How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

The next morning.

Aiden and his group got into the vehicle to head to their destination, Shreveport.

“Are you going to stay here?”

Aiden had already suggested to Roman that if needed, they could take him to another place where there might be other survivor groups.

However, Roman shook his head.

“I’ve lived here my whole life. Born here, got married here, raised children here. And now I’ve buried them all here. Now, where would I go if I leave this place?”

“…”

“I’ve managed well enough alone until now. Without that cougar, it might even be safer from now on. Don’t worry about me, just go your way.”

Aiden nodded at Roman’s words. 

If that was his decision, Aiden had no choice but to respect it.

Having bid farewell to Roman, Aiden and his group soon left the city. The old man stood on the long stretch of road, watching Aiden’s group move away.

* * *

On a hot afternoon in the middle of summer.

Aiden and his group were approaching a bridge, which marked the eastern border of Shreveport.

“Be careful. Once we cross this bridge, it’s straight to Shreveport.”

They had arrived at the Red River, which marked the eastern boundary of Shreveport. 

Shreveport, originally a city with a population of over 200 000, was rumored to have a large survivor group, numbering in the thousands.

So, Aiden cautiously reduced the speed of the vehicle and proceeded along the road.

Since there wasn’t much information about this survivor group, they couldn’t predict how they would react to outsiders.

As the bridge came closer, Arian spoke.

“People. About five of them on the road ahead.”

Were there guards on the bridge?

It wasn’t unusual, so Aiden nodded without much thought.

Soon, the four-lane road leading to the bridge came into view.

On either side of it, there were small outposts made by stacking sandbags, and people armed with rifles were visible.

However, they didn’t seem to be wary of the approaching vehicle of Aiden’s group. No, it wasn’t just them. Another vehicle that had come from behind Aiden’s group passed by the outpost without any fuss.

The guards didn’t pay attention to that side either.

“They don’t seem to control traffic separately…?”

Muttering, Aiden parked the vehicle in front of the outpost.

Only then did one of the guards turn to look at the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

Aiden rolled down the window and spoke to him.

“No inspection?”

“Inspection…? Oh, this must be your first time here.”

Aiden nodded at the guard’s words.

Then, seemingly anticipating that, the guard continued.

“We don’t have that here. If you’re looking for the city, just cross the bridge and head straight north. Get the details there.”

With that, the guard stepped back.

If that was the case, Aiden had no reason to object.

They passed by and parked the car in front of the outpost.

As they approached, the bridge connecting the two sides came into view.

On either side, there were small outposts made with sandbags.

People armed with rifles were present there as well.

However, they weren’t wary of the approaching Aiden’s group.

The atmosphere was different here.

Not having an inspection was one thing, but the attitude of the guards was quite different from the usual gang members.

It wasn’t sharp, nor did it show unnecessary hostility. To put it nicely, there was no suspicion, and to say it negatively, they were a bit careless.

“Seems like the atmosphere is different here?”

Not having an inspection and the attitude of the guards were all quite different from what was typical.

I don’t think there is any suspicion, but rather carelessness.

“I think… the size of the group here is indeed large.”

This led Aiden to express his guess.

“Size?”

“Yeah. If there really are tens of thousands of people in this group here… there’s probably no need to control the bridge like this.”

The larger the group, the lower the guard against outsiders tends to be.

If there are only a few dozen gang members, ten or so wanderers can be a clear threat that can break the organization.

From the perspective of a city with a population numbering in the tens of thousands, individuals like them posed no threat whatsoever.

“Ah… so, it’s similar to Fort Wayne?” Aiden nodded in response to Arian’s following words.

In Fort Wayne, too, they were only restricted from entering the central stronghold by the outer walls. There, a designated trading area for contact with outsiders was established, and anyone could freely come and go within that space.

“Yeah, it’s probably something similar here,” Aiden said.

However, in the end, his words were only partially correct.

After crossing the bridge, they arrived in downtown Shreveport.

“Hmm…” 

Aiden sighed as he observed the scene.

Arian, on the other hand, flashed a quiet, bright smile, and Sadie widened her eyes.

What they saw were countless people.

In a bank with broken windows, unidentified wanderers gathered, sitting together, pouring drinks. 

