Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the 2nd expedition ended in mass suicide; the 3rd expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the 11th expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer.