How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

Ava had understood from the beginning that this operation wouldn’t be so simple.

Her assigned mission was to assess the situation here with limited troops, and if possible, reduce the number of zombies.

If this had been a war against humans, her role could be likened to that of a commander leading a reconnaissance team dispatched into enemy territory.

Of course, such reconnaissance teams must be prepared to take certain risks. Fully aware of being vastly outnumbered by the enemy, they must secure information without engaging in direct confrontation, and return alive.

From that perspective, today’s mission had gone more smoothly than expected.

The plan to lure out the zombies with loud noises and mow them down in advantageous terrain had worked out.

They were able to eliminate numerous zombies without sustaining any casualties.

And at the very end, they even encountered a Wielder, but fortunately no one died.

For Ava, it was an overwhelmingly successful outcome.

They had sufficiently reduced the enemy’s numbers and visually confirmed the presence of a formidable foe.

So she judged that it would be fine to proceed a step further.

By any measure, it seemed a battle they had a good chance of winning.

After entering the facility interior, Ava’s judgment appeared to be validated.

First, they located the lurking Wielder.

Ava positioned her subordinates appropriately and lured it out.

In response, Wielder rebelled by hurling steel pipes like artillery shells, shaking the ground.

But in the end, none of its attacks could reach Ava or her troops.

Instead, after Ava and her subordinates fought back desperately, they witnessed Wielder lose its footing as its ankles were severed.

“Kuerrr!”

Wielder let out a roar toward Ava, who was at the vanguard.

The distance between them was just over three meters.

Close enough that the weapon Wielder swung missed by a hair’s breadth.

Close enough that only its rancid breath could be faintly felt along with its roar.

Right before Ava’s eyes, as her magazine ran dry, the hulking mutant started to topple over.

Watching this scene, Ava was about to heave a long sigh of relief.

She had thought this burdensome mission was finally over.

But it wasn’t.

Before Wielder’s body could even hit the ground-

“Kuk…!”

Someone else’s death rattle sounded from behind.

And then.

Clang!

Something that had been about to smash Ava’s head was deflected with a shattering sound.

“-!”

Caught off guard by the sudden situation, Ava forgot about Wielder and turned to look behind her.

What entered her view was an unbelievable sight.

There, right behind her, was another mutant – a Spider.

When had it even arrived?

Spiders are a type of mutant that mainly inhabits dilapidated factories or high-ceilinged underground spaces.

So they were a rare breed to encounter outside of major industrial zones.

But this refinery was indeed an environment they would favor.

Perhaps she should have considered this possibility before entering.

Yet such regrets were too late now.

Ava’s face contorted with a ghastly expression at the grisly scene before her eyes.

One of the Spider’s long, sharp limbs had impaled her subordinate Harris.

“Damn…!”

Gritting her teeth, Ava turned her rifle’s muzzle toward it, only to realize her magazine was empty.

Ava’s face drained of color.

Spiders are agile, fast-moving mutants.

It was already within striking range, leaving no time to reload.

In that moment, Ava sensed her own demise.

Yet amidst that premonition, a question also arose.

Considering the Spider’s reaction speed, Ava should not have even had a chance to turn her head before being struck down.

But she was still alive.

How?

The very moment Ava pondered this-

Clang!

As if answering her question, the shattering sound from earlier when something had deflected the Spider’s attack on Ava rang out again.

Someone was batting away the Spider’s limbs – movements too fast for even Ava’s eyes to follow.

Ava’s vision, previously focused solely on the Spider, finally broke free.

And standing to her left was someone she never expected to see.

It was… Arian.

The rookie soldier, having discarded her rifle, wielding only the standard-issue longsword.

“Wha…”

Confusion flooded Ava’s mind.

Why was Arian here? And how was she confronting the mutant with just that short blade?

More than anything, why were Arian’s eyes glowing that ominous, bloody red?

None of it made any sense.

But Ava soon regained her senses and her hands moved.

