How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“Are you leaving this place?”

“Yes. Of course, not immediately. We need to gather more necessities and make preparations.”

“Do you have a destination?”

“…LA.”

Aiden let out a short sigh.

Aiden quickly realized why Rebecca mentioned the name of the distant city, LA, so unexpectedly.

“Did you hear that radio broadcast?”

“Yes.”

“It’s uncertain and a dangerous journey.”

“I know. But… there’s no other choice. I can’t stay here, especially for Sadie.”

Rebecca had already conveyed to Aiden that she had been considering leaving this place for a long time.

For the sake of her daughter, she wanted to join a large group.

Even if something happened to Rebecca, she wanted to provide her daughter with someone to rely on.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to join the gangs that made a living through looting and fighting.

So, while living with Diana, whom she had met by chance, Rebecca learned about a large group of survivors in LA.

There, many people were living as if it were a city from the past, and they were still gathering other survivors through radio broadcasts.

For Rebecca, it was an ideal place.

However, there hadn’t been an opportunity to go there until now.

The child was sick, there was no medicine, and resources were scarce.

But now, it was different.

The child had recovered, there was enough medicine, and resources… with the weapons storeroom discovered today, they could cover a significant part.

Above all, Rebecca had gained a reliable companion, Arian, who was more robust than others recently.

For her, it was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

“…”

In response to Rebecca’s words, Aiden remained silent.

In his heart, he wanted to dissuade her.

The journey to LA was undeniably too dangerous to even consider.

However, Rebecca’s concern for Sadie itself was very rational.

If one considered not tomorrow but a year or three years from now…

Staying here couldn’t necessarily be the only right answer.

As she worried, Pittsburgh was a place with nothing but moving corpses.

Considering the child’s future… there might be no other choice.

With such thoughts, Aiden, without saying anything else, provided the only answer to her question.

“Even if it’s me, the farthest west I’ve been is Cincinnati. It’s not much different from here; gangs, fanatics, and a few survivors are struggling to survive.”

Aiden was one of the most active junk dealers around Pittsburgh.

But even he had only briefly visited Cincinnati, which was 450 km away from Pittsburgh, a year ago.

There was no need to go beyond that.

Now, this world was such a place.

“If that’s all… I can recommend the safest route I’ve heard of. It’s information from a year ago, but if it doesn’t matter, I can tell you.”

Rebecca smiled at Aiden’s words.

“Thank you.”

At that moment, Diana approached from the side.

She held a skewer in one hand and was smiling brightly.

“Rebecca! This is incredibly delicious.”

“Really? That’s a relief. You all worked hard.”

Rebecca said, recalling the luggage they had brought.

Diana clapped her hands.

“I didn’t do much. Arian and… junk dealer did a great job. They fought really well. Rebecca, you should have seen it.”

While saying that, Diana recounted the story of what happened at the power plant.

Meanwhile, Arian, who had been playing with Sadie, approached this way.

Aiden asked, looking at Arian.

“But are you okay?”

“Me? Why?”

“You probably spent quite a bit of blood in today’s battle.”

Rebecca, who was supporting Diana, turned her head at Aiden’s words.

She already knew the source of Arian’s mysterious strength – the fact that Arian had revealed when he joined them.

“Ah, right. I mentioned that. If you need blood now, please let me know. It won’t be a lot, but…”

Rebecca, who was trying to find a syringe immediately, was interrupted by Arian shaking his head.

“It’s okay. You gave me yesterday. I can endure it now. Besides, since we brought weapons like that, getting blood won’t be difficult.”

That was true.

If they traded through the Merchant Cooperative Association, Arian could obtain the blood she needed right away.

So…

Smirking, Diana asked a question related to the blood discussion.

“Speaking of blood. Arian, do you become stronger if you have more blood?”

“Of course.”

“Wow…”

“If my power is fire, blood is oil. It consumes blood quickly, but if you detonate a sufficient amount at once, things like zombie mutants are nothing.”

“Really?”

Diana said with wide eyes.

Unconsciously, she was accepting Arian’s words without a hint of doubt.

Arian, who was elated, continued speaking.

“Well! I’m a vampire connected to the blood of the primordial.”

Aiden, who was watching her with a sardonic smile, turned his gaze to the sky.

