How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“The Wielder…”

Literally translated, it means ‘one who wields.’

A mutant with that name revealed itself.

Standing over 2 meters tall, its face, torso, and upper body, excluding the arms, were muscular, resembling that of an athlete.

However, the most noticeable feature of this creature was undoubtedly its arms.

One arm, peculiarly massive, was equipped with a huge and thick iron frame.

It seemed to have forcibly torn off one of the pillars from the shelves in the logistics warehouse.

Wielder, like the ones before, was a variant with only one developed arm, but it was a mutation that could also use weapons.

Although its pure combat power might be weaker than the Brutal encountered in the hotel, as a creature using weapons, its attacking power was not inferior.

Such a monster spotted Arian and charged towards her.

“Dodge!”

At Aiden’s shout, Arian swiftly jumped backward.

And at that moment.

Creak!

The iron frame swung by the Wielder destroyed not only the door in front of Arian but also the zombie hanging in front of it.

Having shattered everything in its path, the Wielder dragged the iron frame and tried to enter the office where Aiden’s group was.

“…”

Aiden wasn’t someone to let the Wielder go without a fight.

He immediately fired his pistol towards the door and rushed forward.

“Krrr!”

In response to the torrent of 9mm bullets fiercely penetrating its skin, the Wielder raised both arms and stepped back.

However, the reprieve caused by Aiden didn’t last long.

Once again, the pistol ran out of ammunition.

But Aiden didn’t care.

He had been anticipating the number of rounds left in the remaining magazine.

So, he stowed the spent pistol in his holster, took out the shotgun he had saved, and, among the shotgun and the metal bat he had behind him, chose the bat.

Brushing past Arian’s side, Aiden quickly passed through the shattered office door that the Wielder had just destroyed.

However, the vast warehouse area revealed itself, and the Wielder was there.

While the Wielder was protecting his head with his arm to block the bullet, Aiden hit it in the side.

Crunch!

Then the zombie’s body shook with the sound of bones breaking.

But it wasn’t because of pain or injury.

The muscles in its arms were bulging, and they swung at Aiden like a whip.

Thud!

The end of the frame in the Wielder’s hand grazed Aiden’s side and shattered the concrete on the ground.

It was an incredible power that would make most people go numb. But Aiden widened the distance without changing his expression.

He looked between the high and long shelves in the warehouse area.

The mutant’s face was pretty sinister.

Its face, as decayed as its body, had skin flowing down to cover his right eye.

The nose was nowhere to be seen.

“…”

While looking at such a sight, Aiden calmly analyzed the situation.

Even if he was lucky, the Wielder wasn’t an opponent that could be knocked down with a metal bat. Rather, a much stronger weapon was needed.

But Aiden, with no more pistol bullets left, only had the shotgun he had saved until now.

Moreover, the number of shells remaining was just one shotgun magazine, barely five rounds.

So, can the Wielder be brought down with this shotgun?

Certainly, shotguns had low penetration power.

Of course, except for the muscular arm, the Wielder’s other parts weren’t so hard that they could block gunshots.

In other words, if it was a close-range shot to the head, even with a shotgun, it might not be impossible to bring down the Wielder.

However.

Creak!

Aiden dodged the Wielder’s attack again by rolling backward.

Even so, the Wielder’s assault passed through, breaking Aiden’s helmet visor.

“Tsk…!”

Aiden threw the broken visor away and bit his tongue.

The Wielder’s strength lay in its ability to flatten everything within a radius of several meters in one blow.

If hit directly, the body of a human would be processed like slicing through butter, and the corresponding speed was overwhelming to the human eye.

Avoiding the Wielder’s attacks, getting close to him, and thrusting shotgun pellets into his face.

It might be close to impossible, perhaps just a theoretical conclusion.

However, for Aiden, there was an ally who made it possible.

“Kraa!”

The Wielder, who had been persistently chasing Aiden, suddenly roared and twisted its body.

Unbeknownst to Aiden, the shoulder flesh of that guy bore a large wound, resembling a dark vein.

Breaking through the thick muscles, exposing the bone – no need to mention the cause of the injury.

Arian.

In some aspects, the girl who was even more abnormal than the mutant zombies was squeezing out zombie bodily fluids from her axe.

“Kiiii!”

The Wielder, who had been targeting Aiden, immediately switched targets.

