How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“…It’s quiet.”

Aiden muttered as he walked along the road.

For Aiden, this small town was a place without any prior information.

He had selected it as a search location based solely on the judgment that its location was decent and its size not too large, meaning it would likely be relatively safe.

Until recently, he had been on guard for the presence of zombies.

Although it appeared safer than other small cities in the vicinity, just like that immense zombie horde crossing the open plains, no one knew if there might be an unexpected number of zombies or mutants here as well.

However, Aiden’s vigilance gradually eased as he moved along the road.

Until he reached the center of this small town, he had barely seen any traces of zombies, let alone humans.

“…”

Under the cloudy sky, only lush tree leaves and grass swayed in the wind.

On the empty road, only a discarded vehicle silently rusted in one corner.

Since no cars seemed to have passed for a while, wildflowers had bloomed in the cracks of the split concrete.

There were no signs of humans or the undead corpses that pursued them anywhere.

It was an atmosphere completely opposite to the major city of Dallas, which had been teeming with zombies.

However, he couldn’t completely let his guard down amid this peaceful scene either.

A few zombies would likely remain somewhere in this small town.

With that thought, as Aiden continued along the road, he soon discovered a grocery store.

A typical American grocery store with an open parking lot around the building, a low structure, and a wide entrance.

Aiden approached that entrance.

One of the shutters meant to block the entrance was raised, and the glass door inside was shattered.

“Hmm…”

Aiden carefully examined the broken marks.

The unnaturally raised shutter on one side and the lack of any rotten flesh stuck to the cut edges clearly indicated human involvement.

So had someone previously visited this place?

Despite knowing this, he still entered the grocery store.

By now, there were hardly any stores left in this country that hadn’t been looted over the past three years.

Inside the dim, cave-like interior, only dusty shelves greeted him.

Aiden walked inside, his footsteps echoing.

There was no sign of any food or water supplies.

Only remnants of trash and rotten food remained.

However, Aiden hadn’t harbored any fantastical expectations of finding shelves fully stocked with food and beverages from the start, so he felt no disappointment.

He immediately headed towards the grocery store’s stockroom.

Inside the modest stockroom were a few paper boxes that had decayed from neglect and various scattered debris.

After briefly scanning them, Aiden soon discovered something.

“This is…”

It was an empty tuna can.

Picking up the discarded can from a corner, Aiden frowned.

If it had simply been a damaged can, he could have ignored it as trash.

However, a completely consumed can meant someone had been present.

Moreover, judging by the sticky residue and accumulated dust, it seemed to have happened not even a day ago.

At this realization, Aiden raised his previously lowered guard once more.

While there didn’t seem to be any zombies in this town, there were still humans present.

At that moment…

“-!”

The sound of clothing rustling came from the entrance Aiden had used.

Aiden immediately turned around, drawing his pistol.

Then, beside an empty shelf, an Asian middle-aged woman came into view.

She was hiding beside the shelf, aiming a shotgun at Aiden.

“Don’t move.”

The woman, her face tense, spoke those words.

While restraining any provocative actions to avoid agitating her, Aiden surveyed his surroundings from within his helmet.

There didn’t seem to be any of the woman’s companions immediately visible.

Unless her companions were being exceptionally cautious, it meant she was alone.

So how should he respond?

Reflexively, Aiden had drawn his pistol, but the magazine was actually empty.

Having expended all his pistol ammunition during the previous day’s battle, it was merely a bluff.

If the woman attacked first in this situation… his only option would be to flee for now.

So Aiden immediately searched for an exit route.

There was another door beside the stockroom.

If he momentarily diverted her attention, it was a distance he could easily cover.

Then the next step would be…

Just as Aiden’s thoughts reached that point, the woman continued speaking.

“I don’t want to fight. Just answer my questions.”

Perhaps her purpose in finding Aiden wasn’t robbery.

Since she was attempting dialogue first, Aiden nodded to indicate his acceptance.

Then an unexpected question came flying.

“Have you seen a young boy around here?”

“What…?”

Aiden slightly tilted his head in response.

At Aiden’s reaction, the woman’s expression stiffened.

Although Aiden didn’t say anything, she had already grasped the implication of his response.

