How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“It’s over,” Aiden said, lowering his gun.

Anders also lowered the machine gun he had been holding and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s over.”

There were no more active members among those who had raised Snuff’s flag.

Literally annihilated.

Even if there were those who harbored deep-seated resentment against Snuff gang, it was undeniably a perfect victory to be proud of.

However, none of them cheered for this victory.

Instead, only thick silence and despair filled the air.

The reason was crystal clear.

“We’re done too.”

Anders looked at the materials piled up behind the barrier and the vehicles loaded with them with a heavy gaze.

Time had been pressing from the beginning.

So, to move as efficiently as possible, they had gathered resources and vehicles in a space close to the gate.

Because of this, they hadn’t prepared for contingencies.

Could this be called negligence?

But now, it was proving fatally consequential for Anders and his comrades.

The Molotov cocktails and various bombs thrown by the Snuff gang.

Among the flipped vehicles used as shields, barely half of them remained intact.

Even if some died in the recent battle, the cooperative’s members were still numerous.

Without calculation, the remaining vehicles alone couldn’t accommodate even half of the personnel.

Aiden, noticing this, asked Anders.

“Now what?”

“…Well.”

In response to Aiden’s question, Anders lowered his head.

There were only two possible answers now.

Survive even if it’s just some. Or die together.

“Anders, you-“

“Forget it.”

However, Anders interrupted Aiden’s words.

“We’re done, so you go now. You said you had somewhere to go.”

“…”

Even with Anders’ words, Aiden didn’t move easily.

He just stared intently at Anders beyond the black helmet.

In response, Anders sighed and gestured.

“Yeah, come here for a moment, Aiden.”

He approached Aiden as if to whisper, but what he did wasn’t a whisper.

Suddenly grabbing Aiden’s helmet with both hands, he lifted it.

Then, naturally, Aiden’s face inside was revealed.

Skin resembling a zombie and eyes as desolate as the sands of the desert.

“…”

The surroundings suddenly fell silent as if cold water had been poured over them.

The gazes of the members who were catching their breath after the battle all focused on Aiden.

But no one aimed their guns at Aiden.

Everyone knew how brilliantly the junk dealer Anders brought in during the battle against Snuff fought.

That’s why, facing colleagues who were staring at Aiden with widened eyes, Anders let out a bitter laugh.

“These guys. Not very surprised, huh?”

“…It seems like they’re quite surprised.”

In a low voice, Aiden replied, and Anders turned his helmet back.

“Yeah, so, why did you do this?”

“Well, it’s like a joke for a mood reversal.”

Boldly answering, Anders shrugged his shoulders. Just before Aiden’s brow furrowed at this, he changed the topic.

“Do you remember what happened six months ago?”

It wasn’t an event so long ago, so Aiden answered accordingly.

Anders continued his story.

“I was alone then. So, I requested your help. You accepted the ridiculous request and ultimately saved my life.”

It was an incident that happened in some residential area in Pittsburgh.

Anders, isolated by hostile gangs and zombies, had coincidentally met Aiden and asked him to help him escape.

For Aiden, it wasn’t a particularly special request.

As he had experienced dozens of even more dangerous requests.

But Anders still remembered that ordinary request.

“But, you see. This time, I’m not alone. Look. Those guys over there who are still staring at you as if you’re a miracle.”

Anders pointed at the members looking at him.

“So, the next decision won’t be made by me alone. It’s a problem to be judged with me, my colleagues. So… there’s no more request for the junk dealer to perform here, my friend.”

Anders looked at Aiden straight in the eyes and spoke.

In response to his words, Aiden hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

There was nothing more to add or subtract; it was an entirely correct statement. Their fate would be determined by them, regardless of the choice they made.

It was wrong for Aiden to get involved.

“Is it okay?”

So, Aiden merely asked.

Anders, with a slight smile, replied firmly:

“It’s okay. Come visit once everything is settled.”

“…Alright.”

Aiden gathered his weapons and stood up.

In response to Anders’ words to take whatever he needed, he waved his hand.

As he mounted his motorcycle, Anders said:

“Then, let’s see each other alive.”

With a bitter smile, Anders bid farewell with the same phrase as always.

Aiden, as usual, nodded and started the engine of his motorcycle.

The low engine sound passed through the pierced gate’s door and gradually moved away from the cooperative’s barrier.

On the road heading towards the center of Pittsburgh, Aiden looked back for the last time.

The sun had almost set, and night was falling.

The moon, faintly shining, had risen in the sky unnoticed.

And… as Aiden turned back, the door of the merchant cooperative’s barrier was slowly closing.

The door, which had been quite crumpled, was now being straightened, reinforced by the members.

“…”

It was evident what choice they had made.

However, Aiden didn’t evaluate their choice in his heart.

He only wished for the luck of his friends and colleagues.

As Aiden was about to turn away, something caught his eye at the end of his gaze.

It was a moving corpse.

Just now, a zombie was emerging from the southern forest.

* * *

And a little later.

The place Aiden arrived was a small hiding place where three people and one vampire were staying.

Aiden promptly briefed them on the situation.

Rebecca, who led the survivor group, had a stern expression.

“Is that really true?”

“It’s the truth.”

Aiden answered Rebecca’s doubt straightforwardly.

However, there was no visible evidence.

So, it was entirely reasonable for Rebecca not to believe Aiden’s words.

Even among the people in this hiding place, suspicions about something happening in the south were more than enough.

“I thought it was a bit noisy, but something like that…”

The battle the two gangs fought a while ago was anything but calm.

Explosions beyond gunshots, and the black smoke rising as vehicles and people burned.

All of that was loud enough to be heard even in this relatively distant hiding place.

