How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

“In the world, Robert!”

Emma shouted as she saw her colleagues returning to the camp.

Arian and Aiden had successfully rescued the hostages.

However, among the three colleagues, only one was standing on their own two feet.

The sight of a colleague being carried by Aiden and Arian respectively.

“Robert, your arm… John, Susan, what the hell happened?”

Emma exclaimed, looking at the man lifted by Aiden.

It was Robert, a late teenager among the colleagues, and one of his arms was missing.

But the man called Robert was gasping heavily with a heavily distorted face.

Aiden, who hadn’t seen this, advised Emma.

“For now, how about laying him down somewhere. He seemed to struggle to get here.”

“Oh… okay.”

Emma looked around anxiously.

She soon took her colleagues to one of the cabins that hadn’t collapsed yet.

She laid Robert down on the bed inside the cabin first.

As she did, he soon closed his eyes while groaning.

It seemed challenging for him even to maintain consciousness.

The other two, John and Susan, were also allowed to rest.

They were covered in blood as well, not as much as Robert, who had his entire arm severed.

But chunks of flesh were torn from various parts of their bodies, such as thighs, arms, and back.

Emma laid them on the bed as well and left the cabin.

She had a somewhat confused expression.

But soon, she shook her head and approached Aiden, who was waiting outside.

“What happened to my friends?”

Emma asked frustratedly.

Upon hearing this, Aiden briefly explained about where they were trapped.

Blood-stained workbenches, rusty saw blades, and a barrel filled with bones.

It was no different from Kokomo’s apartment.

And the events that unfolded there were exactly as Arian and Aiden had expected.

They were disassembling humans and zombies, making something out of their flesh.

“These insane bastards…!”

After hearing the explanation, Emma spat out curses with a pale face.

Then, barely regaining her composure, she turned to Aiden again.

“Are my colleagues going to be okay? You… you should know.”

Emma’s gaze was fixed on the worn-out name tag hanging around Aiden’s neck.

Aiden calmly conveyed his judgment to her.

“It’s not good. They’ve lost too much blood. And they’ve been in the contaminated area for too long.”

“So?”

“Do you know about tetanus?”

Emma shook her head.

She had heard of the disease, but that was about it.

She didn’t know what kind of disease it was or how dangerous it was.

Aiden continued.

“The man with the severed arm is showing symptoms of tetanus.”

He went on to explain tetanus.

Tetanus is contracted when tetanus bacteria penetrate through a wound.

Nine out of ten times, it was because of these fanatic bastards.

“Then what should we do?”

“Do you have anything for disinfecting wounds? Antibiotics?”

“Well, we do have… but no. It’s not like this. It’s better for you to see for yourself.”

Emma’s desperate expression, perhaps seeing dying colleagues.

Without hesitation, Emma boldly took Aiden to the storage shed.

Under a large rock in the forest outside the camp.

There was a small basement hidden with its entrance concealed.

There, Emma showed Aiden all the medical supplies she had.

Even medications that Aiden had never seen before were present, thanks to the camp gathering rare materials.

Aiden selected several items, including antiseptics and antibiotics.

“For now, disinfect their wounds with this. Not just the man, but all three. And…”

Aiden gave Emma a few more instructions.

They were the best options he could think of.

However.

“If we do this… can Robert survive?”

Emma’s subsequent question left Aiden unable to answer easily.

Tetanus was a disease with a mortality rate exceeding 10% even in the perfectly healthy world three years ago.

So, in the current situation with no definite cure or proper medical equipment.

Furthermore, Robert had lost his arm, and a considerable amount of time had passed.

In truth, the chances of his survival were, frankly, desperate.

“With tetanus, the wounds need to be disinfected, and the necrotic parts need to be excised. But he has lost too much blood. If we perform surgery here, he’ll bleed to death due to excessive bleeding.”

“That means…”

“There’s nothing more we can do. The rest is up to him to overcome on his own.”

Hearing this, Emma bit her lip.

Soon, she regained her composure and rushed back to her colleagues with what Aiden had mentioned.

Aiden also followed her back to the camp.

* * *

And a few hours passed.

During that time, Arian helped Emma treat their injured colleagues with Sadie.

They disinfected the wounds of their injured colleagues and wiped away the blood.

They also replenished food and fluids and administered antibiotics if necessary.

As a result, a man named John among the colleagues quickly regained consciousness.

He had the least injuries and, unlike the other two, was able to walk to this place on his own.

Also, fortunately, it seemed he wasn’t infected with any diseases, as there were no apparent symptoms.

And the woman named Susan was still lying in bed, but fortunately, her condition was not showing serious signs of any illness, only a significant drop in stamina.

Aiden diagnosed that she would probably get up again in at least a day or two.

However, for the one whose condition was most critical, Robert, luck was not on his side.

In the twilight when the gradually reddening sunlight began to turn into darkness in the forest camp.

Despite Emma’s efforts, Aiden had to pronounce a death sentence on Robert.

Upon this, Emma collapsed with a scream-like wailing.

