Grave Bloom Syndrome

It begins as a patch of soft light on a scar. A faintly luminous lesion that smells of damp soil and glows in the dark, forming where the skin was broken when the spores got in. Survivors who have seen it call it "the Bloom," and the name carries the weight of settlements that are no longer there. Grave Bloom Syndrome is what happens when the Infection meets the Glow Shrooms and decides, with catastrophic optimism, that the fungus is regenerative tissue worth merging with.
  The spores enter through wounds, through breath, through contaminated Morgues where Glow Shroom infestations have taken root among the dead. Necrologists and Grave Divers carry the highest risk, working in the spaces where the fungal network thrives. Once the spores make contact with the host's Infection, the merger begins. The Infection tries to seal wounds with fibrous fungal threads that grow from pores and scars, creating living patterns that pulse with the host's heartbeat and glow brighter as the condition advances. The body does not fight the invasion. It welcomes it, which is what makes Grave Bloom so difficult to stop.
  The progression turns the host into something between a person and a garden. Mild hallucinations appear alongside fatigue and shallow breathing as the fungus affects oxygen intake and neural activity. Shortness of breath becomes constant. Coughing fits release faint spore clouds that can trigger hallucinations in nearby individuals, turning the afflicted into a vector whether they intend it or not. In the severe stages, chronic pain and difficulty moving accompany the continued growth of fungus throughout the body. Entering a Morgue or Mortis space at this point spreads the disease to others present, and the afflicted becomes a walking contamination source. Terminal-stage collapse occurs when the fungal network completes its takeover: mushrooms and mold sprout visibly from the mouth, eyes, and joints as connective tissue is replaced by mycelium. Blood runs dark green and viscous. The body stiffens and fails.
  What distinguishes Grave Bloom from other wasteland diseases is the stubbornness of the fungal bond. Death does not cure it. The Mortis returns the afflicted at Stage 2, not Stage 1, and not disease-free. Treatment requires radiation, the thematic inverse of the fungal growth: exposing affected tissue to radioactive materials to burn back what the Infection keeps trying to cultivate. At the most severe stage, the cure itself causes Radiation Rot, trading one disease for another in a grim medical bargain. The palliative treatment is equally telling; blood from a donor suffering from Radiation Rot can slow the Bloom's advance, the radiation in the transfused blood holding the fungus at bay. Grave Bloom and Radiation Rot exist as opposites on the same spectrum, the Infection growing unchecked versus the Infection being burned away, and the treatment for each carries the seeds of the other.