With no intellect, but the remaining instincts, it began to realize that Arian, like the scattered remnants, was a much more dangerous enemy.

Following the sound of the air tearing apart, the steel frame flew straight towards Arian like an arrow.

However, she neither stepped back nor avoided it.

Arian’s pupils emitted a creepy red light.

She, facing the charging steel, merely adjusted the axe she was holding.

Kkaang!

The Wielder’s deadly strike was met head-on by Arian.

Arian’s axe bounced back the massive iron frame, several times its length.

An unbelievable, surreal scene, even when seen with one’s own eyes.

Just how much momentum is required for such a feat?

“…”

But Aiden couldn’t watch Arian’s performance with a relaxed mind.

He understood that Arian’s mysterious power would not last, and this was the reason.

Arian claimed to have absorbed all of Diana’s blood in the hotel.

However, she had to pour all of that blood into defeating a single Brutal.

Reverse calculating from such results.

If Arian, who received about 500ml of blood yesterday, can now produce strength, it’s not even a quarter of what it was when she defeated the Brutal.

So… this fight can’t last long.

With this judgment, Aiden took out his shotgun and initiated his move.

* * *

At that moment, Victor was still wrestling with zombies trying to burst through the door.

Although he had considerably weakened the zombies’ momentum with Aiden, outside the door leading to the mart area, there were still a considerable number of zombies.

“Kraaaa!”

“Kiiii!”

Zombies driven madly attacked the door.

Each time, the door swayed as if it would fall, and the makeshift barricade supporting it was pushed back.

Watching those zombies, Victor’s breathing became rough with tension.

“Damn them!”

Victor cursed while shooting at the zombies.

Some zombies fell backward, their heads pierced, and then the magazine ran out. He separated the magazine from the gun with trembling hands.

And into it, he pushed new bullets.

“Kwawawa!”

Creak! Bang, bang!

Meanwhile, the zombies didn’t wait for him. Rather, as if sensing the end of the gunfire, they tried to break through the door more fiercely than before.

With each impact, the ground under Victor shook like an earthquake.

Then, finally, with a sound of creaking, the door leaned heavily.

One of the hinges that seemed to fall off was finally broken.

“…!”

Victor’s face turned pale, having not even filled half of the magazine.

Above the fallen hinge, a small but vacant space appeared, and zombies tried to pass through that hole.

“Kiiii!”

Then slowly, one small zombie reached out beyond the door.

It desperately pushed his body into the office, not even noticing that its shoulder blades were being crushed.

At that sight, fear appeared on Victor’s face. He tried to hurry with reloading.

But he only became impatient, and several bullets slipped from his hands and fell to the ground.

“Damn it…!”

With his sigh, the upper part of the zombie slipped out of the hole it had made.

The one who had crossed the door with the upper body intact, dripping with madness, finally passed through the door.

It was too late.

The moment Victor thought that.

Bang!

A bullet flew from somewhere and pierced through the head of the zombie about to come over.

In unconscious gratitude for unexpected help, he looked at the direction where the gunshot came from.

Victor thought Aiden had returned.

But when he turned around, it wasn’t him.

The one who fired the gun was a small girl. Holding a small pistol with an even smaller hand was Sadie.

“Ugh…”

Victor stared at Sadie in bewilderment.

But Sadie, without saying anything, silently reloaded the pistol and pointed it at the door again.

Her eyes were moist, as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

The more her gaze trembled, the more everything seemed uneasy.

But still, Sadie never let go of the gun.

In Victor’s eyes, it felt like a punch to the back of the head.

He shook his head to pull himself together and picked up the bullets from the ground. Moving his fingertips as if paralyzed, he completed reloading.

“Pathetic! A former soldier like me…!”

Having blamed himself like that, he cocked the rifle.

Again, the loud gunfire swept away the zombies.

A few more zombies were blown away by the storm of bullets, and a few more zombies rushed to the door again.

“Kraaaa!”

The zombies roared.

The door, which seemed about to break at any moment, shook greatly.

But Victor’s bloodshot pupils staring at it didn’t shake twice.

* * *

“Aaargh!”

The Wielder roared fiercely, stretching its arm toward Arian.

The speed of the Wielder’s weapon was noticeably increased compared to a while ago. It was as if he was offended by the fact that Arian had countered his slash.

However, Arian, with her blood vessels flowing in all directions, received the Wielder’s attacks several times.