On a neatly cleared parking lot, some junk dealers, each in their own vehicles, chatted happily.

“What happened here?”

In this destructed city, hundreds of people seemed to appear at a glance.

Arian, somewhat surprised, asked, but before Aiden could answer, he looked towards the north, where the road continued.

What he saw at the end was part of a high wall. Most likely, that place was the stronghold of the survivor group rumored to be in Shreveport.

If that was the case, the role of this place spread out in front of it was clear.

“This entire city seems to be the designated trading area for them.”

Outside the wall, a buffer zone where junk dealers and external personnel could temporarily stay.

However, considering the size of that area, it was significantly larger than Fort Wayne’s.

Nevertheless, what was even more surprising was that many of these people weren’t even members of the survivor group present here.

Outside the wall, in the buffer zone, these individuals were practically nothing more than outsiders gathered here to coexist with the survivor group.

This was a testament to the enormous scale of the group that had taken root here.

Observing those people, Aiden parked the vehicle next to a building for a moment.

“I’ll gather some information first. Wait here for a moment.”

Aiden said so and got out of the car, approaching a wanderer who had been wandering nearby.

“What do you want?”

The wanderer, who was smoking a cigarette, asked as Aiden suddenly approached.

Aiden extended three 9mm pistol cartridges toward him.

“I’m here for the first time. I have some questions. Can you answer them?”

“Well… sure, go ahead. I’ll tell you what I know.”

Taking the ammunition, the wanderer nodded his head.

Quickly, Aiden asked him questions.

“I’m a junk dealer. How do I make contact with the survivor group here and get requests?”

“Oh, for that, you just need to go to the building right in front of the outer wall. You’ll see it if you follow the road. It’s a building called the Convention Center.”

“Do I just need to go there? Is there anything else needed?”

“I heard you need to register there. It’s faster to check it out yourself for details.”

Aside from that, Aiden asked a few more simple but essential questions.

The wanderer answered them smoothly, and satisfied, Aiden returned to the vehicle.

During that time, Arian had been chatting with Sadie about the city.

“So what exactly is this place doing here?” 

Arian asked abruptly.

In response to Arian’s hasty question, Aiden calmly opened his mouth.

“Firstly, the group that has settled in this city is called the ‘Shreveport Citizen Union.’ Here, they are simply referred to as the Union. And their size is said to be over 50 000.”

“50 000?”

Ella, whom he had met in Conway, mentioned that the group here had over 30,000 members.

Now it turned out that it was almost twice as large as what she had said.

Sadie blinked her eyes silently, finding it challenging to fathom the number 50 000.

Arian’s gaze became a bit more serious.

“It survived in a place like this? Well, then we should find out exactly what the situation is.”

Arian hadn’t forgotten the reason why Aiden’s group came here.

It was to find a survivor group that Sadie could rely on.

The first condition that must be met there was the size of the group.

However, the group that actually met this minimum condition for the first time since Fort Wayne was here.

Therefore, Arian, who had become more serious, as if trying to assess the atmosphere, looked outside.

To her, Aiden spoke:

“Of course, that’s how it should be. I plan to gather information by taking requests. But… to do that, we need to register first.”

“Register?”

Just as in Fort Wayne, where entry permits were issued only to designated junk dealers, there was a separate procedure here for external junk dealers.

“I heard it doesn’t take long. It’s troublesome, but we can’t help it. We have to follow it for now.”

Afterward, Aiden’s group headed straight to the Convention Center, which was designated for dealing with junk dealers⁸.

Originally a large exhibition and event space, the building was now controlled by personnel dispatched from the Union, just as the wanderer had mentioned.

“What’s your business?”

As they tried to enter the entrance, a security guard in police uniform blocked their way.

Aiden’s group explained their purpose.

“No weapons…”

“I’ve heard that we shouldn’t enter with weapons.”

The security guard eyed Aiden’s attire.

Perhaps because there were armed guards inside the building.

Whether they didn’t bother with a body search or for some other reason, he only gestured to open the way into the building.

“Go in. It’s over there.”

Aiden’s group entered the spacious lobby.

There, they saw the reception area that used to be part of the original Convention Center.

But now, it had transformed into a space for outsourcing requests and conducting transactions with external junk dealers, much like a bank counter.

