The Last Of Us fans horrified to learn why infected don't starve to death

The Last of Us fans have learned why infected don’t starve to death, and the reason is pretty horrifying.

The infected in The Last of Us are brutal, fast, and relentless. They’re certainly the types of zombies that you wouldn’t want to encounter close up.

Because the infected are consumed by a mutated strain of the cordyceps parasite, there’s no supernatural or magical elements that can explain why they behave or function in the way that they do.

This naturally brings up some questions, such as what the infected eat so as not to starve to death. After all, there can’t be enough humans around to feed the hordes of infected, especially 20 years after the apocalypse.

There are theories, and those who know a little bit about real world biology and parasites can explain it.

“The fungus is slowly consuming the bodies which it infests,” writes a comment on Reddit. “Which is why each stage has more exterior fungal growth than the last. It's consuming the interior of the body like that as well. The final stage of the cordyceps infection is death due to this.

“It's like fungus growing on and slowly consuming a log," they continue. "Except with the imperative and ability to spread itself like a predator. It has a way to sustain the host through the metabolic process as well. Likely by feeding the host their own metabolized body.”

It’s a pretty grim way to imagine it, so I hope you’re not reading this article while having lunch.

However, this theory does mean the infected eventually would starve once the host’s body has been completely consumed. It just might take longer than 20 years.

We do also know the infected eat animals. During both games, as well as the TV show, you can see signs of this in multiple locations, including a dead moose in the second game that’s been eaten.

Perhaps this is a sign of the host body still retaining some instincts of their former human selves, such as the instinct to survive by hunting and eating dead prey.

Either way, it’s a pretty gnarly way to think about it, but at least the debate has been put to rest.