History Main / ZombieInfectee

* The player character acts like a werewolf version of this in the Worgen starting zone in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. After getting bitten by a feral Worgen, you get a debuff called 'Worgen Bite', which is described (at first) as 'probably nothing'[[note]]Checking back on this debuff every so often reveals that it's [[FromBadToWorse slowly getting worse]] - the debuff progresses from [[https://www.wowhead.com/spell=72870/worgen-bite Worgen Bite]] to [[https://www.wowhead.com/spell=72872/infected-bite Infected Bite]] to [[https://www.wowhead.com/spell=76642/hideous-bite-wound Hideous Bite Wound]][[/note]]. Your character doesn't mention anything about this wound to anyone until you transform and go nuts. Unlike most examples of this trope, you get better - an NPC gives you an experimental treatment that restores your human mind inside a worgen body. Later, thanks to intervention from Night Elf druids (and an artifact previously thought lost), you gain better control over your Worgen powers, which provides your racial abilities.
* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadTelltale'':
** Subverted in [[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne Season 1]] when [[spoiler:Kenny Jr., aka Duck]] is bitten, as 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.]]
** The player can hide the identity of the next bite victim from the group or not [[spoiler: because the infectee is the protagonist, Lee. In what is one of the biggest heartwarming moments in the game, if Lee reveals the bite, it can convince Christa and Omid to come with him to rescue Clementine]].
** Becomes a major plot point in the first episode of [[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonTwo Season 2]]. [[spoiler:Clementine receives a rather nasty bite injury from a dog, but other survivors mistake it for a zombie bite and believe she's one of these]].
** [[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonFour The Final Season]] discusses this a bit, with Clementine and AJ both wondering what it's like for someone who's been turned into a walker. [[spoiler:Clementine herself gets bitten on the leg towards the end of the story, but AJ chops off her leg with an axe, saving her before the infection got to her.]]
* Various characters in the ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' series, particularly after the second game reveals the existence of the costly anti-zombification medicine Zombrex. Interestingly, few if any infectees try to hide it. Most notably, Katy, daughter of ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' protagonist Chuck Greene; Katey's a sweet girl who's quite unhappy that her HealthcareMotivation causes Daddy so much trouble.
** 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. By the time of ''4'', he is cured thanks to the events of 3 resulting in a full zombie cure being created, but he ends up getting infected with a super-virus that turns him into a superpowered zombie in the ''Frank Rising'' DLC]].
** ''VideoGame/DeadRising3'': Nick gets bitten and goes through the city morgue trying to find emergency Zombrex supplies, then asks to be killed by his mob companion when it turns out that all the Zombrex was looted (which is hilarious, as they fiddle over the revolver and use up all the shots), only to discover that the bite isn't lethal. Unfortunately, Nick's friend [[spoiler:Carlos was infected as a child and you can see him scratching himself all over in cutscenes, indicating that the infection is taking root]]. Then the military experiments on him and suddenly BEES.

** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: Ethan Winters essentially became one of these after being infected by the Mold early on in the last game.]] Subverted in that, unlike most zombies, he functions like a mostly normal person with the only difference being able to survive massive amounts of damage. In fact, he is unaware of his status as one until the end of the game.
* Subverted for the most part in ''VideoGame/DyingLight'', where those infected with the Harran virus are able to receive medical treatment that delays the onset of more serious symptoms (like going insane and biting people). [[spoiler: Played straight with Rahim and later Jade, because of unusual circumstances]].