The reddened sky signaled the approaching evening.

It was time to go.

“It’s getting late. I’ll go back”

As he stood up, preparing to leave, Sadie, who had been quietly watching the sunset among the chattering adults, pointed to the sky.

“Hey, there’s something strange over there!”

Aiden’s gaze instinctively followed that direction.

What entered his sight was a red smoke rising in the distant sky.

It was faintly visible due to the considerable distance, but Aiden recognized it immediately, and his brow furrowed.

“…That’s a signal flare.”

As Aiden said this in a low voice, sensing something unusual, Rebecca turned to look at him.

“A signal flare?”

“It’s what the cooperative association guys use. Something must have happened.”

It was one of the signals established by the Merchant Cooperative Association.

Among them, the red color was the most urgent summons, sent to members and friends in the face of the most critical mobilization.

Actually seeing that signal was a first even for Aiden.

Upon this, Aiden warned Rebecca’s group.

“You should wrap things up and head in too. It doesn’t seem like a good situation.”

“…Alright.”

That was the end of their conversation.

Without heeding Aiden’s warning, Rebecca immediately prepared to return.

Meanwhile, Aiden quickly descended from the building and got on his motorcycle.

Vroom!

With the low engine sound, the old motorcycle ridden by Aiden, accompanied by zombies, headed south.

* * *

“Hmm…”

Arriving at the front of the Merchant Cooperative Association’s barrier, Aiden let out a sigh.

Even from a distance, the abnormality of the cooperative association’s alert could be confirmed.

More than anything, the barrier, which should normally be tightly closed and guarding the outside, was wide open.

And inside, dozens of people were moving busily.

“…”

Although there were some people standing guard, even those unnamed guards didn’t exude the usual sharpness.

Their constant wandering made them look more anxious than reassuring.

Right at the moment when Aiden was about to ask one of the guards about it.

“Aiden!”

Anders’ shout came from inside the barrier as he spotted Aiden.

Aiden approached Anders.

Although he entered the barrier holding a weapon as if it were nothing, there was no one to stop him.

“What’s all this about?”

“You came right on time. Come this way for now.”

Anders led Aiden into the crowded interior.

Most members were moving their belongings as if they were being chased by something.

Aiden looked at those people and spoke.

“Is it a serious situation?”

“It’s worse than that. Something happened in the south, just as you feared.”

Anders and Aiden went into a large tent.

Where there used to be a spread-out map, now only empty tables remained.

“To cut to the chase, a zombie horde has been spotted in the south.”

A zombie horde was one of the biggest threats that could be encountered in forests, mountains, wastelands, and the like.

Usually, between 30 and several hundred zombies would form a pack, roaming together. For scavengers like Aiden who only moved through sparsely populated areas, they were as dangerous as mutants.

However, Aiden smirked at that statement.

“Shouldn’t we be able to handle a horde?”

The danger of a horde was a term that applied only to individuals like junk dealers.

Compared to that, the Merchant Cooperative Association, while engaged in commercial activities, was essentially a large armed group numbering in the hundreds.

Even compared to a zombie horde, it wasn’t overwhelmingly outnumbered. Moreover, armed with rifles and fortifying their base, if they defended from inside, it wouldn’t be a huge challenge.

However, Anders shook his head.

“It’s not an ordinary horde. Look at this.”

Anders spread several photos on the table.

Aiden picked up one and examined it closely.

It was a picture taken from a high point, capturing a small village adjacent to a river near some elevated building.

“…”

Upon seeing this, Aiden furrowed his brow.

The entire visible range within a few kilometers was filled with zombies.

A number that couldn’t be explained in the hundreds.

“How many are there?”

“Two thousand. That’s just an approximate count. The actual number is probably… at least twice that.”

“…”

It was an unbelievable figure.

Not just two or three times the usual horde, but a number exceeding ten times.

Aiden, with a furrowed brow, remained silent for a moment.

Anders, who sighed briefly, spoke.

“There’s something even more serious. Mutants have been found within the horde. And not just one or two types.”

Anders threw more photos onto the table.

Among them were mutants with appearances clearly different from ordinary zombies.

“…”

This was also an unthinkable situation.

