How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

LA’s northern area, which had been enveloped in stillness until just moments ago, had now transformed into an overt warzone.

Boooooom!

A thunderous explosion shattered the air.

Dozens of artillery shells fired from somewhere pounded the mountain range simultaneously, blasting countless corpses into showers of putrid meat chunks.

Overwhelming firepower far beyond mere grenades.

Yet the numbers of corpses confronting that barrage were uncontainable by such might alone.

Like scooping a cup of water from a river, the holes blasted through their ranks sealed instantly as more undead rushed to fill the gaps.

The zombie horde’s vanguard surged forward, clinging to the barrier fencing facing the city.

“Open fire!”

Opposing those creatures were LA’s defense forces.

Fortunately, LA’s military had narrowly completed defensive preparations before the zombies could fully marshal their assault.

Barely mustering enough troops, they mounted desperate resistance against the invading force.

Tadatadatada!

Scores of machine guns unleashed torrential volleys simultaneously.

Originally designed to pierce body armor, the 6.8mm rounds possessed devastating penetrative power.

Raining down like a hailstorm, they effortlessly perforated the zombies in droves.

“Kiaaa!”

With that, the vast majority clinging to the wire fencing were unceremoniously swept away.

Yet some managed to endure that onslaught.

Brutals, Wielders, Hedgehogs and other massive mutant varieties.

While several succumbed to the concentrated firepower with exploded skulls, one Brutal stubbornly persisted until it reached the very fence line.

“Gheurr!”

Its monstrous, gnarled hands wrenched apart the wire mesh in a single heave.

The Brutal then advanced toward the temporary barricades the soldiers had just erected beyond.

“Stop it!”

Someone’s voice shouted in vain.

But as if fully aware it was the focus, the Brutal deftly weaved left and right, evading the machine gun fire while plowing through the earth.

Bang!

Abruptly, the Brutal’s massive bulk launched skyward.

Abandoning its attempt to breach the barricades directly, it instead intended to simply vault over and trample the soldiers beyond.

“It’s coming through!”

The faces of nearby troops paled at that sight.

Some aimed their rifles at the Brutal, but small arms fire would prove futile against that juggernaut.

At the very moment the soldiers braced for death-

Swoosh!

A crimson streak flashed from somewhere, intercepting the Brutal mid-air like a missile just before it could land among them.

Thud!

The colossal airborne corpse slammed back into the earth with a thunderous impact.

“Kwoooohhh!”

The grounded Brutal bellowed furiously.

Accompanying its landing was the figure of a young girl – Arian.

“What the…?!”

Caught between the machine gun muzzles and that monstrous Brutal, the worst possible position.

The soldiers reacted with stunned confusion at the girl’s inexplicable appearance there.

Unable to protect her or halt the Brutal’s rampage in this state.

It was then that the machete Arian gripped began to move.

Just what did she intend to accomplish with that meager blade?

All those observing her must have wondered as much.

This was an active battlefield where explosives and heavy machine guns raged.

Surely, that solitary machete could achieve nothing whatsoever against such threats.

But in the next instant, their disbelieving awareness transformed into sheer horror. Because that seemingly paltry machete cleanly bisected the Brutal’s colossal frame – a creature that had endured artillery bombardments and shrugged off machine gun fire.

Chwaak!

The Brutal flopped to the ground, neatly severed from left shoulder to right flank.

Having felled the Brutal so readily, the crimson-eyed girl bounded into the air, vanishing from their field of view once more.

All that remained were the soldiers, frozen in stunned disbelief as if having just witnessed sorcery.

For a moment, they even forgot to keep firing as they stared in the direction Arian had departed.

But soon, another anguished scream shattered their trance.

“Stay alert! More are coming!”

Those words finally snapped the troops back to grim reality.

Pushing aside that inexplicable phenomenon for now, they forced themselves to refocus on the immediate threat before them.

“…This won’t be easy.”

Arian muttered amid that frantic battlefield.

Of course, she had already steeled herself for an arduous fight from the outset.

The sheer numbers of zombies too had been fully anticipated.

Rather, Arian had underestimated the qualitative aspect of her opposition.

The vast zombie horde buried within those mountain ranges.

Arian had assumed they would consist mainly of smaller, stealthier undead varieties well-suited for ambush tactics.

But unexpectedly, the numbers of larger, more powerful mutant strains intermixed proved far greater than she had expected.

Moreover, the perimeter she needed to secure spanned nearly 2km along LA’s unfinished northern border wall gap.

An expanse far too vast for Arian to handle alone, by any means.