* A random event in ''VideoGame/{{Rebuild}}'' describes one of the ZombieApocalypse survivors in your fort having, apparently, been bitten weeks prior and hiding the fact from everyone. Eventually, the infection is discovered and they are killed (or cured if you have [[FindTheCure researched the zombie serum]]). This is less likely if you have a hospital (and medicine in the third game).
* Your friend Bill, in the second ''VideoGame/DontEscape''. He will inevitably turn at the end of the night, but can help provide manual labour if given painkillers. You can give him a peaceful death through alcohol and a bullet, or you can [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential elect to butcher him with an ax while he's fully conscious.]] [[spoiler:Putting him down with a bullet will summon five additional zombies. You can still use the axe after he's drunk, and he won't notice it any more than the gun.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheShadowsThatRunAlongsideOurCar'', [[spoiler: Shelby has been bitten by [[PosthumousCharacter her father]]]].
* The ''VideoGame/StateOfDecay'' DLC ''Lifeline'' lampshades and subverts this. The scientist your Army unit was sent in to rescue kills himself because he'd been bitten, but later in the story the soldiers notice that other people who are bitten don't turn so long as they get basic medical treatment for the bite. The vanilla game explains this is because people aren't being infected via bites but rather by the tainted water supply.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', a zombie apocalypse is going on in Manhattan and civilian [=NPCs=] can be encountered, especially in late stages of the game, clearly suffering from the infection being barely able to stand, lumbering, coughing up or straight up ''puking their guts out''. To make matters worse, this infection is a lot more contagious than your average zombie disease, since its airborne and can be spread without being bitten. Luckily for the main protagonist, he is immune due to being infected with a strain that grants him superpowers instead of turning him into a drooling infected [[spoiler:although the reality is he's immune because he ''[[TomatoInTheMirror is]]'' TheVirus, having taken on the form and memories of the original person.]]
* ''VideoGame/FableI'': One EscortMission has the Hero escort two traders through the Balverine-infested Darkwood, where they're accosted by a third trader who admits that he was clawed by a Balverine and who obviously has TheVirus. It's a large penalty to the KarmaMeter to turn him away, so a good Hero is stuck bringing him along and putting him down when he inevitably transforms.
* ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'': This is discussed in ''Advance Wars: Days of Ruin'' when the outbreak of [[TheVirus the Creeper]] is in full swing. "Admiral" Greyfield, the moronic madman that he is, openly declares that anyone even ''suspected'' of carrying the highly contagious infection will be immediately put to death. Dr. Caulder later mocks him for this decision, pointing out that it scared his men into hiding their conditions which allowed it to spread unchecked like wildfire through his ranks. Captain Brenner's team wisely quarantined potential infectees and attempted to treat them, which encouraged those to come forward and voluntarily isolate themselves so as to not spread the disease.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Weregeek}}'', the page image is from a plot twist when Sarah reveals herself to be this. Thankfully, it's just a zombie apocalypse game they're playing.

** Corporal Stacy would've been this if it weren't for her military BootsOfToughness. Which was able to stop a bite of a zombie that just survived getting blown up with a grenade. [[spoiler:Although this doesn't stop Chantelle from kicking her out because of fear that she could still have been infected]].

* ''WebVideo/Sorry2023'': In "[[https://youtu.be/I-2d6ybXgOc?si=2ydb4vtTyjd9GLjY We Survived A Zombie Apocalypse]]", Wilbur play this role. Early on, he has a scar that he claims is just a unrelated injury and gets more feverish as the group goes on. As one point, it seems like he already turned and joins in a large mob of zombies, but [[PretendWereDead it was just a trick so he could get past them]]. Charlie later catches on to his condition and snaps Will's neck before he can turn. [[spoiler:It's in vain, as Wilbur returns zombified at the tail end of the video and attacks the last survivors, Tommy and Ranboo.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "The Purple Smurfs" a strange infection is turning the Smurfs into purple mindless angry creatures. Hefty hides his condition painting himself in blue.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' episode Zombizou, in which the titular VillainOfTheWeek causes a ZombieApocalypse via kisses instead of biting, Rose ends up being kissed on the leg as she [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished tries to get Chloe back to the safety of a bus]]. Like with all the other zombie tropes the episode follows, she doesn't tell anyone and ends up making the situation go FromBadToWorse.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' features the inhabitants of New York being turned into koopa zombies [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext because King Koopa dumped his trash all over the city's streets]]. After a while, Mario also starts to slowly succumb to the effect by growing a koopa tail. Unlike most examples, Luigi immediately notices, but keeps his brother around in order to help him build a machine to properly dispose of the waste. Which turns out to have been the right choice, as they get said machine assembled just before Mario succumbs.

