How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

The one who introduced herself as Ella Watson was a black woman in her twenties.

She had a sharp impression, and her expression blurred as she was conscious of Aiden’s gun barrel touching her head.

Whether she valued her life or not, there was no sign of rebellion.

Aiden then asked a question.

“You’re a junk dealer. So, whose request did you come here for?”

“…Rock Boys.”

Ella replied.

She claimed to have received a request from the same gang as Aiden.

However, Aiden didn’t take her words at face value.

“Really? Then, where did you receive the request?”

“At the camp outside the stronghold.”

Ella answered shamelessly, but naturally, it was a lie.

Aiden slightly shook the gun pointing at Ella’s head.

“…You’re lying.”

“For heaven’s sake, fine. I’ll tell you the truth, so put the gun away!”

Although Ella complained, Aiden silently waited for her response.

Soon, Ella confessed that she had come here after receiving a request from an opposing gang.

The reason she lied was that it was the first time she saw Aiden.

Naturally, she must have speculated that he was a member of the opposing gang.

“Why did you come here?”

“Obviously, to get supplies. I need medicine. And… are you a junk dealer too?”

Ella asked, looking at Aiden.

Aiden nodded calmly.

There was no need to hide it.

Then Ella’s voice brightened a bit.

“So, there’s no need to fight. We’re not at war. Let’s just find what we’re looking for and go our separate ways.”

Although Ella said it simply, it was not an easy task.

If one kills the opponent, they can monopolize all the medicines that might be in this place.

Who would willingly share with the opponent in such a situation?

Even if they were both junk dealers, there was no way to trust each other in this situation.

So, when Aiden let out a short sigh, Ella seemed to interpret it differently and desperately tried to persuade Aiden.

“Just a moment! The staircase in this building is blocked! You must have seen inside. I can pick that lock. Look, I brought tools for that. I’m serious!”

Ella pointed to her bag as she spoke.

If there were tools to break through the iron door of the stairs, it would indeed be helpful.

Even if Ella wasn’t helpful, Aiden wouldn’t kill her unnecessarily, but he opened his mouth as if he had extended his goodwill.

“…There’s no need to kill you.”

As Aiden muttered, Ella let out a sigh of relief.

However, Aiden didn’t just let her go.

He confiscated almost everything, including the two firearms and the bag and weapon Ella had.

He disarmed her.

Only then did Aiden lift the gun barrel aimed at her.

Ella opened her mouth with a disgruntled look.

“What am I supposed to do without any weapons? Get eaten by zombies?”

“That’s why I left one for you.”

All Ella had was a shovel.

Having only a shovel, even if Ella betrayed Aiden, she could still respond sufficiently.

Aiden judged it that way and left her with at least the minimum weapon.

“What am I supposed to do with this…”

“I’ll return the rest on the way.”

Aiden said, cutting off Ella’s complaints.

Ella, with no means of rebellion, only frowned deeply.

In the meantime, Aiden checked her bag.

Inside, there were indeed tools such as a large bolt cutter, capable of cutting through iron bars.

“Have you been here before?”

“…Two days ago.”

As expected, there are traces of someone arriving here first.

Aiden quickly understood Ella’s situation.

Ella arrived at this place a step ahead of Aiden but couldn’t open the door on the stairs and had to retreat.

After obtaining the means to open the door, she revisited this place, coincidentally meeting Aiden there.

For Aiden, this was a stroke of luck, sparing him from inconvenience, but for Ella, it was nothing but misfortune.

From Ella’s perspective, even though she had prepared the key to open the treasure warehouse, it ended up being plundered entirely.

“Then go ahead and open it.”

Afterward, Aiden, who had reached the stairs with Ella, urged her.

With Aiden watching, Ella, holding back her hair, cut through the shutter with a cutter.

The sound of the cutter echoed regularly in the quiet building.

Fortunately, the thickness of the shutter grille wasn’t too much, and the inside was empty, making it easy to cut through.

However-

“Kiiii!”

Some zombies, upon hearing the sound, tumbled down the stairs and collided with the shutter.

At that moment, Ella, who was holding the cutter in front of them, recoiled in panic.

