How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

Passing through the wildly rampaging zombies, Aiden and Arian finally arrived at the apartment.

The devastated entrance immediately came into view.

The small lobby area on the first floor of the apartment.

Within that limited space, remnants of countless corpses were scattered about, coated in the soot of explosions.

A sight that would discourage anyone from setting foot there.

But Aiden entered that entrance without hesitation.

“…Quiet.”

Aiden muttered as he looked upwards.

Inside the building where intense combat had unfolded before they left, silence now prevailed.

Aiden glanced behind him.

While a few zombies could be seen in the streets, the creatures were too preoccupied rampaging amongst themselves to pay any attention to the quiet building.

“Do you think you can hold out a bit longer?”

Aiden turned towards Arian.

Her condition was still far from ideal.

All she had managed to do was remove the shrapnel embedded in her body.

Though her complexion wasn’t great, Arian still nodded.

“Wait here for a moment.”

Leaving Arian there, Aiden ascended the stairs alone.

Upon reaching the 14th floor, the collapsed first defensive line came into view.

In the center of the barricade lay a dead Hedgehog with its head impaled.

Aiden briefly observed it before moving on.

The next area he encountered was the barricade on the 16th floor, the second defensive position.

But that place was in a similar state as the 14th floor.

Bullet impacts on the walls, remnants of explosions, and the stench of rotten, charred corpses.

Next to it was the crushed head of a Brutal, as if someone had stomped on it.

All evidence of the intense battle that had taken place.

But even so, the defensive line seemed to have ultimately fallen.

The people who should have been guarding this rear area were nowhere to be seen, and only their mangled weapons remained.

Standing before those barricades, Aiden looked upwards.

Two floors above where he stood, on the 18th floor.

That was the location of the final defensive position.

Towards that area, still enveloped in silence and darkness, Aiden called out.

“Sadie, are you there?”

The time Aiden had been away from this apartment was around an hour.

He had expected the second defensive line to be breached during that period.

But he had believed the final defensive position would hold out until the end, which is why he had left Sadie there.

To bring down Fear, there had been no other choice, and he had judged it as the best option.

However, even so, at this very moment, Aiden wasn’t entirely free of anxiety.

No matter how extensive his experience, in this world overrun by the undead, situations exceeding even his expectations were not uncommon occurrences. Despite making what he thought was the best decision, the worst outcome was still possible.

That’s why Aiden couldn’t help but feel a slight unease during those brief moments before a response came.

“…Uncle?”

Fortunately, Sadie’s voice clearly came from above.

Finally letting out a short sigh of relief, Aiden continued speaking.

“It’s me, Aiden. I’ll be coming up there now.”

Aiden informed her of his return, and soon rejoined the people gathered at the final defensive position.

Quite a number of people had gathered there.

“What’s this… I thought you were on the rooftop, junk dealer?”

Seeing Aiden casually ascending the stairs, Sophia questioned him.

Sophia, her clothes caked with dried blood, holding a tattered rifle.

Deep fatigue was etched onto her face.

Aiden brushed off her question with a vague response before inquiring about the current situation instead.

“As you can see. When the lower floors were breached, I thought we were done for… but then the zombies suddenly started acting strangely. They stopped coming up here anymore.”

“Casualties?”

“…Five. There are also some injured. The Millers are tending to them inside.”

Aiden nodded in understanding.

No matter how defensive their battle, sustaining no casualties against such a vast number of mutants would have been impossible.

After briefly showing a solemn expression, Sophia quickly composed herself and followed up with another question.

“So, what exactly happened? Why did those things suddenly start acting that way?”

“I managed to snipe Fear.”

Aiden calmly reported.

Sophia had been aware of the plan to snipe Fear from the rooftop while the defensive lines held out.

Which is why her eyes widened in surprise.

She hadn’t expected it to succeed so swiftly.

“Is that really true?”

“But I didn’t manage to bring it down completely.”

Aiden explained that Fear had suffered injuries causing it to lose control over the zombies.

He only relayed the beginning and end, omitting Arian’s intense battle in the middle.

“Then…!”

But for the people here, including Sophia, that was enough.

It meant they no longer needed to risk their lives in further combat.

