How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

Leaving Rockville, a few hours later.

In the early afternoon, Aiden’s group’s vehicle arrived in Tuscola.

Screech-

A place 100km away from Rockville.

Also, for Aiden, it was the moment of setting foot in a new state for the first time in the week.

“From here… it’s Illinois, right?”

Aiden muttered as he parked the vehicle in a suitable spot.

Pennsylvania, where Pittsburgh was located.

Ohio, where they visited small towns like Canton and Wooster.

Indiana, where Fort Wayne and Indianapolis were.

Although Aiden had arrived in his fourth state, the surrounding scenery hadn’t changed much.

The place where he parked the car used to be a truck repair shop, and Aiden’s group’s vehicle was perfectly hidden between two large trucks.

Aiden turned around in that state.

Sadie’s eyes, sitting in the back seat, stared at Aiden.

“Do you really want to go?”

Aiden asked Sadie.

Aiden’s task here was to go to the hotel he had heard about from Nairik, retrieve supplies, and come back.

So, Sadie didn’t need to go out, and it was right for her to wait in the car if she prioritized safety.

However, a little while ago, Sadie volunteered to go with Aiden.

She wanted to gain experience.

“Yes.”

“Alright, then get your weapon.”

Aiden replied to that request.

Sadie hesitated for a moment, then picked up a handgun.

Arian looked at Sadie with an uneasy look, but didn’t say anything.

Both Sadie and Arian had learned something from their experiences in Fort Wayne and Rockville.

Even if you’re a child, you need to know how to protect yourself to survive in this world.

Thud!

With the sound of the door closing, Aiden got out of the vehicle.

Arian and Sadie followed Aiden.

“Isn’t it too heavy for you?”

Aiden asked, looking at the handgun Sadie was holding.

Then Sadie shook her head.

“I’m fine.”

Sadie said so, but in Aiden’s eyes, that handgun wasn’t a suitable weapon for Sadie.

A model with a magazine capacity of 17 rounds and a long barrel to increase accuracy.

It was a temporary weapon given to Sadie because Aiden prioritized performance such as penetration and accuracy rather than the convenience of weight and recoil.

For Sadie, it was too heavy and big.

Of course, there are types of handguns with magazines that hold just 10 rounds or even fewer.

It’s not ideal to have a low ammo capacity.

But if the size of the magazine is reduced, the overall size of the gun also decreases, and the weight can be much lighter.

If Sadie wants to be more proactive, she may need to look for such a model.

“Then let’s go.”

Aiden remembered this and moved forward.

They were on the outskirts of the village.

A place with scattered buildings on a wide plain, with one road dividing it.

And where Aiden was going was a hotel at the end of such an outskirts.

A three-story building covered with a neglected roof for three years and a dull color entered their sight.

Even on the outskirts of the village, it stood alone at the very end.

And in the parking lot in front of the hotel, there were, as expected, zombies wandering around.

Only three of them.

Aiden stepped forward to the ones who hadn’t noticed the group yet.

“I’ll handle those.”

There was no need for even a bat for these guys.

Without his helmet, Aiden, with his face exposed, casually approached one of them and stabbed the military sword under its chin.

“Ki-!”

With that sound, one zombie fell along with the head.

The remaining two turned to look at Aiden in response to the noise.

But they couldn’t immediately distinguish which one among the fallen zombie and the standing one was the enemy.

In the meantime, Aiden approached another one and repeated the same action.

Only then did a zombie perceive the threat and rush towards Aiden.

Aiden extended his left arm towards the approaching zombie, as if offering it as prey.

Squelch!

The zombie bit into Aiden’s arm.

However, before its teeth could cut into the flesh of the arm, the putrid bodily fluid squirting from there touched the zombie’s mouth.

“Kiek!”

Upon this, the zombie quickly released Aiden’s arm as if it had just ingested poison.

Aiden seized the opportunity.

One of his hands grabbed the zombie’s head, while the other raised the broadsword.

Thunk!