“What the hell…!”

“Kraaaaa!”

Zombies behind the iron grille screamed.

Ella looked at Aiden as if to ask, what are we going to do now?

But there was no other choice.

Naturally, they had to deal with it.

Aiden picked up a crowbar and walked towards the shutter.

And then-

Thud!

He thrust the crowbar through the iron grille of the shutter.

The pointed end of the crowbar shot out like an arrow, piercing precisely through the zombie’s skull.

The zombie that had been screaming fell backward.

“Ghaaa!”

A zombie next to him, witnessing his comrade’s death, went berserk as if trying to break the shutter.

But soon, it met the same fate.

After dealing with two more zombies in the same way, Aiden turned around.

“Let’s start again.”

“Ha…”

Ella looked at Aiden with a forced smile.

In her eyes, there was a bit more caution than before.

Although it was an unremarkable fight.

Just by seeing that, Ella sensed that Aiden was not an ordinary skilled person.

“Why are you like this?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Ella looked fixedly at the helmet Aiden was wearing and shook her head.

Although she had planned to hit him on the back of the head and run away as soon as the opportunity arose.

Now, it seemed that she needed to seize that opportunity much more carefully.

So, expressing her dissatisfaction only through facial expressions, she resumed her work.

Not long after.

“…It’s done.”

Tearing off the large iron grille, Ella spoke.

By cutting the pipe and connecting rings into a circle, there was now a hole in the iron grille large enough for a person to pass through.

“…”

However, even after creating the entrance, Ella didn’t go in first and stepped back.

It was clear that there were still zombies left on the second floor of this staircase.

So, Aiden, who had taken away all the weapons, had to do the job.

Aiden didn’t refuse his role.

As if it were natural, he climbed the stairs, crossing the iron grille.

Finally, they arrived on the second floor.

However, as expected, a similar shutter was also lowered on the stairs leading to the third floor.

“Damn it…!”

Seeing that, Ella expressed her annoyance, and Aiden smirked.

To think that in an already collapsed survivors’ stronghold, shutters were lowered on each floor like this was unusual.

If zombies had invaded from the outside, such obstacles wouldn’t have remained in place.

It meant… that zombies might have originated from within the building.

It was a plausible assumption.

Aiden had seen the fate of those who couldn’t bring themselves to end their friends and family turning into zombies several times.

“Why are you just standing there?”

Ella asked Aiden, who seemed lost in thought.

Aiden shook his head as if it was nothing.

“What’s the problem?”

“Look over there. To break through this, we need to deal with those bastards first,” Ella said, pointing beyond the corridor, hiding behind the wall.

The second-floor corridor, as well as the nearby classroom, still seemed to have zombies lurking. Visible numbers amounted to twenty.

Continuing the operation in this situation was too dangerous. They couldn’t afford to ignore the second floor, so ensuring the immediate safety of the surroundings was a priority.

“All right, let’s clean up the surroundings first.”

Aiden said, walking a bit down the corridor and checking the nearest classroom.

As expected, zombies were inside. All five of them. For Aiden, this number wasn’t burdensome.

“But…!” 

Ella, who was behind him, frowned at the sight of the zombies.

She had a completely opposite opinion from Aiden.

“Shouldn’t we retreat from here? Let’s lure them towards the stairs.”

Ella suggested a valid opinion for an ordinary junk dealer. 

Firearms couldn’t be used here, and they had no idea how many zombies were on the second floor. In the worst case, they could attract hundreds of zombies from outside into the building.

Hence, dealing with those corpses using only melee weapons was necessary. In a situation where a single small injury could lead to infection from zombies, it was crucial to avoid direct confrontations with them. Additionally, openly entering classrooms with zombies in the corridor was impractical.

The best option was to lure the zombies to the stairs using sound and utilize the cut shutter to hunt down the approaching ones.

However, Aiden shook his head. 

“Wait under the stairs. I’ll take care of it.”

He judged it as excessive time wasting considering the uncertain circumstances of having more similar doors in the future.

Unlike others, he wasn’t afraid of direct combat with zombies.

“What?”

Ella reacted with a frown to Aiden’s words.