“Yeah, the battle is over. You all did well.”

At Aiden’s declaration, the people who had been maintaining tentative tension collapsed where they stood.

It was only then that they mourned their fallen comrades and tended to their own weary bodies.

“Phew… damn it…!”

Sophia was no exception.

With a deep sigh, she surveyed the survivors around her.

While Sophia and her friends had all survived, her expression was far from relieved.

There had still been casualties, after all.

As the one responsible for leading this defensive line, she inwardly bore a heavy burden, and that fact alone weighed on her like guilt.

To those people, Aiden’s voice followed.

“For now, everyone should rest. We’ll need to move again tomorrow. We’ll likely have to leave this place immediately.”

Aiden conveyed their future course of action.

No matter that Fear had lost control, they couldn’t remain in Phoenix any longer.

The hundreds of thousands of zombies that creature had led here still lingered.

And while Fear had been injured, it wasn’t impossible for it to regain control at any time.

So they couldn’t afford to let their guard down just yet.

They needed to evacuate from Phoenix as swiftly as possible.

“…I understand.”

Comprehending this, the people nodded in acknowledgment.

They decided to take their rest here tonight, before continuing their journey tomorrow.

In the meantime, Aiden procured a small amount of blood and brought it to Arian.

It wasn’t a substantial quantity, but enough to heal Arian’s injuries.

“I should be fully recovered by tonight.”

“I see. You especially… had a rough time today.”

At Aiden’s words, Arian let out a slight chuckle.

Soon after, Sadie also came to join Arian.

And so, Aiden’s group was reunited, and the deep night gradually passed.

* * *

The next day, as the sun rose.

The mutants that had been howling through the night scattered like cockroaches fleeing the light, concealing themselves.

Only regular zombies remained strewn about the streets in disarray.

“…We’ll need to move carefully.”

Observing the zombies’ distribution, Aiden muttered those words.

No matter how much the mutants had rampaged through the night, scattering the zombies, the number of undead visible was still considerable.

And yet, the people Aiden had to lead numbered over 30, including injured individuals.

Too many to move stealthily, and they couldn’t act in tight coordination either.

Punching through the zombie-infested streets with them in tow would be no easy feat.

But Aiden had a method.

Bang!

He utilized the explosives he hadn’t exhausted yesterday to clear a path.

Just as he had done in Glendale, using the noise to lure the zombies to one location.

Afterwards, Arian would seize that opening to guide the group’s passage.

Their first destination was the camp they had originally stayed in.

At that camp on the city’s outskirts, Aiden’s group had left behind some of their supplies, so they had come to retrieve those.

“…The inside seems clear.”

Upon reaching the camp’s outer wall, Arian spoke those words.

Fortunately, there were no people remaining inside the camp.

So there were hardly any zombies that had entered either.

“Gather the supplies as quickly as possible, then we’ll move again.”

At Aiden’s words, the survivors dispersed to collect their respective stored supplies.

“Aiden.”

As he was surveying the camp, Arian approached him.

“Have you decided on our route to evacuate?”

Aiden nodded.

He unfolded a map, pointing towards the northeast direction of Phoenix.

“If we head this way, we’ll soon leave Phoenix’s metropolitan area. After that, we’ll make a wide detour around Phoenix towards the west.”

Arian stared intently at the route Aiden had indicated.

It was undoubtedly the best path to avoid the zombies.

But the distance was quite lengthy, prompting Arian to furrow her brow slightly in concern.

“So we’re going straight to LA like this? Will we be alright? Our supplies didn’t seem sufficient.”

She asked with worry.

Even Arian could tell that Aiden and the survivors were nearly out of resources.

Food, water, and ammunition – everything had been depleted during yesterday’s battle.

No matter how many supplies they retrieved from the camp’s stockpile, it would only be a temporary reprieve to resupply.

They lacked enough to safely embark on another journey across the desert.

“…We have no choice.”

But despite being aware of that, Aiden said those words.

He hadn’t forgotten the vast numbers of mutants that had converged yesterday.

Right now, those mutants were likely hiding inside buildings to avoid the sunlight.

Scouring Phoenix in search of supplies would be tantamount to suicide.

“But are we really going into the desert with no other countermeasures?”

