How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

Arian descended from the building ruins she had been standing on and walked towards Iron Sight’s base.

Inside the collapsed barricade was utter chaos.

“They’re coming!”

“Stop them, no matter what!”

“Bombs! Bring bombs!”

The Rhino rampaged through the base’s structures and gang members, smashing through every obstacle.

Meanwhile, from the ruined city center, corpses were gradually gathering, drawn by the earlier explosions and gunfire.

However, Arian’s gaze was fixed on the area beneath the breached barricade.

“…”

There was the truck’s driver’s seat, its form barely recognizable after the explosion.

Just moments ago, a living person had been seated there.

But now, that person had been incinerated along with the truck, the barricade, and the explosives.

The driver had chosen death.

It was an outcome Arian hadn’t anticipated.

She had known there was someone in the driver’s seat from the start.

But she had expected them to at least attempt to jump out midway, preserving their own life.

Yet they hadn’t even tried.

For Arian, who had always fought solely for survival, it was an incomprehensible action.

So the driver’s death felt strangely unsettling to her.

“Kieeeee…!”

At that moment, the cries of corpses rang out.

The zombies had already approached the immediate vicinity, their numbers nearing triple digits.

Had this many zombies still been lurking amidst the completely ruined city center?

Moreover, among them were mutants like Bigfoots and Wielders.

If those were lured into the base, the militia’s plan to sow chaos within the gang would seem highly successful.

In other words, the mission Arian had been entrusted with by the Kingwood Militia was now complete.

So now, she decided to act for the sake of her companions.

Woosh!

Her silhouette on the ground rose into the air, entering a small watchtower atop the barricade.

There, a man was frantically firing at the Rhino.

He momentarily averted his gaze to reload…

“Wha-! What are you?”

…And noticed the suddenly appearing Arian.

But instead of answering, Arian struck his solar plexus with her fist.

Despite not being a particularly large punch, it deeply sank into his abdomen.

“Ugh!”

The impact caused the man to double over.

And he didn’t get back up.

He wasn’t dead.

There was simply no need for Arian to kill him.

All she required was this vantage point overlooking the entire base interior.

“…”

Arian’s eyes surveyed Iron Sight’s base within the barricade.

The Rhino was still causing havoc, and the other zombies that had recently entered through the breached barricade were joining the fray.

It was a full-blown pandemonium.

At this rate, the gang’s base would soon be overrun by the frenzied corpses.

However, Iron Sight wasn’t so easily overwhelmed.

As the chaos reached its peak, a certain Middle Eastern man began commanding the gang.

“That person is…”

It was a face Arian recognized.

Not personally, of course.

During her investigation of Iron Sight over the past few days, she had identified this man as the gang’s leader.

He barked orders and curses at his subordinates in a gruff voice.

While his tone was rough and ill-tempered, his instructions were clear and astute.

Soon, the gang members who had been randomly firing formed a defensive line.

Those previously stationed atop the barricade also gathered to reinforce that line.

Their scattered firepower was now concentrated.

“Graaaah!”

But then, the Rhino charged straight towards that defensive line.

“Fire!”

At the leader’s command, the gang members in the defensive line opened fire.

The hail of bullets raining down finally caused the Rhino to falter for the first time.

After a few incendiary rounds struck as well, the unstoppable charge of the Rhino, which nothing had been able to impede until now, was finally deflected sideways.

Like a runaway train, the mutant smashed through a nearby makeshift structure as it passed.

The gang members cheered at this.

But their cheers didn’t last long.

“Kieeeee!”

“Aarrgghh!”

With the Rhino momentarily driven back, the zombies and mutants that had crawled in from outside surged towards the defensive line instead.

Dozens of regular zombies were mowed down by the concentrated firepower, and two Bigfoots were riddled into falling.

However, a cunning Wielder had been hiding behind those Bigfoots, and with delayed timing, it sprang forth to disrupt the defensive line.

Some gang members struck by the Wielder’s flailing steel pipe died without even letting out a scream.

“Fall back! Fall back!”

The leader shouted.

Despite his subordinates dying right before his eyes, he showed no signs of flustering.

He simply calmly withdrew his forces.

And in that gap, the Rhino charged again.

It was as the battle between the gang and the zombies raged on…

“…Not bad, I suppose?”

Watching the gang successfully eliminate the mutant, Arian’s expression stiffened.

Now that they had dealt with that, their next target would be the rear area where Aiden was located.

It was an unfavorable development for the Kingwood Militia, who were likely still in the process of rescuing their comrades.

“Leave the wounded behind! Those who can move, grab your weapons and follow me! This isn’t over yet!”

As Arian had predicted, after resolving the situation, the leader tried to lead the gang members onwards.

Confirming this, Arian quietly concealed herself to relay this news to Aiden.

* * *

Bang! Bang-bang!

Gunfire erupted from all directions.

After the barricade’s collapse, Aiden and the Kingwood Militia’s vanguard force that had been deployed clashed with Iron Sight’s gang.

The rear area where Aiden was located was beneath an extended elevated highway.

“…This has become troublesome.”

Concealing himself between the massive pillars supporting the road, Aiden surveyed the surroundings as he spoke those words.

As expected, the enemy’s numbers weren’t particularly high.