She may not understand the circumstances, but her duty was clear.

From the ammo belt with a full magazine, Ava’s hands grabbed a red-painted magazine.

Unlike the hulking Wielder breed, the Spider had a thin, razor-sharp physique.

Yet its physical toughness didn’t match that slender appearance.

Having developed thick, dense bones instead of muscles, it possessed an internal armor capable of deflecting ordinary bullets.

So what Ava had retrieved was an armor-piercing round.

Like the LA-made rounds for shredding zombie bodies, this was a special anti-mutant ammunition.

Intentionally loaded with more gunpowder and an elongated, sharper penetrator tip to pierce mutant defenses.

However, with limited quantities, only Ava carried these in their small squad.

Even the toughest Spider couldn’t withstand this firepower.

Clang! Clink!

In the few seconds it took Ava to ready her weapon, several exchanges had already occurred between Arian and the mutant.

In that time, Arian had closed in further on the Spider, which had lost one of its limbs.

It was a sight that made Ava doubt her eyes.

Arian seemed to be matching… no, even overwhelming the mutant with just her machete.

“Kiii-“

Was that why?

The Spider abruptly turned its body.

Having sensed Arian was no easy prey, it tried to flee.

But by then, Ava had completed her counterattack preparations.

Her rifle’s muzzle was aimed squarely at the Spider.

The resounding thunderous roar that followed enveloped the mutant’s back.

Ava’s rifle spat fire, its heavy recoil shaking her entire body.

She withstood it as most of the rounds pierced straight through the Spider’s body.

“Gureuk…!”

Vomiting rotten blood, the Spider crumpled.

The penetrating shots that struck its head had undoubtedly shattered its skull and pulverized its brain.

But immediately after-

“Behind!”

Arian shouted.

Before Ava could even react, a massive impact slammed into her body.

An excruciating, breath-stealing pain, as if her entire body was being crushed, sent Ava flying through the air.

“Kugh!”

Her vision distorted, consciousness flickering.

When she managed to open her eyes again, she was tumbling across the floor.

Nearby, the Wielder came into view.

Having dragged itself over despite losing a leg, the Wielder had closed in on Ava.

And scored a decisive hit.

“That bastard…!”

Between Wielder and Ava now stood Arian.

Her expression had turned coldly aloof, those eyes still glowing an unsettling red.

With that chilling sight of Arian burned into her vision, Ava’s consciousness faded away.

* * *

Some time later.

Near the Los Angeles River below LA’s walls as the sun set, the silhouette of a man appeared beneath one building.

“I heard the entrance is around here.”

It was Aiden.

Carefully concealing himself lest the sentries above the walls spot him, he looked down toward the river.

LA’s Los Angeles River was a fully urbanized waterway running through the heart of the metropolis.

Its flow didn’t run along a natural bed of soil and gravel. Instead, it was an artificial channel constructed from sloped grayish-white concrete.

And alongside this concrete riverbed ran abandoned railroad tracks.

Aiden cautiously followed along the river.

Before long, the sewer entrance Oliver had mentioned came into view.

It was a large drainage channel connected to the river.

A typical sewer, with a semi-circular space large enough for a person to enter, narrow walkways on either side, and a water channel running through the middle.

However, the passage leading further inside was firmly sealed with an iron grate and chains.

Without flustering, Aiden examined the padlock securing those chains.

“…Not too old, it seems.”

He muttered under his breath.

The padlock’s condition was better than expected.

Some rust had built up, but not excessively, with only a slight fading of its silvery sheen.

If this had been a padlock left there since before the zombie outbreak, that would have been unthinkable.

Exposed to moisture this close to the riverside, it surely would have degraded to the point where no key could unlock it.

This caused Aiden’s brow to furrow slightly.

It meant someone had been consistently maintaining this sewer’s lock.

“…”

From his bag, Aiden took out a set of tools.

A lockpick, a tool for opening padlocks.

