Zombies are scientist?!?!

[Peanuckle]

The best way to handle this problem would've been to have the infected 'attack' you once, then go about doing scientist-type things and talking to you in anabel's voice.

So it'd be a friendly scientist NPC with an infected model. Clarence messing with your senses, but your mind is powerful enough to not act on them.

That would be so awesome.

[Zoridium JackL]

you have created a paradox where none exists, firstly, clarence can most likely inflict pain on you, because pain is your brain reacting, as to why he doesn't just cripple you for the other zombies, he doesn't want you to die, he isn't fully one of them, he knows that he is separate from them and that they may kill him as well, so he wants to keep you alive so he can be "alive", maybe even hoping to take over you fully and join his brethren, now that we have established that there is no reason why he can't inflict pain on you, it makes perfect sense that he would make her appear infected when she isn't, she poses a threat,not only to him but to his entire kind, so he needs to eliminate her, if this seems to simple a motive for you, i would propose that he is doing it to redeem himself, his brothers can't reach her because she has locked herself away, but she trusts you, and Clarence can use you because he can essentially control you, at least, he can control your senses (and arguably, pain is jut an extreme of touch), and by saving his kind prove that he is interested only in the greater good and is capable of joining his race.

also, either Amabelle was infected just like red, or she was implemented to confirm that you are infected, despite Clarence, if you recall there are several instances where she unknowingly repeats herself, this would be deja-vu, this is either to make you think she is infected or to prove that you are before "meeting" Clarence. also, i think that the dev's want you to think that Amabelle is infected up until the point where she is dead, the reason for the scientist who cuts his hand of i believe was to "teach" the player that someone who is infected can sound relatively normal, yet look like a monster and want to eat your body parts (much like a nasty hooker), and than they never let you see Amabelle, just hear her, and this can be argued to trying to make her more like red, a guiding voice, but they made more of a deal about not being able to see her, it was a broken video chat, not just skype or whatever, and they even talk about that,

so to conclude, i believe that the devs set out from the beginning to make you think she was infected, and then after you kill her it turns out she wasn't, just like when your sure that there is a monster in the cupboard, so you spend the next few hours shitting yourself because you "know" that there is a monster in the cupboard, and then when you open it you go completely apeshit and rape the thing with the nearest heavy (preferably lead) thing only to realize once you have calmed down that it was just the sweater that your aunt knitted you for honica....

[Peanuckle]

When you make contact with her at her computer, she repeats herself about the symptoms of infection, which is itself a symptom of infection. This and subtle other clues in her conversations implies that she is already infected.

Thus it is entirely possible that she was resisting, but lost the battle when you got to her. Since it'd be fairly early in her infection, the transformation would not have taken place.

[Zoridium JackL]

When you make contact with her at her computer, she repeats herself about the symptoms of infection, which is itself a symptom of infection. This and subtle other clues in her conversations implies that she is already infected.

Thus it is entirely possible that she was resisting, but lost the battle when you got to her. Since it'd be fairly early in her infection, the transformation would not have taken place.

but as i said, it is debateable whether she was displaying the symtoms or you are experiencing them, for example, she doesn't have deja vu, because you are the one who hears it twice and get the sense that you have heard those exact words before, which you have, but that is more than likely the game trying to give you a genuine sense of deja vu,

realistically, i think that they want us to think she is infected before we see her, and then when we see her we don't doubt that she is infected, then it turns out that she isn't, it makes more sense than she was infected and he made you think that she wasn't, what does clarence gain from the, the answer is nothing, he merely makes you thirsty for revenge and you are more determined than ever to get the cure,

although, the one thing that puzzles me is the note left on her computer, i can't remember it exaxctly but if i remember correctly, it wa in case something happened, now, this could mean one of three things,

1: she was feeling herself get infected and wanted to be able to help you regardless of whether she won or lost the challenge,

2: she was worried that you where infected, for all we knoe you could have slowly been taking on the form of a tuurnwhatsit, because you never see yourself, and you where infected for quite a while, so it is quite possible you were already changing physically

3: it was just there "in case", i mean, you can never be too safe, and regarding the situation it was a pretty smart and logical thing to do regardless of whether she expected something to happen or not.

to conclude, i think that the reason that the devs spent soo much time making it seem like she was infected is to increase the power of the emotions, because they need you to feel real hatred or at least a yearning for revenge against clarence, enough to make you really want him out regardless, so they needed a strong event like this to bring on that motivations. so really it makes more SENSE that she wasn't infected but clarence made you think she was, yet it is an equally PLAUSIBLE (not necessarily equally likely) scenario, i really just think that people are thinking too literally about the thing and not taking into account the fact that it is a game based on immersion experience so it is very heavily centered on making the player feel things.

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When you make contact with her at her computer, she repeats herself about the symptoms of infection, which is itself a symptom of infection. This and subtle other clues in her conversations implies that she is already infected.

Thus it is entirely possible that she was resisting, but lost the battle when you got to her. Since it'd be fairly early in her infection, the transformation would not have taken place.

just thought i'd point out that repeating yourself isn't a symptom, deja vu is, which is the feeling of repetition,

i actually think that the point of infection is irrelevant, i mean, it has already been prove (by the "you can haz hand" doctor) that infected people can still maintain perfect speech when the transformation has already occurred, and that the infection is fairly rapid judging by how amabell tells you she saw dr. hand guy earlier and he was acting strange, but not looking like a monster, so it is really impossible to tell whether or not someone is infected fully until you see them, unless they show extensive signs, like the hand guy, he was capable of talking, but he kept saying weird things, again, there really is no way to know fos sure, but taking everything into account it is more likely that she wasn't infected, although either explaination is plausible.