The Rot: the Ethics of Survival

When CDC epidemiologist Dr. Lena Moore returns to her isolated Appalachian hometown, Eldridge Hollow, she expects a quarantine zone.What she finds instead is a miracle.The townspeople are alive. They are organized. They are thriving.They’ve even given the infection a new name: The Transition.But the miracle hides a perfect horror.The infected are no longer treated — they’re recycled.The dying become “contributors,” their bodies processed into the nutrients that keep everyone else alive.No one calls it cannibalism anymore. It’s policy.As Lena investigates, she uncovers what the CDC buried years ago — the Rot didn’t come from nature. It was made.And it’s learning.The fungus adapts not just to the body, but to the mind.It whispers, it reasons, it forgives.Now Lena’s infection is spreading, and the line between doctor and experiment, savior and subject, begins to dissolve.Because the Rot doesn’t kill its hosts — it converts them.And in Eldridge Hollow, survival isn’t about staying human.It’s about deciding whether humanity is still worth saving.