“No… there is still hope. Just think about where all these zombies Fear led must have come from.”

Aiden calmly explained his reasoning.

Fear had brought these immense numbers of zombies and mutants from the west of Phoenix.

Naturally, that meant the western desert they had come from was likely deserted now.

“So the desert itself shouldn’t be too dangerous. But… we’ll have to resupply as much as possible from any small towns we pass through. That part will be left to chance.”

At Aiden’s words, a troubled look crossed Arian’s face.

The uncertainty of resupplying supplies was far more critical for Sadie than for Aiden or Arian herself.

So Arian naturally raised another question.

“Are you planning to bring all these people along?”

If it had just been Aiden, Arian, and Sadie, resupplying wouldn’t have been a major concern.

With Arian present, even in the dangerous Phoenix area, procuring enough food for a single child wouldn’t have been too difficult.

However, the over 30 survivors, including Sophia and the Millers, didn’t seem inclined to part ways with Aiden’s group.

Perhaps having witnessed Aiden’s exceptional capabilities during yesterday’s events. They were following his lead as if he had been the leader of this small group from the very beginning.

“If they wish to come, then that’s how it will be.”

And Aiden himself had no intention of driving them away, he said.

At that, Arian sharply questioned why.

Didn’t he realize their presence threatened Sadie’s safety?

But the reason behind Aiden’s decision wasn’t mere willfulness.

“Is that what Sadie would want?”

Aiden gestured towards Sadie, who was conversing with an injured person in one corner of the camp.

At the request of a woman with an injured leg, that child was retrieving supplies on her behalf.

Seeing that scene, Arian had no rebuttal for Aiden.

It was obvious that Sadie, who had shared her food rations with others while crossing the desert, would undoubtedly make the same decision this time as well.

“Geez…”

So Arian could only let out a sigh.

Shortly after that, they finished retrieving the remaining supplies from the camp and soon evacuated from Phoenix.

And once more, they set out westward, towards where LA was located.

* * *

Two weeks later, on a rainy afternoon.

Aiden’s group, along with the over 30 survivors, had just entered Blythe, a small town in the middle of the desert.

Stretching through the dilapidated residential area was a long road paved with cracked asphalt.

The cold winter raindrops pelted that road surface.

Aiden, Arian, Sadie, and the survivors trudged onwards, unable to take shelter from that rain.

“…There should be something here, right?”

Arian spoke with a grave expression.

Blythe was a small town approximately 250km from Phoenix.

But due to having to make a wide detour around Phoenix, it had taken Aiden’s group two full weeks since their departure to finally reach this place.

During that time, Aiden’s group had been in poor condition.

They had ultimately run out of food and water supplies on their way here.

So the people were starving and thirsty, Sadie included.

And yet, to reach LA’s metropolitan area from here, they would need to travel the same distance they had come from Phoenix once more.

If they found nothing today… it was possible the first casualty from starvation could occur.

Aware of this, Aiden simply continued in a matter-of-fact tone.

“We can only hope so. But… the people are too exhausted. It would be best for only you and I to handle the scouting.”

At least, as Aiden had expected, the western desert had indeed been deserted.

Over the past two weeks, the total number of zombies Aiden’s group had encountered didn’t even reach ten.

So the probability of this Blythe being devoid of zombies was high, which is why Aiden suggested splitting up for separate scouting sweeps.

“Understood.”

“Okay. Then I’ll focus on this main road-“

It was just as Aiden was about to assign scouting areas to Arian.

But she cut off his words.

“Wait a moment.”

“What is it?”

“I hear a sound. This is… an engine noise.”

“An engine? Does that mean there are people here?”

Arian nodded in confirmation.

“How many?”

“A lot. Over 50, and the number keeps increasing. They’re coming this way.”

At those words, Aiden instructed the people to split up in small groups and take shelter inside the houses.

It was only natural, not knowing what these newcomers might be.

Soon after, a bright light source became visible at the far end of the road.

Piercing through the overcast daytime sky that had turned gloomy, shafts of harsh light shone forth – the headlights of vehicles.

And there were multiple sources of that light.

Coming towards this place were not just one, but a staggering five vehicles in total.