The Cordyceps are going digital and are reaching your browser. The second episode of HBO’s The Last of Us series based on the popular Sony Playstion game has revealed more of how the fungal infection works once a person is infected. Now, Google is taking that fungal outbreak to its search results.
Google has added a creepy Easter egg as a fun way to honor the show, which is now available on HBO Max. It’s linked to the Cordyceps fungal outbreak that’s inspired by the video game. If you Google “The Last of Us” on desktop or mobile, a red mushroom will appear at the bottom of your browser window. Tapping/clicking will see animated fungus grow on the screen. As you continue to tap or click the mushroom, the fungus spreads even more.
You can share the image or click x to clear your screen. If only, it were that easy on the show. The Last of Us episode 2 showed the Clickers, the infected people, in full detail and how terrifying they behave.
HBO’s The Last of Us Spoilers Below
The Sony Playstation game doesn’t dive into the outbreak’s origin like it does in episode 2 of the HBO series. The episode starts with a scene back in 2003 in Jarkata. Soldiers interrupt Ratna (Christine Hakim), a fungal expert, while eating her lunch. She is brought into a lab to do some research on an infected dead body. Ratna knows that cordyceps can’t survive in the human body. It’s not the case here. She pulls out tentacle-looking string of fungus out of the body’s mouth. It begins to move. She’s frightened.
The next scene of The Last of Us episode 2, the soldier requests Ratna for a vaccine. Unfortunately, Ratna understands the scale of this fungal growth and how bad it can and will become. Ratna suggests the only thing she believes can stop the spread of the virus — to bomb the city.
Decades later, in the ruins of Boston, Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and Tess (Anna Torv) continue their trek across the QZ for a rendezvous. They found something else. The people they were supposed to meet were dead and some were infected. One woke up but Joel shot him. A close up of the fungus “tentacle” wraps around the finger of the infected waking up hundreds of infected about a mile away.
The second episode of The Last of Us revealed more of how the fungus spreads. It was already given that it can spread through bites just like a virus in zombies. In the video game, it is also airborne — something that could be a little more difficult to bring to the live-action version. Actors will need to wear masks most of the time. The episode also revealed that the fungal infection works like a hive-mind and/or network. Step on a vine, and the network will know where you are at.
The first two episodes of HBO’s The Last of Us are now streaming on HBO Max. Check out the creepy but fun Easter egg on Google when you search “The Last of Us.” Good thing for us, we can just wipe it clean with one tap of the x.
