How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“…”

Aiden quietly focused his attention there.

At a glance, the space didn’t seem very large.

Not to the extent an adult couldn’t fit, but it certainly wasn’t roomy either.

If it had been, limbs or elbows would have been protruding outwards, which wasn’t the case.

However, not a single part of the person hidden behind the vehicle was visible.

If not for Arian’s indication, even Aiden wouldn’t have noticed.

That was probably why the zombies had failed to find the child as well.

“Come out.”

Aiden said that.

But there was no response or action in return.

Even if someone was hiding there, they should have been aware of the zombies’ presence, not to mention the fact that those zombies had just been taken down.

Yet the person hidden there wasn’t rashly revealing themselves first.

Aiden let out a brief sigh and approached the vehicle himself.

He temporarily put down the weapon he had been holding.

Whoever was hiding there wasn’t someone who didn’t trust Aiden or was trying to lure an enemy closer with some scheme.

They were simply a child, frozen in fear, unaware of what to do.

“Hick…!”

And finally, as Aiden revealed himself behind the vehicle, a young boy gasped.

The same Asian boy Aiden had seen the woman searching for earlier.

His exact age was… perhaps 7, or maybe 8 years old.

Younger than Sadie.

“Are you alright?”

Aiden asked the child.

But at Aiden’s gruff voice, the boy flinched and curled up.

Tears streamed from his eyes, already welled up with moisture.

“You’re scaring the child!”

At Arian’s remark, Aiden awkwardly stepped back.

Now that he thought about it, with his helmet on, his face wasn’t visible at all.

So it was only natural for a child who had been in the terrifying situation of hiding among multiple zombies to be afraid of him.

Since the child didn’t seem to be armed separately, Aiden exited the garage.

In the meantime, Arian and Sadie rushed over to the child.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

At that, the child’s expression clearly changed.

Especially after seeing Sadie, whose age difference wasn’t too great, he seemed to relax a bit.

And so, Arian and Sadie conversed with the child for a while.

Aiden listened to their conversation from outside the garage while keeping watch over the surroundings.

Most of it was simply comforting the child, but some informative content was included as well.

“So you’re saying, Theo, that you got separated from your mom yesterday?”

In response to Arian’s question, the child who had introduced himself as Theo nodded.

As they learned of the circumstances, Theo was, as expected, the child of a wanderer.

Theo had entered this city along with his mother about a week ago and taken shelter at a temporary base in the vicinity.

However, yesterday, while his mother had gone outside, zombies had infiltrated the base.

Theo had luckily escaped from there but ended up becoming isolated at this location after being separated from his mother.

“Hmm…”

After roughly grasping the situation, Aiden let out a sigh.

Soon after, Arian exited the garage, holding Theo’s hand.

The child, who had been sobbing until recently, had now calmed down considerably.

However, he still seemed afraid of Aiden, unable to look at his face.

“What should we do now?”

Aiden asked.

Now that they had truly found the child, continuing their supply search activities while taking the child along would be reckless.

As such, their top priority was to find the child’s mother first.

However, there was one more urgent matter.

“We need to feed him first. He said he hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday.”

Arian spoke with a pitying tone.

After fleeing from the zombies, Theo had been hiding behind that narrow vehicle for a full day.

An unbearable length of time for a child not even eight years old.

Well aware of this, Aiden immediately grasped what Arian meant to say.

“Then we’ll take the child and go to our temporary shelter.”

“Yeah, and I’ll go find his mother and bring her back.”

The woman had been armed with a shotgun, but Arian would be capable of dealing with her. Moreover, they had just confirmed through Theo that she didn’t have any other companions.

In other words, it wouldn’t be too dangerous for Arian to act alone.

With that judgment, Aiden nodded.

“The woman I encountered earlier was heading north from that grocery store. You should search around there.”

“Understood.”

After their discussion, Arian turned to Theo.

She explained to him what would happen next.

While the child was happy to hear his mother would be brought back, he showed an uneasy expression at having to follow Aiden right away.

“Are you that scared of this mister?”

In response to Arian’s question, Theo silently nodded.

It seemed he had a significant aversion to Aiden, as if he knew Aiden was a zombie.

However, Sadie encouraged the child.

She earnestly vouched for Aiden, saying he was a good person, not a bad one.

Only after receiving Sadie’s assurance did Theo agree to do as Arian had said.

However, the child clung to Sadie instead of Arian and tried not to approach Aiden.

“…”

Watching Theo’s behavior, Aiden suddenly had a thought.

Did he really appear that frightening to children?

It was a question he had never considered until now.

After all, the only child around him had been Sadie, and she had never been afraid of him.

Was Sadie the unusual one, or was Theo simply exceptionally timid?

Inwardly leaning towards the latter, Aiden spoke up.

“Let’s depart.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later then.”

With her swift movements, Arian soon vanished from sight.

Aiden cautiously led the two children towards the temporary shelter he had previously scouted.

Fortunately, the return journey was quiet.

No zombies or humans were encountered.

And so, they entered a small office building slightly separated from the commercial area.

An orange brick building that had originally served as a bank.

After safely arriving at the temporary shelter, Aiden retrieved supplies from the vehicle and handed them to Sadie.

She offered Theo appropriate water and food, and it was only then that the child began to eat.

Watching the two children eat on an old sofa, Aiden quietly stepped outside.

As always, he remained vigilant, surveying the surroundings for any potential dangers.

“…”

It wasn’t long before Arian returned.

As planned, the woman from the grocery store was by Arian’s side.

The woman was panting, as if she had been running for quite a while.

