,82)
Journal Entry #8

Standing on the sidewalk looking into the store, you watch as a large blue beetle appears from inside the building and comes to the edge of the blackened doorway.
It buzzes as though it were fussing at you.
It exits the building, moving down the wall and across the sidewalk, disappearing into a drain.

2/26/2012 3:26:51 PM
(44,28)
Journal Entry #28

As you look through the ornate grillwork of a fence, you catch a brief glimpse of a shiny blue beetle moving across the grass and disappearing into the ground.

regarding how a beetle could cause something such as a zombie pandemic, it could be a virus, bacteria, neurotoxin, or even some form of venom. all it would need to do, is to cause a change in one of the body's neurological chemicals, which could lead to many zombie like symptoms. in this case, it could be that the higher brain functions were shut down or reduced in activity, as well as having the body go into a state similar to hibernation, allowing for the body to go for longer periods of time without nutrients. also, if the right chemicals were altered, then the "disease" could potentially turn the victim's own fluids(such as saliva) into the toxin or venom, or they could contain the virus or bacteria. plus, with the right chemicals, and the hibernation like state, it is possible that the "zombies" might be alive, and appear to rot, due to greatly reduced healing rates. of course, this also assumes there is no form of plasticizing occurring inside the cells.

wanna no what i think? you really wanna no? i think some top secret bull sh** military experitmentation was going on in the city to make an awesome weapon of war or a cure for death or some such bull sh** and they tested it on several test subjects to see the result but something happened that made their lab explode (assuming chemical reaction or maybe terrorist attack) and the test subjects got out along with a strain of the virus. ORRRRRR maybe just the good ol fashioned wrath of god apocolypse.......

i thought of one more possibility could it just be that there are just some forces of nature mortal man is not ready for

Journal Entry #21 does state that the military was trying to cover up facts about the virus, at least according to a local newspaper. And at the place I found this at, (19, 29) the editorial staff there were killed and not by zombies. There were bullet holes in their bodies and on the walls. The military is definitely involved.

There's also this:

Journal Entry #13 (40, 16)
"You are able to pick your way up the concrete stairwell to the third floor and then find a path to a window apparently overlooking a military field hospital.

You can see into what looks like an operating room and you notice people in scrubs working on zombies that are strapped to tables."

Either they are working on some sort of cure (doubtful) or something more sinister.

My guess has always been something involving those beetles, partly because they're so out of place in Everett and yet so predominantly in the background. My working assumption is they carry some form of human specific parasite as part of their life cycle.

I would say based on the Journal Entrys, the Beetles spead the Virus in to the Human hosts by biting them and then spreaded like the flu then it mautaed to make the hosts bite other people then the world was force into panic wiping out 97% of the world population (working on today's population that about 6.812 billion people killed by the Outbreak).

Too many clues about beetles. Insect transmission is confirmed. XD