->'''Rich:''' There was something else. What was it? Oh yeah. ''Slurrrrred speeech.''\\

'''Rich:''' ''I thought that maybe I was shpeciallll.''\\
'''Britta:''' Special? You're not special, I'm special! ''[pulls up her sleeve revealing a bite on her arm]'' I was bitten ten minutes ago and ''I'mmmm finnnnnne.''

* ''Manga/SchoolLive:''

** Later, [[spoiler:Kurumi]] is infected, which is when we learn that there is [[spoiler:a serum that stalls the effects of zombifying. However, after taking it, her body remains cold and the zombies don't react to her unless she speaks or directly confronts them.]]
** [[spoiler:Miki]] is bit by the zombie of [[spoiler:her best friend Kei]].
* [[spoiler:Hiromi]] in ''Manga/IAmAHero'' is bitten by a zombified infant. No one, [[spoiler:Hiromi included]] is sure that it broke the skin, though. While she seems willing to be killed if worst comes to worst, she and the others all assume that won't happen after cleaning the site doesn't make it sting. When she wakes up ''wrong'' the next morning, [[spoiler:they keep her alive anyway, which seems to have been the right decision]].

* Happens unknowingly in Creator/GarthEnnis'... ''strange'' book ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}.'' One member of the party is shot (the eponymous Crossed are intelligent, just psychotic), and seems to just be in shock. However, there's quite a OhCrap moment when a scouting party witnesses a group of Crossed [[spoiler: soaking bullets in their semen]]. Cue rampage. Note that the heat from a gunshot flash sterilizes the bullet. It the reason most doctors leave the bullet in unless it's putting pressure or stuck in something vital. [[spoiler:Though, as a later arc penned by Ennis reveals, the Crossed virus [[MysticalPlague isn't exactly a traditional virus]]...]]

* The GraphicNovel ''Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection'' puts a spin on this trope. The novel is presented as [[ApocalypticLog the journal]] of a doctor who survives the early waves of mass infection. Over time he comes to suspect that a food additive put into the products of an enormous MegaCorp that supplies much of the world's processed food is the cause of the infection, and once the body absorbs a certain amount of said additive, the person begins going through stages of infection that lead into becoming a zombie. While it's never confirmed whether he's right or not, on at least one occasion a fellow survivor suddenly turns for no apparent reason. If he is right, [[FridgeHorror everyone still alive is already infected, and every meal they scavenge puts them one step closer to turning...]]
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' puts its own spin on this trope. The second major StoryArc involves [[BigBad Eggman]] unleashing the Metal Virus, a techno-organic plague spread by contact which [[UnwillingRoboticisation turns all the infected into mindless robots]] that Sonic dubs "zombots". This trope comes into play when Sonic himself is infected; his speed lets him burn off the infection into remission, but can't fully cure him. As a result, he spends the arc slowly being turned as the virus starts to overcome his speed, and unable to touch anyone for fear of infecting them too. The trope later turns tragic in issue 22, when [[spoiler:a single infectee gets into Restoration HQ by concealing his slow-burning infection out of fear, resulting in its destruction.]]

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo''. The very ''nanosecond'' that [[spoiler:Jenkins]] gets bitten by a vampire, he immediately tells the rest of the team and '''commands''' them to kill him before he turns. [[MercyKill Alan complies]].

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In the ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic "Mistakes", Mustang becomes an infectee after getting bitten on the wrist and refuses to admit what bit him. Despite admitting the truth eventually, Mustang ''averts'' the trope by being cured when his totally infected arm gets torn off by the Gate.
* Happens to several characters during the ''Roleplay/DCNation'' version of ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', most notably to Troia and Oliver Queen.

