How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“…It’s over.”

Maria said those words after confirming the fallen Brutal’s corpse.

As she said, the right side of the Brutal’s head had been completely blown off.

A clear death that didn’t even require a confirmation shot.

At this, Maria lowered her gun that had been aimed at it.

After glaring at the Brutal for a moment, Maria asked Aiden who was behind her.

“By the way… did you aim for that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your bullet penetrating the Brutal’s eye.”

Maria pointed at the Brutal’s shattered head.

From the remaining traces, it was clear that Aiden’s bullet had penetrated the right eye socket that Maria’s armor-piercing rounds had damaged.

Aiden nodded.

“Of course. A Brutal’s skull is absurdly hard, and its internal muscle structure is completely different from humans. If I couldn’t utilize the injury you created, there’s a possibility I wouldn’t have been able to silence it with one shot.”

Aiden answered as if it was obvious, but Maria let out a hollow laugh.

That large-caliber pistol Aiden had fired wasn’t known for its accuracy.

Until the world became like this, it had almost no practical use.

With such a gun, Aiden had precisely aimed for the eye of a mutant flying through the air.

Even at close range, it was by no means an easy feat.

As she was inwardly marveling at Aiden’s skill.

Maria, observing the Brutal’s corpse, soon discovered something strange.

“This wound…”

She pointed at the Brutal’s severed leg.

The Brutal’s leg that she had vaguely thought was damaged by being crushed under debris. But looking closely at the cut surface, it was severed incredibly cleanly.

“How did it end up like this?”

Maria muttered, tilting her head in confusion.

In fact, her assumption that the leg was severed by being crushed under debris was just a rough guess based on the situation.

A Brutal’s leg is sturdy enough to withstand the explosive force of a landmine, so it couldn’t be cut off by mere building debris.

Maria had been bothered by this and only now took a closer look, but the reality surpassed her expectations.

To think that the tough monster’s leg was cut so sharply.

It was something impossible within Maria’s common sense.

Could there be another mutant she didn’t know about?

As such concerns were making her mind uneasy, Aiden’s voice was heard.

“…Let’s get out of here. The exit should be close.”

He didn’t say anything else even after seeing the severed leg.

He just turned around, urging Maria.

“Wait…!”

Maria tried to stop him.

But Aiden ignored this and steadily walked on.

Maria, looking back and forth between Aiden and the Brutal, had no choice but to follow Aiden and speak.

“Wait! There might be something else here.”

“You mean the Hedgehog?”

“No, something else. Look at the state of the Brutal. I’ve never seen wounds like this before.”

Maria said as if frustrated.

Aiden let out a short sigh.

“That… will be fine. Let’s get out first. Then you’ll understand roughly.”

Maria glared at Aiden as if asking what he meant.

But Aiden didn’t say anything more and just kept walking.

So they walked through the tunnel in silence.

Soon, light was visible at the end of the tunnel.

They had finally reached the exit of the ride’s tunnel.

At that exit, two shadows were waiting for Aiden and Maria.

It was Arian and Sadie.

Fortunately, the two children who had been in the tunnel where the ceiling collapsed and mutants rampaged showed no signs of injury.

Moreover, the exit they came out of was directly connected to the platform.

Beyond that, the entrance to the tunnel where Aiden’s group had first entered was also visible.

Arian and Sadie, who had separated from Aiden, must have retraced their steps and come out through that entrance.

“You came quickly? We were just about to go looking for you if you were late.”

Arian said to Aiden as he emerged from the exit.

“Thanks to you, the battle was manageable.”

“That’s good then.”

“Sadie, are you alright too?”

While Aiden was confirming the safety of his companions after reuniting.

Maria’s eyes widened as she discovered something near the entrance where Arian and Sadie had come out.

It was the corpse of a mutant strewn across the darkness of the tunnel.

It was the remains of the Hedgehog that had been with the Brutal when the tunnel collapsed.

It seemed that while the Brutal had engaged with Aiden and Maria, they had dealt with the Hedgehog on the other side.

In other words, those two children had taken down the Hedgehog.

It was hard to imagine, but Maria couldn’t dwell deeply on that point. Her consciousness was forced to focus on an even more shocking sight.

“How…!”

The Hedgehog, that 3-meter-tall boar-like giant, had been bisected from top to bottom.

Not only its thick muscles and bones, but even the metal pieces it had embedded in its body were completely cut through.

Moreover, the cut surface wasn’t unfamiliar.

It was a sharp and clean cross-section, as if cut by a laser.

It was exactly the same as how the Brutal’s leg had been cut.

Then…

“…”

An incomprehensible assumption filled her mind.

It was an impossible thing.

However, Aiden’s words and actions added credibility to that assumption.

After separating from his companions, he didn’t seem to worry about Sadie’s safety even once.

At that moment.

As if blocking Maria’s thoughts, Aiden’s voice pierced her mind.

“We’ll be heading back now.”

“What…?”

“We’ve dealt with the two mutants hiding here. With this, the request is complete. So there’s no reason for us to stay, is there?”

Maria couldn’t respond to Aiden’s calm words.

She only directed a questioning gaze towards Arian.

“…”

Arian then stared intently into Maria’s eyes with indifference.

There was no hostility visible anywhere in her expression. But those blood-red eyes added an inexplicable eeriness.

“Do you have anything else to say?”

At Aiden’s question, Maria’s lips quivered but she ultimately shook her head.

Just from Aiden and Arian’s attitudes, she could tell.

They wouldn’t respond to any of her questions.

The group promptly left the amusement park.

Time had already progressed to evening.

* * *

The next day.

To receive the reward for the request, Aiden’s group visited the alliance headquarters they had been to before.

And there, they were able to meet Maria again.

