How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“…It’s not as many as I thought.”

Having almost crossed the iron bridge, Aiden commented after surveying the island. The appearance of the island, which had gone through various incidents, was unique.

First, the inside was covered with a gray concrete floor. On top of it, iron structures like transformers were arranged regularly.

Between them, thick pipes, whether they were sewers or wires, were connected, blocking the path of the group like walls of a maze.

Also, on one side of the road crossing the middle, there was only a pile of black ashes.

It was the remnants of a fire that occurred here over a year ago. Even now, it remained untouched, exposing the tragedy of that time.

Moreover, in the outer part of the power plant, where concrete wasn’t laid, wild plants were thriving.

In this place where humans had disappeared, only weeds flourished, finally starting to invade the concrete.

Because of that, some vines emerged from the ashes, enveloping some transformers and pipes.

It looked like a small green jungle was invading a small gray city.

“…”

Aiden carefully scrutinized the power plant with just his gaze.

The zombies he spotted were only five.

Perhaps it was because their vision was obstructed by trees made of steel.

Still, yesterday Arian rescued Diana, and it seemed that the zombies on the surface had been somewhat cleared.

“The entrance leading underground is over there,” Diana said.

Although Diana had already explained the power plant’s structure to Aiden, she stepped forward to guide them personally.

However, Aiden raised his head.

“No, let’s clean up the surroundings first.”

“Do we really need to do that?”

Diana’s tone questioned the need for taking risks.

Aiden responded:

“First, we need to secure the surface as a safe zone. We don’t know what might happen underground. So, we need to leave an escape route.”

Aiden was already anticipating that things might not go as planned.

Diana felt a bit uncomfortable with his words, but what he said wasn’t wrong.

If something like yesterday happens… There will be a big difference whether there are zombies on the ground or not.

“…Alright. So, what’s the plan?”

“For now, I’ll move first.”

“Alone?”

“If there are no mutants, I can handle it alone.”

Aiden planned to use the terrain with obstructed visibility to quietly deal with zombies. Even if the sound leaked out and attracted other zombies, they wouldn’t attack him if he stood there. So, a situation where zombies were somewhat scattered in a maze-like pattern was optimal for Aiden.

However, even for him, insurance was needed.

“Vampire. Stay about 10 meters away and follow me.”

Arian heard Aiden’s instructions and nodded calmly.

Just in case a mutant appeared on the surface, it was a precautionary measure. Diana decided to move with Arian, and the plan was complete.

“Any other opinions?”

There were sufficient instructions with nothing to add or subtract. Both women shook their heads.

“I’ll take care of this.”

Aiden took off his helmet and handed it to Arian.

His gruesome face, contaminated with rotten flesh, was revealed. Unlike Diana, who swallowed slightly at the sight, Arian casually took the helmet from him.

Then, Aiden took a clean military dagger from his bag. It used to be a ceremonial dagger of the U.S. Marine Corps, featuring a strong and easy-to-pierce blade of up to 200mm. It was suitable for beheading the decayed heads of zombies – a perfect weapon.

“I’ll go then.”

He descended from the iron bridge, finally setting foot on the island. There was a zombie standing on the path leading from the bridge to the power plant.

As Aiden approached, the zombie’s head unnaturally turned toward him. It was a zombie wearing a dirty dress, so contaminated that it was impossible to recognize the original color.

Though it was hard to tell without a head, it might have been a woman when she was alive.

“…”

Aiden’s figure reflected in the rotten, empty eyes.

However, the zombie quickly turned its head with cold indifference, as if it had no interest in the man resembling itself.

In the face of such unilateral indifference, Aiden silently approached her. And he covered the mouth of the zombie that ignored him with one hand from behind.

At that moment, when the zombie that was held by Aiden was about to go crazy.

Quack!

The blade of the dagger pierced the zombie’s neck, breaking the bone, and Aiden pushed it outward with force, separating the head cleanly.

“Geh-“

The head of the zombie, without vocal cords, made a sound like a deflated balloon. However, immediately afterward, Aiden’s dagger was thrust upward again from the section where the neck was severed.

A clever angle that avoided the tough skull and reached the brain.

The brain was ruthlessly destroyed as the blade savagely penetrated, and finally, one zombie was completely silenced.

“Oh…”

Arian, who had been silently watching the entire process from the railroad bridge, let out a small exclamation. It was a familiar and professional movement, as if he had repeated this many times.

It was, quite literally, an assassination.

Moreover, the assassination was swift and, above all, quiet.

Although there was a zombie hiding behind a pipe, it didn’t even show signs of reacting.

The rest was like a simple task.

Aiden searched between the transformers and pipes that made up the maze, found hidden zombies, dealt with them in the same way, and immediately moved on to find the next one.

As a result, about 20 zombies remaining on the surface were completely annihilated in 10 minutes of silence.

Arian, who had been quietly following him, shrugged her shoulders and opened her mouth.

“Not bad.”

“…”

Although Diana didn’t say anything, she was secretly surprised by Aiden’s skill. Until a little while ago, she had thought of Aiden as just a strange existence – a junkyard surviving by luck after being bitten by a zombie. But now, it was clear that it was a blatant underestimation.

Aiden not only knew how to utilize the fact that he was a zombie, but he also possessed the skills befitting it.

