How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

At the moment Aiden just climbed up the barrier.

Arian and Amara were passing through a small market they had visited before.

Tatatang!

Clang!

The place that used to be bustling with people was now completely turned into a battlefield.

Bullets were raining from all directions, and occasionally, explosions could be heard.

Yet, there wasn’t a proper light source around.

There was nothing but the flames of burning buildings and the faint moonlight to be considered as light.

As a result, the visibility was almost blocked.

In this reality where it was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, Amara even felt a sense of despair.

“This is…”

If she didn’t have the intention to engage in combat herself, she thought she could resolve it through dialogue, even if she encountered the search party.

Because they were once her colleagues, she believed there would be a certain level of trust.

However, that was too naive of a judgment.

The situation was even worse than she expected.

Dead bodies, shot in the market, were scattered everywhere.

The screams of those injured and dying echoed incessantly amid the deafening sounds of gunfire.

But now, in this situation, encountering someone would likely result in getting shot before she opens her mouth.

But how were they going to pass through this kind of path?

“What are you doing? It’s this way.”

Nevertheless, Arian urged Amara, who was staring blankly at the market’s tragedy.

Even though Arian was casually trying to enter the battlefield, Amara stopped her.

“Wait a minute. You’re going through here?”

“So?”

“It’s too dangerous. You might die.”

Arian, who was being dissuaded by Amara, looked at her as if it were absurd.

“No, isn’t it different from what you said earlier?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect the combat to be this intense. So it’s over now. I don’t want you to die either.”

At that, Arian let out a short sigh.

It was a bit frustrating, but Amara didn’t say it with ill intentions.

So Arian decided to take her to her husband even more firmly.

“Then can you not meet your husband?”

“This is a matter of-“

“Okay, let’s go. Just follow me well.”

Arian continued to walk confidently.

Amara, who was perplexed by Arian’s attitude even in this chaos, followed her hesitantly.

Worried that a blind bullet might fly at any moment.

“How…?”

However, until they completely exited the market, no such mishap occurred.

Gunfire and shouts still echoed from all directions, and flames were rising here and there.

A broken sign fell only a few meters away, and a building on one side of the road collapsed entirely due to an inexplicable explosion.

But why was all that danger never reaching Amara?

It was as if they were narrowly avoiding that all, like tightrope walking.

How was this even possible?

Amara directed a gaze filled with wonder towards Arian.

Arian was barely an underage girl.

Although she had proven her abilities by solving many requests with Aiden, it was still beyond the exceptional skills of a skilled junk dealer.

She had thought that Arian was extraordinary from their first meeting… Was it some kind of superpower?

Amara harbored such an absurd question in her head.

Meanwhile Arian, who was leading the way, turned around.

“Where do we go from here?”

They had almost reached their destination.

Amara, who had just regained her composure, pointed to a 2-story building about several tens of meters away.

It was a building made of rusty metal sheets, resembling an old factory.

“There. That building right there.”

Fortunately, the building was unharmed.

It didn’t catch fire, and it didn’t collapse.

Moreover, it was located in the direction pushed away from the battlefield, and there were no signs of people nearby.

If they approached carefully in the dark, Amara could probably reach it alone without much difficulty.

“…Are you sure about that place?”

However, Arian, looking at the building, frowned slightly and asked in a low voice.

Amara nodded her head.

“Yes. That place is where Andrew’s unit is based. He is the captain of the search party, but even if there is a war, he wouldn’t have participated. So he should be there.”

Amara said with confidence.

Well, this war was a battle between the search party and the police.

So, Amara moved to stop the war.

There was almost no possibility that Andrew, a whose wife worked in the police, participated in the battle casually.

“…”

Unlike Amara, who just gained hope that she could find her husband, Arian’s expression became cloudy.

She already knew.

There was no one alive in that building.

All Arian could perceive inside the building was the strong smell of blood.

“Let’s go.”

Nevertheless, Arian guided Amara to that place.

Arian couldn’t be sure whose blood it was.

But because she couldn’t go back like this, she reluctantly took steps forward.

So, they entered the entrance of the building. The iron gate that should have been closed was oddly ajar.

“…”

Seeing this, Amara’s face slightly stiffened.

Because she knew too well what an open entrance meant in this war.