Arian, who had cared for him, had a cold expression, and Sadie also had tears in her eyes.

Aiden, after briefly looking at them, left the cabin.

Then, there was a man walking towards them outside the door.

He was John, a white man in his mid-20s.

Although he had just regained consciousness, he had already cleaned up and stood up.

“…Is Robert gone?”

However, John’s face was not bright.

The sounds of wailing coming from inside the cabin were vividly reaching his ears.

Aiden simply nodded his head in response to his question.

“Damn it…”

John muttered curses under his breath.

His face wrinkled with sadness.

Aiden quietly watched him for a moment and then spoke.

“Is your body okay?”

“…Yes.”

John replied tremblingly.

As if he felt ashamed that he was the only one unharmed.

After staring into the air for a while, he let out a deep sigh.

“What a damn cruel world. He shouldn’t have died like that.”

John mourned Robert for a while, then remembered other colleagues.

“No, not just Robert. Six out of eight people taken by those fanatics are dead.”

There were a total of eight people taken by the fanatics.

However, they couldn’t even find their bodies, and one of the three brought back just died.

For John, who considered them all as his colleagues, it was truly a dismal outcome.

“Regrettable.”

In response to Aiden’s words, John just nodded without saying anything.

After a moment of silence, this time Aiden spoke first.

“I have one thing I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you know why they took you, the reason?”

In fact, Aiden didn’t expect much when he asked the question.

He thought John, who was just a hostage, wouldn’t have the leisure to dig into the enemies’ motives.

However, contrary to his expectations, John nodded immediately.

“…Yes.”

“Do you know it?”

“Yes. I had to know. Those bastards kept yelling about it without a moment’s rest. Something about the light and the zombies.”

Then John told Aiden what he heard from those fanatics.

Aiden furrowed his brows at the unbelievable content.

“…Creating mutants?”

“Yes. They said that zombies eating zombies is a way to create mutants.”

Aiden, even, didn’t know for sure about the conditions for the occurrence of mutants.

But if the method those guys found was true.

If, indeed, one of the trapped zombies, unable to overcome hunger, had to resort to cannibalizing fellow zombies to create mutants.

The low number of mutants, and the fact that mutants often prey on the same kind, would make sense.

“Then the reason they mutilated human bodies…”

“To make bait. Since zombies don’t eat zombies. So, they cut up human bodies and mix them with zombie flesh. Like peanuts in chocolate.”

“Bait…”

It was a horrifying story.

However, at this moment, Aiden was contemplating an even more serious speculation.

First, he recalled the map he had seen at Kokomo’s apartment.

More precisely, the numbers written as 300 for Columbus and Fort Wayne, and 10,000 for Indianapolis.

Next was the urban battle in Fort Wayne.

In the downtown area of Fort Wayne that he saw, there were an unusually large number of mutants.

The numbers, as well as the types, were diverse.

There were even mutant Beasts that Aiden had never seen before.

And crucially, fanatics were reported to have been found in the north of Fort Wayne shortly before Aiden arrived.

Facts that he had considered unrelated began to fit together in Aiden’s mind like pieces of a puzzle.

“…So that’s it.”

Aiden finally grasped the intention of the fanatics and muttered.

Perhaps it was true that fanatics could create mutants.

The evidence was Fort Wayne itself.

The numbers written on the map in Kokomo’s apartment, 300.

Whether that figure was simply the number of decoys they spread or the target number of mutants to be created, Aiden didn’t know for sure.

But the number of mutants that swarmed from all sides of Fort Wayne’s defense line was close to that level.

In other words, the various and numerous mutants in Fort Wayne were intentionally created by the fanatics.

And that meant…

“It’s dangerous.”

It also meant that the surrounding area would become extremely dangerous soon.

To the fanatics, the mutant forces that were dangerous enough to destroy Fort Wayne’s army might have been just a simple test.

The number written above Indianapolis on their map was a whopping ten thousand.

Now it made sense why the scattered fanatics came to that heavily infested city of zombies.

They intended to spread the bait they brought there.

For the purpose of creating ten thousand mutants, as written on that map.

“…Foolish bastards.”

It was an incredibly foolish act.

And all that would be left was annihilation.

But those creatures were not originally beings capable of understanding with their minds.

If they were, they wouldn’t have even thought of using the human body as bait from the beginning.

“Yes?”

In response to Aiden’s sudden muttering, John asked.

Aiden was about to tell him his thoughts, but he closed his mouth.

There was no need to talk about facts that could not be changed, especially since it was already time for the sun to set.

After that, the deceased Robert was buried in a corner of the camp, and Emma and John cried in front of him until the night fell completely, then they went into the cabin.

Complete darkness enveloped the camp, and night arrived.

Aiden volunteered to take the night watch for the tired people.

One by one, those who had been tossing and turning in bed eventually fell asleep, exhausted from crying.

And after midnight.

Aiden, who stood guard at the camp entrance and in front of Aiden’s group’s vehicle, turned his head at the sense of presence from behind.

There, Arian and Sadie, who had been sleeping earlier, were standing.