At least LA’s defense forces had arrived in the nick of time, with their armaments proving formidable – a fortunate consolation amidst the adversity.

Twack!

Continuing her solitary battlefield maneuvers, Arian scanned the combat zone.

Factoring in the potential for taking stray gunfire or explosions herself, she systematically eliminated only those mutant types that managed to pierce through the defense line’s massed firepower.

Her sole focus was preventing that defensive perimeter from collapsing.

But even for Arian’s current efforts, merely maintaining the status quo proved immensely taxing.

Not even affording her the luxury of concealing her vampiric abilities.

Still, the zombies’ overwhelming momentum persisted, their numbers steadily eroding the troops’ capacity to stem the mutants slipping through.

“At this rate…”

Arian’s expression clouded with dismay.

The massive spherical blood construct hovering beside her had already depleted over halfway.

Proceed as they were, and either the defense line would crumble, or Arian would exhaust her strength first.

Those seemed the only possible outcomes.

It was at that dire juncture that a potential lifeline revealed itself.

Arian glanced backward, noticing reinforcements had just arrived.

Their numbers amounted to several thousand, it seemed.

Not an insignificant force, but the commanding officer greeted them with evident irritation instead.

“Is this all? Where are the rest?”

To him, the man who had led those reinforcements explained the situation within LA’s interior.

Zombies had also emerged there, compounding the chaos.

As a result, part of the forces they had mustered were being diverted to quell those separate disturbances.

Overhearing that exchange, a brief pang of concern for her companions surfaced in Arian’s mind.

Amid such pandemonium within LA itself, had Aiden managed to reunite safely with Sadie?

“Kiiii…!”

But the next anguished mutant shriek dispelled that fleeting worry.

Who was she, to be fretting over others right now?

Shaking off that distraction, Arian resumed the battle.

Meanwhile, the majority of those newly arrived reinforcements were not career soldiers themselves.

It seemed they had been drafted from other civilian occupations due to the severe manpower shortages.

Which might explain why, unexpectedly, some familiar faces were among their ranks.

Zaid and Linda, who had repaired the train bringing them to LA.

Maria, who had jointly handled a contract back in Albuquerque.

And part of the group of around thirty that had accompanied Aiden to LA – Sophie’s team and the Miller couple.

“Well, with these numbers at least…”

Those reinforcements were swiftly reorganized and deployed to bolster each defensive sector.

The change, though modest, proved dramatic in its effect.

Lacking firepower was augmented, greatly reducing the mutant strains slipping through the barrage.

Perhaps this would allow them to finally stem the zombie offensive altogether.

It was just as Arian glimpsed that faint possibility for optimism that-

“Gheurrrrrr!”

An earth-shaking, thunderous roar erupted from the mountain direction – as if rebuking Arian’s nascent hopes.

An ominous bellow so immense it seemed the entire range itself was wailing.

A roar painfully etched into Arian’s memory.

“Fear…!”

Arian’s murmured utterance coincided with an aberrant monster finally manifesting at the mountain’s edge.

Larger than even Big Foot, more fearsome than any Brutal.

The very entity Arian had once failed to put down for good now re-emerged to confront her again.

Bang!

Though Fear had lost its ability to command zombies, its own primal might remain undiminished.

Utterly disregarding gunfire, the creature instantly buckled the fence line with a single heave.

Fear then plowed straight through the barricades, crumpling them effortlessly in its wake.

“Damn…!”

Witnessing that display, Arian grit her teeth even as she fended off a Hedgehog charging her position.

Her own blood reserves had already depleted.

Without more vital fluid, Arian lacked the power to contend against Fear herself.

But the defense forces too proved woefully inadequate against that primordial threat.

The reinforcements had barely managed to restore temporary equilibrium before Fear’s arrival upended it entirely.

More zombies already poured through the breach Fear had torn open.

Undead formerly stalled by massed gunfire now engaged the soldiers directly – and the results were catastrophic.

Within mere seconds, dozens perished gruesomely before Arian’s eyes.

Blood sprayed, screams echoed.

At this rate, the defensive line’s total collapse was only a matter of time.

“…”

Her own strength alone would no longer suffice.

Having judged that reality, Arian turned her gaze toward the defense forces.

It was amid scanning those ranks that another familiar face caught Arian’s eye.

Ava.

The very woman who should have been confined to a hospital bed due to injuries was instead here – at the vanguard of this battlefield, staring directly at Arian herself.

Arian approached Ava.

“Why are you here?”

At those words, the surrounding soldiers’ attention turned toward Arian and Ava alike.

None present had failed to witness Arian’s prowess first-hand.