Among mutants, there were not a few that preyed on their own kind, and to see such creatures moving together with ordinary zombies was like deer and lions migrating together.

“This is strange. Is something controlling the mutants?”

It was an absurd assumption, but a reasonable one.

After all, what was the reason Aiden asked for reconnaissance in the south in the first place?

Wasn’t it the investigation that started because the two mutants, Trapper and Bigfoot, were facing in that direction?

And now, there was a zombie horde mixed with mutants right there.

In this situation, the only plausible explanation was that something was gathering the mutants by itself.

“Probably. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“Where are they?”

“They passed Uniontown yesterday. And they’re heading straight for Pittsburgh. They’ll probably arrive by tonight.”

“Tonight…”

If Uniontown was less than 70 km away from here, the imminent threat was causing Aiden’s mind to spin.

“Then, what happened to Morgantown?”

It wasn’t a place Aiden had much interaction with due to its rather exclusive nature.

But Morgantown, even further south than Uniontown, served as a massive base for the gang of Pittsburgh, equivalent to combining all the gangs in Pittsburgh.

If the horde had come from the south and passed Uniontown, Morgantown must have already been bypassed.

Then, how did they cope with the horde?

“They swallowed it up in one night. Uniontown couldn’t last half a day. It’s almost impossible to expect any survivors on either side. Do you know what that means?”

But despite Aiden’s concerns, the answer that came out of Anders’ mouth was that they couldn’t cope with it.

So the conclusion was obvious.

“We have to give up on Pittsburgh.”

Anders affirmed in the silence.

Upon this, Aiden finally realized what Anders’ subordinates outside were doing.

They were all working hard, loading something onto vehicles.

They were all preparing to evacuate.

“Did the scouts who went south know about this?”

“Yeah. Just in case, I sent twelve of them, and only three came back. And they came back with these damn pictures.”

Tsk, Anders clicked his tongue.

He said it nonchalantly, but among the nine who didn’t return, there wasn’t a single person Anders didn’t recognize.

Understanding this, Aiden lowered his head in a short expression of mourning and spoke.

“Will the evacuation be able to match the time?”

“It’ll be tight, but we’re almost done. The reconnaissance team will depart in ten minutes, and everyone here will leave within an hour.”

“But you can’t take everything here with you?”

“That… can’t be helped.”

Quietly watching Anders say that, Aiden glared at him.

To him, or rather to Anders’ cooperative association, the resources here were not just raw materials.

The resources stacked in this warehouse were the capital of a merchant.

Without these resources, his association could no longer do business, and if they couldn’t do business, they would inevitably return to being a gang that repeated plunder and combat.

Knowing this well, Anders still said they were giving up on these resources.

“It will be a significant loss, as you say. But… what can we do? We have to start over. Don’t worry. As long as we have them, we can easily recover.”

Pointing to the members, Anders spoke.

Contrary to Aiden’s worries, there was no sense of despair in him.

“More than that, Aiden, what about you? What if you move with us?”

Aiden shook his head in response to the proposal.

If the massive horde arrives in Pittsburgh as Anders said, Aiden had to inform the small group of survivors he was with just a while ago.

It wasn’t just a matter of goodwill.

Not being able to perform tomorrow’s request meant that explaining the situation before and after was an obvious obligation for a junk dealer.

“No, I have somewhere to go.”

“Really? Alright. Then-“

Just as Anders was about to express his farewell.

BOOM!

A loud explosion sounded from somewhere.

Both Aiden and Anders simultaneously turned their gazes in that direction.

There, black smoke rose dramatically over the heavily crumpled barrier.

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s an attack!”

In response to the sudden event, Anders expressed his annoyance, and from the barrier, someone among the members answered the question.

An attack.

At that word, Anders’ expression hardened.

Could it be that the zombie horde had already arrived?

Anders rushed towards the barrier.

Aiden followed suit.

There, Anders stood on the barrier, and the identity of the invaders became clear.

Fortunately, they weren’t zombies.

Unfortunately, the tattered black flags fluttering in front of the foremost vehicle were already known to him.

“These bastards…!”

It was the emblem of the Snuff Gang.

With the appearance of the torn black cloth on the vehicle and people pouring out from behind the warehouse through the forest, the attack had begun.