* ''Film/CallOfTheUndead'': [[spoiler:After the serial rapist/murderer is killed,]] one of the gang notices a wound on his leg, which he hides from the others. Naturally, he turns not long after.
* ''Film/{{Rampant}}'':
** The soldier who starts the outbreak was bitten by a zombie on board a ship, then went home without realising he was about to become a zombie too.
** [[spoiler: Kim Ja-joon]] gets infected. He attempts to delay his transformation by cutting off his hand.
* The ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'' have examples of good and bad Infectees. Notably, a recurring minor character from [[Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse the second movie]], EthnicScrappy L.J, is bitten in [[Film/ResidentEvilExtinction the third]]. What's infuriating about this example is that the movie is set well after the zombie plague has swept through the world, so he couldn't exactly plead ignorance; L.J. had likely seen the same thing happen dozens of times. And yet he keeps his infection a secret, even as he begins to sicken. Once he turns (which [[RuleOfDrama inconveniently]] happens during the big zombie attack), he almost kills someone while both are locked in a car, and then infects one of the likable main characters, who does the right thing and takes as many zombies with him as possible in a massive explosion.
* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'':
** Played with in the character of Shaun's mother. She waits until just before she dies to reveal she's been bitten, but not necessarily to save her life; rather, she wanted to keep the burden off Shaun for as long as possible, explaining: [[StiffUpperLip "I didn't want to be a bother." ]]
** His stepfather, when bitten, insists it's not worth making a fuss over -- he ran it under the tap.
** Whereas Shaun's friend Ed, after being bitten, does a HeroicSacrifice by staying to hold the zombies off while the others escape.
** Subverted with Shaun and Ed's flatmate Pete, on the other hand, doesn't even realize the implications of his bite since it happens before the outbreak goes out of control and just thinks it was a "crackhead" and turns off-screen. Shaun and Ed don't even realize it themselves until they watch the news and put two and two together.

*** Subverted when [[spoiler:Michael gets bitten and stays behind, knowing he can't accompany the rest of the survivors beyond this point. It's not quite a HeroicSacrifice, but he at least displays consideration for the other survivors' safety. It is instead Ana, the woman Michael loves, who goes into denial, insisting she can help him because she's a nurse, even though she knows full well the consequences and wasn't able to do anything for any of the other infectees in their recent acquaintance.]]

* ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'':
** Averted when a widower not so slowly turning into a vampire asks to be killed not only to avoid becoming a murderer, but because he can't stand the thought of being immortal and never dying to see his family in heaven.
** Further averted by sheriff Eben Ouleman willingly infecting himself, and then using HeroicWillpower to fight and kill the vampire leader. Sadly he [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed himself]] by waiting for the sun rather than risk losing his self control and becoming a monster.
* Several people in the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' series keep their wits about them once infected. They even find ways to stave off the desire to eat flesh well into the transformation phase, so as to not be a danger to friends and loved ones. This, unfortunately, makes them rather attractive to the government.

* While not a zombie plague, in ''Film/BladeII'' one of the vampire strike team, Lighthammer, gets bit by one of the "super-vampires" and covers it up (surprisingly well considering he's one of the most underdressed members of the team), until he predictably turns and starts gobbling up the rest of his team.
* Although [[TechnicallyLivingZombie not technically zombies]], the 'Rage' victims in the ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' movies deliberately avert this trope; the virus infects and converts its victims within 30 seconds to a minute, thus preventing them from concealing their condition from those around them. It also ups the tension, as the non-infected have to deal with the victim immediately in order to save their own lives.
* ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'' as the military, upon learning that people can be asymptomatic carriers who are still contagious, decide to prevent this themselves once the outbreak occurs [[spoiler:by deciding to just kill all the civilians whether they're infected or not. Considering one asymptomatic infectee gets away, and the ending shows infected now on mainland Europe, it was [[VillainHasAPoint good idea all along]].]]
* In another vampiric variation, Montoya in ''Film/JohnCarpentersVampires'' also hides his own vampire bite. His subterfuge does not really matter, as he gets bitten again later in a less discreet place. Contrary to this trope, he stays true to the end and helps his friend Jack Crowe. At the end of the film, Crowe gives him a head start, telling him that he'll have no choice but to hunt him down. Montoya understands and leaves. The trope is lampshaded by Crow earlier, when he discovers that Father Guiteau is withholding information from them.
-->''"Listen to me, you fuck! My father kept a secret once. He had been bitten by a vampire. He kept it a secret from me and my mother. By the fifth day, he was turning. That night he attacked my mother. And then he came after me. I killed my own father, Padre. I got no trouble killing you."''