As they had completed the request together, they needed to process the completion procedures together as well.

After the request was completed and the reward received.

“You’re saying you’ll provide the information?”

Aiden asked Maria.

When Aiden said he would buy information from the alliance headquarters, Maria had brought up that there was no need for that.

“That’s right. I might look like an old woman about to retire, but I’m a junk dealer who’s been around this city for over a year. I know plenty of information.”

Of course, even Aiden had to acknowledge that.

Whether they like it or not, junk dealers always have to be sensitive to information, and it’s a profession where they acquire it through various channels.

So the accuracy of Maria’s information could potentially be even higher than formally buying it from the alliance headquarters.

However, Aiden was curious about her intention in saying this.

“Why?”

“It’s repayment for yesterday.”

Maria said it was the price for saving her life twice.

Aiden shook his head.

Cooperating with another junk dealer who had taken the same request was only natural.

“I don’t put a price on such actions.”

“I do. So just accept it when I’m offering. Don’t be difficult when you’re not losing anything.”

Maria said, waving her hand as if telling him to stop.

As it would be silly to keep refusing something being offered, Aiden nodded.

“…Alright. Let’s do that.”

They soon entered an abandoned cafe near the alliance headquarters.

Stepping over the broken glass wall and dusting off chairs covered in dust, Maria sat down.

Aiden sat across from her while Sadie and Arian took seats at the table right next to them.

“Let’s start right away. What information do you want?”

“First… the situation around here.”

Aiden asked about survivor groups to the west of Albuquerque.

He also revealed their purpose of going to LA.

But Maria immediately shook her head.

“The answer to that is simple. There aren’t any.”

“There aren’t?”

“That’s right. From here to LA in the west, there are no survivor groups at all. Especially the state of Arizona is completely empty. It’s a big vacuum in the West.”

“You mean… even Phoenix?”

Phoenix, located between Albuquerque and LA, was Arizona’s largest city with a population of 1.5 million.

It should have had plenty of remaining resources and people.

So Aiden thought there would certainly be survivor groups in Phoenix, but Maria denied his assumption.

“Yes. It’s empty now too.”

“How is that possible?”

“There are mainly two reasons. First, LA and Phoenix are only about 600km apart. It’s the closest major city to that so-called paradise they keep broadcasting about. Wouldn’t everyone who can walk flock to LA?”

Aiden could anticipate that much.

Still, he thought some people would remain, like in Albuquerque.

After all, a 600km journey wasn’t short by any means.

As if knowing Aiden’s thoughts, Maria immediately continued.

“The second reason is because of mutants. You know that between here and LA, there are mountains, deserts, and cannibals, right?”

Aiden nodded.

He was well aware that the remaining journey wouldn’t be easy.

However, Maria added an even more fatal condition to that.

“But between them, there’s something more dangerous than all of those combined. Here, we call that mutant ‘Fear’.”

“Fear… a simple name.”

“The name is simple, but the content isn’t. You can think of its appearance as a large Brutal. It’s that strong, but that’s not all. If it was just that, we’d just call it a big Brutal.”

“…”

“What really makes it troublesome is its intelligence. It’s more intelligent than any zombie I’ve heard of. Enough to build nests and form groups.”

At the word ‘nest’, Aiden’s brow furrowed inside his helmet.

He recalled the nest made of bones they had found at a military base near Santa Rosa before coming to Albuquerque.

Perhaps the mutant that had stayed there had moved west, and was now blocking Aiden’s path.

If so, he could roughly guess how high Fear’s intelligence was.

But it was the first time he had heard that it formed groups.

“What exactly do you mean by groups?”

“It commands zombies like an army, and drags other mutants around like subordinates. No one knows how it’s possible. You might not believe it… but it’s not nonsense.”

“…It doesn’t sound like nonsense.”

Aiden’s group had already encountered a mutant that could control other zombies.

The mutant that had brought down Pittsburgh, which Aiden had named Commander.

So… does this mean that such characteristics were combined with strength surpassing a Brutal?

It was a mutant that seemed incredibly troublesome just to imagine.

“You’re saying such a thing is to the west of here?”

“Yes. Even this Albuquerque used to have some exchange with LA, though infrequently. But after it appeared, that stopped completely. Since it took control of Arizona, no one has passed through there.”

Hmm- Aiden let out a thoughtful sound.

It was a threat he hadn’t anticipated at all.

Was this what the gang they met on their first day in Albuquerque was going to talk about?

“Is it really that dangerous?”

“Half a year ago, a gang of over a thousand people tried to go to LA. They set off west with thorough preparations. And… a few weeks later, exactly 3 people returned to Albuquerque.”

“…”

“I don’t know if they were crazy, but according to them, the rest of the gang all died. Before even crossing half of Arizona.”

Hearing Maria’s words, Aiden simply nodded.

Seeing his flat reaction, Maria sensed Aiden’s intention.

Despite hearing that a gang of a thousand was annihilated, he wasn’t planning to give up.

“You still plan to go?”

“We’ve come this far, so we have to.”

Maria scoffed at his words.

She thought he was throwing his life away because he didn’t want to waste the effort of coming this far.

“Where did you come from?”

“Pittsburgh.”

“…What?”

But she couldn’t help but be shocked by the answer.

Pittsburgh?

It was an absurdly long distance, literally crossing the continent.

Aiden calmly added:

“We didn’t set out to go to LA from the start, but now it’s the only candidate left. We can’t turn back here.”

Aiden’s gaze briefly turned to his companions.

Sadie calmly gazed at Aiden, and Arian nodded vigorously as if it was obvious.

“So, assuming we break through that place, what and how much do you think we should prepare?”

Aiden’s question continued with the implicit agreement of his companions.

Maria, looking a bit perplexed, opened her mouth to answer his question.