But ignoring the foreboding that came to mind, Amara entered the building.

The first floor inside the building was wide, like a spacious warehouse. Because of that, Amara, who had come this far, sensed some lingering odor around her nose.

“Blood…?”

It was the smell of blood.

Even if she wasn’t a vampire, she couldn’t help but recognize this abundant scent of blood inside the building.

However, the inside of the building was so dark that nothing could be seen.

The building made of steel plates without a single window was blocking out the moonlight and the glow of the flames.

“I’ll turn on the light.”

Amara said with a slightly trembling voice. In her hand was a flashlight she had prepared in advance.

Toward Amara saying that, Arian opened her mouth.

“It might be better not to see.”

Amara turned to look at Arian.

Arian, who was a little further inside the building than Amara, was completely buried in darkness.

But even so, only her red pupils shone faintly as she stared at Amara.

Amara felt a sense of eeriness inwardly at the sight, as if only her two pupils were floating.

Without knowing that what was reflected in those pupils was concern for Amara herself.

Pop!

The flash instantly lit up.

The bright light quickly dispelled the darkness and clearly illuminated the inside of this old building.

Amara swallowed her breath as she saw the revealed tragedy.

The inside of the building was entirely dotted with the color of Arian’s pupils.

“This… how…!”

The war didn’t just avoid this building; it had already swept through and passed.

Corpses were scattered all over the hall-like floor, all marked with the emblem of the search team.

Among them, there were not a few faces that Amara knew.

Because they were all subordinates of her husband, Andrew.

Seeing their miserable appearance, Amara staggered. She breathed in sharply, trying to suppress the scream that was about to burst out.

“Shall we go back now?”

Arian asked Amara, who was in such a state.

It was a sweet suggestion.

Amara wanted to leave this nightmare-like space right away.

However, Amara shook her head.

She still had things to do.

“No… I can’t. I need to confirm… confirm it.”

Althrough she was trembling, Amara walked towards the inside of the building.

Arian quietly followed behind Amara.

Amara carefully checked the faces, clothing, and other details of her cold acquaintances.

But among them, there was no sign of her husband.

Even though she couldn’t feel relief yet, Amara moved toward the stairs.

It was a staircase leading to the second floor.

Unlike the first floor, the second floor had several office-like rooms arranged along the corridor.

Amara and Arian checked each of these rooms one by one.

In each office, there were from two to five dead bodies.

And among them, when Amara approached the innermost room, she let out a tense sigh.

That place was Andrew’s exclusive office.

Creak!

Amara firmly twisted the closed doorknob and opened it. 

Then, the face of her husband, whom she had been searching for so desperately, came into view. 

Andrew, who always used the wooden desk and chair located in front of the door. He was sitting on that chair just like when he welcomed Amara, with a gunshot wound to the chest, lifeless.

“No… no, no!”

Amara approached her husband.

At first, not knowing what to do, she shook his shoulders.

Then, realizing that his breath had long stopped, she collapsed in front of him.

The despair that she had barely held back from her lips turned into cries.

“…”

Arian just watched that scene silently and hardening her sences.

She hoped that Amara’s mourning won’t be interrupted by anyone, even just for a moment.

Amara’s sobbing continued for a while in the middle of the battlefield.

* * *

“Not good.”

Aiden, who was first to climp up on the wall, sighed.

Above the bridge leading to the entrance of the wall where junk dealers gathered.

A single zombie had appeared there.

“Kiiiie!”

It screamed, rushing towards dozens of junk dealers gathered there.

Of course, they weren’t incapable of dealing with the zombies.

The zombie couldn’t even pass half of the bridge and lost its head to someone’s gunshot.

But the problem wasn’t that one.

That one was just a signal announcing the beginning.

The real problem was the countless corpses that were about to emerge from the darkness beyond the bridge.

If the wave of those zombies pushed forward, Aiden couldn’t be sure how long those junk dealers could endure.

Then what should he do?

In that moment of contemplation.

“Hey, you! What are you doing here?”

Someone from the alliance on the barricade approached Aiden.

The man with a sharp impression seemed to be a commander, judging by the atmosphere.

Approaching Aiden, he eyed the helmet Aiden was wearing.