* As the title might suggest, this is the entire point of the movie ''Film/{{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.
* This was why they needed to ShootTheDog in ''Film/OldYeller'': the title character became a Rabies Infectee.
* Subverted very humorously in ''Film/DeadSnow'': One of the characters gets bitten on the arm. He knows what he has to do, so he slices off his arm with a chainsaw to stop the infection from spreading to the rest of the body. After a really painful looking scene and a sigh of relief, [[spoiler: another Nazi zombie pops his head up from the snow and bites him on the crotch. He kills that zombie and looks back to the chainsaw in horror.]]
* Amusingly averted in ''Film/FlightOfTheLivingDead'', when one of the protagonists gets munched on by a little old lady zombie. It ''looks'' like the story will go this way, as the character is a criminal out only for himself, but the aversion comes in when it turns out the biting zombie doesn't have her dentures in and didn't penetrate his skin.
* A similar aversion in ''Film/JuanOfTheDead'' with Lazaro: he reveals fairly quickly that he's been bitten, and then he and Juan spend the night sadly waiting for him to turn.. only to belatedly realize that, thanks to the ill-fitting wetsuit Lazaro always wears, the bite didn't actually break the skin. The film includes a couple of straight examples as well.
* ''Film/DogSoldiers'' has [[spoiler:three werewolf infectees each with different reactions.]]
* After a zombie spits blood in his face, the protagonist of ''Film/WorldWarZ'' runs to the edge of the rooftop, prepared to throw himself off if he's infected so he won't attack his family. He's not. Later on a special forces captain realises he's been bitten and says so on his radio. A sniper offers to shoot him, but the captain replies that it's been taken care of, and can be seen putting his pistol to his head just before walking offscreen.
* ''Film/TheLastDaysOnMars'': One man not only acts like this, he tries to persuade the hero to leave behind a woman who's also a possible infectee in a ColdEquation situation. [[spoiler:When she finds out for sure she's infected, she leaves the vehicle and kills herself to stop the hero trying to save her. The other guy gets all the way to the DropShip, and the hero has to battle the infectee to stop him getting to the spaceship orbiting overhead, which would risk spreading the infection to Earth.]]
* While not a zombie, the beginning of the movie ''Film/{{Doomsday}}'' has a guy in a hoodie try and sneak past a military checkpoint. The problem is that he's infected with the highly contagious disease that's ravaging Scotland, and he's very quickly found out and shot to death by the military. Later in the movie it's discovered that the disease has arrived in England, first shown when a homeless community is broken up and the police break into a room to find dozens of infected people dying.
* ''Film/CubeZero'': The Cube controllers use a strain of necrotizing faciitis to kill one of the prisoners. The woman in question infects someone else by scratching a guy's arm before dying herself. He quickly becomes a liability to the other two remaining group members and is forced to test every room from that point on, but the former soldier throws him into a trapped room before he can infect anyone else.
* ''Film/{{Maggie}}'' gets bitten during a ZombieApocalypse and her parents try to protect her from everyone who wants to kill her... and then she starts thinking her parents smell delicious.
* In the 1990 B-movie ''The Rift'', R. Lee Ermey plays the captain of a navy submersible that encounters mutant killer sea life that can infect other organisms, turning them to green mush. [[spoiler: When he comes in close contact with a half-dissolved corpse, he hides the fact that he's been exposed from the other two survivors ... but only because they're in a countdown-to-self-destruct situation, and telling them about it would cost them precious seconds to get to the escape pod. [[HeroicSacrifice He drops back to let them board first, then seals the hatch while still outside and shows them his already-green wrist through the porthole]].]]
* ''Film/Cargo2013'' is based on this premise. A family are in the Australian Outback when the wife is infected by the zombie-like plague. She urges her husband to take their baby daughter to safety, but he refuses and so gets bitten after she succumbs, then has 48 hours to find another family who can look after his daughter before he also turns into a zombie.
* Subverted in ''Film/Leviathan1989'' with Cobb, who is clearly infected by TheVirus and everyone knows it, but he keeps fighting the monster with the others until his transformation finally kicks in fully.
* In ''Film/TrainToBusan'', the whole disaster is triggered by an infected woman jumping onto the train at the last second while running from TheHorde and hiding from everyone. To her credit, she's at least GenreSavvy enough to desperately try to tourniquet the area while [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone apologizing profusely]] but her efforts are ultimately in vain.
* ''Film/Trench11'': Kelly is attacked by one of the infected and covered in slobber. He grows weaker as time goes on before turning and attacking his friends.
* ''Film/TheJurassicDead'': Duque gets a scratch on his arm from being attacked by the undead T-Rex. He hides it from the others, and eventually turns.