Was that why…

“That’s what I-“

“If not, then it’s fine.”

As if further conversation was unnecessary, the woman said that.

Cutting off Aiden’s words, she gradually retreated backwards.

“Stay still. I’ll shoot if you try anything.”

With her gun barrel fixed on Aiden, she issued that warning.

Then, the moment she exited the grocery store, without a chance to call out…

The woman dashed out.

“…”

After the woman left, Aiden immediately took cover.

Was she in that much of a hurry? Without even trying to conceal her footsteps, she quickly disappeared northward.

Aiden cautiously stepped outside as well.

“Hmm…”

Recalling the woman from earlier, Aiden let out a sigh.

Although she had appeared and vanished abruptly, her purpose seemed clear.

She was searching for a child.

Thinking normally, it was reasonable to assume a mother was looking for her own child.

It was highly unlikely for there to be any other children in this place, and even if there were, there would be no reason for her to search so desperately.

Additionally, while the woman might have had more companions, based on her searching for a child, she didn’t seem to be part of a gang or larger group’s scouting force.

So was she likely a wanderer then?

It was fortunate that she wasn’t a plundering force, but Aiden couldn’t let his guard down.

Wanderers without any food to eat could turn into plunderers in an instant.

With that assessment, Aiden decided to halt his search and rejoin his group first.

If a conflict with a wandering group erupted, separating would be dangerous.

Aiden immediately returned along the path he had come, heading back to the commercial area where Arian and Sadie were.

By the time Aiden arrived, Arian, having sensed his return, was poking her head out from the second-floor window of a hotel.

She waved at him from there.

Aiden ran towards the hotel.

“You’re back already?”

Seeing Aiden rejoin the other two, Arian asked.

In response, Aiden relayed the events from earlier to them.

“She was looking for a child?”

“It seemed that way.”

“But I didn’t sense any nearby…”

At that, Arian’s gaze turned serious.

It was clear what she was thinking.

Sensing this, Aiden added in a low voice:

“That woman was quite wary of outsiders.”

“So?”

“I’m just saying you don’t need to intervene. It might only raise her guard.”

Aiden spoke as if advising her.

However, Arian nodded as if fully understanding his concern.

“I know that. But what crime has the child committed?”

Arian’s attitude was that she would accept any friction with the wanderers if it meant finding the child.

It was a way of thinking Aiden could never have.

Yet, he didn’t attempt to deny Arian’s choice.

Aiden fully understood her past and her way of thinking.

Moreover, it was only the previous day that Arian had been forced to witness the deaths of children right before her eyes.

Although she appeared unaffected outwardly, given her unusually caring nature towards children, she had undoubtedly suffered a great trauma.

And amidst that, she had now heard about another child potentially in danger today.

Her reaction couldn’t be as indifferent as Aiden’s.

So instead of immediately responding, Aiden first changed the subject.

“Did you find any supplies?”

“Yes, I found these.”

The reply came from Sadie.

Sadie opened her small bag and showed the fruits of their search in the commercial area.

Although there wasn’t much inside, one item stood out.

Among the canned goods and salt shakers, ammunition was clearly visible, glistening.

“These are…?”

“They came from a zombie in the hotel. It was carrying a gun.”

Aiden nodded and took them.

A total of five rounds.

Not even enough to fully load a magazine, but better than nothing.

“Since we’ve searched this area to some extent, let’s change locations.”

Aiden spoke.

Arian silently waited for Aiden’s next words.

“We’ll head to the town center.”

In the center of this small town, there were various buildings like pharmacies, shops, and government offices.

As such, it was a place worth searching to some degree.

However, it was also the dangerous area where Aiden had encountered the woman searching for a child earlier.

Even so, the reason Aiden had selected the town center as their next search location was in response to Arian’s request.

While they couldn’t actively search for an unknown child, he was leaving open the possibility of encountering them during their supply search.

Arian also agreed to this reasonable compromise.

“Then let’s go.”

Aiden’s group immediately headed towards the town center.

Along the way, they passed by the grocery store Aiden had visited, but the woman was already out of Arian’s detection range.

With no choice, the group continued moving westward.

Soon, a butcher shop came into view.

Although it was a place that had dealt with food, there wasn’t much to expect in terms of supplies.

