Maybe it's a stupid idea, but maybe NPCs who haven't been "infected" and are like the player could be in one of the future updates. Maybe a separate level could be made for them. You could help them escape, or help them out with resources (such as food, weapons). At the same time, there could be more enemies in the sectors to make it more difficult to escape (this can be changed when creating the world).
I don't know how much it would fit into the game according to the story or the backstory. During my time in the Game, I came to the conclusion that this could be included as some kind of money-making (or weapon, food,xp) opportunity.