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' makes these a larger threat than the living dead. A zombie is not particularly dangerous to anyone with a gun, but the infrastructure behind an army - zombie-hunting or otherwise - does not cope well with things like mass panic and refugee columns that contain an unknown number of infectees unaware of or unable to cope with the facts. (A bonus: imagine the rumor mill about immunities and cures.) [[EvilDetectingDog Dogs]] can smell TheVirus, and it freaks them out. In a controlled refugee situation, anybody a dog reacts badly to is taken aside as infected... often to the loud and increasingly histrionic protests of the infectee in question. [[spoiler:Uncontrolled versions feature a lot of improvisation, but one option is to separate the zombies and the uninfected with a mass nerve gas attack.]]
** When the militaries of the world finally started clearing towns, the most dangerous zombies were those that had been "kept" by their families. These Zeds were usually inside of closets or wardrobes in otherwise safe towns and could create a very nasty surprise for a soldier with slow reflexes.
** Further, in an aversion, people could become infectees completely by accident or unfortunate happenstance; and would [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do the right thing]]. One soldier knew he had to be put down because someone shot a zombie. The bullet went ''through'' the zombie, then into the soldier, bringing the infection with it. [[spoiler:in Russia this becomes the responsibility of army chaplains, one thing leads to another and the country ends up a theocratic empire.]]
** Averted when one interviewee tells of a buddy who was bitten and turned into an instant emotional wreck, knowing full well he would have to be put down, making no attempt to avoid the reality but is simply unable to take it standing up. [[spoiler: It turns out the biter was a [[TheQuisling Quisling]], someone who lost their marbles on the face of the ZombieApocalypse and acts like, but is not, a zombie. The victim breaks down crying in relief. Ironically, he nearly dies from a Staph infection from the bite.]]
** [[spoiler: There ''were'' rumours of cures, and immunity - mostly fueled by the Quislings, and the fact that it ''was'' possible to survive being bitten by one of ''those'', but not by a real zombie.]] Early in the book, one of the interviewees - a guy who dealt in smuggling people across the borders, mostly by car - mentioned that he suspected a ''lot'' of outbreaks in other areas were caused by infected getting out of China through the smuggling routes he and people like him used and then going to ground in the ghettos in other countries. [[spoiler:He mentions that he regrets letting them get through, on his watch, and that he believes that most of the infectees (and their families) were trying to get out and find a cure - not because they actually believed there was one, or because there was any rumour that one existed, but because they were ''desperate'' and clinging to any straw of hope they could find, that they wouldn't have to take that final option.]]
** Of course the cure rumors weren't helped by the fact that the zombie virus did have a drop in number infected the first winter of the crisis, a corrupt businessman linked it to his placebo antivirus (it was just vitamin pills) which created a false sense of calm. In reality the drop was due to the colder weather making zombies in places like northern Europe freeze solid for a couple of months and by limited operations from military commandos to slow down the rate of infection. Unfortunately government budget restraints stopped the U.S. (and presumably most other nations) from starting a dedicated offensive until it was too late.
* Near the end of Creator/StephenKing's short story ''[[Literature/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 every single one of his vital organs simultaneously (after he completes the Lord's Prayer) so that he doesn't rise immediately after he dies.

