How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

The interior of the dilapidated truck repair shop Aiden had entered was cluttered.

A couple of large truck cabs without their trailers were left abandoned.

The floor was strewn with discarded tires, tools, and other debris in disarray.

“Ughh…”

In one corner of that cluttered repair shop was the person Arian had mentioned.

An Indian man appearing to be in his 30s.

He was hunched over, head lowered as he emitted groans of pain.

Aiden first checked the man’s armaments.

A pistol holstered at his waist immediately caught his eye.

No other weapons were immediately visible.

Additionally, the blood staining the area around his legs suggested he had sustained an injury there.

Likely due to the pain from that injury, the man still hadn’t noticed Aiden’s intrusion.

“…”

After confirming this, Aiden first hid his body behind the truck.

If the opponent was injured and had limited mobility, there was no need to act hastily. So he judged that it would be better to try starting with a conversation slowly first.

“Is someone there?”

At Aiden’s voice, the man was startled and lifted his head.

The man hurriedly took out a pistol from its holster.

And he aimed it in the direction the voice came from.

The muzzle shook unsteadily.

“Wh… who’s there?”

“Just a passing junk dealer.”

Aiden answered calmly.

But the man’s expression distorted as if in dismay.

In this world with too many marauders, he couldn’t simply take Aiden’s words at face value.

The man alternated aiming his pistol at a few spots where Aiden might emerge, as if ready to shoot him as soon as he showed himself.

To him, Aiden spoke again.

“Looks like you’re injured. And immobile too.”

At the following words, the man gritted his teeth.

It was Aiden declaring he already knew the man’s weakness.

However, it wasn’t just words to threaten the man.

Because even knowing that, he was still attempting conversation like this, implying as much.

It was only then the man lowered his guard slightly and continued speaking.

“Wh…what do you want from me?”

“If I had to say… business.”

“Business?”

“As I said, I’m a junk dealer. I simply approached someone who looked in need of a request. If not needed, then please let me leave.”

Aiden’s words were sincere.

If the man refused his involvement here, that would be the end of it.

There was no reason for Aiden to forcibly detain him.

“Damn it…!”

In contrast, the man frowned deeply, lost in thought.

Ordinarily, it would have been an offer not worth considering.

The words of a self-proclaimed junk dealer he didn’t even know weren’t worth believing.

But his current situation was different.

He looked down at his broken leg.

Having been trapped in this run-down repair shop for over 30 hours, his body was as cold as a corpse, but his leg burned as if on fire.

It was an injury sustained while being chased by zombies.

He had failed his landing after jumping from a rooftop to fend them off.

Moreover, after that, he had forcibly moved on his broken leg to flee here.

He had managed to shake off the zombies somehow, but his injured condition had only worsened.

In that state, without even a sip of water, he had endured groaning here alone.

That’s why the man was in desperate need of help.

Even if it was from a stranger whose name he didn’t know, it wasn’t a time to be picky.

“Not needed?”

Aiden’s question came to him again.

The man grabbed his leg and answered Aiden as if he had given up.

“No, it’s needed. So please help me right away, junk dealer.”

“Then get rid of the gun first.”

Aiden firmly demanded he disarm.

For a moment, hesitation flickered in the man’s eyes, but he soon placed the pistol he was holding on the floor.

If this junk dealer left anyway, his fate was to die here.

Whether he died here or got shot by a marauder, it was all the same.

No, in his current state, it might be better to get shot by a marauder than wither away here.

So he slid the pistol towards the direction the voice came from.

With a drurr sound, the pistol slid across the floor until it reached Aiden.

Aiden retrieved it, and finally revealed himself in front of the man.

“I’m Aiden Lee.”

Resolve filled the eyes of the man who saw Aiden.

His appearance, with a bulletproof helmet pressed down to his head, looked extremely suspicious.

But Aiden didn’t point the muzzle of the pistol he held at him.

As Aiden approached him with steady steps, the man stated his name.

“…Nabin Kanna.”

“Nice to meet you. So what’s the request?”

Nabin’s lips twitched.

He had a few reliable companions, if not many.

So the most important request he had to make was naturally to have Aiden take him to them.

But Nabin still didn’t fully trust Aiden yet.

If Aiden happened to be a marauder, simply conveying such a request would endanger his companions.

So he decided to observe the situation a bit longer.

Besides, there was something he needed right away too.

“For now… can you give me some water?”

Having gone a long period without hydration on top of his injury, his thirst had reached its peak.

At his request, Aiden nodded and looked behind him.

Then, a girl came over from the wide open space.

It was Arian.

“Here.”

Arian approached and handed him a water bottle.

Although Nabin was wary of her, he couldn’t refuse the water she offered.

He gulped it down, instantly draining the small plastic bottle.

In the meantime, as if paying for the bottled water, he saw Aiden removing bullets from his pistol, but he didn’t mind that.

“Phew…”

Having quenched the excruciating thirst, Nabin let out a deep sigh.

Now he felt like he might live.

With him like that, Aiden and Arian had a conversation.

“Did the story end well?”

“You could say that. How’s the surrounding area?”

“A few zombies a bit further away, but otherwise quiet.”

“Sadie?”

“Outside. But… it seems she can come in now.”

Arian said that after glancing over Nabin.

Soon, she brought Sadie inside.

Nabin was taken aback by the unexpected presence of the child.

“A child? Why is she here?”

“She’s with me.”

Aiden said it like it was obvious.

At those words, Nabin let out a faint sigh.

The last time he had seen a child that age was two years ago.

And that was just the sight of them sick and dying without being able to eat or rest.

“More importantly, is one bottle of water enough?”