Fortunately, the sewer entrance used a conventional padlock.

Had it been an electronic door lock or similar, even Aiden would have struggled.

But it seemed LA lacked the resources to install powered locks on a mere sewer entrance.

Click!

After briefly wrestling with the lock mechanism, Aiden swiftly picked it open.

Uncoiling the chains, he finally opened the gate.

“Hmm…”

For a moment at the entrance, Aiden surveyed his surroundings.

Today, Aiden had completed reconnoitering this area before coming here. Thanks to that, he already knew about the padlock, allowing him to prepare the lockpick in advance.

The information he had gathered also indicated this was one of the patrol routes regularly swept by LA’s security forces.

Fortunately, there were no signs of anyone approaching yet.

Aiden casually draped the chains back, enough that his entry would not be noticeable from the outside, and carefully headed inside.

In the hand of the man entering the sewer was a pistol with a flashlight attachment.

He also had a rifle slung across his back, but judging the tight confines would favor a handgun for any contingencies.

His helmet was also removed.

He had determined there would be no risk of being detected from this point onward.

Yet despite Aiden’s precautions, the sewer interior was deathly still.

Only the long-dead carcasses of cockroaches and rats littered here and there.

Not a single moving corpse was in sight.

“…”

Aiden nonchalantly delved deeper into the sewer.

The further inward he went, the stronger the putrid stench became, but he didn’t so much as twitch a brow.

He advanced several kilometers into the sewer system.

At this range and direction, he must have reached the city center by now.

Yet until that point, Aiden had made no noteworthy discoveries.

Not a single zombie or anything resembling one had been encountered.

Had Oliver’s words merely been hearsay after all?

Aiden lightly clicked his tongue in disappointment.

He had come here just in case, but it seemed his doubts were justified.

Up ahead of Aiden appeared an intersection, splitting into three paths – straight, left and right.

He shone his flashlight down each corridor.

But as far as the light reached, the sewer’s scenery remained unchanged.

There were no conspicuous signs anywhere.

Only the still, black sewage water flowed quietly.

“This is as far as I go.”

Aiden let out a brief sigh.

If there was truly nothing here, further investigation would be pointless.

So as Aiden turned to leave.

“That is…”

Something up ahead caught his eye.

It was a rat’s carcass.

Black fur, around 25cm in length, with a long tail.

The same type of sewer rat he had occasionally glimpsed down here.

But this partially decayed corpse had one key difference.

It looked as if something had grabbed and twisted the rat’s entire body, leaving it contorted in death.

“…”

Noticing this, Aiden’s eyes narrowed.

As far as he knew, this was one of the common phenomena seen in small animals infected by the zombie virus.

Naturally, small mammals like rats were among the easiest targets for exposure to the zombie pathogen.

Not only did they feed on corpses, but their population numbers were staggeringly high.

Yet the reason such zombie rats didn’t overrun this continent was because infected rats didn’t survive long.

Regardless of human or animal, infection by the zombie virus induces certain physical changes in the host.

In extreme cases, it can lead to mutant, but even short of that, facial disfigurement, increased strength, and other typical zombie characteristics manifest.

However, the bodies of small mammals like rats couldn’t withstand such changes.

Particularly the disproportionate muscular changes relative to their size, twisting their bodies like that until the overdeveloped muscles crushed their own brains.

That was why only larger beasts like deer or big dogs could potentially become Beasts.

So finding a virus-infected dead rat was not so strange in itself.

But what puzzled Aiden was why an infected rat existed here in the first place.

For small mammals, the rate of virus infection is far swifter compared to humans.

So for a rat to have contracted the virus outside, then made it all the way here was highly improbable.

It would have been immobilized within a few hundred meters at most while sprinting at top speed.

“…”

Ultimately, the presence of this rat was evidence that zombies had been in this vicinity.

Realizing this, Aiden discarded any thoughts of retreating and began walking forward once more.