It seemed most of their forces had already been committed to dealing with the zombies unleashed at the front.

Thanks to that, those who had climbed atop the barricade were already corpses.

However, some gang members still remained.

And those gang members were using the very people they had captured as human shields, concealing themselves in various locations.

The area where Aiden and the vanguard were engaged in combat was a prison.

A long row of prison cells constructed with fencing between the road’s pillars.

Those imprisoned within were the people Iron Sight had captured, and the gang members were firing from behind that fencing.

Pffuing!

A deflected bullet grazed Aiden’s helmet as it flew past.

But Aiden didn’t even flinch.

Instead, with his precise marksmanship, he took down one of the gang members hiding behind the prison cells.

“30 rounds left…”

Checking his remaining ammunition with each shot, Aiden muttered those words.

His magazine was now empty.

Aiden concealed himself again and reloaded with one of his two remaining magazines, clicking his tongue softly.

With his night vision scope, distinguishing enemy from ally wasn’t particularly difficult for him.

Most of the imprisoned people were lying prone on the ground to avoid stray bullets.

So Aiden only needed to take out those standing, especially those holding weapons.

However, the other vanguard members without such scopes couldn’t do the same in this darkness.

Since the prison area was covered by the elevated highway like a roof, even moonlight didn’t properly illuminate it.

As a result, they couldn’t discern whether the moving figures were their captured comrades or the gang members who had captured them.

Of course, the same applied to their opponents as well – their vision was equally obscured.

The only difference was that those gang members didn’t seem to care about the human lives within the prison cells.

So as time dragged on, the situation only worsened.

Aiden could clearly see several hostages already struck down by the gang members’ indiscriminate shooting at any movement.

Bang!

Another of Aiden’s bullets hunted down a gang member.

But there were still many of them remaining.

Despite sniping any that entered his field of view, with all the obstacles present, his line of sight was inherently limited.

From beyond that, incessant gunfire could be heard.

But he couldn’t tell whether it was from allies or enemies.

“…Can’t be helped, I suppose.”

So Aiden carefully rose from his position.

It was a somewhat reckless decision, but he intended to independently infiltrate deeper into the enemy’s base.

Letting more time pass would only make things worse.

They needed to quickly secure control of this prison area and then fully commit the main rescue force to evacuate the captured people.

It was at that very moment, as Aiden was about to set off…

“Aiden, I’m here.”

Arian’s figure emerged from the darkness as if being painted.

Aiden wasn’t surprised by Arian’s sudden appearance. He simply confirmed her safety with a nod.

“What’s the situation at the front?”

“They took down the Rhino. The main force will be coming soon.”

At those words, Aiden let out a sigh.

It was far from good news.

This side was still caught in a predicament.

“How many survived?”

“Quite a lot. They even dug a pit inside the base. It seems the gang leader was well-prepared.”

After roughly grasping the situation, Aiden nodded.

If so, the difference in forces seemed clear.

They couldn’t claim superiority even now, and facing the enemy head-on would no longer guarantee victory.

“So what do we do now?”

“Retreating under these circumstances would be problematic. For us and the militia.”

Aiden spoke those words.

From the militia’s standpoint, sustaining such investment only to fail at rescuing even a single hostage would be an unacceptable loss.

And from Aiden’s perspective, with the Kingwood Militia securing control of this prison area, their plan to search for the vehicle would be significantly disrupted.

So retreat was not a viable option.

“We need to buy some time, no matter how little.”

“Then…”

“Would you clear the surrounding area first?”

Arian nodded.

Her silhouette blended back into the darkness.

And soon, the gunfire echoing from various directions rapidly diminished.

“In that case…”

Aiden judged this to mean the elimination of all enemies within the prison area.

With Arian’s abilities, even the most cleverly concealed opponents would be dispatched in the blink of an eye.

“River!”

Aiden approached River.

Despite battling against unseen enemies in the darkness, River was maintaining his composure as much as possible.

However, his expression still betrayed a hint of restlessness he couldn’t conceal.

Proof that the situation wasn’t favorable.

River turned towards Aiden, who had approached from the side.

“What is it?”

“There are no more enemies now. We need to move to the next phase.”

As if asking what he meant by that, River glared at Aiden.

Just moments ago, bullets had still been flying in from the front.

In response, without further explanation, Aiden simply showed him the night vision scope he possessed.

River’s expression brightened as he opened his mouth.

“You had something like this?”

Even River was well aware of just how rare military night vision equipment was in this world.

He never expected Aiden to have such a device.

“The prison area has been roughly cleared.”

Aiden let River use the scope to survey the surroundings.

Only then could River see the fallen enemies with his own eyes.

“You dealt with all of them?”

“I did receive some assistance. More importantly, we need to hurry.”

River’s question about who had helped them was immediately overshadowed by Aiden’s urgency.

River looked at the radio in his hand.

He had only just received the report about the Rhino they had lured to the front going silent.

As Aiden said, there was no time to dawdle.

The enemy’s main force would soon arrive.

Before that, they needed to secure the path leading to this prison area and buy more time for the rescue effort.

“Alright. I’ll send in the rescue team. In the meantime, the vanguard will advance and block the enemy’s reinforcements.”

At River’s decision, Aiden nodded his head.