Both the video game and HBO series, The Last of Us, showed us a world where humanity collapse thanks to a mutated fungus infection that took over human society.
The cordyceps managed to make its way to the world’s food supply, infecting those who ate food that involves mold like flour and sugar. And from there, the human population dropped by 60 percent, and the survivors were forced to leave everything behind and live in Quarantine Zones or individual settlements, whilst also trying to survive this new world.
While the show and the games mostly talk about what happened in America, it’s interesting to wonder what happened to the rest of the world. After all, so much of humanity has perished that it will be interesting to know what will happen to them. Thanks to what we got from the series and a basic understanding of world geography, global economic trade, politics, and what we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can somewhat picture what could happen to the rest of the world after the apocalypse.
North Korea
Let’s start with the easiest country to predict — North Korea, aka the hermit nation. Due to the multiple sanctions put in place against the country, it has to produce its own food supply to feed the people, meaning that they’re self-sufficient. North Korea would be somewhat safe since it doesn’t obtain products from the outside world. Meaning, the flour from Jakarta (TV show) or products from South America (video game) wouldn’t have stepped foot in the country.
But that doesn’t mean that they’re 100 free from the outbreak. Another thing to consider is North Korea’s food supply since it grows its own rice, fruits, vegetables, and other plant and animal-based products. While the country does have a known food shortage, rice tends to have fungal pathogens, meaning cordyceps could contaminate the country’s food supply.
Let’s not forget, the country shares a border with China and South Korea. Both countries are known to trade with other nations, meaning that there will be an outbreak in both countries. While the North Korean government likes to show off its military, it may or may not be enough to stop a zombie herd from its neighbors. But then again, it was rumored that North Korea would allegedly shoot anyone infected with COVID-19, according to the LA Times.
Even if North Korea has the manpower to stop it at the start, the people more likely to be infected are the rich and the elite. So the nation might witness some sort of power vacuum, with the leaders and richest people taking the fall before the infection spreads to the rest of the population. So this could be the country’s demise. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Australia
Plenty of fan theories on Reddit like to predict that Australia is going end up in a Mad Max-like situation, where people will live in the middle of the country, known for its really dry nature and not much greenery. And oddly enough, that is more likely to happen. In the show, we’re told that if you step in a patch of cordyceps, the fungus could contact other infected and will be making its way towards you. So where is the safest place in the country that doesn’t have that much greenery? The desert.
Australia is 70 percent desert, and the smart ones will be making their way to those areas. It’s also known that the Aboriginal people have lived in these areas for thousands of years. So either we’re going to see racist folks taking advantage of this situation, or the people would listen to them and seek wisdom and advice on how to live this new lifestyle and work together in order to survive.
One may argue that Australia’s very strict biosecurity and border security laws could stop the outbreak from happening. However, Australia’s biosecurity act was updated in 2015. Also, science-based quarantine assessments were not implemented until 2007. Unless we’re following in-game events, where the outbreak happened in 2013, something might have slipped in if it happened in 2003.
Asia, Hawaii, and the Pacific islands
These areas are screwed. Multiple countries like the Philippines, Fiji, and Hawaii, just to name a few, are known to produce their own produce and trade with other nations. And let’s not forget, Jakarta was the source of the main outbreak in the HBO series. Society is instantly going to crumble and the only ones who might survive are those who own weapons, live in isolated areas, or those with fishing boats.
In The Last of Us video games, there was a story about a guy named Ish, a guy who was at sea during the initial outbreak. He then helped some of the survivors by creating refuge underground to protect them from the infected. So perhaps similar stories may occur in these regions.
The main concern however is what North Korea, China, and possibly Russia plan to do when they’re made aware of the outbreak and the infected. It’s easy to assume that they have the manpower to do it, but these countries are known for their nuclear arsenal. It wouldn’t be a surprise that they’d start nuking the neighboring countries. If that were the case, then the events of The Last of Us wouldn’t happen since the world would have died from radiation poisoning. So we can assume that it was too late to use their nuclear arsenals, and decided to use guns and bombs.
The United Kingdom
There is a film and book titled The Girl with the Gifts that somewhat covered this type of scenario. Just like in The Last of Us, a fungal pandemic wiped out humanity. The only difference is that the second generation of children who were born after the outbreak was somewhat of a hybrid between a human and an infected due to a symbiotic relationship.
So, it’s safe to assume that the same thing will happen to the UK as what happened in America, humanity will be wiped out by the fungus, infecting the population. And survivors would have made new settlements to survive in this new world.
Russia, Europe, Canada, and colder regions
Let’s talk about the world’s colder regions. Russia, Canada, the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, and anywhere that is known to have chillier climates. While plants tend to hibernate during the winter, cordyceps do tend to grow in colder conditions. In fact, according to teelixeir.com, cordyceps were found in the Himalayan mountains in Tibet and Bhutan. Remember, the cordyceps infection started because the fungi managed to evolve and mutate due to climate change, so there is a chance that an outbreak can happen in the cold. And since these countries do tend to get warm during the summer, there is a chance that the infected can be dangerous in these areas as well.
But, there is hope that colder areas may be safer. A research article published in 2018 stated that “caterpillar fungus” in the Himalayas is declining due to climate change. And these fungi are needed for medicinal purposes. So if climate change in colder areas is making this fungal population decline, it’s safe to say that it might be safe to stay in cooler regions as long as it’s isolated and not heavily populated.
The only country that is more likely to survive this might be Iceland. It has a very low population (under 400,000), its main import partners are the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark according to the World Integrated Trade Solution, and unless you have a greenhouse, it’s really hard to produce crops and plants. Not only will the cordyceps and infected have a less likely chance to survive, but the population is so small that those in the outskirts might endure. Also, most of the population lives in the cities, while the smaller towns have populations of hundreds or low thousands. So infection might be an isolated case in one huge area.
The rest of the world
Unfortunately, due to food importation and an emphasis on agriculture, the fungus would likely have contaminated the food supply and have taken humanity down. The way The Last of Us set up the apocalypse is very scary since it’s a real fungus that uses real-world logic and theories. Fungus does appear in our food, and most of humanity imports and exports products to other regions, especially to areas that struggle to grow those goods. And while some countries like to believe in their strong security, things do slip in the cracks, which could increase the chances of infection if humanity isn’t careful.