Clang! Bang!

The powerful attacks that far exceeded human strength clashed in the air, creating destructive shockwaves.

Behind the Wielder, the tall and long shelf in the warehouse area broke and fell backward due to the aftermath.

Thud.

However, the Wielder didn’t stop there; instead, it increased the speed of its assault.

“Hu…!”

In the brief moment when Arian repelled its iron frame, she sighed.

Only a few dozen seconds had passed since the battle began. But already, her blood reserves had significantly decreased.

It was a sign of how powerful the Wielder was.

Arian, slightly anxious, naturally searched for the presence of her allies.

Aiden, who had been facing the Wielder a while ago, was now circling around to target the Wielder from behind.

Aiden’s decision to avoid a head-on attack and flank it was noticed by Arian.

Seeing the shotgun in his hand, she quickly understood his intention. He would launch a deadly ambush while distracting the Wielder’s attention.

“That’s the plan…!”

It wasn’t a bad attempt.

Even Arian, with her current form, would find it challenging to inflict fatal injuries on the mutated zombie.

So, if Aiden’s shotgun had enough firepower to silence the Wielder, the ambush would undoubtedly be an effective strategy.

Moreover, most mutants, despite gaining strength and stamina, didn’t differ significantly from humans in cognitive abilities.

Even the mutants that were active at night only gained night vision; their eyesight, smell, and hearing were often inferior to ordinary humans.

Knowing this information that Aiden had shared with her, Arian tried to concentrate the Wielder’s consciousness even more on herself.

If they continued exchanging attacks like this for a little longer, Aiden would surely find an opportunity to finish it.

With this belief, Arian attempted to deflect the Wielder’s steel frame with her axe.

However, at the moment her axe collided with the frame.

Crack!

With an unusual cracking sound, her axe broke upon impact.

It was a reasonably sturdy axe, even made with a metal handle. However, it couldn’t withstand the repeated shocks beyond common sense.

Due to her failed attempt, the Wielder’s attack, which she hadn’t managed to deflect, grazed Arian’s shoulder in the blink of an eye.

“Tsk…!”

Blood sprayed into the air.

A searing heat accompanied the pain from the torn shoulder as if it had caught fire.

“Kiiii!”

Seeing this, the Wielder let out a roar.

Then, as if swinging a toy, the creature raised its steel frame high and slammed it down towards Arian.

Witnessing this, Arian gritted her teeth.

Even though she no longer had a weapon in her hands, she couldn’t just step back.

Aiden was now close to the Wielder.

If she retreated here, the vigilant Wielder might notice Aiden’s presence.

“Ugh!”

There was no way to avoid it.

So, instead, Arian leaped forward.

At that moment, the Wielder’s frame, like a guillotine blade, descended upon her. Arian attempted to let it pass over her with her arms.

Crackle!

Ultimately, the attempt succeeded.

She managed to push aside the massive weight with her in an instant broken left arm, and the steel frame, avoiding Arian, shattered the floor.

“Kiee-“

The Wielder’s distorted expression turned menacing.

As if mocking Arian.

But in the face of that arrogant laughter, Arian could respond with a smile.

Because her ally was standing right behind that creepy face.

“-!”

The barrel touched the twisted right eye of the Wielder. Only then did it realize that someone was right beside it.

In that moment.

Bang!

The shotgun erupted from point-blank range, and the Wielder’s body swayed significantly.

Still, the guy didn’t fall.

Its skull was mangled in the storm of small iron beads, but in the end they didn’t reach the brain.

At this, the Wielder’s eyes, which had been shaken for a moment, regained their madness.

But before he could do anything else.

Bang! Bang!

A shotgun spewed out a series of bullets right in front of the Wielder’s nose.

From the beginning, Aiden never thought that the Wielder would be finished with a single gunshot. So he shot five times in total.

Without hesitation, Aiden fired all the bullets he had into the Wielder.

Then, with the final shot, he smashed the Wielder’s head into pieces, scattering in all directions.

Thud!

With its head severed, the Wielder’s giant body fell backward.

Aiden finally distanced himself from the mutant and cautiously surveyed the surroundings.

There were no more enemies nearby.

He observed the situation a little longer, finally gaining confidence in the safety of the area, and turned to Arian.

“Are you okay?”

In his usual tone, no different from usual, Arian let out a bitter laugh.