* This is the entire point of the "Zombie Noir" ''Literature/UndeadOnArrival''. The protagonist gets bitten in chapter 1 and spends the entire book trying to hide his condition from those around him until he can track down the person responsible for the bite.

* ''Literature/APieceInTheGameOfGods'': The zombies can't do this:
--> Fortunately, these zombies weren't like the traditional ones and didn't seem capable of infecting their victims.

* Parodied in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS2E06Epidemiology 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 he "was special". A jealous Britta then reveals that she was bit too and immediately starts turning as well.

* This is discussed in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'' when the outbreak of [[TheVirus The Creeper]] is in full swing. "Admiral" Greyfield, the moronic madman that he is, openly declares that anyone even ''suspected'' of carrying the highly contagious infection will be immediately put to death. Dr. Caulder later mocks him for this decision, pointing out that it scared his men into hiding their conditions which allowed it to spread unchecked like wildfire through his ranks. Captain Brenner's team wisely quarantined potential infectees and attempted to treat them, which encouraged those to come forward and voluntarily isolate themselves so as to not spread the disease.

* In the non-canon spinoff to the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series ''VideoGame/YakuzaDeadSouls'', Majima gets bitten by a zombie and tries his best to hide his symptoms from the rest of the team. [[spoiler: Turns out he's fine; the zombie that bit him was an old geezer with dentures that didn't even break his skin, and the rest of his symptoms turn out to be allergies.]]

* ''Music/WeirdAlYankovic'' identifies this trope as tacky behavior in "Tacky".

* The short film ''Cargo'' (can be watched [[http://youtu.be/gryenlQKTbE here]]) plays this to devastatingly {{tearjerk|er}}ing effect.

* Your friend Bill, in the second ''VideoGame/DontEscape''. He will inevitably turn at the end of the night, but can help provide manual labour if given painkillers. You can give him a peaceful death through alcohol and a bullet, or you can [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential elect to butcher him with an ax while he's fully conscious.]]

** Later in Season 5, [[spoiler:Bob gets bitten and doesn't tell anyone, choosing to leave without saying anything so that he can die alone without endangering them. This bite is hidden from both Bob's friends and the audience until he gets captured by cannibals, who amputate and eat his leg without bothering to check him for bites. This makes his reveal a MomentOfAwesome ("I'm tainted meat!") as well as a TearJerker]].

* In ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', Emily can be bitten [[spoiler:by a {{Wendigo}}]] and when her friends find out, they think that she'll turn because of it, and you'll have to decide whether or not to shoot her. Just minutes later, it turns out they're WrongGenreSavvy (since [[spoiler:wendigos aren't zombies]]), and the bite is just a regular injury.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrosRadiantIsTheBloodOfTheBaboonHeart'', [[spoiler:Dean gets bitten by a Film/{{Blacula}}, but since he's traveling with ComicBook/{{Blade}} {{expy}} Jefferson Twilight he panics and hides it. However, it's subverted as he was just pricked by Jefferson's necklace and was freaking out over nothing]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrosRadiantIsTheBloodOfTheBaboonHeart'', [[spoiler:Dean gets bitten by a Film/{{Blacula}}, but since he's traveling with ComicBook/{{Blade}} {{expy}} Jefferson Twilight he panics and hides it]].

* ''Website/TFWikiDotNet'''s page on [[spoiler:''[[Film/TransformersRiseOfTheBeasts Rise of the Beasts]]'' Airazor]] has a caption that likens [[spoiler:her downplaying her slow corruption by Scourge]] to "that one guy" in a band of post-apocalyptic survivors "who hides that they got bitten by a zombie."

See also AndThenJohnWasAZombie and VampireRefugee. Compare and contrast SecretStabWound and MortalWoundReveal. Most examples are also SecretlyDying.