The Core — Craig Marley

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Shortly after receiving reports of people dying from a mysterious fungal pathogen in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea, the CDC dispatched their most experienced mycotic expert, Doctor Rachel Hemmingway. Leading a small team of epidemiologists, her primary mission was to determine the source of the outbreak, control the spread of the deadly spores, and develop an effective treatment. With over twenty years of experience as a CDC mycotic investigator, she was confident the deadly outbreak would quickly be contained. She was profoundly mistaken. They called it Lucifer. And it was not from our planet. It had remained in a state of anhydrobiosis for billions of years, trapped in an iron sarcophagus without nutrients or water, unable to metabolize, reproduce, or grow. It had survived an epic journey through space and time, the explosive impact with Earth, and three hundred million years of paralysis.Buried deep within the Papuan highlands, when it was accidentally exhumed by Keystone gold miners, the monsoon rains infiltrated its microscopic pores and it began to rehydrate - atom by atom - cell by cell - until the entire fungal mass burst back to life - and continued its lethal genetic destiny.Once inhaled, dozens of threadlike mycelium tentacles slowly emerged from each deadly spore - undulating in a rhythmic motion - growing longer - searching for its first meal in billions of years. From the mycelium grew the hyphae - smaller filaments that produced digestive exoenzymes ‒ converting human lungs into a nutritious chemical goop to be absorbed by the parasitic fungus.As the fungus grew inside the lungs of its current host, it asexually reproduced with an explosive flowering - ejecting thousands of its spores into the environment. And with the help of the wind, and human carriers, these microscopic spores repeatedly invaded, and quickly killed another human host - and another - and another - and another.By the year 2036, out of eight billion humans on planet Earth, fewer than two billion remained. One hundred and seventy of them struggled to survive within the boundaries of Keystone - an isolated open-pit gold mine in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea. Rachel Hemmingway, and her team of epidemiologists were among them - the last pillars of hope for mankind.This is their story.