Handing back the empty pistol without any bullets, Aiden asked.

Nabin hesitated with his words.

He looked over Aiden’s group once more.

He didn’t have the skill to read a person’s heart just by seeing their face, but-

This unique group composition seemed unlikely to be marauders.

Having finally gained some conviction, he slowly continued speaking.

“No, there’s one more request. Take me to where my companions are.”

“Companions?”

“Yeah, they’re in this city. Not too far away.”

“And the compensation?”

“That… I don’t have any on me right now, but my companions will provide it. Really.”

In the end, it was essentially an IOU, but Aiden calmly nodded.

Such requests were all too common.

“How many companions in total?”

“Including me… three.”

A number too small to even be called a survivor group.

But that’s why it was hard to think it was a lie.

After all, this empty city couldn’t even sustain groups of dozens.

“I see. But to do that, we’ll need to take care of that leg first.”

“My leg? What do you want to do with my leg?”

Nabin looked at Aiden with suspicious eyes, as if telling him not to do anything unnecessary.

Aiden brought the ID tag hanging from his neck up to his eyes.

Seeing it, Nabin’s eyes widened.

“You were a doctor? Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

“I am saying it now, aren’t I? More importantly, can you show me your leg?”

Groaning, Nabin rolled up the pant leg of his broken leg.

The swollen injury area was exposed.

“Bear with it for a bit.”

Aiden pressed on the leg, trying to locate the bone’s position.

Each time, Nabin let out groans, but Aiden only frowned deeper.

It was because the protruding fractured bone was so obvious that he could locate it by hand without even needing an X-ray.

“You recklessly moved around even after the bone broke.”

“I had no choice. Those damned zombies were chasing me.”

“The bone is dislocated. If left like this, you won’t be able to walk properly for life.”

At those words, Nabin’s face turned serious.

“What should we do?”

“I’ll have to realign the bone. After that, just wait for it to heal.”

“You’re saying… it’ll all be over once you reset it?”

Nabin said it as if unnecessarily alarmed.

But it truly wasn’t that simple, as his words implied.

“The broken bone is trying to pierce through the skin. I’ll have to push it back into its original position from the outside. In other words… put simply, it’s going to hurt like hell.”

Having finally grasped the situation, Nabin’s expression stiffened.

If just pressing on the injury a few times was this painful, pushing the bone inside to realign it to its original position?

Just the explanation was agonizing to hear.

But… he couldn’t not do it either.

According to Aiden, if the dislocated bone hardened like this, he would never be able to walk again.

And in this world, being unable to walk was practically no different from being dead.

“…Do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“If not, I’m done for, so do it.”

Aiden briefly nodded in acknowledgment of Nabin’s resolve.

“Then I’ll tie your arms down for a bit.”

Using nearby rags and such, Aiden firmly tied Nabin’s two arms to a vehicle lift.

Nabin muttered discontentedly.

“Is this really necessary?”

“It’s so you don’t move and cause the bone to go in the wrong way.”

Saying that, he even put a gag in Nabin’s mouth before looking back at Arian.

“Arian. Make sure he can’t move.”

At those words, Arian grabbed hold of Nabin’s uninjured leg.

Nabin had thought a teenage girl wouldn’t be able to properly restrain even one of his legs, but when he experimentally tried to move it, it didn’t budge abnormally.

“Then I’ll begin.”

Aiden spoke in an excessively flat tone.

With the gag in his mouth, Nabin nodded tensely.

Aiden pushed down on Nabin’s fractured bone with all his might.

A scream befitting a human, like the roar of a zombie, resounded inside the old repair shop.

* * *

Some time later.

“Hah… heuk…”

Makeshift splints made of rags and wood planks picked up nearby were attached to Nabin’s leg as he panted heavily.

Next to him was also an improvised crutch made by tying together discarded umbrellas and such.

All items Aiden had quickly put together here.

So they wouldn’t last long, but were sufficient for the time being to reach his companions.

“Enough resting, let’s move.”

Aiden urged Nabin on.

Having literally gone through hell just moments ago, Nabin carefully stood up. 

Whether due to the splint or the realigned bone, while his leg still throbbed with pain, it was undoubtedly easier to move than before.

Nabin took a few steps leaning on the crutch.

Slow, but at least he could move on his own to some extent.

“Can you feel your toes?”

At Aiden’s question, Nabin nodded.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem the nerves were damaged. You’re lucky.”

“What if they were damaged?”

“In the worst case, even with the bone reset, you might not have been able to walk.”

“…”

As if asking why he was only saying this now, Nabin glared at Aiden.

But Aiden nonchalantly changed the subject.

“More importantly, where are your companions? We just need to go to your base, right?”

“Yeah. Go a bit north from here.”

At the vague answer, Aiden had him take the lead.

And he really did head north.

An unremarkable residential area with the same scenery Aiden had passed through. 

But Nabin passed right through those houses.

Then an empty space appeared.

A place like a void within the city, stretching endlessly with only a road and utility poles – whether to call it a forest or wasteland was uncertain.

Not a single building could be seen.

After following that path for a bit, a railroad intersecting the road came into view.

Was there something beyond this?

But contrary to Aiden’s expectations, instead of the road, Nabin began moving along the railroad tracks.

The railroad tracks led deep into the wasteland area.

“Your companions are here?”

Aiden questioned Nabin with some doubt.

“Yeah, it’s not really a place you’d expect anything. Not like we’re pitching tents on the railroad tracks either.”

Nabin gave a wry smile, as if understanding his thoughts.

“But it’s a railroad track. So what would be on it?”

Nabin pointed at the stretching railroad tracks.

There, parked brazenly in the middle, was a stopped freight train.