The Last of Us 2: How its Zombies are Based on Real-Life Undead – Screen Rant

Everyone wants to believe they'd survive a zombie apocalypse that they could scavenge supplies, find a safe house, loada rifle and outrun the shambling hordes. Real world survival, let alone zombie survival, is harder than it sounds... and that's before you factor in a zombie apocalypse spread by airborne fungal spores. The Last of Usreleased in 2013 by Naughty Dog andlauncheda critically acclaimed franchise about the parent-child bond between two survivors... and the desperate lengths they go through to survive the swarms of fungus-infested zombies. The upcoming Last of Us Part IIcontinues the story of Joel and Ellie while also furthering Naughty Dog'sunique, disturbing take on the "zombie apocalypse" genre, featuringa fictional plaguethat's actually based on a real (and just as disturbing)fungal parasite.

First, the fiction: The Last of Us Part Idepicts a humanityon the brink of slow extinction. North America has been overrun by the "Cordyceps", a fungal parasite that spread through clouds of spores, burrowing into human hosts and steering them around to attack the uninfected. The zombies in question are eerily grotesque, ridden with fungal growths that explode from their skulls. Their bites spread the infection... but so will breathing in their airborne spores without gas mask protection.

Related: The Last Of Us 2 Reportedly Comes On Two Discs Because It's So Big

The few remaining quarantine zones are ruled by military juntas, and the survivors are cynical, hardened,with little hope for the future of their species. In The Last of Us Part I, Joel, one of those hardened survivors, and Ellie, a savvy yet optimisticteenager, embark on a trek across the country, searching for a cure to the Cordyceps contagion while dodging infected swarms and pillaging bandits. The Last of Us Part IIfocuses on a grown-up Ellie, who embarks on a quest for revenge against the gang of survivorsthat wronged her, while contending with Infected more dangerous and grotesque than ever.

Now, the reality: there's a fungal parasite calledOphiocordyceps unilateralis,which primarily infects Carpenter Ants in the forests of Brazil and Thailand. Spores burrow beneath the exoskeleton of an unlucky Ant, eating them from the inside and hijacking their nervous system. TheAnt iscompelled to walk away from a hive, climb a plant and bite the underside of a leaf with their mandibles. There, the fungus consumestheir host entirely, and afleshy fruiting body sprouts from the Ant's skull and bursts, raining down a fresh cloud of spores to infect more ants. For Carpenter Ants, Ophiocordyceps is a very real zombie apocalypse that can wipe out entireant colonies without certain counter-measures (expelling ants with signs of infection from the hive, cultivatingbeneficial fungus that devours Ophiocordyceps, etc.).

The odds of this fungal parasite spreading from Ants to Humans is very low but the most devastating plagues started out in animals before making the jump to humans. This, among other things, is what makes the fictional "Cordyceps" of The Last of Us so vividlyplausible. Other fictional zombie contagions (flesh-reanimating viruses,cometradiation, brain slugs, etc.) lack real-world precedent... butOphiocordyceps unilateralis alreadymimics many of the characteristics of the classic zombie apocalypse, needing only a few key mutations to start turning humans into Runners, Stalkers and the blind, mushroom-faced Clickers. And that doesn't factor into account the ruthless potential of human beings, capable of all sort ofcrueltieswhen their back's against the wall...

Naughty Dogs has promised many new featuresforThe Last of Us Part II -improved gameplay, expandedstealth and survival mechanics, smarter, deadlier enemies and a gripping narrative about the cost of vengeance. Hopefully, they won't try to make their fictional zombie apocalypse more plausible than before. It's freaky enough as it is.

Next: The Last Of Us Part 2 Will Contain Nudity & Sexual Content

The Matrix 4 Theory: Neo & Morpheus Have Switched Places In The Reboot

Chicago-based Writer, Author and freelance translator. Looking to prep his readers for the next renaissance of apocalypse, whichever comes first.Write and publishes web fiction under the pseudonym Aldo Salt on Inkshares.com

See original here:
The Last of Us 2: How its Zombies are Based on Real-Life Undead - Screen Rant