“Oh, you’re the outsider Amara mentioned. But why are you here? I didn’t say you could come up to the barricade.”

“I just wanted to check because it’s noisy outside.”

“Really? Well, now that you’ve checked, you can go down.”

The commander pointed to the stairs leading down.

His demand was valid.

Considering that the only space allowed for Aiden, an outsider thanks to Amara’s consideration, was that room below.

However, even though he knew that, Aiden didn’t just retreat.

It was because of the voices below that were roaring like a thunder.

“…Don’t you think we should open the door? They might be in danger like this.”

Aiden said to the commander.

Upon hearing this, the commander frowned and muttered.

“Do I not know that?”

He looked down and observed the junk dealers.

Unnoticed, another set of four zombies appeared on the bridge, and soon, shot down by gunfire again.

But immediately after, more zombies appeared.

This time, six.

The number of zombies entering their sight was increasing.

Watching this scene, the commander spoke calmly.

“But in this situation, I can’t open the door and accept all those outsiders. It’s not my authority, and it’s not allowed. We’re here to protect the Union.”

His words were firm.

In the midst of the war inside the Union, letting dozens of unknown outsiders into the barricade was reckless.

Even if it were Aiden, there was no guarantee that the junk dealers who entered wouldn’t cause trouble.

In the worst case, they might take advantage of the chaos and plunder inside the alliance.

Knowing this, Aiden couldn’t force a choice on him.

“Are you a junk dealer too?”

The commander asked, and Aiden nodded.

He let out a short sigh.

“Yeah? Well… whatever, I’ll allow support from up here.”

The commander said so and moved away from Aiden.

It meant that if he, as a junk dealer, was concerned about it, he could only shoot from up here.

With that, there was nothing Aiden could do.

“Hmm…”

At that frustrating moment when he let out a sigh.

“Kiiii!”

“Kaaaaa!”

The unsettling cries of the disturbing corpses pierced through their ears.

The number of those noises erupting from the darkness was more than just a few.

The main force of zombies that had sporadically gathered was finally approaching, reaching right in front of them.

“These bastards!”

“Damn it…”

While cursing at the junk dealers standing on the barricade without being ordered to do so, they raised their guns and lined up for a long time.

It was to block the zombies crossing the bridge.

Right after that.

“Kiiii!”

A swarm of dozens of zombies emerged, covering the bridge.

The junk dealers shouted.

“They’re coming!”

“Darn it! Shoot!”

Thus, the battle between the zombie horde and the junk dealers began.

At first, it seemed like the junk dealers were holding their ground.

Their shooting skills, with as much survival experience as Aiden, weren’t that bad.

Moreover, the dozens of rifles spewing bullets were more than enough to block the procession of corpses just jumping over the bridge. Like a dam blocking a pouring stream of water, they barely managed to hold on to a tug-of-war with bullets and zombies in the center of the bridge.

But then, a variable appeared.

It was a mutant.

It was the Hedgehog that Aiden had faced just a few days ago.

It came rolling across the bridge.

“Guuurgh!”

Dozens of bullets aimed for the Hedgehog’s head, but all of them bounced off its tightly attached armor, flying off in all directions.

Ironically, one junk dealer hit by those stray bullets screamed and fell over.

“Tsk…!”

Aiden, holding a rifle, became more frustrated.

To pierce through the Hedgehog’s head from where he was on the wall wasn’t easy because of the wrong angle.

Finally, the top of the Hedgehog’s head became visible from where Aiden was, almost when it finished crossing the bridge.

Bang!

The bullet shot from above finally pierced through the Hedgehog’s head, through its thick armor, and into its brain.

The creature staggered after being hit, and only after Aiden shot consecutive 5.56mm bullets into its head did it finally collapse.

So, the mutant was defeated, but the zombies that had been playing a close tug-of-war with the junk dealers in the middle of the bridge were now almost right in front of them.

“They’re crossing the bridge!”

“Shoot! Shoot them!”

“Does anyone have grenades?”

Junk dealers shouted from all directions.

Now, their attacks were barely holding off the zombies from crossing the bridge.

If another mutant appeared now, there would be no more options.

But then.

“…Sadie?”

Aiden noticed the small figure standing next to him.

Somehow, Sadie had climbed up to the wall.