“Any more?”

Aiden, who had dealt with the zombies, approached Arian.

Arian closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on her surroundings.

The sounds of the still not-dead corpses were still present. But they were all echoing from deep underground.

Above the ground bathed in sunlight, there was only silence.

“I think we’ve dealt with everything on the surface.”

“All right then. Let’s slowly enter the underground.”

“Oh, there it is.”

What Diana pointed to were three chimneys standing side by side next to the control room, the only building at the power plant. Beneath those chimneys, a huge iron structure was attached like a torso.

A scene that would come to mind first when talking about a thermal power plant.

Aiden looked up at the chimneys.

“It doesn’t mean we have to go into that chimney, right?”

The chimney’s height was easily over 20 meters, even at a rough estimate. There was no way Aiden could climb up.

Perhaps sensing Aiden’s concern, Diana added an explanation:

“It’s not the chimney; it’s the boiler next to it. Well, it’s like a building, you know? There’s an entrance on top of it. We need to go in there to get into the boiler.”

“…There’s an entrance up there?”

The iron structure that Diana referred to as the boiler looked like someone had flipped the interior of a submarine upside down. Small and thin pipes protruded in various directions, and beneath them, round tanks and rusted iron plates were messily connected.

Looking from the outside, there was no visible entrance to get in.

“It’s originally a temporary entrance for maintenance. It’s a location that people who don’t know about it would find difficult to discover. There, you can use that ladder.”

Aiden climbed the ladder that Diana pointed to, ascending onto the iron structure.

Fortunately, there were no zombies there, but walking on the boiler, cluttered with pipes and obstacles, was challenging.

Slowly moved forward, as if in an obstacle race, they soon saw the entrance.

There was a round door on the boiler’s ceiling, reminiscent of the entrance to a submarine.

“Over here. The ground is quite deep, so be careful.”

“…I’ll go down first.”

Aiden took out his shotgun and said so. In the meantime, Diana continued her explanation.

“There’s a passage below. It’s narrow, but we should be able to pass through. And if you follow that passage-“

In the end, it was a story about going through the boiler and descending once more to reach the actual underground space. Aiden turned on the light on his shotgun and entered the boiler.

“…”

There, a narrow passage blocked on both sides by unknown machinery was revealed, enough for only one person to pass through.

The confined space and darkness made it feel suffocating, but Aiden didn’t bat an eye, just checking the floor.

Unexpectedly, the floor was littered with various odds and ends, like wooden boxes and pieces of cloth.

“It seems someone was here.”

“This is evidence that this was the entrance the gang used. Oh, the grenades I gave you were found here.”

Aiden nodded at Arian’s words, and they proceeded through the passage.

Then, a door leading outside appeared, and beyond it, beneath a rusty platform large enough for only one person to stand, a black hole gaping open.

It was the passage Diana had mentioned, leading to the underground space.

The ladder going down was next to the platform. The heavily rusted ladder, browned with age, seemed like it wouldn’t last long, but it wasn’t on the verge of breaking.

Aiden first shone the light downwards on the passage.

Then…

“Kii!”

Zombies below immediately responded to the light.

But Aiden checked the surrounding terrain before they did.

The place resembled a small underground factory with unidentifiable machines and structures scattered in a wide-open space. Numerous wires and pipes connected along the walls.

In between, sporadically visible were… zombies, of course.

Though the exact number couldn’t be discerned in the darkness, there were at least ten in front of him.

Fortunately, there seemed to be no mutants.

Considering the situation, Aiden soon made a decision and addressed the other two.

“I’ll go down first. Combat will start immediately. So, vampire, come down and support me.”

Arian nodded lightly, and Aiden’s gaze shifted to Diana.

“Don’t come down; stay here and guard. That’s better for you.”

Diana wrinkled her forehead at his words.

She thought that Aiden was excessively considerate of her, someone who was practically the party involved in this request.

“Wouldn’t it be better for me to go down too?”

“No, it won’t help.”

But Aiden firmly stated. His decision wasn’t about consideration.

“No one knows how many zombies are down there. We might have to decide to retreat as soon as we enter. In that situation, everyone going down is never a wise thing to do.”

Aiden kept Diana above, considering the possibility of retreat. Especially in a place with only a ladder as the limited escape route.

Thinking about evacuation, at least one of them had to stay above. And it was undoubtedly Diana who was suitable for that role.

“I agree with that.”

Even Arian concurred with Aiden’s explanation, and they proceeded. Diana, having nothing more to say, nodded with a short sigh.

“…Got it. I’ll do as you say.”

With that, Aiden nodded and gripped the sides of the ladder with his hands.

Sliding down as if on a slippery slope, he immediately grabbed his shotgun.

“Ki!”

“Kaaah…!”

Even before Aiden’s appearance, the zombies that had been buried in the darkness started to stir. Though they recognized the intruder, their hesitance came from the fact that the intruder was a zombie.

The moment they heard the sound of Arian stepping on the ladder.

“Kiii!”

The zombies’ gazes turned upward at the same time.

Their hesitant eyes suddenly become filled with madness upon seeing fresh prey. But just before their madness manifested outwardly-

Bang!

The thunderous sound erupted from the shotgun.

As the shattered remains of the bodies scattered, the battle began.