Her expression, a mix of concern and relief, seemed almost desperate in an indescribable way.

Without hesitation, the woman crossed the road and reached the entrance of the bank, their temporary shelter.

Her gaze briefly turned towards Aiden standing at the entrance.

She seemed to have already sensed their prior encounter, but without any spare time for conversation, she immediately opened the door and went inside.

And finally, she found her child.

“Theo!”

The woman embraced Theo.

The child, who had been so terrified of zombies that he hadn’t even cried out, now burst into tears.

* * *

“Thank you. Really… thank you so much.”

Susan Graham, the woman who had been searching for her child, repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Aiden’s group.

The wariness she had shown when first encountering Aiden was nowhere to be seen.

It wasn’t a strange reaction at all.

She had left her child behind at their shelter, but upon returning, only zombies remained.

Moreover, after searching for an entire day without finding her child, she had assumed the worst.

Yet Aiden’s group had found and protected that child. According to their explanation, they had even rescued the child who had been isolated among zombies.

In this world that had long since decayed, it was an inconceivable act of kindness and consideration.

“It’s alright.”

However, in response to Susan’s words, Aiden simply gave a plain reply.

He didn’t even request any compensation.

Of course, even if he had asked, she didn’t have much to offer, but Susan was suspicious enough about their intentions due to their excessive kindness.

However, her suspicion soon faded when she noticed the other child playing with Theo after his tears had subsided.

That was the girl named Sadie.

Although she didn’t seem to be Aiden’s own child, as someone also caring for a child, Susan realized she couldn’t simply abandon them.

As she watched the children play, the sun had already set.

Aiden’s group readily allowed Susan and Theo to stay at their shelter.

After having their evening meal and the children had fallen asleep, Aiden proposed an information exchange to Susan.

“Do you know much about this area?”

She couldn’t refuse his offer.

Since she had no supplies to offer in return, she felt it was only right to honestly share what she knew.

“Not really. I’ve only been in this town for about a week.”

“Then where were you before that?”

“Initially, I was in Jackson, Mississippi. After that, I wandered through various cities before coming here.”

Aiden nodded his head.

Jackson, Mississippi, was the state capital, located east of Shreveport.

A city with no connection to Aiden’s group, who had come from the north.

“How was it there?”

“It was a mess. Not just because of the zombies, but also due to constant infighting between people.”

Susan explained to Aiden about the situation in Jackson.

From the immediate aftermath of the zombie outbreak, Jackson had been plagued by chaos as numerous gangs and survivor groups ran rampant.

Even until she had left, there had been many conflicts between them.

It was amidst that turmoil that Susan had lost her husband before finally departing the city.

“So you’ve been constantly moving with your child since then?”

Susan nodded in response to Aiden’s question.

It was quite an astonishing feat.

The distance from Jackson to this Fairfield town was at least a few hundred kilometers.

In this world, for an ordinary person to wander such a distance was no easy task.

“It must have been difficult.”

“Then what about you? Where did you come from?”

When Aiden answered Pittsburgh, Susan’s mouth fell open.

It was practically equivalent to traversing half the nation’s landmass.

“Compared to that, my difficulties were nothing.”

Susan added those words.

It was clearly a misunderstanding, but Aiden didn’t bother explaining and simply changed the subject.

“So where are you headed now?”

“Houston.”

“Well, that’s convenient. We’re also going to Houston.”

“Really?”

Susan’s eyes widened.

“My uncle is there. When we reach Houston, I’ll be sure to repay this favor.”

“You said you wandered through various cities. When did you find out about that?”

“It was recent. A few weeks ago, I happened to meet a friend who was a junk dealer.”

That junk dealer was someone who knew both Susan and her uncle.

So after luckily encountering him in one city, Susan learned that he had spotted her uncle in Houston.

“My uncle had originally lived in Houston. But I never expected that old man to still be alive…”

Susan didn’t have a poor relationship with her uncle.

So she informed them that she planned to end her wandering life and join the survivor group in Houston where her uncle was located.

“But if that’s the case, why did you stay in this place for a week?”

“Because I needed to find supplies to reach the next city. It would take at least a few days, so I had to secure at least some water, which wasn’t easy.”

Susan said that.

Since she didn’t have a vehicle, it was an understandable measure.

If she had to travel on foot to the next small town, it could very well take several days.

“Ah, that reminds me…”

At that point, Susan spoke as if recalling something.

“You came here to resupply as well, didn’t you?”

Aiden nodded at Susan’s words.

There was no need to hide it.

If not for that purpose, there would have been no reason to come to this town.

Susan then smiled and continued speaking.

“Then I have some information that might help.”

“Help?”

“I had completely forgotten about it… but did you know there’s a nursing home in the northern part of the town?”

Aiden shook his head.

He hadn’t visited that area yet and hadn’t planned to.

Susan’s words continued.

“There are traces of a survivor group left there. And a lot of zombies too.”

At those words, Aiden’s eyes quietly lit up.

Traces of a group and numerous zombies.

The implication was simple.

The group that had been there was likely wiped out by zombies.

A tragic occurrence, common enough.

However, for survivors, such tragedies didn’t merely end as sad stories.

The abundant resources left behind by the protagonists of those tragedies could become a new hope for others.

And their current situation was precisely that.

“You’re saying there’s a possibility of finding something there.”

“That’s right. Do you want to go together tomorrow? Actually, I was planning to go alone, but it’s quite a dangerous place.”

Susan cautiously suggested.

Since Aiden hadn’t secured any definite gains today, he had no reason to refuse her proposal.

“Let’s do that.”

Aiden agreed.

Susan nodded with a faint smile.