Just like the previous two, the blade pierced from the zombie’s chin to its brain.

In this way, the three corpses fell to the ground without making a sound.

Aiden scanned the surroundings as if nothing had happened.

There was no sign of any movement.

“It seems like this is all outside. Let’s go in.”

With that, Aiden and his group entered through the main gate of the hotel.

The first thing that greeted them was the dusty lobby.

Torn red carpet and a broken chandelier embedded in it.

They testified to what had happened in this place in the past.

On both sides of the lobby, long corridors led to rooms.

Zombie figures weren’t yet visible there.

Were they inside the rooms or hiding on different floors?

Meanwhile, the entrance to the basement, where Nairik’s colleagues were supposed to be, was easily noticeable.

Inside the quiet lobby.

A collapsed barricade blocking the stairs downward was visible.

“…”

It was a barricade installed inside the building, not at the hotel entrance.

It was easy to guess the reason.

It must have been a small group of survivors who didn’t want to attract the attention of wandering outsiders.

Aiden examined the barricade.

It was a sturdy barricade, but it had been torn apart by force.

It didn’t seem to be the work of an ordinary zombie.

So, Aiden asked Arian.

“Is there a mutant downstairs?”

Arian casually nodded.

Upon this, Aiden sighed briefly.

There was information about the mutants that had killed Nairik’s colleagues that he had heard just yesterday.

A new type of mutant, something Aiden had never heard of before.

Whether the mutant below was that one or another one, he didn’t know.

Encountering an unknown mutant wasn’t good news for Aiden. However, having come this far, there was no turning back. In that case, he could only do what needed to be done.

Continuing to head towards the corridor, he suddenly turned to look at Sadie.

“…Sadie.”

“Yes?”

“What do you think is the first thing we should do now?”

Sadie’s eyes widened a bit at the unexpected question.

But soon, she realized.

This was a test from Aiden.

Sadie pondered deeply on it.

She had been observing Aiden’s fighting style and moment-to-moment judgments.

Aiden prioritized safety.

Rather than winning against the enemy in a fight, he prioritized avoiding conflict whenever possible.

When forced into combat, he didn’t hesitate, but always considered the possibility of defeat and prepared for it.

This tendency of Aiden manifested not only in battles but also in other aspects.

Even when organizing items in the car. He always had two backpacks with a certain amount of food, water, and ammunition, ready in case the vehicle was damaged.

In other words, he prepared for the worst.

Now, faced with the situation, Aiden was likely anticipating the possibility of losing to the mutant underground.

After thinking it over, Sadie slowly opened her mouth.

“Before going downstairs, we need to attack the other zombies on the upper floor.”

“Why?”

“To create an escape route.”

Aiden nodded in response.

It was the right answer.

“Yes, that’s right. Besides, if we use firearms underground, it might attract all the zombies on the surface. If we don’t deal with them, in the worst case, we could be isolated in the basement.”

Aiden then pointed out something Sadie hadn’t realized.

He was undeniably teaching Sadie.

Since Sadie had decided to learn something on her own, it was his way of responding to that decision.

“Now, I’ll go deal with the zombies on the surface. The numbers don’t seem too large. Be cautious of your footsteps and follow behind me.”

Aiden walked down the corridor leading to the rooms before going underground.

Then he pointed to the door of a certain room.

“Do you hear it?”

Aiden whispered.

As Sadie listened, she heard a strange sound, like a tongue clicking softly.

Sadie nodded.

“Remember that sound. It means there’s a zombie there. Follow me this way.”

Aiden pushed the group into another empty room.

Then, he casually picked up a piece of trash rolling on the floor.

“Next is a method of luring zombies with sound.”

He taught Sadie how to detect the presence of zombies without seeing them, lure them out, and avoid being caught by them.

Finally, as they dealt with the zombie that played the role of a practice dummy, Aiden spoke.

“That’s how it works. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Sadie replied with a subtly uncomfortable expression.

“Why is that?”

“These zombies here were…”

Sadie’s words trailed off, but Aiden quickly understood what she meant.

