So I haven’t been able to read alllll the posts in your Blooming Dead tag but I was thinking about how the virus could’ve started and came up with this :)
The military was testing in an underground facility how to turn corpses into suggestible soldiers by bringing them back to life. They succeeded in bringing the corpses back but they couldn’t figure out how to control them so the project was abandoned. When the tested-on, reanimated corpses were being brought up to the surface to be burned (the origin of the hate of bad smells), the blood of some dripped into the soil, affecting the flowers and plants of the area. The virus was spread when a woman gathering dandelions nearby to make dandelion wine. She drank the infected wine and was the first to be turned into a Bloomer (calmed by dandelions). Her spores/seeds spread into the air and from then on the virus was airborne. Now, when someone dies, they turn into a zombie, only being calmed by flowers and good scents.
What do you think? There might be lots of plot holes. 🤭
I prefer zombie infection origins to be vague even though I have my own take, but yours is so good!!! I love the simplicity of the zombies developing a hatred of bad smells and violence due to the way they were treated 🥺