With no great expectations, they searched the interior and unexpectedly found a can of pickled peppers.

Aiden’s group took it and moved on to the next building.

There was a government office that had handled paperwork and a security guard’s office.

From the government office, they found a single pen with ink that hadn’t dried yet.

From the security guard’s office, after taking down a security guard who had remained guarding it even in death, they additionally obtained 4 rounds of ammunition.

The bullets they had found this time were given to Sadie.

However, until then, there were still no traces of any child.

As she rummaged through a dirty desk drawer in the office, Arian’s brow was slightly furrowed in impatience.

It was a subtle sign of restlessness – something Aiden couldn’t do anything about himself.

Thinking positively, perhaps that woman had already found the child.

It was when they exited the security guard’s office and moved to the next block that it happened.

“…There’s a person.”

The previously silent Arian spoke those words.

Her gaze was directed far beyond the office they had been about to search next.

At this, Aiden nodded and had Arian take the lead.

Soon, a church came into view, and beside it, a few roughly built structures were visible within a fenced area.

The buildings had a peculiar appearance – it turned out to be a museum.

A small open-air museum with historical buildings and exhibits set up inside the fenced area.

Arian indicated there was a person inside.

“How many?”

“One. And there are zombies too. Five of them.”

“Hmm…”

At those words, Aiden let out a brief sigh.

The number of zombies seemed high for the location.

That likely meant they had pursued the person taking shelter here with a high probability.

While it was uncertain if the person inside was truly a child, someone did seem to be isolated there.

“We’ll enter. You go over the fence and go straight in. Sadie and I will enter through the entrance.”

The fence enclosing the museum grounds was about the height of an average adult.

While Aiden could easily climb over it, the height was too much for Sadie.

So Aiden made that suggestion, and Arian nodded.

Arian climbed over the fence and entered the interior, while Aiden and Sadie moved to find the entrance.

The entrance connected to the red building wasn’t far away.

However…

“Krrrr…”

Zombies were blocking the way.

Two of them.

Aiden drew his axe.

He felt the heavy weight of the fully metal axe, from handle to blade.

“Kiii!”

At that moment, the zombies sensed their presence and spotted Aiden and Sadie.

They let out shrieks.

The clear frenzied sound caused Sadie’s face to tense.

“Kiieee!”

The corpses immediately charged towards Sadie, but Aiden blocked their path.

The axe he was holding rushed towards one of the two zombies running side by side.

Crunch!

The horizontally swung axe collided with the zombie’s head. The sharp axe blade shattered the skull while simultaneously penetrating inside.

That unpleasant sensation was dully conveyed to Aiden’s fingertips.

In an instant, the zombie with its brain pulverized collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Bang!

However, in that gap, the other one tried to slip past Aiden’s opposite side.

It wasn’t looking at Aiden.

Fixated on the small child standing behind him, it gnashed its grotesque teeth like a broken machine.

There was no time to retrieve the axe embedded in the other zombie’s head.

So Aiden gripped the passing zombie’s neck with his opposite hand.

Kaakh – letting out a ferocious sound, the zombie’s arm pushed against Aiden with inhuman strength that would have instantly knocked down a regular person.

However, Aiden didn’t budge even after taking that blow.

“Kieeee!”

Only then did the zombie, focused solely on its prey in front of it, finally look at Aiden.

But by that time, Aiden was already holding a sword instead of an axe.

Swoosh!

Aiden, still gripping the zombie’s neck, stabbed the sword upwards from its jaw.

The corpse immediately fell backwards, and after finishing the fight, Aiden retrieved his weapon.

He then entered the museum grounds along with Sadie.

Chwaak!

There, Arian had just finished dealing with the other zombies.

Including the ones Aiden had taken down at the entrance, there had been a total of five.

There were no more zombies left here now.

Aiden gestured towards Arian.

In response, Arian raised her finger, pointing to a white building within the museum grounds that resembled a wooden garage from the outside.

No, it actually did contain a vehicle inside.

Displayed in an ornate manner was a vehicle with a design from over 100 years ago – the kind that would typically be exhibited in a museum.

And behind that vehicle…

In the narrow space between the garage wall and the vehicle, someone was hiding.