The inn where Nairik stayed yesterday wasn’t a large building.

So, all the conversations between Aiden and Nairik there would have been heard by Sadie.

It bothered her that some of the zombies here were Nairik’s colleagues.

“No, zombies are just zombies.”

Aiden firmly nodded.

“Don’t worry about who those bodies were in their past lives. Just focus on staying alive. If using them helps you survive, then it’s okay to use them like we are now.”

Sadie nodded hesitantly.

Perhaps what she heard didn’t feel real.

So, Aiden decided to give her a chance.

“Then, this time, try it yourself.”

“What?”

“Take the lead on the opposite corridor. Find the zombies first.”

After hesitating for a moment at Aiden’s words, Sadie nodded with a tense face.

Arian, who had been quiet, approached.

“Is it really okay?”

“I’ll be by her side. And you… It might be better for you to stay behind.”

Arian frowned at his words, but ultimately followed Aiden’s suggestion.

With Arian retreating, Sadie cautiously walked towards the opposite corridor.

While silently moving and cautiously stepping, she soon pointed to a slightly opened door in one of the rooms.

“…”

Aiden nodded, watching her.

The sound that Aiden had pointed out was coming from inside.

Finding the zombies was successful.

But just as Sadie was about to retreat from the guest room to lure it out.

Crunch!

A noise came from under Sadie’s feet, who had been moving quietly.

An insignificant noise made by stepping on a piece of plastic left on the floor and breaking it.

But the sound was loud enough for zombies to recognize.

“Kiiik!”

The zombie that was right in the nearby room suddenly rushed out into the corridor. It immediately spotted Sadie, who hadn’t hidden her body yet.

Thunk!

Aiden’s sword was thrust directly into the zombie’s jaw.

Aiden laid the zombie down on the ground and turned to Sadie.

“You should watch your step on the floor.”

“…Yes.”

“Want to try it again?”

Sadie nodded.

That way, Aiden assisted Sadie with her practice up to the 3rd floor of the hotel. 

Finding the zombie’s location, luring it out, and avoiding its awareness.

Success in this series of processes came after more than ten failures.

“Kie…”

A zombie lured out into the corridor wandered around.

But standing there was Aiden, another zombie.

Sadie had already entered the room where the zombie was hiding, remaining concealed.

“…”

Peeking her head out from the room, Sadie smiled at Aiden.

It was a joyful expression after many failures ended in success.

To that Sadie, Aiden nodded approvingly.

“Good job. You learn fast.”

As Aiden said that, the zombie in front emitted a growl, a cautious sound of alertness.

It was as if it encountered a fellow creature that could speak for the first time.

Aiden thrust his knife into the zombie’s jaw.

In the now-silent corridor, Aiden approached Sadie.

“What do you think the meaning of this practice is?”

“Uh… Learning how to avoid zombies?”

“That’s part of it. But that’s not all. For example, even if the terrain changes a little, the methods you learned today might not be applicable.”

Sadie’s eyes showed confusion at Aiden’s words.

He continued.

What Aiden wanted to tell Sadie was about zombies themselves.

How much cognitive ability zombies exactly possessed.

How they reacted sharply to certain stimuli.

And exactly what level of intelligence they had.

Basic knowledge that anyone who had survived alongside zombies in the past three years would naturally learn.

However, it was also crucial information, so Aiden wanted to teach it to Sadie.

“So, you need to understand the existence of zombies itself. Based on that, you should be able to come up with methods that suit the situations you find yourself in, not just the ones I taught you. Do you understand?”

In the end, it was about improvising based on basic knowledge in each moment.

Sadie quietly nodded at Aiden’s words.

“Alright. Then let’s stop here for today.”

Aiden, having said that, went back downstairs to the hotel’s first floor with the group.

Now, all the zombies in the hotel had been dealt with.

What remained was… only the basement with the rumored mutant.

Aiden stood at the stairs leading to the basement.

Below, the darkness seemed to engulf everything ominously.