So, Rebecca, and anyone here for that matter, had an intuition that something had happened in the south.

“Do you have any vehicles? Or what about other means of transportation?”

In response to Aiden’s following words, both Rebecca and the one next to her, Diana, shook their heads.

As expected.

To this small survivor group, struggling just to survive, there was no room to maintain vehicles that needed regular supplies of fuel and parts.

At that moment, Arian, who had been silently listening to the conversation, stepped forward.

“Why suddenly a vehicle?”

“We need to leave this city.”

Rebecca quietly took a breath as she heard what she had once said. She also wanted to leave this city at some point, but not like this.

So it wasn’t easy to accept this story.

If they leave this hideout, they will end up living like wanderers for a while. And she was fully aware how dangerous and harsh that life is.

So, while Rebecca was silent with a complicated expression, Arian continued speaking.

“If not a vehicle, is there no other way?”

“It would be difficult realistically without a means of transportation.”

“Difficult… You didn’t come here to talk about something like that, right?”

If there was nothing but obvious despair in front of them, there was no need for Aiden to come here.

Just wishing them luck from a distance would be enough.

However, Aiden’s purpose in coming here was clearly not that.

“I came to say that I won’t be able to carry out the request scheduled for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

For a moment, Arian didn’t even realize what Aiden was talking about.

Then, after a while, she barely remembered the promise they made during the day.

And then she opened his mouth with a dumbfounded expression on the face.

“Is that important now?”

“It’s important to me.”

“Then what do you mean, there is no way in the end?”

Aiden paused for a moment at Arian’s words.

Although it wasn’t the main topic, Aiden didn’t stop looking for a way out for them while coming here.

But in the end, he had no clear answer.

Like many of the plans he came up with, it was uncertain and dangerous.

But since it was the best option he could think of, Aiden spoke up again.

“To survive, we need to relocate our base.”

“Go somewhere else? Isn’t it better to just hide here? We have a basement, too.”

“If it’s a group with mutants, there’s a high chance they’ll figure us out. Plus, this building is too small for effective defense.”

It wasn’t an unreasonable statement.

Arian herself had seen a mutant, like Bigfoot.

Even if a few of those creatures gathered, they could easily tear down this small huose.

“And there are a lot of them. So it’s better to have a building that is narrow at the entrance, limited, and doesn’t easily collapse. It would be even better if it’s a tall structure where they can’t climb easily.”

“…Where is that?”

“A hotel in the city. Specifically, a building with more than 10 floors would be suitable.”

Upon Aiden’s suggestion, Arian thought for a moment and nodded.

The structure of hotels typically had long, narrow corridors with many rooms.

Moreover, going up one floor at a time required using passageways like emergency stairs if the elevators weren’t working.

It was a structure advantageous when dealing with a large number of opponents.

Of course, looking at it the other way around, it wasn’t all advantages.

Entering a high-rise hotel meant isolating themselves in a closed building.

In other words, if the defense line collapsed, there would be no way to escape.

But worrying about that now seemed like a luxurious thing to do.

Being trapped in a building in the midst of 4 000 zombies, what was the point of worrying about being isolated in a building?

“The best plan is to hold out there until the zombie horde passes. It won’t be easy, but there’s no other way right now.”

“That… seems correct.”

Arian turned to Rebecca.

Rebecca, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, nodded with a firm expression.

Then, Rebecca led Diana and Sadie to start packing.

Arian also glanced at them briefly, then turned to Aiden.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“Now is not the time to worry about me.”

“No, I’m not worried…”

Arian looked around at the others busy with preparations.

Then, she led Aiden away from the hiding place and spoke.

“I can’t do it alone.”

“So?”

“So, it’s obvious…”

Arian trailed off, looking into Aiden’s eyes.

In reality, she was asking for help.

While establishing a base in the hotel would provide a safe haven, tonight was just the beginning.

If the zombies detected their presence and a battle broke out, Arian and Rebecca’s group alone wouldn’t be able to hold out.

However, Aiden’s response to Arian’s following words had no strength.

“…Ask for help, right?”

It was a request that Aiden had no reason to accept.

If he wanted, he could easily step out of this dangerous situation in Pittsburgh.

As Arian inwardly regretted blurting out unnecessary words, Aiden’s lips twitched.

She had thought that a firm refusal was the only response.

“Is that a request?”

However, Aiden didn’t positively or negatively respond to that request.

Instead, he threw a strange question.

“If I call it a request, will you accept?”

Aiden nodded once.

Arian’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Of course. But… it’s unexpected.”

“What is?”

“I thought you wouldn’t fight.”

It was a statement that seemed to reverse Arian’s thoughts.

Since Arian herself could leave the city alone, it was the same for Aiden.

“So, you thought I would be on my own.”

“That’s not an unreasonable judgment.”

Arian let out a bitter laugh.

“What are you looking at me as? People who accepted me, even though we haven’t known each other for long. Besides, there’s a child!”

She said it as if it were obvious, but Aiden gazed at Arian as if he found her way of speaking interesting.

At the same time, Arian turned the question to Aiden.

“You, on the other hand, don’t you have no reason to take such a risky request, even if you’re a junk dealer? Accepting a life-threatening job like this?”

Arian spat out the words and then made a realization.

It was quite rude to question someone who was helping, especially regarding their motives.

But Aiden responded calmly.

“I have my reasons.”

That’s all he said.

At that moment, a muffled explosion was heard from the depths of the profound darkness.

Perhaps the zombie horde had finally emerged from the southern forest.

Aiden’s mood sank sharply.

“I guess we’ll have to talk later.”

Aiden said that, and Arian nodded in agreement.