Ignoring Ella, Aiden entered the classroom with only one crowbar.

And he closed the door.

Seeing the closed door, Ella burst into a dumbfounded laughter.

“Are you out of your mind?”

It was a reckless act. With the guys in the corridor, they had to deal with around ten zombies.

“Kiaaa!”

However, in response to her voice, it wasn’t Aiden but the screams of zombies that echoed from the classroom.

The noise immediately disturbed the classroom.

Several zombies from the corridor came towards the classroom.

“Crazy bastard, if you were going to do this, at least give me a gun!” Ella said.

She judged it too late and hid her body under the stairs.

Fortunately, none of the zombies followed her.

Ella went back downstairs, and from above, the sound of Aiden and the zombies fighting continued.

The noise of fallen chairs and desks could be heard.

The footsteps of the zombies and the cries of the mad corpses mixed with the dull, tearing sounds.

“…”

Ella concentrated on the sounds from the first floor.

But nowhere could she hear Aiden’s scream or anything similar.

And just after about a minute, the sounds of corpses began to subside slowly.

With the last sound of something breaking, a concluding silence came.

“What happened here?” 

Ella murmured in the now quiet staircase.

The last thing she saw was even the zombies from the corridor running into the classroom.

Fifteen zombies, the only ones she personally confirmed with her own eyes. Without firearms, it was an insufficient number to stake their lives on.

So, Ella practically thought Aiden was dead.

Thunk, thunk.

A dry sound of footsteps that couldn’t be considered as zombie-like reached her ears.

Ella’s gaze instinctively turned in that direction.

On the stairs, Aiden, who had suddenly appeared there, was looking down at Ella.

“I took care of them. Come up and open the door.”

Aiden said casually.

Ella looked at Aiden strangely, as if finding him odd.

* * *

After a while.

“…It’s done.”

Finally reaching the 4th floor of Bear Hall, Ella, while making a hole in the shutter blocking the stairs leading to the 5th floor, said.

“Enough space for a person to pass through.”

Aiden, confirming this, nodded his head.

“Good job.”

To Aiden, who spoke as if he were a superior, Ella did not react any further.

She just accepted it as a matter of course.

It wasn’t something she was used to. It was just that, coming up to this point and seeing Aiden, who could effortlessly take down dozens of zombies with just a crowbar, naturally made her rebellious spirit disappear.

“But, is there really medicine here?”

Looking towards Aiden, who was about to go up the stairs, Ella asked with a suspicious tone.

From the 2nd to the 4th floor. After Aiden swept through the zombies, Ella had been involved in both opening doors and searching inside the building.

However, they only found a few bullets. Some remaining food and water were long gone, rotten and twisted. The medicines she had heard about were nowhere to be found.

So, Ella was growing impatient.

After going through so much trouble to get here, they might end up with nothing.

Aiden asked her:

“Where did you hear that there is medicine here?”

“From the junk dealers. Among the guys I knew, there was one who stayed here. What about you?”

“I got the information from the gang. It seems like neither side was accurate. If we’re unlucky, there might not be any.”

“Ha…! You’re casually talking about failure.”

Aiden, mentioning failure calmly, seemed incomprehensible to Ella, who scolded him as if it didn’t make sense.

Soon, they entered the top floor, the 5th floor.

The 5th floor was quiet unlike the other floors.

There were no visible zombies wandering in the corridor, and there was no sign of their presence either.

“Is it empty…?” Ella muttered.

As she said, the 5th floor seemed as if the entire floor was completely vacant.

Aiden slowly advanced through the seemingly peaceful scene.

In the afternoon, the sunlight poured through the windows, reflecting the dust that had been neglected inside the building for a long time.

It was an incredibly peaceful sight, but Aiden couldn’t easily let his guard down.

Rather, this ominous silence instilled a sense of serious crisis in him.

The fact that no ordinary zombies were visible did not simply mean that this place was genuinely empty.

In the worst case.

It could also mean that there were mutated zombies here, feeding on their own kind.

With caution, Aiden continued down the corridor.

In the meantime, Ella suddenly threw a strange question.

“Hey, don’t you smell anything strange?”