Ava too, it seemed, as she carefully chose her reply after a momentary pause.

“Under circumstances like these, how could I possibly stay bedridden?”

Ava briefly flashed a wry smile.

One arm bandaged, she gripped her rifle solely with her remaining hand.

But quickly regaining her composure, Ava fixed Arian with an intent stare.

“More importantly… it seems my eyes didn’t deceive me after all. Just what are you…?”

“Help me.”

Arian abruptly made that blunt request of Ava.

Though widening her eyes slightly, Ava didn’t refuse.

“Help you?”

“I can convert human blood into power. So I need blood.”

“…What? What does that even mean?”

“You’ve seen it, haven’t you? There’s no time for detailed explanations.”

At Arian’s words, Ava fell silent momentarily.

But her contemplation didn’t last long.

It couldn’t, with the zombies’ furious roars – led by Fear – steadily drawing nearer as they overwhelmed the defense forces.

“If I provide blood, could you fell that monster too?”

Ava gestured toward Fear as she spoke.

Arian nodded with firm conviction.

If so, then Ava had no further reason to hesitate.

Though she couldn’t begin to comprehend Arian’s bizarre request about blood, and those crimson eyes of hers seemed unnaturally unsettling. If it meant putting down Fear, such trifles no longer mattered.

“Alright. What do I need to do?”

“Persuade the others.”

“Persuade them?”

“To willingly give their blood to me. Inflict injuries on yourselves – that will serve as the contract’s symbol. Leave obtaining the blood itself to me after that.”

“…”

The words ‘contract’ and ‘symbol’ sounded utterly enigmatic to Ava.

But the necessary course of action was clear enough.

Ava set her rifle down and drew her combat knife instead.

Rather than requesting others first, she would demonstrate herself.

With that knife, Ava then inflicted a shallow cut along her own thigh.

The moment vibrant blood welled forth from that wound, it defied gravity, flowing through the air of its own accord straight toward Arian.

“What the…?!”

That sight understandably stunned not just Ava, but all the surrounding soldiers as well.

For a brief instant, they seemed to forget this was even a battlefield at all.

The blood stream abruptly ceased flowing as quickly as it had begun.

Arian had absorbed the full amount one person could safely provide.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Ava reassured the concerned soldier beside her.

Though she had lost some blood, it wasn’t enough to significantly hinder her immediately.

Confirming that for herself, Ava turned toward the other troops.

“Won’t you help as well?”

As a long-serving officer in LA’s defense forces, Ava’s words carried considerable weight.

It was precisely why Arian had entrusted this persuasion to her.

Yet despite that, the others still wavered in the face of this unfamiliar entity and inexplicable circumstance that seemed like outright sorcery.

It was then that another blood stream flowed toward Arian.

At its source was… Sophie.

Having witnessed Arian’s true nature herself, she didn’t hesitate – slicing her own arm open as she shouted:

“Didn’t you all see how that girl fights?”

Sophie vouched that Arian’s words rang true.

Her companion Oliver Smith also cut his arm in turn.

“At this rate, we’re all dead anyway! So is a little blood too much to ask?”

He then reminded them all of the dire reality they currently faced.

The paralyzing spectacle had briefly allowed them to forget the crisis at hand.

But the zombies’ furious roars now rang clearly in their ears once more.

Another blood stream then arced through the air toward Arian.

This time, it was the Miller couple.

“We’re doctors, you see. Relatively new arrivals, but some may recognize us from the hospital.”

Logan spoke first.

Though his voice wasn’t particularly loud, it carried clearly across this battlefield of thundering ordinance.

His wife Medlin continued.

“The amount of blood that girl takes is around 300ml – the same as a standard blood donation.”

“In other words, it’s not dangerous. We doctors can vouch for its safety.”

Emphasizing their professional credentials as physicians, the Millers reassured everyone that this act posed no risk.

Only then did the soldiers finally begin to move into action.

One by one, more crimson streams flowed toward Arian – quickly multiplying to scores of them.

Painting an almost spider-web-like pattern of red converging upon the girl at the epicenter.

The accumulated vital fluid coalesced into another large spherical blood construct hovering beside Arian.

Its vivid crimson hue pulsed with an ominous radiance.

“This should be enough…!”

Thanks to the persuasions of Ava, Sophie, and the Millers, Arian now had sufficient blood reserves.

She cast an appreciative glance toward those individuals.

No words were spoken, yet the emotion conveyed through that shared look required none.

Arian immediately took flight, soaring straight toward the rampaging Fear.

A meteoric blood mace descended upon the primordial monster’s hulking mass.