Aiden and Arian registered themselves as junk dealers there.

The procedure was straightforward.

A man from the Union asked for Aiden’s name and affiliated organization.

In addition, he recorded a few physical characteristics, creating a simple record.

“Face.”

During this, the man pointed at Aiden’s helmet.

He gestured as if telling Aiden to take it off.

“I’d rather refuse.”

In response, the man sighed.

“If you don’t fully disclose your personal information, there will be penalties.”

“Penalties? What exactly does that mean?”

“Your request reward will be slightly reduced. Is that okay?”

“If that’s all… it’s fine.”

Then the man nodded and inserted the paper with Aiden’s information into a file.

Then, on a thin metal plate that looked like a dog tag, he handed over a badge with only a number written on it.

“Alright. Registration is done. Now you are a grade E junk dealer.”

1110.

That was the number assigned to Aiden.

But more than that number, something caught Aiden’s ear.

“E grade?”

“Read the details written there for the specifics. Next!”

The man at the reception pointed to a blackboard set up on one side of the building.

Driven away from his spot, Aiden approached the blackboard.

There, Arian and Sadie, who had finished the procedure earlier, were also present.

“Look at this. It’s interesting, isn’t it? It feels like I used to be a resolver.”

Arian said, looking at the blackboard.

Aiden also examined the blackboard and soon understood the meaning of the grades.

It was literally a classification of junk dealers by grade.

The lowest was E, and the highest was A.

Moreover, the available requests were also divided into grades from E to A.

It seemed like a junk dealer could only take requests of the same grade.

In addition, there were small benefits such as gaining priority for requests as the grade increased.

Among them, what caught Aiden’s eye was:

“From grade B, entry into the inner wall is allowed…”

Even though there were set entry times, having a higher grade meant internal access to the Union was possible.

In practical terms, it wasn’t an extraordinary benefit.

However, for Aiden’s group, whose immediate goal was to gather information about this Union, it held great significance.

It seemed like they would need to reach at least grade B.

“To raise your grade, you need to complete a certain number of requests of the same grade,” Arian added from the side.

Aiden nodded.

Beside them were several other blackboards, listing information about various requests.

Aiden immediately checked the requests available at the E-grade.

Perhaps because it was a request thrown to the least reliable junk dealer. Most requests were simple delivery missions.

Just trade specific materials or resources at the designated price, and the request would be completed.

Considering the low trust of an E-grade junk dealer, it was an appropriate level of request.

They neither wanted to provide too much information to such an unreliable dealer nor get involved in complicated matters.

“Nothing special. We can exchange some of what we have.”

Upon hearing Arian’s comment after examining the request details, Aiden nodded.

By utilizing the recently gathered resources, they could quickly climb up to at least D-grade, which had more fitting requests.

While immersed in their thoughts, Aiden suddenly looked at Sadie.

During the registration process for Arian and Aiden, Sadie had been observing the interior of the building with apparent interest.

Sensing Aiden’s gaze, Sadie spoke up.

“It seems like a fascinating place here.”

“Fascinating? Wasn’t there a similar place in Fort Wayne?”

“That… I’m not sure, but it feels calm… like a post office I visited before.”

Aiden seemed to understand why Sadie hesitated to explain.

For some reason, this Convention Center felt different from Fort Wayne.

What should he call it? This place reminded him of the scenes of places like banks or post offices before the world went awry.

“Yeah, it seems so.”

Aiden mumbled as he looked around the Convention Center.

It wasn’t just a matter of the number of people.

This place had a more systematic system than any city they had passed through before.

Although there were no electronic devices, giving it a somewhat primitive feel, there was still a clear system operating under rules and common sense.

This, as Sadie said, was an astonishing thing.

Just before entering the city, they had to be cautious, ready to shoot if they encountered people.

It was a primitive world where power took precedence over rules and violence over common sense.

However, this place drew a clear line, differentiating itself from such a world.

“Hmm…”

As Aiden observed his surroundings, he shook his head to snap out of his thoughts.

It was still too early to get carried away.

He had something to do.

“Let’s start taking requests. Are you okay with that?”

With the decision made, Aiden’s group began their plans, and Aiden selected their first request.

A simple request to deliver a certain amount of preserved food.

It was the first request Aiden’s group would undertake in this place.